PC Gear: new and different? (PC Gear)

Member Name: Hope

Product:	PC Gear
Date:	04/10/00 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quite amusing, quite informative

Disadvantages: Expensive for what it is

PC Gear is a new computer magazine, which claims to be different from all the others. It contains the expected articles and reviews on hardware, Internet sites, games and other software, but there is much more to it than that. It is clearly aiming to be fun and humorous, with much of its information coloured with sarcasm. At first I found this laddish and silly, but was soon laughing in spite of myself. I particularly enjoyed their 10 reasons to upgrade to Windows Millennium Edition, which included "you want to kill some time" and "your PC is too fast and you have too much space on your hard disc"! As someone who has had enormous problems with previous Microsoft updates, I was quite amused.

I also found their advice for beginners less patronising and more light-hearted than in other magazines. They certainly do not take themselves too seriously, although more technologically minded readers might find the whole thing too light-hearted.

My impression is that the magazine is aimed at the younger age range, particularly bearing in mind the language and humour used and the fact that 45 pages were devoted to previews and reviews of PC games.

The first issue included 2 CDs (or DVDs): Design Works 3.5 plus various games and other demos. Even with these, and a considerably smaller advert section than many other computer magazines, I still feel that the magazine is rather overpriced at £4.99.

Summary: