Q64 is an unofficial magazine, with no contractual ties to Nintendo. The official magazine, Nintendo Power, is actually published by Nintendo and is little more than a free catalogue. Consider how different magazines reviewed Mike Piazza's StrikeZone, a baseball simulation game. As a result, the write-ups tend to hype the games. In EGM's July issue, there were 31 pages of previews compared to just seven pages of reviews of games currently on the market.
Most gaming magazines tend to offer a more equal balance.
Game Buyer, published by Imagine Media, puts its reviews up front, before the previews. The weakness here is that the article wasn't printed until the month after the game was released-too late for readers who had already purchased the game. Next Generation, an Imagine Media monthly, also covers all gaming platforms except for Sega Saturn, and tries to appeal equally to industry insiders and casual game players. What really sets Next Generation apart from its competitors are its feature stories, which are geared more toward adults. Every issue, for example, has at least one article analyzing the gaming industry.