I've been reading IE since issue 2, and it has consistantly been a source of quality reviews. The structure and presentation is well above the other CD-ROM magazines produced. It is very nice to be able to quickly get to the section of articles I am most interested in.
I also want to compliment you for the general avoidance of obnoxious advertising. I just tried another CD-MAG out, and was immediately hit with a too-cute ad which I didnt care for. I was so disgusted I threw the disk on the 'sometime next decade' pile.
After reading the letters in the latest issue, I want to say that I do _love_ the multiple voice reviews. The interactions are well-written and extremely funny. Occasionally a 'cute voice' is over used, but its still good. I generally read every review, especially the ones for bad games, just to hear the excellent job you do on it. Issue 18 was the best yet, with several articles topping even the review of Inca II.
I would strongly support IE on 2 cds, even at an increased price. The value of having well balanced reviews with video clips of the action in the game easilly makes IE pay for itself. If only I had read the Phantasmagoria review before I fell for the hype.... But you saved me from Outpost & countless others. It'd be bargin at twice the price.
As for the rest.. I rarely played the older demos.. the new ads+demos are friendly enough that I wind up trying them out though.
The only free game I recall wanting to play was perfect general, but you shipped it 2 weeks after i bought a copy. I'll not miss this feature.
Interactive interviews... these were just as cheesy in real life interviews as they are in games. I'd like to see this kind of thing come back, but with consistantly good audio quality & no cheesy question trees... just run 10 minutes of monologue, or else display maybe 5-8 topics all at once.
More Info... I like all the additional data on games that you put in, but I wish I could find it w/o having to pop up a menu in the middle of an article. It'd be nice to have another way to get to this info. Also, with your new pseudo-letter-boxed style, you could use little icons near the page numbers to show what types of additional info are available. These wouldn't have to be reactive buttons for my taste, though it would be intuitive if they were... but it would be nice to know what additional data is avaiable without having to interrupt the voices. (I'm thinking of something like the icons put on movie pages on the internet movide database).
Your use of Windows95 features is wonderful.. the wipes & fades are excellent, and the quartered sectional layout is a big improvement.
