PC Zone

PC Zone,founded in 1993, was the firstmagazinededicated togamesfor IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such asPC Leisure,PC FormatandPC Plushad covered games but only as part of a wider remit. The precursor toPC Zonewas the award-winning multiformat titleZero.

PC Zone

Issue 193, May 2008
Editor	Steve Hogarty
Categories	Video game journalism
Frequency	13 per year
Circulation	11,357 (Jan 09 – Dec 09) 19,023 (Jan 08 – Dec 08) 22,297 (Jan 07 – Dec 07)[1]
First issue	April 1993
Final issue	September 2010
Company	Future plc
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	London
Language	English
ISSN	0967-8220

The magazine was published byDennis Publishing Ltd.until 2004, when it was acquired byFuture plcalong withComputer And Video Gamesfor £2.5m.

In July 2010, it was announced by Future plc thatPC Zonewas to close. The last issue ofPC Zonewent on sale 2 September 2010.

First issue

PC Zonewas first published by Dennis Publishing in April 1993 and cost £3.95. Billed as the first UK magazine dedicated exclusively to PC games, it was sold with two accompanyingfloppy diskscarrying game demonstrations. The first editor was Paul Lakin.

The magazine was split into four sections: Reviews, Blueprints, Features, and Regulars. Among the first titles to be reviewed wereDune II,Lemmings 2,andStunt Island.The Blueprints section involved previews of new games and Features consisted of an article written about a specific area of gaming interest, such as gaming audio.

Regulars included a news bulletin, competitions and a Buyer's Guide which featured recommended games.

Evolution

In its original incarnation,PC Zonerecognised that its audience consisted largely of males in their late twenties and older, and adopted a tone suited to that audience. This was in contrast to contemporary multiformat and console magazines aimed at children and teenagers. During this period, the PC was not yet widely recognised as a games platform in the UK, an attitude PC Zone arguably helped to change by championing a succession of notable games such asStar Control II,Star Wars: X-Wing,Ultima UnderworldandDoom.

By 1995, under the initial editorship of John Davison and then later Jeremy Wells (promoted from deputy editor with Davison moving on as publisher for the title), the magazine adopted a tone which heavily referencedlad culture,which had been made fashionable by magazines such asFHM,Loadedand Dennis Publishing stablemateMaxim.This period was marked by several moderately controversial episodes, including the accidental inclusion of a pornographicDoommodification on a cover-mounted CD-ROM, an article about the infamously bug-riddenFrontier 2: First Encountersillustrated with a large photograph of a piece of excrement wrapped with a bow, a joystick group test which featured a model dressed as a nun (testing each joystick for “phallusicity” ), and a one-page comic by regular contributorCharlie Brooker,graphically depicting animal cruelty (originally intended as a comment on the violence against animals frequently portrayed in theTomb Raidergames) which resulted in the offending issue being withdrawn fromW H Smithnewsagents.

Towards the end of the decade, during the editorship of long time contributor Chris Anderson, the magazine underwent another redesign and a stricter scoring methodology was introduced. For a twelve-month period, it was rare for a game to score above 90%, although this was later relaxed, resulting in controversial 94% and higher scores forBlack & White,Unreal IIand others. It was around this time that the magazine retired the long-running Mr Cursor column, a series of humorous, quasi-autobiographical anecdotes written by a thinly-disguised Duncan MacDonald, originally intended to be a counterpoint to the jargon-heavy nature of much of the rest of the editorial.

Anderson was succeeded by Dave Woods. Most of the regular recurring features used in the current version of the magazine were introduced during this period, and Woods' final contribution was the redesign which marked the handover of the title to Future plc and the editorship to Jamie Sefton.

DVD Zone

Each issue of PC Zone came with a DVD-ROM containing game demos, videos, mods, drivers, freeware software and patches among other things. The DVD Zone sleeve would occasionally have unique codes which gave readers access to game betas, trials, and in-game content, among other things.

