PCGamer’s editorial staff would probably say that their big strength is their ability to grab exclusives. For me, the big strength is their columns. They have genre specialists writing every month, including Desslock on RPGs and Andy Mahood on simulations. I’m hard pressed to think of two better people for those particular genres. (Games For Windows has columns, too, but some of them are too short for a point to be completed. That magazine’s strength vis-a-vis PCGamer is its willingness to still run feature stories or extended interviews.)

This month’s PCGamer marks the end of Steve Klett’s term as strategy columnist. He apparently has better things to do and Dan Stapleton will take over the column for August. Given Stapleton’s leanings, I suspect that this means a continuing emphasis on mainstream real time strategy games. As useful as Klett’s insights could sometimes be, I would have preferred he walk off the straight and narrow path of familiarity from time to time.

So good luck, Dan and I hope you can keep me reading.

(By the way, the July PCGamer also has Brett Todd’s initial column on the mod community, turf he covered for CGM in recent years.)