Others say...

"Beauty without substance"
Yes, this magazine is pretty. I got sucked into subscribing to it based on the sheer prettiness of it. The glossy pages are covered in color drenched screen shots and concept art. The actual content, however, is another matter entirely. The reviews are, to put it bluntly, the worst representation of a game's merit that I have ever seen. They overrate so many games (indeed, i think i would have trouble finding one that wasn't) and to such extreme degrees it is laughable. They throw out perfect 10s so often and on such mediocre games that it is impossible to give any credence to any of the reviews. The last issue I got had Sonic the Hedgehog on the cover. I will return to the cover status in a bit, but first the scoring must be examined. PLAY gave Sonice for the 360 a 9.5 out of 10. The review gushed about how wonderful the game was. Gamespot, on the other hand (who I consider to be a very reliable reviewer of games) gave Sonic a 4.4 out of 10 ("poor") and even describes the game as "broken". Similarly, Gamespy gave the game a 1.5 out of 5. Oh, I could go on, but i think you get the idea. As for Sonic being on the cover, one needs to consider the other games and events ocurring in the month covered by the magazine. Gears of War, arguably the biggest game so far for the 360, was released. Viva pinata hit store shelves. The PS3 and the Wii launch were rapidly approaching. Yet they had SONIC on the freakin cover??? The editor gave some lame excuse that the developers would not give them copies of the game. if this is true, I think it is testament to the fact that developers do not consider PLAY to be a serious gaming publication. Other magazines, after all, do not seem to have this chronic problem of not being able to cover the biggest games. The Wii saw absolutely no coverage. The PS3 did get a launch section, but get this: One of the pages was UNREADABLE. The print was all blurred together. The part I could read read like a Sony ad. There was no serious discussion about the pros and cons of the system, just plain gush gush gush. I recommend looking elsewhere for you gaming news. I highly recommend Game Informer, whnich is both beautiful and skillfully and professional written.

UPDATE:

I just recieved my latest issue of PLAY, in which the editor defends his review of Sonic as a 9.5 game. He claims that the errors in it that make it so frusterating and difficult to play give it a "charm", and that the media gave it bad reviews because no one likes difficult games anymore. He brags that he is more in tune with the general public than the other media outlets who reviewed the game, citing the positive player reviews. The problem with this is he ignores the fact that with a game like Sonic (that is, a large franchise game that has proven to have serious flaws) the vast majority of people who buy it are buying KNOWING about the flaws because they love the franchise so much that the same flaws that would ruin the game for anyone else are not an issue.

He likes the game. Fine, I have no problem with people loving different games, or even people loving fatally flawed games. The problem with the magazine is that the reviewers are unable to objectively review the quality of a game. When games like Sonic are given 9.5s based on the reviewers love of the franchise and of playing in that particular universe rather than on the game's independent merit, it prevents truly exceptional games from being recognized as such. Games like Zelda Twighlight Princess, which is being called one of the best games of all time, and Gears of War end up scoring the same as these mediocre games. That's the problem with throwing out 10s all over the place; there is no where higher to go. Reviewers should not give a game a 10 solely because it quenches their fanboy thirst, but because it truly stands out among all other games as one of quality that will appeal to not just fanboys.

"Once a great magazine-Now its better then average"
Ive been a reader of Play for three years or more. During this time Ive watched format changes, review changes, and content changes come and go. Ive watched them change their rating system a couple of times, partner with corporates to make it a more finacially viable magazine, and Ive watched them dish trash and heap compliments on other media.

Play magazine is still one of the better electronic entertainment media magazines out there. The only other I would put close to them is game informer (and Ill come back to that in a moment). They usually have a wide coverage of systems, the have an old school perspective (meaning that game play comes first in a lot of their reviews), and they get a lot of good insider comment, interviews, and news.

But like any thing great that seems to work well, they have to mix it up a bit. They shortened some sections (dvds, anime) and removed some (when did gadgets really get any play in play in a long time?) and added some that really you have to question (japan? Sure, some of us import, but why would we turn to play for the 6 page spread on life in japan?).

Additionally, in trying to figure out their review system, they decided to go with a 10 point scale, the problem is that every game gets a 4 or better, with the average being in the 7-8 range. Their justification for this is that it is similar to the percentile ranking used in school, 90/80/70/60... BUT it leads you to believe that any game ranked 7 is a good game, if the scale is on 1-10. IF you want to grade on a percentile, then use letter grades, Then we know that 7 means average, and a 10 is the impossible.

Aside from these issues, the magazine is a great magazine. Sure its turning corporate. You cant have a corporate sponser and give time for dell (oh, im sorry, alien ware) to do Q&A and not have some blind spots. IM not saying this is bad, Im saying that its a good magazine besides this. IN fact, after spending a year reading ALL (and I mean all) the trade magazines for electronic entertainment, this is still one of my favorites. Game informer gets a close second in that its news is a little more up to day on release.

I would highly recommend play for a subscription if you need an electronic entertainment magazine.

