Best game magazines ever

It has been incredibly difficult and daunting trying to write this article. I created the links for this page in November 2023. Every time a think to write an intro to these two amazing mags, I find myself at a loss as to how to adequately convey how much i love these mags and what they've meant to me over the years as I've re-read them over and over. I'm stuck in a Spectrum store on MLK day so let's get into it: These two mags are essentialy the same creative team. After Gamers' Republic was closed in early 2001 (march) they pivoted to Play (US), which ran from Jan 2002 till sometime in 2010. I think the best way to encapsulate the people who created these mags is that they are artists. Many of the writers were poetic, not afraid to share their passion and love for the games they lived for, there was no dusty, analytical game informer style drivel here. I stopped keeping up with them after 2005 for a couple of reasons: all the writers save editor in chief Dave Halverson left and i wouldn't buy an xbox 360 until 2010. Also the quality dipped hard after Brady Feitcher, Michael Hobbes and Chris Hoffman left. With the exception of Feitcher, who wrote a small column for quartly Geek, I've never seen any thing else from the other two. Greg Orlando freelanced for Play in the first year and he's written for a bunch of places (it took the better part of a year to get all three of the other writers back with Play after Gamers' folded). But those 4 are, to me, the heart and soul of Gamers'/Play. Halverson tried to revive die hard gamers (I think that was what it was called) after Play died, but that didn't interest me. Anyways, enough preamble, you can check these mags out for yourself thanks to the internet archive: Gamers' Republic https://archive.org/search?query=gamers%20republic%20magazine Play (US) https://archive.org/search?query=Play%20magazine%20us