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Designed for the rabid PC hobbyist, Maximum PC brings tons of news and reviews written in an irreverent, edgy style. Full disclosure is the modus operandi here, and there's an almost overwhelming amount of tech specs and features for each product that's discussed, tweaked, stretched, shaken, and stirred.

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Maximum PC Magazine is the ultimate upgrade for savvy PC owners. Written for the home PC user, Maximum PC is packed with breaking news, interviews with industry leaders, tips and techniques, in-depth reviews, and more.

Visit Maximum PC Magazine, April 2008 Download Page

In the April 2008 issue, you can find:

    * How To Build Your Own No-Compromises $1,500 PC
    * The 2008 Geek Quiz
    * Media Suite Face-off: Roxio vs. Nero
    * How To: Sync Your Online and Offline Calendars
    * 14 Awesome Product Reviews!
    * Ask the Doctor
    * Rig of the Month
    * The Watchdog
    * And a whole lot more!

Download Maximum PC Magazine, April 2008

PDF format, 5.3MB, 53Pages.

ED WORD:
My Name Is Will and I Have an X Problem

Over the years, I’ve made some startling confessions in this column—the words “I love OS X” earned me a few hate letters. But now it’s time to brace yourself for my most startling confession yet: I’m addicted to 4X games, the classic turn-based universe-domination titles in which you eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. This genre was last popular sometime around (gulp) 1993.

When I’m picking out a title at my local game shop, I don’t beeline for the 4X section, pining for better days. In fact, if you were to place a copy of Call of Duty and the latest empire builder side by side, I’d reach for the shooter because I know it will be more fun. But if you somehow tempt, coax, or coerce me into playing a good 4X game—from Master of Orion to Galactic Civilization—I’m in big trouble. This is when I start showing all the signs of addiction. A quick one-hour game invariably turns into a marathon session. I build my meager empire, one solar system at a time, subsuming alien cultures weaker than mine—using overwhelming force if necessary. A negotiation here, a smallscale war there, and pretty soon it’s 4 a.m., and I’m wondering who drank all the Red Bull.

And that’s when I decide I’m going to take just one more turn. Or maybe two.

Then it snowballs even further. I zombie through days at work and spend sleepless nights plotting my next move against the almighty Prophet Zarquon, who runs a three-planet hegemony that’s the next stop for the United Federation of Will’s Flotilla of Love, Happiness, and an Array of Interplanetary Railguns On the Off Chance that Love and Happiness Don’t Get the Job Done.

So that’s my addiction, and it’s particularly topical thanks to a new game called Sins of a Solar Empire, which is going to do for the 4X genre what Dune 2 and C&C did for strategy games. By ditching turn-based gameplay for a real-time design, Sins retains the compelling depth and complexity of the 4X genre while removing the things that irked me, like waiting for your opponent to plan his turn.

In return, you get glorious space battles in which tactics, politics, and economy all matter. In short, it’s a game that I sit down to play and don’t look away from for at least four hours.

Sins is by no means perfect. It’s essentially multiplayer only, with no campaign to gradually introduce you to very complex gameplay. While this is a problem, the fundamental game design is so brilliant that strategy fans shouldn’t overlook Sins. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

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