1 comments about Resident Evil?: Outbreak 2 Official Strategy Guide.

1. This is a good item for die-hard Resident Evil fans. It offers in-depth strategies, character/enemy profiles, and weapon/item assessments that are valuable to beginners. I am very pleased with this purchase.

5 comments about Assassin's Creed Limited Edition Bundle: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. It's awesome. The art book have a lot of pictures and they are very good.
   In other hand, I've already finished the game so I haven't read the guide very carefully but I have seen it and looks great



2. Just as promised. Perfect and in time to make a boy very happy at Christmas.



3. To put it short. This limited edition bundle/guide was worth it. Since I am a fan of video game art, and since this product included a detailed strategy guide with it, it was a steal for me.



4. A complete storyline of the game itself, pictures and a full book of photos from each of the developers, strong construction, easy to read!



5. I bought this at Gamestop for $35.00 and it was still worth it. Fans of the game, especially those into art/concept art would surely enjoy it as much as I did. The art book is about 150 pages and filled with wonderfully detailed paintings and computer renderings of Altaïr, the Assassins, Templars and cityfolk as well as the cities of Masyaf, Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus. Commentary of those who worked on the project is in the artbook too, giving light to things not often noticed and explaining the details behind the designs.
   
   The lithograph is glossy and about postcard sized. The art in the book is much better. Enough said. As far as I can tell, the Hidden Blade is NOT on the wrong hand, he is facing the viewer so the orientation is reversed. (Think looking in a mirror)
   
   The game guide spends an entire chapter on combat schematics/ interpreting guard and civilian reactions alone. A paragraph or so biography of all of the main characters is included as well as Maps containing the locations of flags and view points and screenshots showing Templars and ways to deal them. A step-by-step guide to each of the cities and their districts is followed by a walkthrough of the memory blocks, with tips, cautions and alerts to plot details easily missed throughout. X-box 360 Achievements are listed in the back. They also give you a very rippable map of the Holy Land attached to the guide, which I would highly recommend taking out with scissors.
   
   Overall, a 5/5 for extra content, great details and value.

No comments about Too Human (Prima Official Game Guide).

2 comments about The Darkness Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

1. This is a fun game. It does seem a bit short though. I'm right near the end. I do believe they start you with the wrong power as well. They should start you with the demon arm IMO. Worth buying though!



2. The guide was very straight forward. The ony thing was I had acces to collectables in Chapter 1 that weren't revealed until later chapters in the guide, otherwise most everything was straight forward.

3 comments about Killer Poker Online, Vol. 2: Advanced Strategies for Crushing the Internet Game.

1. I read a lot of poker books and a lot of the information in these books is repetitive. This is not the case with Killer Poker Online 2 by John Vorhaus. Vorhaus takes a more cerebral look than some other books that focus on technical analysis. This book is more about the philosophy and psychology of the online poker table than the other books I have read. Some of the concepts and information in the book I already subconsiously knew, but Vorhaus fleshed them out and made me think on a deeper contextual level.
   
   I like best the section on heads up play. I think it is better than Harrington's HU strategy(HOH Vol 2). I love playing heads up and I can thank Vorhaus for improving my HU game light years.
   
   This book will stay part of my poker library for years to come, along side the Harrington On Hold'em Volumes, Phil Gordon's Little Green and Little Blue Books, Brunson's Super System 1 & 2, and Caro's Book of Poker Tells. I am also planning to read Vorhaus's other poker books.



2. Killer Poker Online Vol. 2 was to be the redeeming value of this two part series. Most would expect that since the original book, "Killer Poker Online" left a lot to be desired, and focused on just about everything but actually playing, that this latest endeavor would expand upon the apparent foundation that Vorhaus was attempting to define previously. Unfortunately, we just get mostly more of the same useless information.
   
   The major flaw with this book is that it provides little insight into how to actually win big pots, lose small ones, and "crush the internet game". To make matters worse, some of the advice about actual play which is given has been routinely dis-proven via real life examples. For instance, Vorhaus mentions that Sit-n-go tournaments should be utilized for entertainment only, in that trying to build a bankroll via this method is hazardous. He further mentions that Sit-n-go tournaments require more luck than skill.
   
   The problem here is that many online regulars play only Sit-n-go games, and many famous, world renowned players found their way to stardom by focusing on Sit-n-go style games. But then to contradict himself, Vorhaus mentions that regular, multitable tournaments are your best bet. Any poker regular understands that multitable tournaments require luck as a prominent variable in your play. I don't understand how Vorhaus would consider luck to be too big of a factor in sit-n-go play, but not one in multitable tournament play. On top of that, at the final table in a multitable tournament the play is almost identical to sit-n-go games with the exception that not all players will begin the final table with the same amount of chips. Where are we to get this final table experience if we don't play sit-n-go games, especially considering that one position apart at the final table can be thousands, or even millions of dollars in payout differences?
   
