1 comments about Resident Evil: Code Veronica - Book Two (Resident Evil (DC Comics)).

1. Being a fan of comic book art, video games, and zombies, I figured this graphic novel would be a unique treat... but I have mixed feelings. The art in this book is very nice and interesting, especially in the action sequences. It remains faithful to the game, in that the characters randomly find weapons, ammunition, puzzle keys, and herbs... although this adds to the choppy storytelling. Overall, the story is bland and uninteresting, much of it being told through Claire's non-stop self exposition. If you're a huge fan of the game and comic book art, you will probably enjoy this graphic novel. But, if you are looking to be engaged in a great zombie story you should look elsewhere.

2 comments about Crimson Skies : Sybex's Official Strategies & Secrets.

1. This first thing I noticed about the book was the beauty of the layout and the addition of in-character content. There's also a very nice full color poster of each of the pre-rendered planes in the back of the book.

   The book is comprised of 4 parts as follows: Part 1: Earn Your Wings Part 2: Air Supremacy Part 3: The Adventures of Nathan Zachary Part 4: Knight of the Skies: The Multiplayer Game

   Part 1: Earn Your Wings

   Here David first discusses the various regions of the former United States of 1937 and provides an excellent desription of each of the main pilot leagues from each region. This is well done and provides the background to understanding the history behind the Crimson Skies universe and the single player missions. Flight fundamentals are covered cursorily discussing elevators, ailerons, rudders, and throttle and introducing the instrumentation and in-flight views. This section is not packed with a great deal of useful information but I think that's appropriate considering that the main focus of CS is action and not simulation. The Basic Flight Maneuvers chapter is one of the most beneficial in my opinion, covering bank turns, half-loops, high-G turns, and docking with Zeps. These skills will be used again and again while flying through the singleplayer missions and will help out in your forays into multiplayer. David explains the execution and apllication of each maneuver which will be most helpful to beginning pilots.

   Part 2: Air Supremacy I found this portion of the Sybex manual to be the most useful. David introduces each of the 11 planes with a short history, a pre-rendered image, and a paragraph discussing handling and loadout options. At the end of the aircraft chapter can be found two tables, one with qualitative comparisons of each planes maneuverability, strength, and speed, and the other table displays cost and maximum payload. The tables are useful for when first starting out in CS and becoming familiar with the pros and cons of each airframe. Advanced Aircraft maneuvers are expertly covered but I found this section to lack a great deal of depth. I would have expected there to be more maneuvers listed and aerial combat tactics illustrated since air combat is the main focus of the game. There is good coverage for gun and rocket selection with a description of which fire power to use for differing situations. I found the statisitcs tables for guns and rockets to be very helpful when considering how to load out my plane when going into battle. The last chapter in this part deals with aircraft design and is well done. Considerations for airframes, engines, armor, guns, and hardpoints are discussed and there's even a sample design included using the Devastator. Well done!

   Part 3: The Adventures of Nathan Zachary Part 3 goes over each of the 24 single player missions with an eye towards getting the reader involved with the storyline by engaging the reader in a first person diary-esque dialogue. Each mission entry is completed with mission objectives and tips to help you along your way. The coverage of the missions takes up the majority of the book and rightfully so in my opinion. There are screenshots and maps along with each mission description. When it comes right down to it, this section is the reason why you would want to buy this book.

   Part 4: Knight of the Skies: The Multiplayer Game If I had one serious gripe with this book then it would be centered around this last section of the guide. There's a mere 4 pages devoted to multiplayer and only a short paragraph for each of the different multiplayer missions; deathmatch, CTF, and Zep vs. Zep.

   Conclusion You'll probably like this book if... You're new to the Crimson Skies universe and the rudimentary aspects of dogfighting. You want to concentrate mostly on Single Player missions and like the assistance of someone that's been there before so to speak.

   You probably won't like this book if...

   You know the airframes and history inside out from your days with the pen and paper version of CS. You're looking for a comprehensive manual to improve your already modest dogfighting skills.

   For my own personal tastes I'd rate the Sybex Guide as follows: Background: 9/10 Flight mechanics: 6/10 Aircraft Descriptions: 6/10 Aircraft Design: 7/10 Mission guide: 9/10 Multiplayer: 2/10 Ease of use: 9/10 Layout: 8/10 Price ($20): 7/10

   Overall -- 70%END




2. If you like the game you really should get this book. Apart from a breakdown of all the aeroplanes and a beautiful poster of them, it shows you how to do some really excellent combat aerobatics - with illustrations and descriptions right down the the throttling e.g "use 3/4 throttle and no more or you'll risk stalling the plane" ...

   And tells you how to shoot at an angle to which you are travelling by sliding the plane at a 5 degree angle - which is substantially better than crashing into the slow moving zeppelin you are trying to shoot to pieces like I used to !

   Now that section alone is worth the price of the book. The author, I see, is an actual experienced pilot (and perhaps fanatic!) and knows what he is talking about.

   It helps lift the game to a whole new level, because it will give you the technical knowledge and the base skills required to fill the boots of Nathan Zachary.

   I also recommend a good joystick, I use a force feedback which makes it more difficult to hold steady but hey - good! A nice touch of realism.

   This would make an excellent present also, anyone who likes this game would very much enjoy the book as well.

2 comments about Duke Nukem 64: The Official Strategy Guide (Secrets of the Games Series.).

1. I liked the book because it gave me details and good screen shots of the game. It had told step by step on what to do and gave detailed instructions on what to do next. It even had Dukematch strategies for the special DM levels and how to kill your opponents. What I didn't like was that some of the screen shots weren't good. When they showed the weapons, they showed only how it looks when you hold it except on the grenade launcher they showed how it looks before you grab it. This problem is what I call the book "containinguneven screen shots."



2. If you haven't been playing Duke Nukem 64 for a while, you need this guide. If you have been playing Duke Nukem 64 for a long time, you still need this guide! It has every single secret (there's alot of 'em) and the locations of each and every babe! I bet you haven't found every little secret in the game, but now you can. Buy this, it's worth it.

5 comments about Grandia (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. This, with out a doubt, is the most horrid excuse for a strategy guide I have ever seen. It contains no maps, no item locations, and no secrets. All it has is a collection of screenshots from the game, which are cryptic at best. There is a list of skills for each character but not what they do. I would say this is a good book for someone who doesnt want to play the game at all, but rather just see a bunch of screenshots from it.



2. For a game with as many hidden secrets and difficult dungeons as Grandia, one would expect to find a strategy guide full of hidden items, maps and strategies. After all, that's the reason gamers buy them. This guide fails to deliver any of the above. The only item that the guide will help you find are Mana Eggs, so finding anything else, including hidden weapons, is up to you. Basically, this guide is a color walk-through stuffed with tiny screenshots which were not necessary. Just a distraction from the boring, and uninspired "Go west, now turn south...", walk-through I suppose. There are weapon, item and magic lists at the beginning of the guide which are okay at best, but they still fail to tell you where to find these items. As far as the secret dungeons go, thank goodness I found them myself because the book says hardly a word about them. Not a single map or strategy for these areas which are very difficult and time-consuming. After I finished the game, I realized that I could easily have beaten it without this guide because I did all the exploring myself to find hidden items/weapons. If you need a good walk-through, visit Gamefaqs, heck even a message board is better than this book. Also, the guide suffered a very bad printing mishap that is very obvious at the end of the guide. The last 5-10 pages or so have the wrong text under their screenshots and a good portion of the walk-through for the Final dungeon was cut off, including any info on the final boss. As if we would have gotten help beating it anyway!

   Overall: 1 star for being in color and having a few pretty pictures.




3. If you own the Sega Saturn version of Grandia (which is in Japanese) then this book is quite useful, as it retells some of the story as you are going along. Doubtless this will annoy people who have the english version (hence the low scores).As a guide it is quite poor - It does'nt tell you where all the Mana eggs are, and there are no details of the secret areas...but it is a small price to pay for a story synopsis. Get this book if you love the game or if you have the Saturn version - which is the best one ;0)



4. To say the least, this is a terrible book. It offers no maps, nothing about the secret dungeons, no boss stratagies. Nothing. It is not worth anything you pay for it, except maybe 5 cents.

   If you need a Walkthrough for this wonderful game, GameFAQs has much better ones, for free!




