PC Zone
PC Zone (founded in 1993) was the first magazine dedicated to IBM compatible computer games to be published in the United Kingdom. It was published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. until 2004, when it was acquired by Future Publishing along with Computer And Video Games magazine for £2.5m.
The magazine prides itself on its reviews scoring system: it is based on the idea that 50 per cent is an average score. As a result, many games publishers accuse the scoring system of being too harsh. Games that score 75 to 89 per cent are awarded an "Essential Award"; games that score 90 per cent or over are awarded a "Classic Award". Very few games, perhaps only ten a year, receive this distinction. Games scoring under 20 per cent used to be awarded the "PC Zone Pants" award; however, this is no longer awarded. They are now awarded the "PC Zone Dump" award instead.
As a combined result of its honest scoring system and its age, PC Zone manages to acquire many world exclusives and UK exclusives — in terms of news, previews and reviews. PC Zone contained world exclusive previews for both Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, the former achieving an almost-unprecedented record score of 97 percent, a score it shares with three other games — Quake II, Alone in the Dark 2 and a relatively unknown flight sim called EF2000. There is a handful of games that received the lowest score of 0 percent — one of which was a multimedia package called Newsweek 3 Globocop, which was given the biting summary, "The most expensive beer mat in the world."
Regular features include Supertest, where the reviewers discuss which game is best in its genre (now Audio only); Reality Check, in which Steve Hill determines the difference between a real-life activity and its virtual counterpart; a back page column in which Dominic Diamond - a not-quite-respected broadcaster and journalist, tries to add spurious sexual refernces to his articles; Steve Hill's NeverQuest, which follows the humorous and often unsuccessful attempts of Hill's venture into an MMORPG; and a "Buyers Guide", in which top games are listed, divided into 9 genres. At present (issue #163) the leaders in each genre are:
- Shooters: Half-Life 2
- Strategy: Rome: Total War
- Action/Adventure: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
- MMORPGs: EverQuest II
- Sport: Pro Evolution Soccer 5
- Simulation: X3: Reunion
- RPGs: Knights of the Old Republic
- Driving/Racing games: GT Legends
- God games: The Movies
The oldest game in the Buyers Guide is Planescape Torment, reviewed issue #86.
The current editor for PC Zone is Jamie Sefton and the current news editor and chief tea-boy is Will Porter. Current reviewers include Steve 'Neverquest' Hill, Anthony Holden, Will Porter, Paul Presley, Suzy Wallace and some monkey-like creature that escaped from Ireland (only to get evicted from his new flat once he arrived); persistent freelance reviewers include Martin Korda, Rhianna Pratchett, Michael Filby (he loves the cock. hard.) and Sam Kieldsen. Philip 'Wandy' Wand - who is well known for being a hyper-intelligent, cynical, grammar obsessed, disembodied brain in a jar - heads the hardware section.
Although there are discussion forums on the official PC Zone website, many of the magazine readers instead post at the 'Dear Wandy' website. There, members can request technical assistance and discuss computer gaming, with Wandy looking down upon them contemptuously.
The precursor to PC Zone is the award-winning multiformat magazine Zero.