Gamestyle Offline: The Missing Issue

Gamestyle Archive Intro: just looking through some old music discs and have come across a batch of reviews from 2008 and beyond – a nice wee discovery. Here is the intro to the lost Gamestyle Offline issue which dates from January 2008.

After a successful run, the Gamestyle Offline Magazine (otherwise known as GSO) was put to rest, as the demands of producing each issue alongside website content became too much.   Yet the story of GSO did not end with issue nine, as many readers believe.

In late 2005 plans were afoot in Gamestyle Towers to take GSO in a new direction, complete with a new visual design and issue editor.   Unfortunately the design never progressed beyond a few draft pages, pictures of which are shown here for the very first time.   While the design may not have been completed, the issue was practically bursting full of content.   Since then some of this material has been released online at Gamestyle, as ‘the nine lives of games developers’, ‘the cult of thrill kill – and others’ and ‘remake them, we have the technology’ to name but a few.

Today five features remain unpublished amidst our submissions, lurking with no real intent and now outdated by the ravages of time.   Under the series banner ‘Gamestyle Offline: The Missing Issue’ these few remnants will be released and finally close the door on the GSO era.

Gamestyle Retro

Gamestyle Archive into: we’re reaching the end of our Gamestyle Offline Magazine special edition issues with a release that came towards the end of the series; retro. With a distinctive look harking back to the classic Spectrum magazine of the 80’s this is the team’s homage to retro. The last page also hints at GSO Issue 9. I’m sad to say I cannot even remember if we reached issue 9, material was certainly submitted for a 9 or 10 and this formed the part of the ‘missing edition’ series that was published online during 2008.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the GSO issues that have stood the test of time rather well. In this era of instant downloads and reading on the move there does seem to be an opportunity to revive this sleeping giant.

GSR

Gamestyle Offline Magazine OutRun 2

Gamestyle Archive intro: another special edition of GSO to celebrate a specific title – this being Sega’s reboot of the arcade classic OutRun.

 

outrun2_gso

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Chronicles of Riddick

Gamestyle Archive intro: we’re moving on from the numerical editions of GSO into the special editions we used to produce now and again. The Chronicles of Riddick might seem a strange choice today but back upon its release, it was a big deal.

gso-riddick

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 7

Gamestyle Archive intro: we’re almost reaching the summit of our GSO journey. Issue 7 is one of the most accomplished issues and this entry comes with a slight difference. Quite often issues were released with a low-res and a high-res variants. Remember back in April 2004 when GSO7 was released, most of the public were still on 33.3k modems and unlimited downloads were a dream scenario. So the Archive is pleased to offer both versions here in low-res and med-res files.

Looking ahead we still have  GSO8 and then that’s it for the numerical editions themselves. However the team produced several special editions and of these it looks like we have the complete set to release in the coming weeks. We are out of the small gif’s that used to accompany each GSO release but looking through the backup files I have found a Star Wars influenced teaser for an earlier issue!

 

GSO7_lo       GSO7_medres

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 6

Gamestyle Archive intro: we’re into the second half of the published GSO issues. So this is really where everything gelled and some superb issues were created although this one is just 16 pages. In Issue 6 expect:

Feature on ECTS 

Reviews of Madden 2004, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Donkey Kong Country and much more

style6

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 5

Gamestyle Archive intro: Another weekend brings the fifth issue of GSO back online. It’s a great issue with diverse content throughout including the Gamestyle Top 100 Games and a real emphasis on features:

Features – violence in videogames, Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter, Nintendo offline, Digging for Fire, Gamepark 32

Review – Half-Life Dreamcast

gso5v2

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 4

Gamestyle Archive intro: we’re reaching the 4th issue of GSO and I’m pleased to announce thanks to Toby that we now should have the full set of GSO’s including some spin-off editions. We’ll get these uploaded here on a weekly basis for you to enjoy. In this issue we have:

Reviews including DoA Volleyball, Ape Escape 2, Capcom vs SNK 2, R-type Leo.
Features: Dead Again, Confessions of a Beta Tester and New Release day
Plus all the news and events from around that period

 

Issue 4

 

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 3 Part 2

Gamestyle Archive intro: as promised here is the finalised version of Issue 3. I do recall we eventually offered 2 downloads of later magazines either in a low-fi or high-fi format as we were in the era of dial-up connections. In this issue there is something for everyone including fans of Mecha and an interesting chat with Dean regarding the early days of Gamestyle and screenshots of the first four versions of the site.

• Silent Hill 3 preview
• Realism in games feature
• Electronic Arts feature
• The best gaming moments feature
• Phantom Crash interview
• Juro Watari interview
• Super Monkey Ball 2 review
• Unreal Championship review
• Metroid Prime review
• The Ultimate game feature
• The origins of Gamestyle

Issue 3

Gamestyle Offline Magazine Issue 3

Gamestyle Archive intro: Here is the third issue of GSO and another enjoyable 32 page read even today; over a decade since it was published. In the Archive we have all the issues up to and including GSO7 but that leaves a couple beyond that to locate and release once again.

In this issue we have:

Well, actually, what we have here is a world exclusive never seen outside of Gamestyle Towers. This is the first version of GSO3, a work in progress if you will showing the thought process behind a new design and visual revamp. So the layout is complete but the content isn’t all slotted into place yet and the sharp-eyed will notice the different cover as well as other little changes. It deserves its place in the archive as you can appreciate the work that went into every issue from the team.

Later this weekend the Archive will publish the official edition of GSO3 that some of you might remember and then you can compare and we’ll discuss the contents at that time.

gso3_unseen