5 comments about Eberron Campaign Setting (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. I run a D&D campaign set in Eberron, and of course this book is essential. It is very interesting, with a lot of good flavor material, and some decent additions to the rules (the new races are fun). One warning (this probably applies to all the Eberron source books): The backround information is very vague. Many things are hinted at, but rarely are they revealed in any detail. This is not neccesarily a bad thing. I like it because it releases me to invent whatever I want (without fear of contradiction by a player who has more time to study sourcebooks than me), and really make the setting my own. However, it is probably good to keep this in mind when you are considering buying this book.
   Eberron is not The Forgotten Realms. You will not find reams of material on every obscure location and character.
   The style of Eberron suits me very well, as it is quite conducive to plot oriented campaigns.
   
   As for the book itself, it is well made and sturdy. Not a lot of typos, the illustrations are pretty good, better than a lot of Wizards books, but still a little inconsistent.



2. This is a great setting. It's very easy to get involved in Eberron, and there is just enough to play in such a vast world. The new races are very attractive and fun, and the personality of the world is very interesting. Since I play Eberron, adventures just got more fun. Of course, you don't need this material to take your players through amazing locations, jungles filled with ancient secrets and mysterious enemy lands, but this book will surly put you up to it.



3. The Ebberon campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons game system brings players into a new world. This is no backwoods medieval period setting. This is technology married to magic, and twisting plots. this is a world where the "normal" rules no longer apply. I highly recomend this book for any Dungeons & Dragons fan who wants something truly new.



4. Ever since the setting was announced i hated it. I hated the idea of a "steampunk" type setting and i hated the idea that wizards would produce yet another campaign setting and split up there writers even further. I hated the fact there were new overpowered races like the warforged, shifters, and changelings and i hated that the warforged were sentient constructs. In fact i hated that whole idea for the setting.
   
   Then i bought it and read it. I can now honestly say "I love the Eberron setting." It is like nothing out there. It is new and original and isn't just the same ole greyhawk or forgetten realms. The lands are all interesting and the races are all fun to play. Yes they may be out of place and overpowered in some dnd games but they fit right in with the Eberron theme. It is not a steampunk setting like i thought and is closer to a High magic setting. The artwork and layout are fantastic as well.
   
   My only complaint was that i didn't buy this book sooner. I waited until it dropped down dirt cheap and picked it up. Now with 4th edition coming in 2weeks I'm not sure when ill find time to delve into the setting. I just know that ill be the first to preorder the 4th edition version when it is released. (that is if 4th doesn't suck, heck ill probably still order the eberron setting even if it does). Great setting. Ranks right up there with Forgotten Realms and i may have to give the edge to Eberron just because it seems more about having fun than FR does. Forgotten realms borders on learning an encyclopedia that is if you want to run a true "FR" game. Good setting and i would recommend it to any dm out there looking for something different.



5. totally needs to even out its race descriptions...4 pages for warforged...4 paragraphs fer a changling....NOT COOL for a DM with 2 changlings in the party...

5 comments about RuneScape: The Official Handbook.

1. A very good introductory guide to the game for new players. As well it contains a lot of tips to those who are still acquiring new skills, and haven't completed all the quests.
   
   While experienced players may not find much in this guide that they do not know, it is an attractive book which fans of the game would appreciate. Being able to hold and look at the maps on paper alone will prove an attractive enough feature for some players.
   
   There are still parts of this guide which may prove entertaining reading, and the locations and map might still prove use at times, even to the most accomplished players.
   
   I gave the guide as a gift to my nieces and nephews; and for them I think the clearly laid-out sections on Online Safety Guide, the Rules of RuneScape and Basic tips for beginners are written in language they can understand. Given the importance of Online Safety and the necessity of acting as responsible player as part of a much wider community those sections are crucial to anyone fresh off Tutorial Island.
   
   As a gift it makes and excellent way to pass on the love of the game which avid RuneScape players may wish to give to new players.
   
   Regards, Fey Warrior



2. I knew everything in it, but the maps and stuff helped, also it helps with the skills and all that stuff. So, if I were a like, "i love" runescape (which im not) i would totally get this. Still if you really have trouble doing some stuff you get it.



3. Allow me to say, if you have already purchased this book then I'm sorry. The book poorly attempts to explain RuneScape and tries to teach players how to play, but the author failed to realize one thing: The game updates every week.
   
   The rules and monsters mentioned in the book are obsolete; the pictures are no longer relevant since runescape is constantly updating the graphics; the rules are ever changing; and the book is for 9-12 year olds when the rules clearly state that the game is for 13+? The author should go back to tutorial island and learn that you should never make a guide book about a constantly changing game.
   
   I'd only recommend this book if it's on the shelf of your supermarket checkout line and you need something to read; of course don't actually buy the book.



4. Bought this book for my grandson who nearly wore out the library copy. Could provide even more detail but good for new players. Not an advanced book.



5. My boys love their RuneScape game and had to have this book! They seem to use it and think it's great.

5 comments about 500 Earrings: New Directions in Contemporary Jewelry (500 Series).

1. I was extreamly impressed with not only the content, but the quality of the photos. It is hard to find jewelry books that display true art and inspire. Most of them are just cheesy "artsy-crafty". I would definatly by this book again and any of the same collection.



2. As a beginning bench jeweler this series of books have given me product information besides the obvious design ideas. e.g. ultraviolet cement - not something I had been exposed to in class yet, but a marvelous material for pave work.
   500 Necklaces: Contemporary Interpretations of a Timeless Form (Lark Jewelry Book)1000 Rings: Inspiring Adornments for the Hand (Lark Jewelry Book)500 Bracelets: An Inspiring Collection of Extraordinary Designs (Lark Jewelry Book)



3. The photos were beautiful, but I wish I had paid attention to the word in the title: Contemporary. I had hoped there would have been some good silver or gold artsy types of earrings for inspiration. I found most of these to be geared toward a very limited market.



4. I love this series from Lark! It provides me with lots of inspiration and it is a wonderful tool to learn new artists and their work. I have almost the whole series!



5. this book is very nice und useful for earring designers with its lots of pictures and detailed instruction of working with earrings.

5 comments about Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book: More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Texas Hold'em.

1. If you have basic poker knowledge (read the Phil Gordon's Green book) then this is a great follow-up. Even if you didn't read the Green book, you'll learn something reading this book. It's an easy read, entertaining, and has some good info. For a casual player who wants to get better but doesn't want to get too involved in poker theory, there's no beating Phil Gordon's Green and Blue book. For a serious player, it's still a good read if not a bit fluffy, like Phil Gordon himself. READ IT!



2. When learning something like poker I like my information straight foreword, not with a lot of embellishment. While studying each hand I had to remind myself what I was trying to learn that particular hand without being distracted by the anecdotes.
   
   I'm sure many students will find this makes the learning more interesting but my goal when studying poker is to improve my game with the least amount of effort.
   
   About a quarter of the way into this book I asked myself how would I be better served? Should I continue with Little Blue or would I get more out of re-reading books I had already studied like Harrington Vol I or Little Green.
   
   About 5 problems into Harrington Vol I...there was my answer. Goodbye Little Blue.
   
   Bottom line...maybe this is a great book but if your learning style is similar to mine...take a pass.



3. Phil Gordon's three book set rivals Harringtons' as the best poker books on the market. This one in particular goes through several hands and strategies as well as warnings on getting trapped or lazy whilst playing.
   
   The Black and Green books are also great, in fact the green book might even be better than this one, but they are both must haves for someone that wants to improve their game.



4. Both Phil Gordon's little "green & blue" books I've purchased and given as gifts. Myself and family members have benefited and improved as players after reading these. They are practical and easy to understand and implement. I highly recommend these as must read or additions to any level poker player from beginner to advanced players.



5. I bought this book after having read Phil Gordons Green Book on poker. Do not waste your money. While the Green Book has valuable information that WILL improve your game, the Blue Book is a bad sequel and provides very little useful information as it is only a diary of previous hands played by Phil in numerous situations. You will learn more from watching Poker After Dark and visually watching how hands are played out by professionals.
   
   What really upset me about this book, was a hand that is described starting on page 73 and runs for 8 pages only to be told if you want to know the outcome of the hand to go to Phil Gordons website. I payed $22.00 for information in this book, not to be told to go to a website for the rest of the story.

5 comments about Will Shortz Presents Ultimate Sudoku: 1000 Wordless Crossword Puzzles (Will Shortz Presents...).

1. Don't misread the title of this book to mean it is filled with extreme Sudoku puzzles. Only the last 170 of the 1000 puzzles are challenging for the experienced puzzler. But the large format is excellent. And if you are a beginner, it can provide plenty of practice to turn you into a more competent solver.



2. Great, although I would prefer more moderate and demanding and fewer light and easy puzzels.



3. I, personally, don't care for the large size and the paper quality. However, it is nice to prop on your lap and it does have many levels of difficulty. I am a fairly new Sudoku fan, and have recently ordered a bunch of puzzle books from Amazon. This is my least favorite, but I have to say it's because of its size mainly. It is loaded with some great puzzles.



4. I knocked off a star because I don't like how the puzzles do not conform to the standards of symmetric givens and 30 or less givens (although this is really only present in the easy puzzles, some of which have 39+ givens). I also think there are too many easy puzzles (450); I just skipped the easy section entirely because I found them too easy and boring. However, this is still a pretty good sudoku book and with 1000 puzzles will definitely last you a while (even if you skip the easy ones).



5. Was surprised by how large the book is (I guess I should have guessed that 1000 puzzles would be a large book). Too large for taking for travel. Too many of the puzzles are "easy" (450 out of 1000). But it was inexpensive!!

5 comments about Official Nintendo Super Paper Mario Player's Guide.

1. This Strategy Guide is very handy for making the most out of the experience of playing Super Paper Mario (which is itself a 5-Star+ game). Some sections of the game would be nearly impossible to navigate without the maps inside the guide.



2. This item was awsome! It shows you all the things you need to know about and makes it fun and easy to use. I already finished the game after 2 weeks! Trust me, it's sweet.



3. My son loves his new Wii (and all of his other Nintendo gaming)and along with every game he loves to get a guide. While some of his friends say they won't use them as "cheats" he finds that he gets more out of the game finding "secret codes" and such that let him do more. We don't feel it's a cheat in any way, just a great compliment to make the games more fun. The plus is that it means is doing more reading than he would if he were just playing the games and for young kids, reading is always a great thing, especially when they are very interested in the material. We have bought MANY of these Nintendo Guides and they are all GREAT!



4. The Super Paper Mario official Nintendo Power guide is a useful tool for completing your inter dimensional adventure. With so many secret paths and hidden items, you might eventually begin to feel overwhelmed. I would say that this guide in general is comprehensive enough to get the job done, but offers nothing too spectacular. It is just a straight forward strategy guide which offers full colored maps with locations of items followed by general descriptions of said item to find where needed. Most of the walk through consists of minor details of the more noticeable points of your journey. It won't wow you but at least you'll not feel lost. In terms of difficulty, Super Paper Mario really isn't too great a challenge as you'll find Mario will become undoubtedly superior to the enemy in no time at all as he begins to level up. And the puzzles offered in many of the stages are just common since. This is why you'll feel like the walk through is a little underwhelming to say the least. The crux of all this guides' good information can be found near the back of the book, where a detailed listing of all the in game items, secrets, and recipes can be found. This source of info is negligible to a casual gamer who could care less for finding 100% of everything. And if you are just a casual gamer, I recommend really staying away from this one considering the lack of difficulty altogether. For a completest freak, it is an adequate enough manual. WARNING! There are a few major disappointments to be found here however. It's located in what should be a bestiary, but what has been converted into a catch card/bestiary sort of combination. Their efforts seem largely lackluster as all that you'll find is the enemy names and their respective card numbers. No enemy location data in case you might want to reference that in order to actually "catch" it's card. And no strength/weakness info either. As a matter of fact...no details are ever given on how to effectively battle the enemy types, leaving the player on their own to guess your own strategy. Only bosses are detailed in depth. Furthermore the maps can be jarring from time to time considering the way it needs to be laid out due to the 2-D/3-D aspect of the game, and the items found in both modes. This can be especially frustrating in the later stages where the levels themselves pan out and become massive and more complex. The maps are all crunched together in some pages, forcing you to have to scan a little harder to find your location.



5. This guide is easy to follow and has all of the information you will need to complete the game. It is organized well, and the layout is fine. One of the biggest questions, I think, is whether or not you will really need a guide for this game. If you are more of a casual gamer who just wants to complete the main game and some of the more interesting optional parts, you may not need this. I really had very little difficulty with the main storyline - only the bonus dungeons gave me some trouble. If you want to collect everything and complete everything, this will definitely come in handy. Super Paper Mario isn't one of the tougher games I've played, and I think many people would have no trouble finishing it without a guide. But, I like to follow guides for most of the longer adventure games I play, and this one was worth using.

5 comments about Weighing the Odds in Sports Betting.

1. Can a book be too good? First, you must decide what is meant by "good" . . . Deep insight to some, is inscrutable for others. I've run a major sports betting website for many years, and what is undebatable is that the average fan is looking for guidelines, rather than a complicated forumla. But if you are looking to dig deeper, this book offers valuable insight.



2. This book is easily worth the 14 dollar investment. I gave this book 4 stars as I was primarily looking for handicapping ideas or methods whereas the book excels in providing "betting" advice which he has learned through the use of his extensive databases.
   
   The book is essential reading if one is new to sports gambling and has not read Stanford Wong's "Sharp Sports Betting". It is especially nice that King Yao provides the reader with information such as fair betting lines for firts half (4.5 innings) baseball lines, as well as fair first half NFL lines corresponding to a full game line.
   