5. Now if only that walkthrough had maps and some strategy for bosses then maybe the guide could get 3 or even 4 stars from me.

   The guides doesn't cover the full extent of the game for starters and doesn't present any way of telling you some of the basics like learning magic and battling.

   The walkthrough doesn't even have maps. Its one of those "Screenshot description below" type of walkthrough (and that doens't work when dealing with an RPG). I didn't mind no bestiary but I do mind them not telling me EXP. from bosses and enemies. They also tell me nothing about learning moves and magic. Overall this guide is useless, and as one reviewer said, go to GameFAQs if you want a guide to this game. This doesn't even tell you how to find most items in an area.

   Overall, if you want to see pretty pictures and just get up and go without knowing any secrets (they don't even cover the special stage) then be my guest and buy this guide. But if you want in depth strategy then go to GameFAQs.

1 comments about RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Wacky Worlds (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. This may or may be needed if you have the original RollerCoaster Tycoon. I liked the original RollerCoaster Tycoon and was pleased when number 2 came out. I like number 2 better than number 3. The Prima Stategy Guides are not perfect -- incomplete in some ways and too informative in places where very little is needed. However, my overall opinion is that they are very worthwhile. I own the Prima Strategy Guide for all three RollerCoaster Tycoon games. .

No comments about Codebreaker Code Book (Prima Official Game Guide).

2 comments about Batman & Robin: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. listen im haveing trouble on ivy's lab. i cant find her lab. the four rooms r confusing can anybody please email me back with a walkthrough and maybe send a map of it. send to Hitmanxx7@aol.com. tahnk you and someone pleae email me back.



2. I have not read the strategy guide but have played the game successfully up to the same point as Hitmanxx7; I am in the tree/hedge maze area and have found the hole to the right of the tree to drop into one of the hidden labs but can't get to the other(s) though I have found access to a hedge covered doorway with bars blocking the way into another lab.

1 comments about Samurai Warriors (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I was sorely dissapointed in this strategy guide for several reasons. Based on the highlights posted on the back of the guide it was quite misleading and also wasn't very helpful at all. It barely touches up on anything for each of the characters that couldn't already be figured out just by reading the manual, going to the official website or just by playing the game. It promises "In-depth character and enemy officer statistics" but doesn't even deal with the actual stats for anyone, much less what kind of stats each character can achieve through the course of the game. It doesn't even give any strategy on how to develop the characters in the guide which is probably the most important information that should have been included. They also barely touch on the skills and items in the game. Instead, the majority of this guide is filled with what is basically a "walkthrough" for one way of getting through the game without really giving any examples of how the overall branching of the game works or even why their way is the most advantageous. Despite what it says it isn't very easy or comprehensive to find the information that one is looking for, provided it is even in the guide. Overall it was probably the most useless strategy guide that I have ever owned. (Another one that comes close is the Final Fantasy 9 strategy guide with all of its tie-ins with the website which don't even work anymore.) If anything try to read someone else's copy first to see if it has any information worth paying for...otherwise buy it at your own risk.

2 comments about Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh: The Official Strategy Guide (Phantasmagoria , No 2).

1. Growing up with in the golden age of computer games was one of the most influential things in my life. I absolutley loved Sierra, and then I began to age like everyone does. Saddly we've come to a time where they say computer games are dead and playstation 2 Dreamcast and the soon to come X-box have dealt an almost death blow to the computer gameing adventure titles. Dispite all the sadness surounding the adverture/role playing market. One game has risen head and shoulders above the rest. Phantasmagoria 2: A puzzle of the flesh. The game is dark, desterbing, graphinc, and full of adult content. Enought to make you sit back and get a tear in your eye for the days of old. The game is tuff aswell, no childs play. That's where the strategy guide comes into play. It's in depth coverage of ever angle the game can take is truly amazing. Being a computer gaming fan I have spent hours, days, even weeks stuck on 1 puzzle. That's why I say thank god for this stratagey guide. Without it you would be just another corpse waiting to happen in phantasmagoria 2: A puzzle of the flesh.



2. Good book to have if you play some of the older games and need a little help.
   This game is not appropriate for little children. The Larghe's

No comments about Shadow Ops: Red Mercury (Prima Official Game Guide).