Looking for gaming magazine(s) suggestions.

I have a good friend of mine that's looking to purchase a gaming magazine subscription for his step-son's birthday. He's 11 years old and into console gaming. Are there any decent gaming rags left out there that are console centric? Preferably xbox 360 centric, but that may be asking too much. The last gaming mag I read was PC Gamer, but that was over 5 years ago, and the interwebs give me all the feed I can handle now.

So, what would your suggestion(s) be for an aspiring 11 year old gamer?

Cheers and Thanks!
Nyxs

You read about gaming in a magazine? How quaint.

Yeah, I don't know what to suggest, especially in the U.S. Game Informer is probably your best bet since they still have quite a few exclusive previews and interesting stuff. I have my issues with some of their writing, but it's slim pickings out there, and I doubt a 11-year-old is going to be too picky over the lack of meaningful commentary. I think you can get a subscription very cheaply when also buying an EDGE discount card at Gamestop in the U.S., so you might want to look into that as well.

You could also check OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) out, I have no idea what they're like, though. It's published by Future, so it's the most likely one to not go out of business in the next year.

Nintendo Power. Neither Rabbit nor I have started writing for them yet, so they should be safe for now.

I've been getting GI for something like 6 years...it's not that it is an amazing magazine, but it's only 15 dollars and you get the gamestop discount card, so it usually pays for itself within 2 or 3 used purchases.

I've been reading Edge lately at Barnes and Noble, and I really want to get a subscription. It's awfully expensive, though.

kuddles wrote:

You read about gaming in a magazine? How quaint.

Yeah, I don't know what to suggest, especially in the U.S. Game Informer is probably your best bet since they still have quite a few exclusive previews and interesting stuff. I have my issues with some of their writing, but it's slim pickings out there, and I doubt a 11-year-old is going to be too picky over the lack of meaningful commentary. I think you can get a subscription very cheaply when also buying an EDGE discount card at Gamestop in the U.S., so you might want to look into that as well.

You could also check OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) out, I have no idea what they're like, though. It's published by Future, so it's the most likely one to not go out of business in the next year.

Those are the two I would suggest in this case. I have a GI subscription through getting an Edge card. OXM is not a bad for previews, but I don't trust their reviews so much. But for 360 news, it really does a good job, but it pretty biased, obviously.

Gamer Informer is really you only choice now. Its too bad too because its obvious that its very open to game maker "influence" and the scores often reflect that.

But for just a read its not terrible. Kinda like informative advertisements.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I've been reading Edge lately at Barnes and Noble, and I really want to get a subscription. It's awfully expensive, though.

The price made me flinch as well, but it's the quality vs. price thing that settles it after a couple months. You get a big thick magazine in excess of 120 pages with great art design on high quality paper, and you read the thing almost cover to cover including features and previews you didn't think you would care about, 13 times a year. Buying a far cheaper magazine that's razor slim, 60% ads, poor reviews, and half the articles you either skip completey or skim through, you realize you'ld rather pay the higher price.

Of course, this kid doesn't sound like he needs Edge right now.

Edge if you like features and editorial. Take your pick of most any mag or web site left if you just want PR releases, review scores, and Holiday Buying guides. Good thing PC Gamer sold me on those T-shirts.

OK I need to vent this. Getting PC gamer to replace CGW/GFW is horrid. Save the trees. I do not even care about the money at this point. I just need one less thing to throw out each month.

OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) would be a great choice for an 11 year old. They get early looks at alot of stuff and it usually ends up staying seperate from most online coverage. Like jayhawker said above, reviews are questionable, but everything else in there is solid with features and news. They still do the demo disc thing which is a nice touch, even though most of the stuff on the disc you could have downloaded on live months earlier. But for that age group and something Xbox centric, I think its probably your best option.

KingGorilla wrote:

Edge if you like features and editorial. Take your pick of most any mag or web site left if you just want PR releases, review scores, and Holiday Buying guides. Good thing PC Gamer sold me on those T-shirts.

OK I need to vent this. Getting PC gamer to replace CGW/GFW is horrid. Save the trees. I do not even care about the money at this point. I just need one less thing to throw out each month.

While I agree with everything you said about content and PC Gamer, a magazine like GI that is filled with PR releases, review scores and Holiday Buying guides is probably the right choice for an 11 year old kid. If you want him to take interest in the step up in quality, save the Edge subscription for yourself, and keep them from him, telling him "oh, you wouldn't understand." He'll be itching to find out what the big deal is.

nick wrote:

OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) would be a great choice for an 11 year old. They get early looks at alot of stuff and it usually ends up staying seperate from most online coverage. Like jayhawker said above, reviews are questionable, but everything else in there is solid with features and news. They still do the demo disc thing which is a nice touch, even though most of the stuff on the disc you could have downloaded on live months earlier. But for that age group and something Xbox centric, I think its probably your best option.

I'll second this. When I worked in a middle school a few years back, the kids really liked OXM and Nintendo Power. Since you're looking for something Xbox-centric, I'd go with this. No, it's not the most objective coverage, but it gives readers a good sense of what's available on the system and has lots of pretty screenshots.

What does OXM give that IGN or Joystiq or The Gamerscore Blog and the Major Nelson or (what is the gamerscore blog's show?). So much of that info is just cookie cutter, and ubiquitous. The shame is that it was decent under Whita and Keighley.

Edit: I do not mean this to spark, web is the ownz. I like reading on paper.

