VF4 makes Gamepro's April cover...

SACRILEGE!

 

What's wrong with that...?

 

i guess jacky has turned them in 2 fans o the game!

 

The type of audience GamePro is intended for is the lowest common denominator. Too bad the mag has some really good staff.

 

actually, has any1 checked gamepro.com/micro/vf4 ?
there seems to be some tournament next month happening in sf ca. it mentions suzuki possibly attending etc and the grand prize is a vf4 machine. but other details beside that is sketchy & incomplete. does any1 know more of it or plan to attend?

 

This isn't really a "tournament" in the regular sense of the word. Basically, everybody enters the sweepstakes, and all their email addresses are then compiled and sold to Internet marketers so you can get more of those wonderful "Earn $50,000 in 4 weeks" emails that are sent several times a day.

4 winners will be chosen and flown to San Francisco (little point for me since I *live* in SF, hehe). These 4 will then play each other in PS2 VF4 to determine the winner of the *cough* tournament *cough* and the recipient of the VF4 machine etc.

Entries closed on Feb 4, btw.

 

is that the case? a tournament among 4 would b weak... not even a tournament really... i don't see why they wouldn't make it a bigger event to hype the game up at least... and that's alot of money etc just to promote it among 4 or so possible players. i was expecting something similar to the recent tekken 4 national event. namco threw regionalz etc and all the winners from those events (33+ winners) met in las vegas to battle it out (1st prize was a machine also).

 

VF4 will be on the cover of the upcoming OPM. Y'all should look for it.

 

i never really liked magazines covering fighting games anymore since i found gamefaqs.com for VF2, and then moved onto shoryuken.com, and then this site for VF. most magazines don't dive hard enough into the game and expose the tactics well enough for you to get good at it(especially the VF series),

and i remember the article scary larry wrote on how he disliked VF3 and thought Mortal Kombat 4 was the wave of the future, whadda joke. what do these a-holes know?

 

LOl does that crap magazine still exsist??
to bad gamefan had to go out of production though..

 

lol gamepro's a crap magazine and gamefan's not?!
there's a reason they went out of business.

 

You've got to remember that "videogame journalists" (I use the term very loosely) aren't the most educated people in the world. For some, even a high school diploma is optional. It doesn't matter, since most prozines follow the same Mad Libs formula for writing features and reviews. Y'all know the VF4 drill by now: back to its roots, more like VF2 than VF3, blah blah blah everything looks amazing it's the greatest thing ever, then back to the next thing. Much of the time, you don't even need to see any games to write like this. Just copy a couple things that are floating around the office and (important) kiss everyone's ass. Oh, I almost forgot! Don't forget to overuse words like "arguably" and "rumor has it." Another way to fake authority on any given subject.

Sigh. I really miss Next Gen.

 

> there's a reason they went out of business.

And that reason is Dave Halverson, who killed not only them but his other "baby" Gamers Republic. How that man continues to get any respect in the game industry is something I'll never understand.

(I shouldn't bash GF too much though... I got to be "Hardcore Gamer of the Month" in the second-to-last issue. Woo.)

In any case, English videogame magazines as a whole are in a sad state currently. Next Gen was arguably the best of the bunch (that's not saying much) and now that's gone.

 

yeah sure, gamepro is fucking gay, gamefan however was one of the coolest magazines ever.

 

I happened to like Gamefan, while their industry news wasn't anything near Next Gen, nor their interviews, their game reviews and news, I think, was second to none. They (Gamefan) was one of the only services that actually was able to make reviews that were not only fun to read, but worth reading.

 

They did inded make the reviews great and fun to read.

 

Yup, GameFan and GameGo were the only magazines where you read and, even if you didn't agree with them, think "These guys love and know games." Other magazines are more like, you wanna burn down their office.

 

That's funny. When I think of GameFan, "these guys know and love games" never sprang to mind."Hyper-active toy cataloge," maybe.

Still, GF was an entertaining read (like all of Halverson's work). It's fun to read the writers' creative ways of saying "this is the greatest game ever made." My favorite bit was from a review that went, "this is the greatest hummingbird-based, side-scrolling shooter ever made." Y'know, as opposed to all the other videogames like that.

Apart from that, there was always the endless spelling and grammar errors, all the "this videogame chick/booth babe is hot!" cracks (which is fairly common -- e.g. the latest PSM), and the occasional homoeroticism ("this game designer is so great we should all get down on our knees for him right now!" -- or words to that effect). I think the really funny thing is that it was all unintended. It was just a magazine put out by semi-literate fanboys who knew enough to never upset the applecart; kissing ass in this business is pretty lucrative.

Overall, I think the world would be a better place if the prozines didn't cater to eight-year-olds, "Comic Book Guys," and advertisers. Y'know, those of us who have brains and have lives. At least there's still Digital Press.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Still, GF was an entertaining read (like all of Halverson's work). It's fun to read the writers' creative ways of saying "this is the greatest game ever made." My favorite bit was from a review that went, "this is the greatest hummingbird-based, side-scrolling shooter ever made." Y'know, as opposed to all the other videogames like that.

<hr></blockquote>
Somebody should make a page of all the best quotes from old GF issues. There used to be an absolutely hilarious Nick Rox homepage a long long time back.

I also loved the reviews that proved how awful some of the editors' tastes truly were. Like Halverson's 8-page Battle Monsters spread. Or Nick Rox's Lightning Legend featurette.

Don't forget that the mag's original intent was to help sell overpriced import games from a game retail chain. It explains a lot.

 

No, what I think is more funny are mass market "gaming" magazines who endlessly hype the same mainstream crap month after month, cater to the masses, and wouldn't know a good game if it...you know the rest. Thanks but no thanks. I'd rather read a rant from a fanboy who loves video games than from a supposed "video game journalist". I know I wouldn't have discovered games like Keio Yugekitai and Umiharakawase Shun without GameFan. I mean, think of it this way: would you rather hear about VF from folks like the ones on this board, or some mainstream site? To others, we probably seem like obsessive raving fools as well.

I'm not much of a fan of Halverson either but I liked some of the old GF crew like Takuhi and co., but I guess I'm mainly referring to the more recent ECM and crew.