May 16, 2001 10:02 AM
3745 Views
PC Gamer has to be the cream of the crop when it comes to PC gaming magazines. It consistently delivers up to the minute reviews and its in development section I find particularly useful as it enables me to decide what to spend my hard earned pennies on. First of all what do you get for the £4.99 that it will cost you to purchase this mag? Well you will almost invariably be the grateful recipient of two coverdiscs or one DVD dependant on what variant you buy. These freebies are a godsend as they cut down the amount of patch updates I have to download from the Net. An example is the Counterstrike 1.1 full upgrade patch that weighed in at a mighty 86 meg. Not something that I would have wanted to download!
There are several core units to this magazine which I will break down into a descending list of favour: First Look As mentioned above one of my main reasons for buying this magazine is to see what is coming up for release in the games world. This is amply satisfied each month by the content held within this section of the magazine. Although this section is far from exhaustive in its coverage of pre-release games it is its quality of approach to the subject matter that keeps me coming back for more each month Reviews The real meat of the magazine is contained within this section and invariably provides good information if a little biased on occasion. The reviews are generally good and presented in a crisp clear manner with percentage scores being allocated to give a guideline to the products quality, longevity and playability Hardware This section consists of a series of reviews or news about such items as 3D graphics cards and sound cards that any gamer could utilise to enhance their gaming experience.
The reviews in this section are from being in depth articles but give readers a little bit more to go on when they are thinking about upgrading their machine. Previews Similar to the Reviews section content but the articles are often written from a more personal opinion than that delivered in the Reviews area. . Tips Foulplay is exactly what you assume from the title, a cheat page. Although possibly of use to people who are genuinely stuck (and I am not saying that I have never used such items because I have) it does take away a lot of your sense of triumph when you finish a game. Questions & Answers (Q & A) – Again obvious from the tile readers can pose questions to the expert panel and receive help Regulars This area handles all the generic stuff you expect to be on the fringes of a gaming mag such as latebreaking news just in before publication and the like.
Generally good content but I have found it to be a bit of a space filler on occasion. This magazine caters for all your needs as a gamer and deserves to be recognised as one of the top magazines in its genre. If you have not already tried this magazine give it go, who knows it might surprise you!