It really blows that we have lost the likes of EGM to bridge the gap between Edge's hyper niche and dregs like IGN.

KaterinLHC wrote:

Nintendo Power. Neither Rabbit nor I have started writing for them yet, so they should be safe for now.

Don't listen to this lunatic. Give all your money to anyone who hires GWJ writers.

Help us, consumer-wan Kenobi. You're our only hope.

Just print off huge swaths of pages from Kotaku and Gamesutra. Seriously.

It use to be that if you went to gamespot and got their membership card you would also get a magazine subscription, as well as discounts on used games.

I think GI would be fine for an 11 year old but don't forget that OXM comes with a demo disc (if you get the premium sub)...

Now that my EGM subscription is worthless, I'm left with a subscription to GAME INFORMER. I'm sure the kid will enjoy it well enough, especially the 10% discount card at GameStop.

The only thing that really baffles me about GI is the fact that their two reviewers per game NEVER differ by more than a single point in their ratings-- usually, they're either EXACTLY the same or off by .25 or .50. That just strikes me as odd. Surely people have much greater variation in opinion than that?

SommerMatt wrote:

The only thing that really baffles me about GI is the fact that their two reviewers per game NEVER differ by more than a single point in their ratings-- usually, they're either EXACTLY the same or off by .25 or .50. That just strikes me as odd. Surely people have much greater variation in opinion than that?

Yeah, that was an example of one of the issues I have with it. I can understand that a lot of times a game can create a similar impression between two people, but I've never seen a divisive opinion on anything. The whole point of doing that style of review is to have people with different tastes weigh in. It reeks of the score being decided by someone other then the reviewers.

Still, I find myself picking it up most months as something light to read while in transit or something. It certainly isn't the best writing in the world, and a lot of the features are thinly veiled advertorials, but at least their previews and reviews are consistently decent, something I find lacking in most websites.

SommerMatt wrote:

Surely people have much greater variation in opinion than that?

They will, when the PRs telling them what score to give a game ask them to have greater variation.

I subscribed to EDGE a few months back and I haven't regretted it yet.

I'm sad that the guys who run EDGE Online don't do their podcast any more, though. It was a pretty damn good one.

Edge is the best gaming magazine by mile, IMO. Was better than EGM when EGM was still alive.

I really miss the days when Computer Gaming World was around. Does anyone else remember those couple years when they would just release dictionary sized magazines?? Reading articles by Scorpia was what got me playing RPGs in the first place I think.

General Crespin wrote:

I'm sad that the guys who run EDGE Online don't do their podcast any more, though. It was a pretty damn good one.

Sir,

EDGE have never done a podcast - the closest thing was a few of the forumites creating their own podcast, and broadcasting it around the net.

Such luminaries as Tim Rogers, Rhianna Pratchett and Kieron Gillen took part.

My guess is he's talking about the one that Edge Online's editor, Colin Campbell, Kris Graft and Gary Wittah used to do.

NathanialG wrote:

I really miss the days when Computer Gaming World was around. Does anyone else remember those couple years when they would just release dictionary sized magazines?? Reading articles by Scorpia was what got me playing RPGs in the first place I think.

I was thinking about this when the magazine closed, and I must have started reading CGW at an incredibly young age - definitely before I was nine, probably even younger. I also remember the period where they abandoned review scores as likely being the exact moment when I started thinking about games seriously, and not just spacing out in front of them.

Man, I miss those guys so much.

ShynDarkly wrote:

My guess is he's talking about the one that Edge Online's editor, Colin Campbell, Kris Graft and Gary Wittah used to do.

Was that the Game Theory podcast? I was looking through my podcast subscriptions the other day and wondering where they went. Though I feel like they told me in their last podcast, and I might have just forgot.

That was a pretty good podcast, but it was never in my top tier alongside the Conference Call and the Brodeo.

I really wish you could get a reasonable subscription to Edge here in the US. Or that we could get our own gaming mag that was written at an adult-ish level.

HaciendaSquish wrote:

Was that the Game Theory podcast?

That's right, couldn't think of the name offhand. They shut it down late last year due to other commitments I think, mostly Gary's film script I think.

Right. They shut it down because their website, next-gen.biz, got turned into EDGE Online and they didn't have time any more. Or they shut NGB down and they started doing EDGE Online instead. Whatever. The point is, the people running EDGE Online used to do the Game Theory podcast.

EDIT: Never mind.

HaciendaSquish wrote:
NathanialG wrote:

I really miss the days when Computer Gaming World was around. Does anyone else remember those couple years when they would just release dictionary sized magazines?? Reading articles by Scorpia was what got me playing RPGs in the first place I think.

I was thinking about this when the magazine closed, and I must have started reading CGW at an incredibly young age - definitely before I was nine, probably even younger. I also remember the period where they abandoned review scores as likely being the exact moment when I started thinking about games seriously, and not just spacing out in front of them.

Man, I miss those guys so much.

I have some really old copies in the basement dating back to the mid-late eighties when it was stapled in the middle. "100 Games Rated!" every month. Someone is archiving the old magazines on the web here. Check it out, it's pretty cool stuff, all it's missing is the distinctive odor of old paper.

NathanialG wrote:

I really miss the days when Computer Gaming World was around. Does anyone else remember those couple years when they would just release dictionary sized magazines?? Reading articles by Scorpia was what got me playing RPGs in the first place I think.

Scorpia has a blog these days.