PC Zone
Encyclopedia
PC Zone was the first magazine
dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as PC Leisure
, PC Format
and PC Plus
had covered games but only as part of a wider remit. PC Zone was founded in 1993.
The magazine was published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. until 2004, when it was acquired by Future Publishing
along with Computer And Video Games
for £2.5m.
The precursor to PC Zone is the award-winning multiformat title Zero.
In July 2010 it was announced by Future Publishing that PC Zone was to close. The last issue of PC Zone went on sale 2 September 2010.
The magazine was split into four sections: Reviews, Blueprints, Features and Regulars. Among the first titles to be reviewed were Dune 2, Lemmings 2 and Stunt 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.
, Star Wars: X-Wing
, Ultima Underworld and Doom.
By 1995, under the editorship of John Davison, the magazine had adopted a tone which heavily referenced the lad culture
that had been made fashionable by magazines such as FHM
and Dennis Publishing stablemate Maxim
. This period was marked by several moderately controversial episodes, including the accidental inclusion of a pornographic Doom modification on a covermounted CD-ROM, an article about the infamously bug-ridden Frontier 2: First Encounters
illustrated 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 contributor Charlie Brooker
, graphically depicting animal cruelty (originally intended as a comment on the violence against animals frequently portrayed in the Tomb Raider
games) which resulted in the offending issue being withdrawn from W H Smith
newsagents.
Towards the end of the decade, during the editorship of 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 for Black & White
, Unreal II and 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 Publishing and the editorship to Jamie Sefton.
s; Developer's Commentary, in which developers look 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 are listed, divided into 9 genres. The Buyer's Guide 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.
At present (issue #220) the leaders in each genre are:
The oldest game in the Buyer's Guide is Deus Ex
, reviewed issue #93 and given 94%.
As a combined result of its honest scoring system and its age, PC Zone manages to acquire many UK and world print exclusives in terms of news
, preview
s and review
s. PC Zone contained world exclusive previews for Half-Life 2
, Doom 3
, and Deus Ex
, the first of which achieved an almost-unprecedented record score of 97%, a ranking it shares with three other games: Quake II
, Alone in the Dark 2
and the relatively unknown flight simulator EF2000. Only one game has ever received the lowest score of 0%, which was the multimedia package Newsweek 3 Globocop, given the biting summary, "The most expensive beer mat in the world." The reviewer of this package also commented that everyone involved with the project should be "boiled alive like lobsters".
The lowest scoring game ever in the Budget section was Simon the Sorcerer 3D, which garnered the impressive score of 3%, "one point for each of its worthless dimensions."
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. Staff Writer David Brown organises the Freeplay section of the publication, which features mods
and freeware
titles.
Philip Wand
heads the hardware section and Dear Wandy, a monthly section featuring technical questions from readers (which started out as Dear Wazza under Warren Christmas). There are discussion forums on the official PC Zone website, as well as on Philip Wand's own Dear Wandy site. There, members can request technical assistance and discuss gaming in general.
Pavel Barter contributes a regular investigative feature titled Special Report, which focuses on various aspects of the games industry at large, as well as notable gaming figures and the specifics of the development process.
Dan Marshall contributed a regular column titled How to Make a Game which 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 now writes freelance reviews for the magazine.
Other regular freelance writers include Jon 'Log' Blyth, Ed Zitron, Steve Hill, Martin Korda, Rhianna Pratchett
, Richie Shoemaker and Paul Presley.
TV presenter and newspaper contributor Charlie Brooker was also a regular during the 1990s, reviewing games, and contributing humorous pieces such as "Sick Notes" and the "Cybertwats".
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as PC Leisure
PC Leisure
PC Leisure was the United Kingdom's first magazine dedicated exclusively to IBM PC compatible entertainment and was published by EMAP between spring 1990 and September 1991. A total of nine issues were published in its lifetime, the first four being quarterly with the remaining five bimonthly...
, PC Format
PC Format
PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. In publication since 1991, it is part of Future Publishing's Format series of magazines that include articles about games, entertainment and how to...
and PC Plus
PC Plus
PC Plus is a Computer magazine published monthly since 1986 in the UK by Future Publishing. The magazine is aimed at intermediate to advanced PC users, computer professionals and enthusiasts. The magazine is specifically for users of PCs and related technologies, so features articles are...
had covered games but only as part of a wider remit. PC Zone was founded in 1993.
