Perhaps ‘good frame of reference’ is a better term than accurate then. Don’t get me wrong I’m not in any way suggesting that the way the print media goes about things is always the ‘best’ way for all games. Certainly RPGs in particular do require a greater commitment of time when reviewing, which is seldom taken into consideration when deadlines are set, because the magazines are multi-genre and everyone gets (more or less) the same amount of time. Being an RPG reviewer on a print mag is hard work! On the plus side you do get to dress up in rubber armour as I’ve just done for the next issue <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Without a dedicated RPG magazine - and I don’t really think there will ever be a commercial successful one, certainly in the UK since in my experience RPG games on the cover of ever multi-genre magazine don’t tend to sell very well (despite the games doing well) – I think that sites like RPGDot are the best place to go for comprehensive RPG reviews (perhaps this is why the mags don’t sell so well <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />
BUT like I said before I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss games magazines out of hand. Like I mentioned before you’ve still got a team of people that are very dedicated to games, have a lot of knowledge on what has gone before and what is upcoming, and can articulate their thoughts well.
I don’t really want to comment specifically on the BD review in Zone because the person who reviewed it was partly responsible for giving me my first full time job! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
The best thing that print mags have got going for them is the things that set them apart from many website (which let's face it can deliver the same news/preview/review format much quicker) which are in-depth features, opinion pieces, retro game pieces, super-tests and that ilk.
