Just wanted to comment on this.

"Just look at all the PC game magazines that have died in the last two years: Voodoo, PC Games, PC Accelerator, and Incite PC Games."

Ok. Maybe it's just me, but did you ever read PCXL or Incite? I tried to read a couple issues of both and while there was some decent coverage in there, it was buried under a mountain of Maxim for Gamers.... sigh. Maybe it's just me, and I'm not easily offended and can take a joke like the best of them, but I was wondering how they were able to publish more than 1 issue of each of these mags.

And don't say they were just aiming at the adolescent market. If they didn't claim to be serious game mags, that would be ok. Ah... I don't know what else to say about them. I didn't shed any tears when they went under though.

Now, if CGW or PC Gamer go under, that will be scary. I used to love PC Gamer, but found they started to sacrifice indepth coverage & reviews for glitz... but they're still pretty good.

CGW still has the best print reviews and coverage in my opinion.

I'll shut up now...

Do you CGM? In my opinion, there are articles and reviews are much better than CGW or PCG. I read all three every month, but I look forward to CGM the most. PC Gamer used to be great, but I don't like their new direction. They're trying to incorporate too much of that Maxim style too. I love Maxim, but I don't need it in a gaming mag.

I thought some things in PCXL were amusing, but there were too many articles that weren't. Incite just never had a good idea of what they wanted to be. They wanted to appeal to casual gamers, yet they had the complicated reviews I've ever read.

I think PCXL's problem was that they aimed for a niche market, but that market wasn't big enough to support them. Incite just wasn't very good.

I read CGM and CGW. Honestly, though, I can find good coverage on the web, and a lot faster than I'll get it from a magazine. CGW, in particular, seems to have a tremendous lead-time for anything.

I really do like Jeff Greene's take on things, though. He seems like a "regular" gamer to me. No airs about the sanctity of gaming, no vaguely guilty (and toooft repeated, methinks) comments about the seperation of church and Sta...er, advertising and editorial. Just a guy trying to have a good time with games, and generally succeeding, except for when he has to review those all-too-frequent losers that find their way to the office. I may be wrong about that; it might just be his image.

So, yes, I buy the mag just for his insights. I used to buy it just for Johnny's. Reviews I can really get anywhere, and without shelling out any money.

I think Pc gamer is still good! In fact I just subscribed for another year. As for CGW, I thought they were good, but I like PC gamer much better. In my opinion they are both very similar and I don't need both magazines. As for incite, I got the very first issue and in the beginning I did like there direction but it got old quick. They rating system blew and they liked every damn game that came out! I rarely saw one bad review. They even liked dakienta (however you spell it)! As for PCXL, I thought some of the articles were funny but that to was getting old. So my two mags that I read are PC gamer and maximum pc (which rocks!). Question? Is imagine media going to discontinue maximum pc? I hope not!

"Is imagine media going to discontinue maximum pc? I hope not!"

Me, too! I just resubscribed for another year. You have to like a magazine that shows you how to build a compact linux box for your trunk so you can play MP3s in your car. If it goes under, are there any hardware tweaker magazines left?

Similar to kazz, a big reason I subscribe to the magazines for the columns. Purty pichers and columns.

I think Maximum PC is toast. I'm not 100% sure, but that's what I'm hearing.

PCXL was my favorite game magazine. I just enjoyed their different view on things. Most game magazines are written in the game manner as magazines I was reading 20 years ago. I'm not 11 years old anymore. Gaming isn't something that is "geewhiz nifty" and girls aren't going to give me cooties.

Hey mark I have a question. If maximum pc is toast, what is the chance that PC gamer could maybe pick up a couple of guys from maximum pc and maybe they could expand there hardware section. I think it would be a smart move because they could add more readers and then they could expand PC gamer a little bit. Greg Vederman does the hardware section, so there could be a problem there, but I think if Josh or Gordon from maximum pc contributed a couple of hardware articles then PC gamer could expand a little bit farther. What's your take on that idea?

I really don't know anything about PC Gamer and about how hardware news does in the mags. I don't read hardware news myself because it doesn't interest me unless I'm upgrading.

Imagine cut magazines and staff to cut their expenses. I doubt they will add to staff at the surviving magazines.