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Rating:  -
The reason that I got PC Gamer, this year, I am going to buy a new PC this year in 2008. I am a real big Gamer and my old PC was to slow to run the new games that are coming out today,and PC Gamer is the best magazine fot the PC.
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You would be hard-pressed to find a better magazine out there that deals with PC games. This mag has previews, reviews and even hardware reviews. The reviews are pretty much fair but I have seen some questionable ratings and omissions that leave me wondering.
Like one of the other reviewers here said, when they do a big review on a hyped game, they always seem to give the game a really great score. One exapmle would be Crysis. They did a really big review on it before the game was released and gave it a 98/100! That is one of their biggest scores ever and they gave it to a game that got an average score of about 90/100 on gamerankings.com. Not to mention the game was released with bugs that should have been counted against it, but there was no talk of bugs in the review at all. This is the main problem with the mag IMO. You only get one person's point-of-view and that person's job depends on large PC game companies making games for them to review. If they give a company like EA a bad review thus causing gamers not to buy the game, EA being one of the largest PC Game publishers may decide to stop making PC games and concentrate on console-only titles potentially putting the PC Gamer staff out of a job.
One other thing that bothered me was how they did not mention the copy protection used in their BioShock review or Spore review. Come to find out the games actually only allowed the consumer to install the game three times and after that the game was useless not to mention the impossible-to-uninstall SecuRom files. Seems to me a big time mag like PC Gamer would have at least mentioned this, but they did not. They instead gave the game a 91/100 leading many to buy the game without knowing about the ridiculous copy protection.
Finally, the mag is absolutely filled with ads. Every other issue gives us a 20-page ad for some crappy cell phone games. I definately could do without this annoyance as they have nothing to do with PC's or PC gaming.
As for the positive, the reviewers and staff seem likeable and there are always contests where you can win something cool. I especially like the articles on assembling a computer from scratch and hardware reviews. Both helped me greatly when I built my first computer. I would say that I can trust the review scores for the most part. The mag also sends out 13 issues a year instead of 12 and come bundled with DVD-ROM demos and reviews.
The mag also does some reviews on MODS for some of the games. This came come in handy if you have beat your favorite game and you are looking to extend the life of the game through modding. Sometimes they even include some MOD files on their DVD's that they send out with each issue.
With computer games seemingly taking a back-seat to console games, it is nice to have a mag that will only focus on the PC side of gaming. I do feel, however, that this mag is past it's prime as are PC games in general and is in need of an overhaul that benefits the subscriber. As of right now, I am considering not renewing my subscription that I have had for 4 years but I also recedntly got a PS3 so I admit that my attention is now more focused on the PS3 as are most game companies these days. I would recommend the mag for diehard PC gamers but if you own a console like the 360 or PS3, you may find that many PC games today are simply ported (sometimes very poorly) from a console anyway.
Update: No mention of Spore DRM in November issue. They gave the game a 91% however. Lego Indiana Jones got a public scolding for SecuROM DRM but Spore, another EA game, got no mention of the DRM at all. Also, I have heard on the forums that people automatically have their subscriptions renewed and are sent to collections if they don't call up and say they want to cancel....not a good way to keep long-time subscribers.
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I really like this magazine and have subscribed for the past 3 years. PC GAMER caters directly to PC gamers, each month reviewing several games and previewing several others. Although you can get demos and such online, this magazine also bundles a dvd that contains demos and other things to preview. The articles are generally well written, and most of the ratings are reasonable, with one big exception (see below).
My only problem with PC GAMER is its "world exclusive reviews," where a company will allow the editors to be the first to review some highly anticipated game. The problem is whatever game is reviewed in this matter invariably gets a high score (85%+), almost regardless of quality. In its latest world exclusive, Hellgate: London received a score of 89%--a full 15 percentage points higher than the game's average review rating at Gamerankings[dot]com. I know that this arrangement is supposed to please everyone: PC GAMER gets the early scoop, readers buy the mazagine to read the early scoop, and the game developer sells more copies of the game thanks to PC GAMER's early endorsement. But in my opinion, this scheme compromises the integrity of an otherwise very good magazine.
Anyhow, I recommend PC GAMER to anyone who has at least a casual interest in PC gaming.
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I love the no nonsense reviews of all games for your PC. Get this Mag now !!!!!!!!!
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I have purchased this magazine numerous times ala carte, so i really overpaid by spending $9 on 1 issue. the magazine is a comprehensive reveiw of all the top new games and lets you know what to expect with out spoiling the experience.
The only true problem with the magazine is that half of it is advertising in the pages. The only other thing is that it takes a LONG time to get your first issue. Other than that, i would highly recommend this product to anyone that is even vaguely interested in computer games.
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