As good as it gets? (PC Zone)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	PC Zone
Date:	14/08/00 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Concentrates on games, good CD

Disadvantages: Sometimes a bit childish, could do with DVD issue

PC Zone is a dedicated gaming magazine for the PC (unsurprisingly). It covers all aspects of the PC gaming community, and it does so in a manner that leads you to believe that the magazine is being written by gamers who actually enjoy what they do, and not just some journalist who has been told to write about computer games.

Each issue, the magazine has previews of forthcoming games, reviews of the latest releases, interviews with people from the games industry, a tips section, letters section, online section and a section for hardware problems.

The previews and main reviews are well written with lots of photos to go with each story, although there are some games which are given limited review space due to publishing times.

Recently, it introduced an "Online" section which deals with the online aspect of games. This doesn't just mean games however, but also includes stuff like chat software for speaking with your new found gaming buddies, firewall software for protecting your computer from unwanted hacking.

There's a troubleshooting section where you can ask for help on matters such as hardware or software, and a Watchdog section where you can complain about the treatment you have recieved from retailers and the like.

The CD which comes with the magazine is always chock full of the latest demos, sometimes ahead of rival magazines. But it's not just the demos which make PC Zones' Cd's so good - every month there are loads of patches, making sure that your copy of your favourite game is up to date, without you having to download a 50Mb file with your 56k modem! As well as patches, it has a category called "Extended Play" which basically tells you about MOD's, editors and other nifty extras for when you've finished a game, thus giving it an extra few weeks of play. Genius!

One minor complaint I have to mention though is the lack of a DVD issue. Recently, the number of
categories on the CD has been reduced, and now gone are some nice touches like their tips encyclopedia etc. A DVD would enable them to let more people have easy access to more of the software that they feature in their magazine - it could be put to use as a companion to their new Online section, and be able to offer more Mod's, maps etc. (Mods these days are taking up well over 30Mb, and offering them on a covermount DVD rather than 2 - 3 hour download makes sense - even if they put the price up by say 50p)

It also, as is the trend these days, has a companion web site, which is pretty much like the mag and cover CD rolled into one. It has a fairly extensive download section for patches and Extended Play, plus all the news in the PC gaming world at your finger tips, and up to date as well!

Into PC games? Get into PC Zone!

Summary: