The End is Nigh – for PCZONE

It has recently been reported that, sadly, after 17 years and some 255 issues, the magazine PCZONE has finally come to an end. A few of us at the UCHG hold the mag dear to our hearts – and Fen takes a look back at it over the years.

As a long-time reader and subscriber, I’ve been reading PCZONE for many years now – the first issue I can find in my collection is #83, from December 1999; and features reviews of such epic games as The Nomad Soul, Prince of Persia 3D (wow!) and an exciting preview of Half-Life: Opposing Force.

The first magazine to be dedicated purely to gaming on the PC, it is probably largely responsible for getting me into gaming in the first place – and it has always done so with as much humour as it has with great reviews and content. Always blessed with a great staff of writers, PCZONE’s articles have never failed to entertain as well as inform – during the period I started reading the mag, Charlie Brooker was one of its reviewers, and was personally responsible for getting it pulled from shelves in the notorious case of “Helmut Werstler’s Cruelty Zoo” which featured photoshopped pics of children brutally killing animals in a tribute to, uh, Tomb Raider.

I loved the vein of silliness that ran throughout PCZONE too – from stupid captions on pictures, mock-up imaginary games on the backpages (like The Fresh Prince of Persia, starring Will Smith), to the constant use of Steve Hill’s head to cover women’s boobs. Awesome.

The hardware advice was always spot-on too – for years, I based my own purchases on the recommendations on those pages, and the tips taught me that building my own PC was easy, more cost-effective and much more satisfying than a pre-built one could ever be.

Of course, it was the reviews that were the best thing about PCZONE – even when games were already out, it was always worth waiting to see what the verdict was. They were pretty much consistently an honest and reliable source: if a game was over 70%, it would be good; if it was over 80%, it was great – and over 90% meant that regardless of the genre, it really was a Classic and not to be missed; and not many games got to that status. A few blips were in there of course – like Unreal II – but it was almost completely accurate.

I will always have a soft spot for PCZONE – I can hardly think of any game of note without thinking of their review at the time; over the years, the mag has been with me through such gaming milestones as Deus Ex, GTA, Half Life 1 and 2, Far Cry, and, uh, Daikatana.

I’ve had an offer to transfer my subscription over to PC Gamer. I will not be renewing. I’ll be very sad to see it go; though arguably it’s been inevitable since changes in publisher and so many different editors.

However, maybe there’s hope – PC gaming is certainly not going anywhere, just ask the UCHG – and so maybe one day we’ll see a return of the gaming monolith that is PCZONE. Maybe I’ll leave you with one of my earliest memories of the mag – Charlie Brooker’s prank call to Activision about the original Quake…