Later format

A new format ofPC Zonewas introduced in October 2005 for issue #159. By issue #220, the magazine cost £5.99 and included several regular features including Supertest, where reviewers discussed which game is best in its genre (later audio only); Steve Hill's NeverQuest, which followed the often unsuccessful attempts of Hill's venture intoMMORPGs;Developer's Commentary, in which developers looked back on their recently released titles; Retro Zone, with a focus on a different retro platform emulated on PC each month; How To..., a guide with 8 tips for a recently released game and a Buyer's Guide, in which top games were listed, divided into 9 genres. The Buyer's Guide was developed from an indexed list of every game reviewed in the publication, along with closing comments. When the longevity of the magazine made this completely impractical it was pared down to just the best from each genre, becoming shorter with each redesign.

As of issue #220, the leaders in each genre are:

• Shooters:Half-Life 2(inc. Episodes):97% / 91% / 82%
• Strategy:Empire: Total War:94%
• Action/Adventure:Grand Theft Auto IV:91%
• MMOs:World of Warcraft:95%
• Sport:Football Manager 2010:88%
• Simulation:X3: Reunion:92%
• RPGs:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:95%
• Driving/Racing:GTR 2:92%
• Oddball:Spore:95%

The oldest game in the Buyer's Guide wasDeus Ex,reviewed issue #93 and given 94%.

Review system

PC Zoneprided itself on its reviews scoring system, which was based on the idea that 50% was an average grade. As a result, many publishers accused the magazine of being too harsh. Games that scored 75-89% were given aRecommended Award;games that scored 90% or more were given aClassic Award.Very few games, perhaps only ten a year, received the latter distinction. Games scoring under 20% were given thePC Zone Dumpaward (Previously thePC Zone Pants).

As a combined result of its honest scoring system and its age,PC Zonemanaged to acquire many UK and world print exclusives in terms ofnews,previews andreviews.PC Zonecontained world exclusive previews forHalf-Life 2,Doom 3,andDeus Ex,the first of which achieved a near-record score of 97%, a ranking it shared with three other games:Quake II,Alone in the Dark 2,and the relatively unknown flight simulatorEF2000.

The lowest scoring game ever wasBig Brother: The Gamein 2000. It garnered a score of 1%, summarized with "Truly woeful, and the fact thatInfogrameshasn't stuck the game in a box and is only collecting atennershows how embarrassed [they are] by this unmitigated piece of trash. "The lowest scoring non-game release wasPage 3 Calendar & Screensaverin 1996, which managed to score in the negatives at -10%.

Staff

The last editor was Steve Hogarty, who left in July 2010, and was not replaced. He took over from Ali Wood, who left in December 2009. Previous editor Will Porter replaced Jamie Sefton in March 2008, who in turn was the replacement for Dave Woods after the magazine's redesign at the end of 2005. Steve Spence edited the hardware section until it was taken over by Philip Wand (who also wrote Dear Wandy, a monthly section featuring technical questions from readers which started out as Dear Wazza under Warren Christmas) at the end of 2004. There were discussion forums on the officialPC Zonewebsite, as well as on Philip Wand's ownDear Wandysite. There, members could request technical assistance and discuss gaming in general.

Pavel Barter contributed a regular investigative feature titledSpecial Report,which focused on various aspects of the games industry at large, as well as notable gaming figures and the specifics of the development process.

Dan Marshallcontributed a regular column titledHow to Make a Gamewhich detailed the development of his first game,Gibbage.Gibbage then received the “Indiezone Game of the Month” award with 71% when it was reviewed. Marshall left, but wrote freelance reviews for the magazine.

Other regular freelance writers included Jon 'Log' Blyth, Ed Zitron, Steve Hill, Martin Korda,Rhianna Pratchett,Richie Shoemaker, Daniel Emery, Paul Presley andDavid McCandless.

TV presenter and newspaper contributorCharlie Brookerwas also a regular during the 1990s, reviewing games, and contributing humorous pieces such as “Sick Notes” and the “Cybertwats”.

External links

• Archived PC Zone MagazinesatInternet Archive