Best Magazine for XBOX Gamers

Introduction
This magazine is the best for XBOX fans. They have solid reviews, exciting previews, game cheat codes, featured stories and rumors, and even playable demo discs! A drawback is the price.

Features
The Official XBOX Magazine features the latest news, previews, reviews, rumors, cheat codes, and strategy guides. There is a demo disc that comes with every magazine. Note, however, that some magazine subscriptions come without the CD, so make sure you get it. There are challenge points, where the editors challenge you to beat a game or level and you get challenge points. The challenge points leaders are listed every issue. Some issues feature exclusive interviews and world reviews.

Analysis
This is the best XBOX magazine out there. The news and rumors sections are interesting and always up to date. The editorial staff is cool and consist of all different types of gamers. The artwork on the covers and inside are remarkable and lifelike. The reviews are honest. Not all the reviews are completely accurate in my opinion, but for the most part, they are right on the spot.
The demo discs are always entertaining and are ‘the sugar on the topping.’ The cheat codes and strategy guides are useful. However, if I wanted cheats, I would recommend Tips and Tricks Magazine. This magazine has been around since the Xbox’s inception in November 2001. They have never rated a game above 9.6, that going to Splinter Cell. The top 5 rated games according to them are: 1) Splinter Cell (9.6), 2) Halo (9.5), 3) Dead or Alive 3 (9.5), 4) Knights of the Old Republic (9.4), and 5) Project Gotham Racing 2 (9.4). The magazine is basically divided into 6 sections. The first being ‘All Access.’ This contains the ‘Rumor Mole’ section, a games calendar, and hardware reviews. The ‘Rumor Mole’ contains the latest game and system rumors. The calendar contains game and movie releases during the issue month. It is entitled, ‘what to do in _____.’ The second section is the ‘Features’ section. There is basically a new feature in each issue. The feature is usually the news on upcoming games, software, hardware, or on the XBOX LIVE service. The third section is entitled the Preview’ section. It basically contains previews of upcoming games. It tells what to expect in these games, how complete they are, and preliminary opinions on them. The fourth section is the ‘Review’ section. Reviews can either be ‘World Review’s, Full Page Reviews, or Half Page reviews. World Exclusive Reviews are for big upcoming games on the system. Full page reviews are for popular games and half page reviews are for less noticeable games. All the Reviews are categorized into ‘The Verdict.’ The Verdict considers graphics, Immersion, Design, Sound, and (+) Good (-) Bad and (?) Perplexing. Note that some reviews don’t have the review broken down into these sub-categories. All reviews, however, are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best and 1 being the worse. The Fifth Section of the magazine is called the Extended Play section. ‘Extended Play’ features strategy guides, letters to the editor, and cheat codes. The sixth section is the demo disc section. It basically tells you what’s on the disc and challenges you can try to score challenge points.

Downside: $$$P R I C E$$$
With all these good things about this magazine, there has to be something bad. And there is. This magazine is way over priced. But that, of course is with the Demo disc included. If you don’t want the demo disc, you can find the magazine substantially cheaper. However, most all of the newsstand editions feature the disc. I only know that on Amazon you can get a subscription without the disc. The price for 12 issues without the disc is $14.95. The subscription price for 12 issues with the disc is currently $29.95. For each individual magazine, the price used to be $4.99, then it jumped to $5.99, $7.99, and now it’s a whopping $8.99. I will never pay for a single issue at the newsstands, because it’s a rip-off. If you are real interested in this magazine, get a subscription. However, the subscription prices have also gone up: once at $19.99, then $24.99, and now its $29.95.


So, if you love XBOX and are interested in upcoming games, reviews, hardware, cheat codes, strategy guides, and exclusive demos, get this magazine. But, get a subscription.