the magazine made this completely impractical it was pared down to just the best from each genre, becoming shorter with each redesign. As of issue #220, the leaders in each genre are: Shooters: Half-Life 2 (inc. Episodes) : 97% / 91% / 82% Strategy: Empire: Total War : 94% Action/Adventure: Grand Theft Auto IV : 91% MMOs: World of Warcraft : 95% Sport: Football Manager 2010 : 88% Simulation: X3: Reunion : 92% RPGs: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion : 95% Driving/Racing: GTR 2 : 92% Oddball: Spore : 95% The oldest game in the Buyer's Guide was Deus Ex, reviewed issue #93 and given 94%. Review system PC Zone prided itself on its reviews scoring system, which was based on the idea that 50% was an average grade. As a result, many publishers accused the magazine of being too harsh. Games that scored 75-89% were given a Recommended Award; games that scored 90% or more were given a Classic Award. Very few games, perhaps only ten a year, received the latter distinction. Games scoring under 20% were given the PC Zone Dump award (Previously the PC Zone Pants). As a combined result of its honest scoring system and its age, PC Zone managed to acquire many UK and world print exclusives in terms of news, previews and reviews. PC Zone contained world exclusive previews for Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and Deus Ex, the first of which achieved a near-record score of 97%, a ranking it shared with three other games: Quake II, Alone in the Dark 2 and the relatively unknown flight simulator EF2000. The lowest scoring game ever was The Compelling Adventures of A.Gent, which garnered a score of 2%, as they stated it had "...gone straight to budget because there's no way it could live as a full-priced game." The lowest scoring non-game release was Page 3 Calendar & Screensaver, which managed to score in the negatives at -10%. Staff The last editor was Steve Hogarty, who left in July 2010, and was not replaced. He took over from Ali Wood, who left in December 2009. Previous editor Will Porter replaced Jamie Sefton in March 2008, who in turn was the replacement for Dave Woods after the magazine's redesign at the end of 2005. Steve Spence edited the hardware section until it was taken over by Philip Wand (who also wrote Dear Wandy, a monthly section featuring