The magazine was published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. until 2004, when it was acquired by Future Publishing
Future Publishing
Future plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers...
along with Computer And Video Games
Computer and Video Games (magazine)
Computer and Video Games is a video game magazine and website published in the United Kingdom.- History :...
for £2.5m.
The precursor to PC Zone is the award-winning multiformat title Zero.
In July 2010 it was announced by Future Publishing that PC Zone was to close. The last issue of PC Zone went on sale 2 September 2010.
First issue
PC Zone was first published in April 1993 and cost £3.95. Billed as the first UK magazine dedicated exclusively to PC games, it was sold with two accompanying floppy disks carrying 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 were Dune 2, Lemmings 2 and Stunt Island
Stunt Island
Stunt Island is a video game designed by Adrian Stephens and Ronald J. Fortier and was published by Disney Interactive in 1992. The game, marketed as "The Stunt Flying and Filming Simulation", provides an island which contains a number of different sets, such as a city, an oil rig, a canyon, and an...
. 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 Zone recognised 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 as Star Control IIStar Control II
Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters is a critically acclaimed science fiction computer game, the second game in the Star Control trilogy. It was developed by Toys for Bob and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for PC; it was later ported to the 3DO with an enhanced multimedia presentation,...
, Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: X-Wing is the first LucasArts DOS computer game set in the Star Wars universe, as well as the lead title in the X-Wing computer game series. It simulates the experience of combat in the A-wing, X-wing, and Y-wing starfighters of the Rebel Alliance...
, Ultima Underworld and Doom.
By 1995, under the editorship of John Davison, the magazine had adopted a tone which heavily referenced the lad culture
Lad culture
Lad culture is a subculture commonly associated with Britpop music of the 1990s."The image of the 'lad' or 'new lad' arose in the early 1990s as a generally middle-class figure espousing attitudes conventionally attributed to the working classes"...
that had been made fashionable by magazines such as FHM
FHM
FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...
and Dennis Publishing stablemate Maxim
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
. This period was marked by several moderately controversial episodes, including the accidental inclusion of a pornographic Doom modification on a covermounted CD-ROM, an article about the infamously bug-ridden Frontier 2: First Encounters
First Encounters
Frontier: First Encounters is a computer video game for the IBM PC released on April 16, 1995. It is the sequel to Frontier: Elite II released in 1993, which itself is a sequel to the Elite series of games which debuted on the Acorn BBC Micro computer in 1984...
illustrated 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 contributor Charlie Brooker
Charlie Brooker
Charlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism...
, graphically depicting animal cruelty (originally intended as a comment on the violence against animals frequently portrayed in the Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
games) which resulted in the offending issue being withdrawn from W H Smith
W H Smith
WHSmith plc is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. It is best known for its chain of high street, railway station, airport, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, and entertainment products...
newsagents.
Towards the end of the decade, during the editorship of 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 for Black & White
Black & White (computer game)
Black & White is a 2001 video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts and Feral Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh. A god game, it includes elements of artificial life, strategy, and fighting games....
, Unreal II and 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 Publishing and the editorship to Jamie Sefton.
DVD Zone
Each issue of PC zone comes complete with a DVD-ROM containing game demos, videos, mods, drivers, freeware software and patches among other things. The DVD Zone sleeve occasionally has unique codes which may give readers access to game betas, trials, and in-game content, among other things. The most recent giveaway is a full set of in-game Clothes for The Nationals fraction in Battlefield Heroes named as Thor's Turbojet which is available over 4 months.Current format
The current format of PC Zone was introduced in October 2005 for issue #159. The magazine now costs £5.99 and includes several regular features including Supertest, where reviewers discuss which game is best in its genre (now audio only); Steve Hill's NeverQuest, which follows the often unsuccessful attempts of Hill's venture into MMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s; Developer's Commentary, in which developers look 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 are listed, divided into 9 genres. The Buyer's Guide 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.
At present (issue #220) the leaders in each genre are:
- Shooters: Half-Life 2Half-Life 2Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
(inc. Episodes) : 97% / 91% / 82% - Strategy: Empire: Total WarEmpire: Total WarEmpire: Total War is a turn-based strategy and real-time tactics computer game developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega. The fifth instalment in the Total War series, the game was released in North America on 3 March 2009, and in the rest of the world the following day...
: 94% - Action/Adventure: Grand Theft Auto IVGrand Theft Auto IVGrand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by British games developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system...
