PC Zone (founded in 1993) 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 covered games as part of a wider remit.) Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Most circulated periodical magazines in the U.S. as of 2003. ... Future Publishing (FTSE:FUTR) is a magazine publishing company based in Bath, UK. Future Publishing employs more than 1,500 people worldwide, and is one of the largest publishing houses in the UK. It is responsible for publishing over 150 magazines, in the UK, US, France and Italy. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... “Computer and video games” redirects here. ... PC Format is a computer magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and licensed to other publishers in countries around the world. ... PC Plus is a British computer magazine. ...

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. Dennis Logo Dennis Publishing Ltd. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Future Publishing (FTSE:FUTR) is a magazine publishing company based in Bath, UK. Future Publishing employs more than 1,500 people worldwide, and is one of the largest publishing houses in the UK. It is responsible for publishing over 150 magazines, in the UK, US, France and Italy. ... This article is about a British magazine covering computer and video games. ...

The precursor to PC Zone is the award-winning multiformat title Zero. Cover of Zero from 1991 Zero was a video game magazine in the UK covering home gaming during the late 1980s and early 1990s. ...

First issue

PC Zone was first published in April 1993 and cost £1.95. 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. 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that comprises a circular piece of thin, flexible (hence floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. ...

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 comprised of an article written about a specific area of gaming interest, such as gaming audio. A number of computer games based on Frank Herberts science fiction novel Dune were created: Dune The Sega Mega CD version of Dune featured various extras. ... Lemmings 2: The Tribes is a computer game released in 1993, as the first real sequel to the popular puzzle game Lemmings. ... A screenshot from the Stunt Island intro movie, a movie itself created using Stunt Island Stunt Island is a computer game designed by Adrian Stephens and was published by Disney Interactive in 1992. ...

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 II, X-Wing, Ultima Underworld and Doom. Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters (officially II, often written as 2) was written by Toys for Bob (Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for PC; it was later ported to the 3DO with an enhanced multimedia presentation, allowed by the CD... X-wing fighters on their way into battle in a still from Star Wars. ... Ultima Underworld is a series of two computer role playing games published by Origin Systems in the early 1990s. ... Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre. ...

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. Lad culture also Laddish culture is a subculture commonly associated with Britpop music of the 1990s and the BBC TV sitcom, Men Behaving Badly. ... The cover of an issue of FHM China, featuring Britney Spears, wearing a bathing suit & necktie The cover of the first issue of FHM in the United States, featuring Rachael Leigh Cook FHM is an international monthly lads mag. ... Maxim is an international English language lad mag (mens magazine) based in the United Kingdom and known for its revealing pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, of which none are nudes. ... Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre. ... Frontier: Elite 2 is a computer game written by David Braben and published by Gametek. ... Charlie (Charlton) Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is a British comedy writer, cartoonist, reviewer and television presenter. ... For the movie staring Angelina Jolie, see Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

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. Black & White redirects here. ... Unreal II: The Awakening is a first-person shooter computer game, designed initially only for a single-player campaign. ...

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.

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 MMORPGs; 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 more refined with each redesign. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in October 28: Richard Smalley 26: Emil Kyulev 24: José Azcona del Hoyo 24: Rosa Parks 23: Stella Obasanjo 22: Liam Lawlor 22: Shirley Horn 20: Endon Mahmood 17: Ba Jin 10: Milton Obote 7: Charles... World of Warcraft. ...

At present (issue #178) the leaders in each genre are:

• Shooters: Half-Life 2 : 97%
• Strategy: Company of Heroes : 93%
• Action/Adventure: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne : 93%
• MMOs: World of Warcraft : 95%
• Sport: Football Manager 2007 : 90%
• Simulation: X3: Reunion : 92%
• RPGs: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : 95%
• Driving/Racing games: GTR 2 : 92%
• God games: The Movies : 95%

The oldest game in the Buyer's Guide is Deus Ex, reviewed issue #93 and given 94%. Half-Life 2 (HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Company of Heroes (CoH) is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game developed for Microsoft Windows by Relic Entertainment. ... Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a third-person shooter developed by Remedy Entertainment for the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 systems. ... “MMO” redirects here. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... Football Manager 2007 (sold in the United States and Canada as Worldwide Soccer Manager 2007) is the latest game in the Football Manager series of football management simulation games by Sports Interactive, published by SEGA. It was released for the PC, Mac, Apple-Intel on 18th October with Xbox 360... This article is about traditional role-playing games. ... The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a game currently under development by Bethesda Softworks for the PC, Xbox 2, and Playstation 3. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... The Movies is a simulation game created by Lionhead Studios for Microsoft Windows and subsequently ported to Apple Mac OS X by Feral Interactive. ... This article is about the video game. ...

Review system

PC Zone prides itself on its reviews scoring system, which is based on the idea that 50% is an average grade (although the actual average is probably closer to 60%). As a result, many publishers accuse the magazine of being too harsh. Games that score 75-89% are given an 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% used to be given the PC Zone Pants award, but they are now given the PC Zone Dump award instead.

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, 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%, a ranking it shares with three other games: Quake II, Alone in the Dark 2 and the relatively unknown flight simulator EF2000. There are a handful of games that have received the lowest score of 0%, one of which is a multimedia package Newsweek 3 Globocop, which was 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". For other uses, see News (disambiguation). ... In computing, a preview may be where output of a particular document, page, film, etc. ... Look up Review in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Half-Life 2 (HL2) is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game that is the sequel to Half-Life. ... Doom 3 is a science fiction horror first-person shooter computer game. ... Quake II, released on December 6, 1997, is a first person shooter computer game developed by id Software and distributed by Activision. ... Alone in the Dark 2 is the 1994 sequel to 1992s survival horror video game Alone in the Dark created by Infogrames. ... EF2000 is a video game of the combat flight simulation genre released in December 1995 for DOS on the IBM PC compatible personal computer. ...

Staff

The current editor is Jamie Sefton, who replaced Dave Woods after the magazine's redesign at the end of 2005. The current deputy editor and news editor is Will Porter, and the current reviews editor and disc editor is Suzy Wallace.

Staff writers include Jon "Log" Blyth and Steve Hogarty, who also organises the Freeplay section of the publication.

Regular freelance reviewers include Steve 'Neverquest' Hill, Martin Korda, Rhianna Pratchett, Richie Shoemaker, Ed Zitron and, after a prolonged absence, Paul Presley.

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. Philip Wand (born December 3, 1969, in Chelmsford), known to his readership as Wandy, is a British computer hardware journalist and technical advice columnist. ...

Dan Marshall had a 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. Gibbage is an independent computer game written by Dan Marshall involving fast-paced combat between two players. ...

External links

• PC Zone Website
• Dear Wandy Website