GamesRadar+
 | |
Type of site | Video game website |
|---|---|
| Owner | Future Publishing |
| Created by | Future Publishing |
| URL | http://www.gamesradar.com/ |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional (free) |
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing (including Future US). Jointly with another video game related website CheatPlanet, GamesRadar receives approximately 3.25 million unique visitors per month.[1][2]
The website is known for its combination of a professional yet comedic approach to video game journalism, publishing numerous articles and videos for comic effect besides the usual video game related news. The website also produces a popular weekly podcast for download from iTunes that recaps the week in news in the video game industry and articles published on the site.
Format and style
GamesRadar publishes numerous articles each day, including official video game news, reviews, previews and interviews with publishers and developers. The tone and writing style of the site more than often takes a comedic approach towards their articles, sometimes complimented by imagery, videos and links. Additional articles are written purely for comedic purposes or satire, humorously detailing certain aspects of games or video game conventions. One of the site's most longstanding and popular features is their "Top 7" lists, a weekly countdown detailing both positive or negative aspects of video games themselves, the industry and/or culture.[3]
The PC section of GamesRadar was at one time organized by the gaming magazine PC Gamer. The magazine's official U.S. website, PC Gamer Online, formerly redirected to GamesRadar before establishing its own host site. GamesRadar also features articles and reviews from other gaming magazines, such as NGamer and Xbox World 360, among others also apart of the Future publishing name. Reviews listed on Metacritic written by GamesRadar editors are subtitled as "in-house" to avoid multiple scores from the same publication being listed. Despite featuring US and UK editors, all articles are presented together on the main site to both audiences.
Games reviewed on GamesRadar are rated on a 10 point scale, with 1 being the lowest possible score and 10 being the highest. At the end of each review, three of each game's biggest pros and cons are listed. For highly anticipated games, super reviews are, usually, written instead of a regular review. Super reviews are similar to the site's regular reviews, however they are written more like a feature, and less like a straightforward review. At the end, the reviewed game is compared to 3 similar games and a "Just for you, Metacritic!" quote is listed at the end of the review; a short sentence that summarizes the review and is used on Metacritic.
Editors
US Editors[4]
- Eric Bratcher (Editor in Chief)
- Chris Antista (Associate Editor)
- Brett Elston (Executive Editor)
- Mikel Reparaz (Senior PlayStation Editor)
- Tyler Wilde (Features/Community Editor)
- Charlie Barratt (Senior Microsoft Editor)
- Henry Gilbert (Associate Production Editor)
- Tyler Nagata (PC Editor)
- Carolyn Gudmundson (Production Editor)
- Joe McNeilly (Senior Editor)
- Michael Grimm (Associate Editor)
- Matthew Keast (Associate Editor)
- Lizzie Cuevas (Associate Video Editor)
- Andrew Mendoza (Senior Web Designer)
- Cheryll Del Rosario (Web Designer)
UK Editors[4]
- Nathan Irvine (Associate Editor)
- Matt Cundy (Editor)
- David Meikleham (Content Editor)
- Justin Towell (Content Editor)
- David Houghton (Content Editor)
Former Editors
- Shane Patterson (Associate Features Editor)
- Stephen Pierce (Global Editoral Director)
- Paul Ryan (Associate CheatPlanet Editor)
- George Walter (Content Editor)
TalkRadar
US
Since May 19, 2008 the site has put out a weekly podcast every Friday known as TalkRadar, which has quickly become one of the site's most popular features.[5] The hosts discuss that week's Top 7, feature articles published on the site, recent game releases, game deals, and a community based segment where they read out answers from users to a "question of the week" on their forums and recently began playing back phone calls from fans. The podcast is presented by Associate Editor Chris Antista, with other lead hosts including Brett Elston and Mikel Reparaz, among other editors from the website periodically also as hosts. The podcast has also had guests from other video game websites or magazines including Brad Shoemaker (Giant Bomb), Veronica Belmont (Qore) and Jim Sterling (Destructoid). In smaller instances, the podcast has also interviewed non-video game related figures including musicians and public speakers. The podcast has been made available for download from their main site and iTunes.[6] Due to its popularity, fans of the podcast have created their own Wikipedia-style website hosted by Wikia known as Talk Radar that archives and details each podcast released so far, written mostly with exaggerated and humorously false statements. From this the hosts of TalkRadar themselves have often cited the wiki when referring to previous podcasts.
UK
Following the success of the GamesRadar US podcast, the UK team also launched a weekly show. Rather than copy the format, the GamesRadar UK team formed an audio show to compliment the original.[7]
Updates
On September 11, 2007, GamesRadar launched a downloads feature called Fileradar. Fileradar allows users to download mods, hacks, and content for games on the PC.
On August 14, 2008, it was announced that the British forums would be closed down and merged with the American side of the site. In response, some of the members of the British forums launched their own forum, named GRcade.[8]
Since being established, the website has gone through multiple layout and design changes, the latest of which occurred on July 12, 2010.[9]
References
- ^ GamesRadar and Cheat Planet readership tops 3.2m // GamesIndustry.biz
- ^ Future plc
- ^ "GamesRadar Top 7 Compendium". Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ a b "About GamesRadar: writers and editors". Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ "TalkRadar Compendium". Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ "TalkRadar at iTunes". Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ "TalkRadar UK Compendium". Retrieved 2010-10-10.
- ^ GRcade.com Index page
- ^ Welcome to the New and Improved GamesRadar