MMO Gaming

aMusic from AFK Magazine was kind enough to send me an e-mail to let me know that issue 2 had been released and that they had worked, and continue to work on some of the suggestions myself, and others made.

So, because the guys over there seem pretty cool and I would continue to read either way, I decided to give my “re-review” of the magazine for issue 2.

I immediately headed over to the site and found out that…I couldn’t connect. I take nothing away from them for this, perhaps it was my connection, or perhaps it was sheer volume of readers flocking to the site that caused this temporary downtime, but this could be looked at in a positive light so I’ll give them that (and it appears it wasn’t down for more than an hour, so good job either way).

After a bit of waiting around I manage to access the site and head straight into the magazine browser (really, the most important part). Immediately I am greeted with options for Quality and Sound (high or low, on or off). Two thumbs up for this, this is friendly design at it’s best. Now I immediately know what I am getting myself into with my choices, and I can still turn things on/off or up/down as needed from within the magazine browser. I chose High quality (my internet connection is pretty good and my computer, while not incredible, isn’t awful either and I wanted to see how it performed anyway. I also chose to keep music on.

The second choice may seem odd to those who read my first review of the magazine, I hated the music, I hated the idea of music, and now, here I am, choosing to listen to it again. Here’s the difference, as mentioned above; I know what I’m getting myself into, because I had a choice upfront. I chose to hear music, so now I don’t find my eardrums offended by the fact that this odd sound is emitting from my speakers.

A side-step here to talk about the music, I love it. It feels very “Metroid meets Megaman” to me and I love both (Metroid is perhaps the greatest series of games ever made, but that’s another topic entirely.) So, while my comment still stands from last time, that it may not suit everyone who views it, there is an option upfront and you know what is going on when you choose, so I have nothing against the magazine so far.

Now, at the magazine browser there is one thing that I am a bit interested in seeing. Right now the option to “turn” pages is at the bottom, and is fairly small. I wouldn’t mind seeing an option to the left/right of the magazine display with a –> and a <– arrow to move through pages, and maybe even a way to jump to page “x” after viewing the Table of Contents (yes, I know there is the contents list that does a similar thing with page jumping but I’d like to see my commonly used features all right next to where I am reading). This is a minor thing, and not something that necessarily deters from the experience, I think it would just “enhance” the experience a bit.

Once again, as before, I won’t comment on the content of the magazine, this time partially because I haven’t had a chance to go through everything, and partially because the writers for the mag are perfectly capable of doing what they need to do (though that Vanguard review; really?!)

So, overall, this issue is a huge improvement over the first in a lot of ways and I look forward to seeing what additional changes they will make as the magazine starts to hit its stride. Congratulations to the AFK Mag team!