"the best gaming magazine ever created....period"
are you sick of those annoying game magazines that give only opinionated b.s instead of real reviews? are you sick and tired of having a game magazine latch on to one console and ignore all the others? are you sick of overrated games getting good reviews simply because they are hyped up? well so was I and I can honestly say that play delivers. you can tell when your reading a review that the reviewer actually played the game.I also applaud play for saying that grand theft auto is overrated (duh ive been saying that for 2 years) and I havent even gotten to the anime section..yes the people who write these reviews write them just as well as the game reviews. they treat anime as a serious form of art which is something I appreciate

all in all if you want a game zine that rates games based on how good they actually are...then here you go

"For the love of the game"
Play magazine is consistently one of the best, if not the best, in its field. Well produced and always well written, it covers gaming and Anime as serious art with the respect they deserve.

"PLAYed out"
--Updated December 30, 2007--Almost three years ago, tired and frustrated with the standard of video game magazines, I picked up this magazine and was immediately floored.Finally, I thought, a magazine that is for gamers who love all types of games. A magazine that doesn't equate your mind to being a child for liking Nintendo games, or lightheartted content. Grand pages filled with reviews and previews were engorged beyond that of competitors--and were better looking and more well written than them. Yes, I thought, PLAY was for gamers, by gamers. I really thought the honeymoon would last... As time has passed, I have noticed more and more bad things coming to light. For one the incessant Wii/Nintendo bashing from the one person I never thought I would lose respect for: Dave Halverson. This mouthpiece of arrogance continues to make no sense in his lambasting of Nintendo and the Wii. Dave has no problem saying that NIntendo is abandoning true fans for the casual crowd, that the Wii is mostly owned by children and casual players--and that he wants third party devs to stop putting out trash. The problem with this is that he then says, when a promising game comes to the Wii, that the game belongs on another system, such as Soul Calibur Legends. He said he rethought this after Super Mario Galaxy showed the system was more capable, but then he does it again regarding the upcoming Wii game No More Heroes in an interview. The problem is that if you continue on the path of ridiculous and self absorbed rambling, you're gonna get a very different response and crowd than you wish. While you're up there on your soapbox, Dave, you might want to hang a sign around your neck saying the world is ending, as you just might get more believers than the ones you have now. I for one am now going to skip over anything written by him regarding Nintendo and the Wii (when the Wii is actually covered), as his rambling has become tired and, well, played out. I don't mind criticism, In fact I would like to see more of it--questioning and complaining with intelligence and clear thinking. I do believe there can be intelligent arguments against the Wii and what Nintendo is doing, but without the use of childish words like "dumchuck." (nunchuck) How about the reviews I once thought were great? Well, mostly they are, but with a few missteps. Childishness can also creep into reviews with the odd foul word and reference. When a supposed grown man, Greg Orlando, describes sex as: "taking the skin boat to tuna town" when regarding the game Mass Effect, it does make you question who the hell they are writing for. And while I do respect other people's opinions, the ones at PLAY I find can be beyond my own. I am not knocking them hard for this, as I use their reviews--all reviews really--as a comparison point, but the last level of Halo is trash? The newest Sonic game (for the DS) has a child plot? This game needs to be on another platform? Japanese game reviews can also be kind of jaded as in the one given for Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, where touch controls were lambasted (thankfully there was a counterpoint), but are they are somewhat informative of what we can expect if the game reviewed comes to the States. More and more, though, I'm finding that I have to read between the garbage fill to get to what I want to actually read, especially with Dave's reviews as of late. Another sour point comes in the interviews PLAY gives. While PLAY does manage to get a bountiful selection of devs to speak with, and some information is often given, it often turns out like this:"PLAY: You are so great, everything you do is so great. You can do no wrong and you are wonderful. Please, tell us of more greatness from you. Developer: Thanks! We are great, and you are great for pointing out we are great. PLAY: No problem! Now, tell us more about how you made this great game..." Obviously, not exactly, but you get the picture of what becomes standard and tiring to read. To be fair, this is indicative of the entire gaming community. No indepth reporting and hard questioning from supposed journalists means devs/corporate tools showing up with their propaganda to spew that their game/system is going to be the best game/system ever, mostly without criticism or question. Lovefests take the place of investigative journalism, seems like. PLAY still has great coverage of upcoming games though, and great E3 and Tokyo game show reports that blow the competition away (but with those interviews). Anime is also a favorite of theirs, taking up the back of the magazine if you wish as well (albeit with a lame Girls of Gaming promo somewhere within it). In the end, PLAY is still a magazine worth picking up, for what other magazine allows for cover stories of more niche games. The staff's fondness for retro games is really felt, and they do choose games that are not overly hyped to cover. If you want more coverage of truly mass market games and adoration of them get: EGM, GamePro, and Official Magazines, or go to IGN and GameSpot. For niche games, PLAY still is the one willing to give a games like Odin Sphere its proper perch. I will agree WITH Dave, however, that the staff at PLAY aren't fanboys; they really like games--and that comes through most of the time. Unfortunately, it's also that overt passion that can get the better of them a lot of the time.