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Rating: - Current Codes Stay, Older Codes Go
One of my favorite past times happens to be the world of video games. Although many people find different ways to get around them with cheats, the unfortunaet part is that the cheats don't often get used. For a magazine called Tips & Tricks, their magazine constantly is coined with that phrase. Although they have a dead on sense with publishing tips and ways to help you through current games, that isn't the same with older games for the system in their codes section. The magazine constantly changes by reducing the contents of codes for certain games and older systems like the Nintendo Gamecube, the Playstation 1, and the Nintendo 64. Althoough it is good for current and upcoming systems like the Nintendo DS, and the upcoming Wii, many will just have to find other ways to get their cheats than Tips & Tricks magazine.

Price: B

Convience: C

Overall: C 1/2+

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Rating: - A trick
As a reader since '97, and a subscriber since '02, this magazine once helped me various times in my hobby of gaming. The magazine offers FAQs and a large collection of codes/cheats for most of the popular consoles and handhelds (there are usually at least three different FAQs, including PC games). The magazine also offers different departments reporting on various segments of gaming ranging from collector's type stuff to news from Japan. Each department isn't very long, maybe a couple of pages, but are a nice read to compliment the overall content of the magazine. What is questionable is the addition of a new editor and new featured articles starting in issue 143 (Jan '07) where the staff tells what they like (their opinions about gaming), and the addition of PC games to the mix of the mag. To this the magazine greatly fails. For one, the new editor must think that the readership for this mag is either very young, or that the readers do not have acccess to an Internet connection, for much of the new larger articles presented are rather filler and can be found elsewhere. Wanna know how to break into the biz? How about an interview with a "pro" gamer? (please...) Well, find out here in a FAQ mag! Remember EGM2? The magazine that turned into Expert Gamer? That then turned into GameNOW? That mag was this one's competition, sometimes offering better watkthroughs and move lists for some great games. So where is it? The marketplace just didn't need another "me too" gaming mag that covered everyting gaming related, I guess. What happened there should be a smack in the face to this magazines staff. There are already enough magazines, and web sites, that cover other aspects of gaming. A mag called "Tips & Tricks" should focus on solely that what makes it unique. The main reason for the magazine's existence are the FAQs. These "strategy guides," though, can be very hit and miss. While I appreciate niche games being along side some more popular games, many of the recent games featured are action games that could be easily beaten, and many of the FAQs aren't really in-depth enough, nor large enough. And because there are only a small number of FAQs (usually three as I stated), a marginal computer game FAQ can take over what should be a hot new console/hand held release (I can't wait to see the Halo 2 regurgitation on Vista). Where there once was move lists for fighters and maps for other types of games, now give way to "points of interests" with horrible FAQs that are not long enough nor very good; I can't believe there was no movelist for the recent Virtua Fighter 5. I guess my fear of the new article content overtaking the FAQs has become a reality. Also, if a game has a lot of collectibles, you can pretty much be left without how to find them all. I also recall one time a guide for Madden was made--really ridiculous and a waste of space. This kind of treatment is sort of like Prima or Brady making guides that don't really need to be made, and are a waste of paper. Oh, and Role Playing Games? Only World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy get proper treatment with a monthly section devoted to each game. If you like other types, look elsewhere. This mag used to have a card you could fill out to tell them what games you would want featured, but now, I dunno who picks the games--as I said, it's very hit and miss. Also bothersome is the mail section. Quite possibly the worst collection of letters I've ever seen are assembled for response. The input and ramblings of the readers are even worse than in EGM--and that's bad. There is no age limit, so expect a very young crowd to be given an equal voice. Tips & Tricks dosen't even take e-mail for reader responses; only snail mail is used for letters (once again ignoring the times). Of course, a knock may be why buy this kind of magazine if you can get free FAQs and codes online. Well, a defense for that is the ubundance of codes/cheats from one place of reference can be more convienient than hurried online scavaging. This is especially the case in the great giant "Code Books" that are released every year. These great issues contain not only codes/cheats for current gen systems, but occasionally past ones as well. And they have a theme, taking one game series and making it the cover story, so to speak.It's sad to say, but this magazine is not what it once was and is in decline. I would suggest buying a ring of printing paper and heading over to GameFAQs and printing out much greater in-depth FAQs and movelists (sometimes with crude maps and directional inputs--but are still more helpful than this mag), and relegating a purchase for this magazine at the magazine stand only for those great codebooks.