Only new thing I see about NG2 is the "Obliteration techniques", which are pretty much what they sound like, over the top ball busting moves that really mess guys up. Also says there's a yet to be revealed female playable character (which is news to me at least).
This is one of my least readable EGMs in a long time. I want to give the entire magazine a chance, really, I do, and it's usually good but it's just a mess this month.
The "cover story" reads like a Sony fanboys wet dream. Every page reads like Sony is doing everything right and Microsoft is backed in a corner. It ends up being really frustrating trying to read why creating levels in LittleBigPlanet and having Home will save the PS3 from obscurity.
Unfortunately the article sinks lower and lower throughout culminating in a ridiculous MY PS3 2008 GAME VS. YOUR XBOX 2007 GAME, it's a list war if I ever saw one, but one that fails to take into account any kind of larger picture, for the PS3 and the 360. The article just drops off after talking about Infamous vs. Crackdown, without the article wrapping up in any way making the whole article feel disjointed and strung together without and real ideas behind it. I left me wondering if EGM couldn't snag a cover story about an upcoming game.
The EGM Awards were pretty disappointing to me. There's a lack of personality behind the editors choices, and why the games that won really stood out to them. Instead, gigantic text bubbles from Ken Levine end up being as wordy as the editors choices. It's cool that Ken Levine can make a great game and all, but when Zack and Wiki wins an award and he starts talking about how he likes playing Jeanne D'Arc before bedtime with a warm glass of milk in one hand I'm going to not really care what he has to say about Zack and Wiki. If there was a big seperate interview with Ken about a bunch of games from the past year, cool, whatever, but as it is the article feels like it's all about Ken Levine, and EGM's awards shouldn't feel like a developers opinion(often times about his own game).
Maybe these kind of flaws are just more apparent to me because I got GFW Magazine on the same day though. GFW is light-heatedly fun to read and deceptively deep on a number of topics surrounding the games business as usual, and I can't get over what a well put together magazine it is every month. Every gamer should be reading it whether they actively play PC games or not.