   His advice on cash game playing is limited, and mostly focuses on the philosophy of getting a big pot when you have a big hand, or folding your cards before you commit too much of your money with a losing hand. This is common sense stuff.
   
   But sadly, most of the book involves the same type of "advice" given in the first; which is to talk about things outside of the game. Telling readers things like, "don't play tired", "don't play distracted", or "don't play with the TV on" all make sense and are worthy of mention, but I fail to see why they should be reiterated to the point of consuming a large percentage of the book.
   
   Advice on booking is reiterated here as well, which is keeping track of other players' habits. This is good advice and should be stressed because most players will not do this, even those that agree that it would give their play an edge. With online poker however, unless you are playing very high limits where you regularly (on a daily basis) play the same people over and over, you rarely see the same person twice. This becomes especially true when considering that a single poker site may have tens of thousands of players in your limit range, and you play at 3 or 4 different sites on top of that. Not to mention, it doesn't serve much purpose to keep track of play styles if you don't know which strategies to use against such playstyles. Vorhaus successfully convinces the reader of the advantages of booking, while simultaneously failing to teach the reader what to do with his findings.
   
   Something quite disturbing to me is that Vorhaus does spend quite a bit of time explaining what you shouldn't do, rather than what you should. He presents problems without solutions, and quite honestly gives more advice on how you can lose money than how you can make money. Any fool can go to a poker table and lose money, we don't need to learn that. While some may point out that examining mistakes is important in learning to avoid them (something I do not disagree with), it serves no purpose if a lesson isn't learned from it. For example, let's say I'm faced with a situation where big money could go either way on a big hand. Rather than simply understanding how I could lose big, it would be nice if a potential error was followed up with a practical solution or approach. So I know how not to lose big money on a hand, but do I know how to win big money on a hand? It seems to me a more productive approach to teach me the right way to do things, rather than teach me the wrong way to do things and then expect me to figure out an alternative.
   
   To be honest there is no substitute for experience, and I think we know that holds true with just about anything. Getting experience in online poker is expensive though, so books are a good way to offset that cost by giving insight and helping to develop your game faster. Unfortunately, this book won't do that for you, unless of course you didn't know that distractions can make you lose focus. If you have absolutely no clue as to what online poker is, then this book comes highly recommended, otherwise you'll get a better return on your money elsewhere.



3. I received this book as a Christmas gift from my brother who knows that I like to play online; my first impression was "Oh no, not another poker book...and worst of all, this one looks like a gimmicky attempt to address online poker rather than live casino play." I wondered whether it would teach me anything new, or whether it was simply going to be one of the dozens of books out there that have a simple preflop chart, and advocate a no-frills tight and aggressive playing style. I must say I was pleasantly surprised -- Vorhaus has clearly done his homework and understands that online play requires a markedly different approach than playing live. I (like many others) used to place too much emphasis on "reading people", which is of course impossible when playing online. Not having that tool at my disposal made me delve deeper into the mathematics and probability of poker, and I think ultimately has made me a much better player, both live and online. I think truly appreciating this book requires enough humility to "unlearn" the strategies that you've become accustomed to while playing live -- Vorhaus discusses a lot of sit-and-go and multi-table tournament play (maybe because that's what you see most on TV) but I wish he had devoted a little more space to cash games.
   
   Now for my constructive criticism: I can empathize somewhat with Vorhaus, because it's admittedly hard to write a book about online poker with a long life-span because the state of online poker changes so rapidly...for example, online play today looks substantially different than in 2004 (what some would consider to be its "glory-days"). The average online player today is better-educated, tighter preflop, and trickier post-flop. I think a lot of poker authors a few years ago got away with writing books advocating a simple tight and aggressive strategy, which was good enough to beat the average player back then, but at present might only be enough to turn you into a break-even player. But what I think Vorhaus COULD have included in his book -- or at least what I'd like to see published in SOME contemporary poker book -- is a description of the add-on software programs that have become more or less essential to optimize your online play. PokerTracker, PokerAce HUD, datamining tools...all of these I would consider to be a "must" for anyone wanting to get serious about their online game. Would it have been so hard for Vorhaus to at least pay lip service to these tools...? Sure, they may be outdated 3 or 4 years from now, but they've been the "gold standard" for the past few years, and I think any book about online poker wanting to present a complete picture of the online game requires a section explaining these tools and how to optimize their use. I guess one thing Vorhaus couldn't have foreseen was how the U.S. legislation in the Fall of 2006 would change the online poker scene forever...I think a lot of American players erroneously came to believe that the law made playing poker online illegal...when NOTHING could be further from the truth. It simply made it more difficult to deposit from the U.S., but there are still plenty of ways to fund accounts at the US-friendly poker sites. THe PokerSavior website has an oft-updated list of sites that continue to serve the U.S. market and the most frequently-used deposit methods at each. I think a book about online poker written today would look very different than Vorhaus' offering, although I will admit that his is one of the few to specifically address some aspects unique to online play...I've seen a few other books for sale that purport to discuss online poker, but they're simply poorly-written attempts to cash in on the online poker boom, and don't really offer anything new. Vorhaus' book doesn't fall into that trap, and I think it's a worthwhile investment for any online player.