: 91% - MMOMassively multiplayer online gameA massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
s: World of WarcraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
: 95% - Sport: Football Manager 2010Football Manager 2010Football Manager 2010 is a football manager simulation video game. It was released on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and PlayStation Portable on 30 October 2009. It is also available for digital download on Steam and iOS...
: 88% - Simulation: X3: Reunion : 92%
- RPGs: The Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a single-player action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games...
: 95% - Driving/Racing: GTR 2 : 92%
- Oddball: SporeSpore (2008 video game)Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
: 95%
The oldest game in the Buyer's Guide is Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
, reviewed issue #93 and given 94%.
Review system
PC Zone prides itself on its reviews scoring system, which is based on the idea that 50% is an average grade. As a result, many publishers accuse the magazine of being too harsh. Games that score 75-89% are given a Recommended Award; games that score 90% or more are given a Classic Award. Very few games, perhaps only ten a year, receive the latter distinction. Games scoring under 20% are given the PC Zone Dump award (Previously the PC Zone Pants).As a combined result of its honest scoring system and its age, PC Zone manages to acquire many UK and world print exclusives in terms of news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, preview
PREview
PREview is a requirements method which focuses on the early stage of Requirements Engineering: discovering and documenting requirements. PREview uses a Viewpoint-Oriented Approach to enable the conversion of top-level goals into requirements and constraints...
s and review
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, a product or a service, such as a movie , video game, musical composition , book ; a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer; or an event or performance, such as a live music concert, a play, musical theater show or dance show...
s. PC Zone contained world exclusive previews for Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
, Doom 3
Doom 3
Doom 3 is a science fiction horror video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. An example of the first-person shooter genre, Doom 3 was first released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004. The game was later adapted for Linux, as well as being ported by Aspyr Media for Mac...
, and Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
, the first of which achieved an almost-unprecedented record score of 97%, a ranking it shares with three other games: Quake II
Quake II
Quake II, released on December 9, 1997, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Id Software and distributed by Activision. It is not a sequel to Quake; it merely uses the name of the former game due to Id's difficulties in coming up with alternative names.The soundtrack for Quake II...
, Alone in the Dark 2
Alone in the Dark 2
Alone in the Dark 2 is the 1993 sequel to 1992's survival horror video game Alone in the Dark created by Infogrames. The game is the second installment in the series...
and the relatively unknown flight simulator EF2000. Only one game has ever received the lowest score of 0%, which was the multimedia package Newsweek 3 Globocop, given the biting summary, "The most expensive beer mat in the world." The reviewer of this package also commented that everyone involved with the project should be "boiled alive like lobsters".
The lowest scoring game ever in the Budget section was Simon the Sorcerer 3D, which garnered the impressive score of 3%, "one point for each of its worthless dimensions."
Staff
- Staff Writer: David Brown
- Hardware Editor: Phil Wand
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. Staff Writer David Brown organises the Freeplay section of the publication, which features mods
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
and freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
titles.
Philip Wand
Philip Wand
Philip Wand , known to his readership as Wandy, is an English computer hardware journalist and technical advice columnist.Wand was originally a developer of IP networking tools for Windows...
heads the hardware section and Dear Wandy, a monthly section featuring technical questions from readers (which started out as Dear Wazza under Warren Christmas). There are discussion forums on the official PC Zone website, as well as on Philip Wand's own Dear Wandy site. There, members can request technical assistance and discuss gaming in general.
Pavel Barter contributes a regular investigative feature titled Special Report, which focuses on various aspects of the games industry at large, as well as notable gaming figures and the specifics of the development process.
Dan Marshall contributed a regular column titled How to Make a Game which detailed the development of his first game, Gibbage
Gibbage
Gibbage is a fighting game developed by Zombie Cow Studios. It was released on April 25, 2006.- Gameplay :Two characters spawn, one belonging to each player, called clones. Clones spawn from what is known as the power booth. Each power booth has a power level which drains perpetually...
. Gibbage then received the "Indiezone Game of the Month" award with 71% when it was reviewed. Marshall now writes freelance reviews for the magazine.
Other regular freelance writers include Jon 'Log' Blyth, Ed Zitron, Steve Hill, Martin Korda, Rhianna Pratchett
Rhianna Pratchett
Rhianna Pratchett is a freelance computer games scriptwriter, narrative designer and former journalist...
, Richie Shoemaker and Paul Presley.
TV presenter and newspaper contributor Charlie Brooker was also a regular during the 1990s, reviewing games, and contributing humorous pieces such as "Sick Notes" and the "Cybertwats".