Our community manager, Stevie Ward, went through PC Gamer’s print collection and asked what he thought was the magazine’s best cover ever. “What I have to say is that it actually tends to be a game I don’t play,” Stevie said. She kindly linked to the following gallery: recent issues (opens in new tab)and you can see our sweeties too Subscribers cover us on Twitter (opens in new tab)which presents a nonsensical version of the magazine and sheds light on the text.
What’s your favorite PC Gamer magazine cover?
Here is our answer. forum.
Global Editor-in-Chief Evan Lahti said: I don’t have much affection for Duke, but the November 1997 issue of Come Get Some! that are related to I like the fancy feature opener in the image below. I still remember the individual box-outs and ads from this issue.The way to a man’s heart is through the sternum (opens in new tab)A Half-Life ad that has nothing to do with the game.
This was a peak page-count moment in PC gamer history (in this case, 448 brick-like pages), and this issue remains a time capsule from an interesting moment in PC gaming history. But before EverQuest and Unreal Tournament, a moment when everyone was excited about the possibilities of online games, it was also a time when imagination outstripped what was playable.
Robin Valentine, Print Editor: Instead of just picking one of my covers, I’m going to cheat and pick a split run. I wrapped up the “Escape Your World” issue at a point when lockdown was really exhausting us all. At a time when it was not possible to travel or travel, we embraced the escapism inherent in gaming.
It took a lot of work to find a way to visualize it. Usually we always try to avoid designs that don’t have a strong central figure, but in this case we wanted to focus on the landscape itself. And to make our lives as difficult as possible, we also decided to have a split run showing off these four different worlds.
Big credit goes to our art editor, John Strike, for doing this design work. Seeing these again feels like a bit of a sleight of hand. It’s nice to be able to look back on something from a pretty miserable point in the pandemic and be proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Now, if no one else picks up an issue I edit, I’m not going to talk to you again.
Senior Hardware Editor Jacob Ridley: Going through my library of past PC gamer covers brings back many memories of my childhood reading gaming magazines in the school playground.
That said, I actually have to pick the December 2020 issue (#350) as my favorite. I have it framed and on the wall of my house. Younger I think I’m pretty proud of that.
Molly Taylor, News Writer: The May 2021 issue is the first issue I’ll be writing about, so I’m not very good at it. It’s also the issue with Genshin Impact featured on the cover. He’s probably one of the fewest PC gamer covers I’ve ever seen. As a lover of anime and Genshin Impact, teeth very molly.
The team is also constantly arguing over the cover of Planet Zoo. I’m sure this will come up in someone’s answer. It’s another one that’s super cool and a little less branded. A cover that totally subverts the stereotypical PC gamer aesthetic I’m here for.
Phil Savage, Editor-in-Chief, UK: Issue 310 was my first full issue as editor of the magazine. In other words, it was the first issue to decide which games would grace the cover. I wanted to use this magazine as a vehicle to celebrate the breadth of his PC as a platform, so I took a chance. My first cover game was going to be a mod.
The problem with mods is that you can’t always use sophisticated concept art. Luckily, Black Mesa was a remake of Half-Life, the game with the most famous iconography in PC gaming. Our art his editor John Strike, the secret hero of PC Gamer magazine, has created a beautiful textured background. The physical copy is more vivid than when you see it on screen.
We combined our Black Mesa feature with a large, multi-part Half-Life 2 retrospective to mark the issue’s publication on the 10th anniversary of Episode 2. This is one of the best problems I’ve worked on.
Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor: You should go with Game Gods November 2000. show. I was about five years old when this issue was published. I don’t know if this got into my hands through his brother. I see it here and there on Twitter and am always grinning.
This is a delightful piece of work at the turn of the millennium, from the costumes on display to the titular “game gods” themselves and the projects they worked on. A perfect sample, not necessarily in terms of quality in Daikatana’s case, but definitely vibes. The entire cover represents an era of PC gaming that I haven’t really experienced, but it largely conveys my tastes to this day.
Morgan Park, Staff Writer: I wasn’t a magazine reader growing up, but I knew that if I looked for magazines older than myself, I would find a winner.
Nothing beats a cover that enthusiastically tells readers, “GET HIGH!” Before I introduce the flight sim review. The red airplane against the blue sea is impressive and seems to distract from the awkward text “It’s showtime” on top of the waving American flag. Not to mention the dangers of the demo discs included here. An early slice of Full Throttle and Mortal Kombat 2?
Andy Chalk, NA News Lead: In April 2009, the 186th US edition of PC Gamer featured FEAR 2: Project Origin, highlighting the large, stark image of the strangely charming (and completely undressed) Alma. I’m here. This isn’t what you would call an accurate representation of the character, but someone has decided that this insane, murderous, and absolutely terrifying woman, the embodiment of supernatural terror. hot. For real hot. Moreover, she is completely naked. And use lines like “Alma wants to die for you” and “All will be revealed in our final verdict!”
I mean, what were they thinking here? FEAR 2 is a very different kind of shooter than its predecessor (and it’s not nearly the same league), but it’s like, ‘Oh baby, It’s time for sexy Alma!“It’s such a strange choice. You can’t help but be intrigued. Or maybe the cryptic word is more appropriate. Either way, it’s hell’s cover.
Oh, by the way, Metacritic says they “exposed” FEAR 2 as a 72% shooter. I’d say it’s pretty spot on.
Stevie Ward, Community Manager: It’s amazing how the covers really capture the time of the game… Going back to the archives you can really get a sense of what it felt like at times. It kickstarts a mountain of memories of events and releases from that time.
It’s like… an old family photo, but for gamers… does it make sense?
I’m biased too, but since I was the community manager for this, I always feel:
Main: I am envious that there is still room left to store the PCG Magazine collection. Back in the ’90s, I kept all my monthly copies (and they had many more pages), as well as copies of Computer Gaming World and Computer Games & Strategy Plus. But eventually, somewhere in the mid-2010s, I ran out of space to store them (I think). So I took them all to the local Salvation Army store (I actually had them at the time).
I can’t remember the image your link (opens in new tab), it has to be the June 2011 issue, with Commander Shepard on the cover of Mass Effect 3. I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours playing ME games over the years and was super excited for ME3. There have been many PCG articles since then due to its controversial ending, but it was still a great game.
Frindis: To use James Pond’s terminology, I water-sealed some prints and stored them in a safe place. Diablo 2, Quake, and System Shock 2 are my favorite editions. why? Not because of the game, but because it was part of the magazine I read every time I took the train from my hometown to Oslo, the Norwegian capital. It took about two hours, which was plenty of time to read the entire magazine, not to mention a return ticket to get excited about playing the demo disc.
Volley: I bought my first PC Gamer magazine on the June 1996 cover and it’s still my favorite.
Munot: This is literally the same or at least very similar to what I had in mind. At the time, I played a lot of his X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and was playing his Knight of the Jedi in multiplayer a few weeks ago in 2022.
Brian Boll: The most iconic of them is definitely 2011-09.
The rest is mostly forgotten in similar clumps of covers in newsagent magazine racks. This is because it seems to be an overwhelming design choice for magazines of all kinds.
Honorable mentions: 2011-03 Total War Shogun 2, 2017-11 Half Life, 2013-09 The Indie issue, 2018-10 Metro Exodus, 2012-12 The Future of Minecraft, 2018-05 Jurassic World.
Media man: As a 90’s gamer, I love the early issues.