5 comments about The Sims 2: Nightlife (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This book follows the same format as the other Prima guides to the Sims. It has lots of tips about game play and good overviews of how the new elements of the expansion pack work. It includes tables of objects, community lots, and new commands so that you can look items up fairly quickly during game play.
   
   The primary negatives are the lack of an index (also missing in the other Prima guides) and the repeated use of the same graphics from the game over and over throughout the book.
   
   Still, if you are a Sims 2 fan and have the Nightlife expansion pack this is a very helpful book.



2. I hoped for more information about the game in general and less images of new products or objects from the game. There were not enough tricks and tricks included to make it worth the price.



3. I've avoided purchasing Prima's other strategy guides for the Sims expansions because Prima has a habit of devoting half of their guides to the base game and the rest to the expansion pack. In the guide for Nightlife however they've improved. More than half of the guide is devoted to Nightlife: new socials, new characters, new relationships, new objects..etc. There's still information on the base game which could have been left out however overall I do recommend the guide. I don't have to skip over the first half of the book to find information on the expansion pack with this guide. Well done Prima thank you!



4. These guides are worth every dollar if you want to get the most out of your game.



5. As usual, this is the most wonderful, fulfilling, mesmerizing game out there! Thanks again, Sims creators! My daughter received this for Christmas, took it to her room, and we haven't seen her since. Just kidding! She loves it!

1 comments about TimeShift (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. Nice strategy guide. It has good photos and helpful descriptions of the levels. If you tend to get stuck in games (as I often do), it's nice to be able to refer to this for help.

3 comments about Kameo: Elements of Power (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. Good walkthrough but would have benefited from having the extras (elemental fruit and elixirs) mixed into the walkthrough instead of at the end in an "extras" section. I had to go back and walk through many of the same areas to find the stuff I had missed.



2. Great guide for the money. Really help me through the end of the game. I would by more guides for my other games after using this one.



3. Occasionally the book was either wrong or would tell you a much harder way of doing things. In all it was a good book though. I would buy another book from them.

4 comments about Star Trek Legacy (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. Where to begin...
   
   About 2/3 of this "Strategy Guide" is a listing of all the ships included in the game and a list of the maps included in the game. Personally - all of this information should have been in the manual. This is not necessary information however because the statistics are much more meaningful in the ship select screen in the game - and the maps are not exactly that unique.
   
   The rest of the guide is a few "tips" which are pretty much no-brainers, and a walkthrough of the single player campaign. This is probably the most helpful part of the guide, although they do not really break down the missions enough and simply gloss over the details.
   
   The game itself really isn't deep enough to warrant the need for a strategy guide - and I believe Prima figured this out, which is why they padded 2/3 of it with pretty pictures of Star Trek ships from the game.
   
   I would recommend renting the game for the X Box 360 and see for yourself how much you need a strategy guide. I will go ahead and summarize strategy in STL for you so that you are good to go:
   
   WEAPONS:
   Phasers dissipate over distance, so try to get in close before letting loose. Also - don't constantly press the fire button - let your phaser banks charge up so that you get some good drain on the enemy shields. This should be the primary attack of any ship designated "Cruiser"
   
   Photon/Quantum torpedoes give the hull of enemy ships a beating - this should be the primary attack of any ship designated "Destroyer" and try to save them for when you have drained the shields with phaser fire. Unload a few of these into the hull of an enemy ship and it will seriously damage it.
   
   Warp: You cannot warp near asteroids or planets. Use this to your advantage, and be sure not to get caught in a disadvantage. Neither asteroids nor planets can hurt you - so feel free to warp right in.
   
   That is pretty much all you need to know. In any 1 vs 1 ship combat - be sure to match up ships to their equivalent. You will not be able to beat a larger ship with a smaller ship.
   
