I dusted off old gamins magazines from my old house.
I got almost full collection of old CD-Action magazines. I was stubborn enough to buy every one of them because reasons (my stubbornness bring me to trouble some day). It feels like a codex - you know who's the retard, competent and who have no idea what he write about (i.e. he write like bland essay for Matura or some shit). It especially hurt when you read that from modern perspective because the best people abandoned the ship while mediocre one remain and fresh meat is mediocre too, maybe to not fear the oldfags.
Actually, there was drama about some oldfag (EGM) abandoning the ship, that later fill itself with dorritos, but it seems like they fit them well from the beginning.
The only reason CDA survived to these days was because they were adding full games on CDs/DVDs*, they
are good reading material on the ceramic throne and most important - their publisher and team is solid and free from whiners and potential betrayals that could sink the ship. And they can be stomatched by casuals. Having decent gaming knowledge bring the risk of disgust (lesser or total). You can still read them if you're casual. Otherwise - gaming experience may clash with the impressions.
When I bought this issue - I didn't know that history has changed. UT3, bloom'n'hdr fest with multiplayer that died fast because the other game - CoD4 ModerWarfart1 - revealed to be revolution [my ass] like Cunter Stroke years back in UT vs Quake3 battle, to turn multiplayer FPS games into deeper shithole.
Plus Crysis - people shouted about lack of optimization, when later it seems like CrySis is p.good in that term.
Also because PC hardware upgrading rate slowed down and other gamer reveal to be shit but nobody agree with that.
What really blow my mind is the quality of gaming magazines for console peasants. Yes, I got some to compare for chuckles and whatnot. Only to be disappointed (Imma PC mustard rejs). Their reviews ARE WAY better than their the ones from PC village (detailed, goes to the point etc.). Even when you compare the modern ones.
How the fuck is that possible in postsoviet country where consoles and games are ridiculously expensive (games cost 1/3 or 1/4 of average income, tj.250PLN, while PC games force you to spend ~1/10? of that tj.65-150PLN) is beyond me. Of course that's when you want to go with the legal way :wink:
*and that was p. good source of full games, some of them are really obscure and still not available via Steam/GoG. Like recently - The Movies or Wolfenstein (2009). Or Wizards&Warriors by D.W.Bradley.
[fake edit]I found other one.
Click! play "cool guy card" and even when some of their impressions are ridiculous - still better still better than the one from CDA. They started adding full games on CD/DVD too but later, also source of some obscure titles like
Arx Fatalis. I remember that one from preview, then in 2011 gave it a shot and get a blast.
This one... saw Unreal Tournament review, guns description and 6/6/6 and overall 6+ score out of six (max)...
then pick years later with first PC and agree with this all. That was something cool. But these day "cool" is verboten, and all these people making shitty mobile games with characters ov caricature body building are not making "cool"... they're wong all way along .
Komputer Świat Gry (and his other mutations) play "professional and detailed" people with hueg charts a'la
Excel only to be wrong in some cases. I still have no idea how they saw the gameplay or "fun". There were some objective points but that still don't explain some of the strange scores from some p. good or p.cool titles.
THIS one...this was my first real contact with games. Best titles of 1997-1999 in all genres (RPG, RTS, action TPP, FPP before they named it to FPS, point'n'click etc.).
You can only imagine how it touched the unprepared mind of the kid that has no contact with videogames whatsoever.