   Overall, very good book and easily worth the money



3. I agree as many of the other reviews before. That's it's a good book for beginners in sports betting. The math is quite simple to understand. If you never done sports betting and want to learn more about how to calculate EV and to understand how sports betting is working, this is the book for you.



4. Really did enjoy this book and will refer to it again and again to re-inforce some of the material in here. Very sound advice and the content is easily grasped. My only criticism (and it's a minor issue) is that some of the topics aren't covered in deep enough detail (IMO) i.e. Some of the topics are written in 2-3 paragraphs when I felt they needed a little more in depth coverage on them.
   
   That aside, it's a good read and useful resource in a genre where quality is hard to come by.



5. The book gives the basics, but some are questionable. The author needs to move into the 21st century and realise that Vegas is a shadow and online books are the way to go. How many readers will interested in hearing about the heat in Nevada? He needed to tackle this from an online perspective, as this is how most people bet.
   
   There is no talk of College football or hoops, nor is the NBA regular season mentioned
   
   Also, the author does not understand efficient markets and fails to realise that the more a market is efficient, the harder it is to beat

No comments about World of Warcraft Atlas, Second Edition (Brady Games - World of Warcraft).

5 comments about Beginning OpenGL Game Programming (Game Development Series).

1. Overall this book was an excellent resource for getting on your feet with OpenGL.
   
   It covers pretty much every basic topic conceivable along with touching on the some advanced uses of basic concepts. One thing that I found particularly annoying, however, was that the book claims to go into "much greater detail" concerning models later in the book, but after that line I found nary a reference to them. The author just uses the MD2 file format in the concluding "End Game" sample on the CD without ever having mentioned it in the book. Writing any useful graphics application requires using a model format, and it irks me very much that the book didn't cover it.
   
   One other problem with the book is its age - it covers version 1.5 of OpenGL, while 2.0 has been out for a while now. But like I have already stated, it's a great book to jump into GL with.



2. On comparing this text to other OpenGL textbooks, I would like to point out that the explanations of graphical techniques in this text are very well done. The CD bundled with the book have excellent code examples of things like using height maps and input from DirectX. There are bonus chapters that cover advanced topics like curves and surfaces that obviously weren't in the actual book, and thus kept the final press cost down.
   
   If you are starting out with OpenGL, then this book is the best I have seen to get you up and running.



3. If you are interested in cross-platform OpenGL programming then DO NOT buy this book, it is M$ Windows Dependant. The title should have been "Beginning OpenGL Windows Game Programming".



4. If you need to get 3D graphics into your application OpenGL is a wonderful alternative. If you want to get up to speed with OpenGL this book is one of the best alternatives.
   It's good to know a little about 3D math, and have a familiarity with terms like unit vector, transformation, and dot product, but it's definitely not necessary.
   
   I'd recommend this to anyone.



5. This book is a good introductory book, but it should have probably been called "Beginning OpenGL". The Gaming part is mentioned only briefly, and for any detail you'll have to go to what's on the CD. The CD literally makes this a decent book to buy; without the CD the OpenGL Red Book is probably money better spent. The other fault of this book is that the images are sub-par; it looks like the authors themselves did the images instead of a professional graphics house.

2 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Street Magic (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Street Magic by TOM OGDEN has to be the best book ever written on the subject. Easy to understand instructions, great visuals (pictures) and even easier to pull off and mystify your friends. THIS BOOK IS A MUST if you want to fool your friends .... Or buy a copy and give it to everyone on your Christmas list. Your friends will NOT be disappointed. I have also discovered several other books by Tom Ogden, all good fun. You are NUMBER ONE Tom. Keep it UP!
   
   Mark



2. The title of this book might be a bit off-putting to serious magicians. "Street magic" is busking, a centuries-old art: a charismatic street performer draws a crowd and does a show for as many people as will watch. Ogden is referring here to the "street magic" seen on television since David Blaine's first special in 1997. Young magicians find Blaine's "street magic" fascinating, because it's cooler than traditional stage performance. Old-timers don't consider TV-style "street magic" to be the real deal. However, Ogden is using the concept here to appeal directly to a 21st-century audience.
   
   Ogden offers a first-rate introduction to the history and art of conjuring. The tricks here vary in difficulty from very simple sleight-free tricks to intermediate sleight-of-hand. They are carefully selected to have maximum punch. The presentations will truly amaze audiences. His partners in this venture include some of the biggest names in magic: Max Maven, Jeff McBride, Mac King, Michael Ammar, and many others.
   
   This is one of the best introductory books on conjuring I have ever seen. Highly recommended.