   The Borg cannot handle a sustained assault of multiple ships. If it is 1 vs 1 and the player is Borg - outfit your fleet with Destroyers. The Borg have no shields and the torpedoes damage them quite a bit en masse.
   
   That is about as deep as the game gets. There are no shield facings to worry about. You can do subsystem targeting... but it really has no effect in the grand scheme considering how hard it is to pull off in MP/Skirmish.
   
   Borg Cubes are really powerful weapon-wise, but really weak hull-wise. >4 ships can take down a cube easily with the loss of maybe 1 ship.



2. The only gripe I have is the keyboard controls and lack of reference material. Overall fun game!



3. If you get the game you should get this guide. It give you info on all the ships all the maps and all the missions. Plus its full of beautifully designed pages.



4. This game is the best for Star Trek! If you need any game of Star Trek, this is the one.

5 comments about Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar - World Companion: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. The LotRO World Companion is probably the single most useless book I've ever purchased. Every single item in the game is included, but they are all listed by name in alphabetical order. This means it's impossible to look up weapons or armour by the level; it's impossible to look up creatures based on their level or by the areas in which you'll find them; it's impossible to look up quests based on the level. It's almost as if the authors merely took a computer database and just transposed it directly into the book.
   
   Also, there are no hints in the book. The only information it gives is what can be found in the game, and the game is actually more helpful than the book, in that it gives you a context from which you can better figure out where to look for creatures etc.
   
   Altogether this book is a complete waste. It's so poorly laid-out that I doubt I'll ever be able to get any useful information from it. I urge players to avoid this one like the plague.



2. i was in fact a little confused when i found out that this book served better purposes in the fire place than anywhere else... i wonder what in the world were the people at prima thinkin when they cuncocted this book..
   
   "oh hey guys lets make a book that repeats everything that states word for word everything in the game and make all the other info in it completely useless to the point that we only make money off the pre-orders because the poor victims can't read the book for themselves at the time.".. maybe it went somethin like that i'm guessing?
   
   sounds about right anyway.. anyone that wanted to make a couple hundred bucks could of done this by taking nearly thousands of screenshots and putting them in photo shop and they could of duplicated this book on their own at a cheaper cost for the exact same info.. i'm done ranting .. i feel as though i've wasted time and money...



3. Too bad there's no rating for zero. A great mass of info, designed to emulate an PRG players' guide, organized not by race, class, zone, or level, but alphabetically. Info in the book appears to come verbatim from the game itself, which is often, by the nature of the game, cryptic -- hence the need for a guide. This is a recap, not a guide. The book lacks the one thing that might have given it a redeeming value -- quest hints. There are none. I've done far better in the advice channel. I've considered asking for a refund based on uselessness.



4. This book has numerous lists about monsters, quest, feats, and etc. The tips for the quests are quick one liners, if you need more than that you should look elsewhere for the FAQs and etc.
   
   The book is cool for experience rewards, traits, deeds, quick info on monsters. However this book contains no maps to go along with these quests, areas or hints. This is a giant LOTRO index and nothing more.



5. This book could almost be rated 0 stars... HOWEVER, the only useful thing I found is the Quest Chains where it tells you what quests are available to you at what levels, and what is before or after each of those quests chains. It also tells you the difficulty of the quest. Also, one thing that is good is that it tells you the monster and enemy type and its location. That is only useful for hunting and doing deeds. However, everything else is horribly placed.
   
   Why in the world would PRIMA, a well know company that does guides, do such a horrible thing. If I was to be the last one editing it, I'll be throwing it in the trash and tell them to redo it.
   
   First off- anything dealing with items such as jewelry, armors, weapons are all listed in alphabetical order, which makes no sense at all. Why the heck would you mix staves and swords, to daggers and bows altogether? I had to go page by page just to look at the possible way to build my character only to get a migraine that it is annoying and undeveloped well. If I am to tell you, I'd say to buy the digital copy (if you are desperately in need or want this volume) that you can download, at least that way you can try to copy and paste the whole thing and short it in Excel yourself into categories. Again- why go through all that hassle when the guide is supposed to have it all done for you?
   
   As for jewelry, how stupid is it to tell us the level and rarity of it, but not the bonuses and stats it gives like the armors and weapons do? The book is entitled on the back that "With this guide your knowledge will be complete" however it helps with little knowledge.
   
   There are some sections such as quests that are not even completely written. It just gets cutoff. I don't know how they missed it, or if they just did not care thinking no one will notice it...
   
   Overall for what this book is worth (and not worth), I highly recommend you not getting it. I give it 1 star, and to me, seriously I have had it for over a month and hardly ever use it since Vol. 1 is more useful in many, if not all, cases.