how do you guys feel about pc gamer?

it has personally inspired me to buy two games, one from gog so far. and i've only read two issues! iwant a subscription!

I used to subscribe but the magazine got less and less interesting. For a while there it focused almost solely on MMOs and Blizzard in particular, and it's reviews went pretty downhill ("Dragon Age 2 has the best RPG combat ever").

Maybe they have improved the last couple years, I don't know.

I use to read it all the time when I was with B&N getting free copies and I loved it, but not so much for the reviews as the demo disc and the articles about "best of" and "greatest genre" type stuff. First demo disc I ever got from one had the original Commandos on it. I played it for five minutes, jumped in the car, bought a full copy and I've been a happy boy ever since.

I used to read Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer, and the greatest PC gaming magazine ever made, PC Accelerator. I had every issue of PC Accelerator but lost them all when I moved. I bought very few games back in the day so almost all my PC gaming knowledge came from those magazines, and those demo discs that came with them. So when I did buy games it was based on demos, or reviews of games, like X-Com: UFO Defense.

I was a subscriber during the Nineties, but as has been previously mentioned, it seemed to turn into a Blizzard shrine and became more focused on MMOs. I let my sub expire and haven't picked one up since.

I should honestly pick one up though and see if it's improved.

I read it online. Can't find it here in Bulgaria plus all gaming related magazines in here are not so good. There was one that I liked PC Mania but now they are all online. It was with their demo cds that got me into gaming :D back on topic: I just read it to inform myself with some gaming news and I know it probably is not the best source but it works for now.

These magazines are mostly old relics of the past, when they were actually an important part of the dedicated gamer. Today, you don't really need one review site, you can just go read the ones that appeal to you and you can easily get second, third and the "humorous" opinion at the same time.

Before the advent of the social internet (you know what I mean) I read these kind of magazines a lot, but today I just don't see the point, unless they are a whole packaged literature, not just some bland and forced opinion with a number or stars at the end.

I used to sub to it, but as I became more involved with consoles (just used PC for MMO's), it became less relevant to me, but it was the only mag I ever subscribed to, i thought it was that good.

It was the only decent way to get patches and demos back then as well for me.

I always preferred Pelit, it was a far superior gaming magazine, honest too. And the articles being in Finnish was also a definite plus.

I started to lose interest though when they shifted more and more to reviewing console games, and IIRC even cellular phone games (note: I didn't say "smartphone games", but even simpler games for Symbian feature phones etc.).

http://www.pelit.fi/

Used to subscribe to PC Gamer and then discovered PC Powerplay (Australian mag) when I returned to New Zealand and have been getting that ever since.

PC Gamer is still a worthy read though.

It clued me in to gOg, so it's been good for me and bad for you poor slobs stuck reading my posts.

Seems like there are less and less reviews and more (sometimes) fawning coverage of stuff that isn't out yet. Though I'll note that they sometimes point out flaws they find in those early exclusive peeks.

I prefer the old CGW, and especially enjoyed the Tom vs Bruce feature.

What? There are still gaming magazines made of paper? By the time an issue is made, printed and shipped to retailers, any news contained in it has become old. I remember, back in the early 1990s, people used to send letters to the magazine with questions on how to solve specific puzzles in adventure games or how to beat difficult bosses. Today there are walkthroughs and FAQs all over the net. Now with video reviews, it's even more convenient – you can get a glimpse of what a game feels like.

i don't like sitting in front of a computer reading articles nearly as much as thumbing through some pages, plus i enjoy the images more on mag's!
i read some of your link, and it says the US pcgamer's subscribers are 97% male! jeez!

from here we could certainly derail the topic to a male dominated hobby topic about how video game players are almost all male! as the OP, i hereby grant anyone permission to go there if they feel like it.

its a pita tryng to fit my PC into the toilet when I want a crap and as regards wiping my ass afterwards, a PC is just useless. :)