The PDF is best viewed in Foxit Reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader.

But can be viewed in Adobe Acrobat Reader as well http://get.adobe.com/reader

Acrobat doesn’t seem to show some of the effects used in the design elements of C3DE magazine but it will open and display the layouts and text just fine if you prefer Acrobat.

To view the e-zine properly you’ll need to set your pdf viewer to display in facing page or “2 up” and to display the cover individually. Below are instructions incase you’re not sure how to do this.

Foxit Reader: In the menu go to “View” and then down to “Page Layout”. In the “Page layout” submenu, make sure that “Facing pages” and “Show cover page during facing” are checked.

Adobe Acrobat: In the menu go to “View” and then down to “Page Display”. In the “Page Display” submenu, make sure that “Two Up” and “Show cover page during Two Up” are checked. You can also choose to show or hide gaps between pages during “Two Up”.

 If you can't get realistic human renders out of Carrara you're not doing it right.
There are 4 things that will determine the level of realism;

The mesh
The textures
The lighting
The render settings

The only thing that may differ in any of those between Carrara and Lightwave would be the Render settings.

For any advanced shader techniques there are inexpensive plug-ins for Carrara like deeper and Shader Ops.
Other than that, it's all there.
You just need to know how to use it.

Carrara's biggest drawback is the lack of up to date tutorials and tutorials that go over anything but the basics.