Nowhere near as good as it used to be (PC Zone)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	PC Zone
Date:	09/08/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable, informative, professional

Disadvantages: Takes itself too seriously, rather dull to read

PC Zone used to be a brilliant mag back in the mid to late '90s, merging wit, sometimes crude but always sharp comedic observation and a professional journalistic approach to create a monthly magazine owed as much to Viz as it did to serious journalism. It was a joy to read then, not least because of the contributions of the excellent and very funny Charlie Brooker, who now presents BBC programmes such as Screenwipe and Newswipe, but back then used to write hilarious but insightful reviews and also produce crude and surreal comic strips, one of which was so outlandish and over the top that it got the magazine pulled from the shelves of supermarkets one month. Charlie gave the magazine an ascerbic and darkly humorous edge, although the rest of its writers were equally good, with a heavy emphasis on entertainment and readability throughout.

Sadly by around 2000 this all changed- Charlie was increasingly suppressed and eventually either left or was kicked out, and the magazine took on a pompous, overly serious tone and has never really recovered since. It is still a very professional, highly informative and reliable magazine, and contains all the features you would expect in a games magazine- news, reviews, previews, interviews with developers, a letters page, competitions, a cover disk packed with new games and so on- but nowadays its very dry and boring, with none of the funny and risque character it once possessed still remaining. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being serious about gaming- one of the biggest strengths of the PC as a gaming platform is that it tends to cater more towards dedicated gamers than consoles, which tend to be more (but certainly not exclusively) aimed at causal gamers- but PC Zone would do well to lighten up and generate some more comedic appeal and character of its own. PC Gamer, whilst by no means perfect, comes a lot closer to striking this balance, and is a much more appealing and entertaining read as a result. PC Zone is still a decent and reliable gaming magazine though, but only a shadow of its former self.

Summary: Buy PC Gamer instead