personally, id rather just frequent forums like cgtalk. its free, many notable 3D professionals hang out there, you can actually interact with the artists, theres much more content, and there are plenty of tutorials which you can even ask questions on.

as for getting free software.. ehh, perhaps youll get something you can use.. but you could just put aside the $10/issue youd be spending anyways and get the software you want instead.

sure, i could get an older version of worldbuilder or carrera from a subscription... but i could also just put the $120 id be spending a year and spend it on an unrestricted newer version or something i use every day like Silo and have enough left over to see a movie with rio.

if there really is a free bit of software in an issue that you want, you can always just buy that specific issue off the newsstands.

again this is just my opinion -- im a frugal bastard and i literally cringed in my seat when i heard the $10/issue price, heh. my god, when the can-us exchange rate was 1.6-1 it would have been $16 an issue. for a magazine? rolls eyes