Price$19.95
Media TypeComputer CD
CategoryGeneral
Date AddedMar 16, 2003
Michael Close…In Review CDROM
Close, Michael
(Based on 1 review)
Reviews
(Top ▲)
So here’s a weird one – reviewing a collection of reviews …
Most people reading this will be familiar with Michael Close’s long running review column in Magic Magazine. Well, this disc contains all ten years worth of Michael’s product reviews from that magazine – about 1400 pages of text! The ad description on this site, by the way, refers to the original release of “In Review”. The product has since been updated and now includes all Michael’s columns up to April 2005 – that’s an extra 4 years of review columns that didn't appear on the original disc.
Anyone who buys a lot of magic will find the information here to be of great value, as well as being an enjoyable archive to trawl through. Be warned though – reading this many pages of text on a computer screen is going to make your head hurt! You won’t agree with everything Michael says: at least one product you really liked is bound have received a negative review, and Michael will almost certainly have recommended something that you thought was a piece of crap, but if you are anything like me, you will find him to be spot on most of the time.
Mr Close is not afraid to offer criticism where it is due, so it’s only fair that I do the same here. First, this file needs some very serious editing. Often there would be insufficient room in an issue of the magazine for several of the submitted reviews, so Michael would carry those reviews over and resubmit them for the following month. As “In Review” contains the columns exactly as Michael submitted them, this means that there are huge numbers of reviews that appear twice. This duplicated material should really have been edited out before selling the review columns as a separate product. Doing so would probably have eliminated at least a hundred pages of unnecessary text. It would also have been very useful to have a clickable index of the products reviewed on the file. Yes it would have been a lot of work to prepare one, but as the material had already been written and is being re-sold as a new product, I think it would have added a great deal of value to the package. As it stands, the file is easily searchable – but that is only of use of you are looking for something specific. The only way you can browse the file to see what products are reviewed is by wading through over 1000 pages of text. That said, there is a heck of a lot of useful and entertaining reading here. Highly recommended.
In Review also available as a download from www.michaelclose.com
Most people reading this will be familiar with Michael Close’s long running review column in Magic Magazine. Well, this disc contains all ten years worth of Michael’s product reviews from that magazine – about 1400 pages of text! The ad description on this site, by the way, refers to the original release of “In Review”. The product has since been updated and now includes all Michael’s columns up to April 2005 – that’s an extra 4 years of review columns that didn't appear on the original disc.
Anyone who buys a lot of magic will find the information here to be of great value, as well as being an enjoyable archive to trawl through. Be warned though – reading this many pages of text on a computer screen is going to make your head hurt! You won’t agree with everything Michael says: at least one product you really liked is bound have received a negative review, and Michael will almost certainly have recommended something that you thought was a piece of crap, but if you are anything like me, you will find him to be spot on most of the time.
Mr Close is not afraid to offer criticism where it is due, so it’s only fair that I do the same here. First, this file needs some very serious editing. Often there would be insufficient room in an issue of the magazine for several of the submitted reviews, so Michael would carry those reviews over and resubmit them for the following month. As “In Review” contains the columns exactly as Michael submitted them, this means that there are huge numbers of reviews that appear twice. This duplicated material should really have been edited out before selling the review columns as a separate product. Doing so would probably have eliminated at least a hundred pages of unnecessary text. It would also have been very useful to have a clickable index of the products reviewed on the file. Yes it would have been a lot of work to prepare one, but as the material had already been written and is being re-sold as a new product, I think it would have added a great deal of value to the package. As it stands, the file is easily searchable – but that is only of use of you are looking for something specific. The only way you can browse the file to see what products are reviewed is by wading through over 1000 pages of text. That said, there is a heck of a lot of useful and entertaining reading here. Highly recommended.
In Review also available as a download from www.michaelclose.com