Game magazines (and professional web news sources) are usually terrible, industry co-opted publications. It's hard to tell legitimate praise from marketing, and criticism is basically nonexistent: exclusive access to early builds of games conditioned by promises of good reviews ruin any possibility of unbiased, critical writing. Gerstmanngate is symptomatic of a lot of what is wrong with professional game press.

But EGM...it had the same problems that plague game magazines, but sometimes very good stuff slipped through the usual crapfest. I also have fond memories of reading EGM when I was growing up, it was my main source of game news and reviews. I can't say the same about Gamepro or other game magazines, which contained writing that even an average kid could tell was poor.

What saddens me most, though, is the demise of the 1up podcasts. By which I mean the demise of 1up Yours, which was very, very fun and much more informative than anything print EGM or 1up itself published. Garnett Lee has hinted on Neogaf that the podcast will somehow survive, but I question how wise UGO's decision was to pull the plug on this show. It's quality content, which they desperately need. And it has a fanbase, which they also need, especially during this transition period.

With EGM gone, the only print game publication worth reading remaining is Edge...in truth, a much superior magazine than EGM ever was, even though it suffers from the same problems that exist in any industry controlled press.

Actually, The Pirate Bay folks are right. The quote is not Voltaire's.