PC Format > Reviews (21)

I have to admit that I have a real soft spot for PCFormat magazine.

The first ever edition came out shortly after I started university on my first computing course (the current edition is its 10th anniversary edition), when floppy disks actually were er...floppy, and I’ve kind of grown up with it in the world of computing, helped on the way by the well written and genuinely useful articles and reviews in this magazine.

I’ve enjoyed it immensely from that first edition, even though it seems to be mellowing out just a little now since those younger, louder and brasher days - although that’s probably in response to a widening in the background of its readership, as back in the days it first came out the PC was pretty much exclusively geek territory.

PCFormat covers all issues related to PCs for the home user. Therefore you won’t have to wade through long dull articles on the newest network hubs or commentaries by bearded chaps on why the dot com bubble burst in order to find something of real interest.

If you use a PC at home then you, or someone in your family will find most of the articles useful.

Once upon a time, PCFormat was totally games-centric but over the years, as the capabilities of the PC grew and grew so has PCFormat’s focus and you’ll find reviews of printers, cameras, security software, articles on reclaiming deleted files, how-to sections on web and graphic design, tips on using MS Windows and an excellent (and often quite hilarious) help section where users problems are resolved by the rather acidic Luis Villazon (that’s his real name, apparently).

As an ex hard-core gamer I would never buy a game/joystick/video card for my PC until I had read the review of it in PCFormat, even if that meant waiting, because, to coin a much over-used phrase, they tell it like it is. Big reputations don’t seem to carry much weight at PCFormat, so if the software or hardware being reviewed is crap, they’ll say so. If it will blow your mind, they’ll say that as well. You’ll usually find the cover disks (CD or DVD versions) have demos of some of the software being reviewed (as well as full versions of useful software) so you can make up your own mind as well.

The magazine is put together by people who know their stuff, and more importantly, understand their readers; they worked out years before anyone else that people don’t just use their PC for spreadsheets but do a whole lot more, like play games, surf the Internet, publish web sites, print photos, do their homework on, upgrade with newer ‘bits’ like memory, graphics cards etc, and have been putting together a magazine which can cover all these things and in a way which won’t put off the inexperienced user, whilst also covering for their more ‘geeky‘ readership with e.g. articles on overclocking your motherboard. Although I think they went too far this month with a step-by-step guide on designing your own PC case!

So, if you use a PC at home, and as something more than an abacus, and want to be kept abreast of what’s good and what’s not so good for the PC then buy this magazine today!