It’s not exactly shocking news that White Dwarf has gone
downhill over the last few years,
turning into a much-reviled monthly catalogue showcasing whatever GW
happens to be releasing this month in the shallowest, most money-grabbing kind of way. After the recent overhaul though, starting last month, I think
it’s safe to say that White Dwarf is well on its way to recovery.
Despite the 49 pages covering the new releases at the front,
the rest of this months issue seems to make up for it, with the other 89 pages being
packed with army showcases, battle reports (featuring the WD teams own armies
rather than the rather bland studio ones), showcase of readers models,
conversion articles, in depth painting guides (including a rather nice how-to
on salt weathering), designers notes and even a rather nice piece from Graham
McNeill on the new HH novel.
The only thing that disappointed me was that there’s next to no coverage
of the new terrain set and no modeling workshop for Warriors of Chaos, which would
have been nice, so that people could see what can be done with the new kits. On
the other hand, that’s a relatively minor thing. This might be covered next month
anyway and the designers notes actually answer questions that people might have about them (like, why aren't the trenches part of a new Realm of Battle segment?). Overall, White Dwarf is definitely worth spending money on again.
The new writing team seems to have really tapped into what we want to see in there,
having been gamers long before they were recruited and probably watched the
downhill slide of the magazine first hand.
In short, it’s becoming what it used to be again – a hobby
magazine for the hobbyist. Sure, there’s still the occasional advertisement ‘article’,
but the good far outweighs the bad. This is easily the best issue of White
Dwarf I’ve read in a long time. Long may
it continue this way.
Rating: 9/10
Encouraging news.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a "last few years". White Dwarf became a catalogue in about 1991, so 21 years.
ReplyDeleteI agree though that this new design is a step in the right direction. Now if they would just make it a purely 40K magazine then I'd be happy. :)
Well it's only the last few years where it's really become blatant. Back when I started the hobby ten years ago, it was filled with useful article on all aspects of the hobby, not just focusing on the newest releases, with
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion it went south with the issue that covered the Black Templar codex release. They brought in a new editor and became the awful rag that it's been until the last few months. It's good to see it to return to the magazine i remember from my youth.