Off the Newsstand: Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 255

One issue removed from EGM's huge red-design, it is time to see if the magazine still feels fresh or fun to read like the first issue of the re-design was.  Mostly, it feels very fresh and very easy to read.  For a while when EGM first came back, it took me a while to read through the 82 pages that made up the new EGM.  It was not an easy magazine to read back then.  Over the past year, it got a little better until now I can breeze through it in a week like I do with Nintendo Power and Game Informer.

Sometimes you can read a good cover story about a game and it does nothing to change your opinion on said game.  The cover story for Medal of Honor: Warfighter was well-done and very informative, but I still do not care for the game itself.  While it is based entirely around the personal stories of these Tier 1 soldiers instead of a globe-trotting Michael Bay style campaign found in most military shooter, Danger Close has to do a little more to get this gamer's attention.  In line with the cover story, the rest of the issue had a few articles about military shooters.  The EGM Interview picked the brain of Tommy Jacob, a lead designer on the Ghost Recon games.  It was a very interesting interview that gives you an inside look at how Red Storm approaches the Ghost Recon series and their style of shooter.  Easily one of the best articles in this issue alongside the EGM Roundtable discussion on Violence in Video Games, another great read.  Issue 255 of EGM serves up the same quality Top 10s, Previews, Reviews and Commentary pieces that you have come to know and love.  All around a solid issue of EGM.

It did not blow me away like the issue before it, but Issue 255 of EGM was a solid read.  Unless you are a huge fan of military shooters, you can easily skip this issue and not miss much.  I do say that gamers should go out of their way to at least read the EGM Interview with Tommy Jacob and the EGM Roundtable on Video Game Violence.  Two excellent articles that deserved to be read by all.