3 comments about URU: Ages Beyond Myst (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I got my Prima Official Travel Guide today. It's the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst strategy guide, but it's written as a sort of travel journal by a "former" writer of game guides whose life has changed dramatically following his experience.

   It's written with a good knowledge of the game and its history, and has a good synopsis of the background, which will make a novice to the series appreciate Uru all the more. The style is pleasantly witty. Even the forward from the editor, and the "advertisement" paid for by the DRC at the back of the book, are in character and amusing.

   The book has tons of game information. It contains the text of all the notebooks, journals, and letters in the game. There are many snapshots that look like Polaroid pictures taped or paperclipped into the book. The text is in a handwriting font that isn't too hard to read. Of course, there are also maps, and descriptions and pictures of how to do all the puzzles.

   In my opinion, it's a real shame that the entire interior of the book is done in black and white. That's the only fault I find with it. If it were all done in color, it would awesome! I'd certainly be willing to pay more for a full color edition!




2. Not too clear. Prefer the way it was done in Myst. Beware! if you download URU updates, this book becomes obsolete. Correct me if I'm wrong PLEASE!!!



3. This guide is one of the best I have seen. It seems Prima has a knack for putting a strategy guide for the games we love. I try to buy only guides by Prima, but sometimes I'll play a game that they don't have guides for so I must look for other ways. But on an overall vote as to a complete walk through and solving puzzles I highly recommend Primas Guides, and give them a vote of 5 Stars on a level of 1 to 5 and 5 being the highest vote to obtain. They are very detailed in explaining what to do as you take your journey through your game.

5 comments about The Sims 2: Open for Business (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. I think I have bought every one of the Prima guides for the Sims and Sims 2 games - I will never buy another one. Most of the book is in 8-point or 10-point font ... fine if you're 15, but if you're over 35, it's infuriating. Trying to read the tiny type with my contacts in gave me a headache, reading it with my glasses was impossible, so I ended up reading it without my glasses with the book about an inch away from my nose. WHAT A PAIN! Does Prima not get that not all Sims addicts are teenagers? Stupid, stupid book design, and stupid for future sales if Prima doesn't figure out that customers, like Sims, do grow older ...



2. Like all the other Sims 2 Prima Guide, this is just great! I find it incredibly useful. So much good info, some that you may never find anywhere else... and even if you do find it somewhere else, at least you know this is official!
   And yes, even the official guide includes cheats and tricks! This one includes new ones that you can only use if you have Open For Business. :)



3. Prima is "Premium", the most useful and helpful tool that my wife and I have gotten for the Sims games!
   Thank you so much to all those involved with the making, publishing, and marketing of these Wonderful Help and Instruction Guides!
   Sincerely,
   Gary L Hoffman



4. To the reviewer who complained about the font. I'm 42 and can read the guide just fine. Please do not lump people over 35 with you, evidently you have bad eyesight, and that's not Prima's fault. Definately buy this guide no matter what age you are!



5. well i have the other guides to the other ones but this one cant be ordered at barnes and noble and i come on here but i want to know why its so expensive..??i cant figure out how to play it without the book...

2 comments about Wild Arms 4 (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This guide has been extremely helpful to me in getting through Wild Arms 4, which, for someone with minimal platform gaming ability, is not all that easy.



2. I really needed this guide to finish the game with all of the extra stuff. I could have gotten the info online for free, however, I felt that his guide was a good purchase if only because it is a nice visual aid for those wanting to complete the game with everything.

3 comments about Call of Duty 3 Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games Official Strategy Guides) (Brady Games Official Strategy Guides).

1. I tend to buy the strategy guides, more than anything else, to build up my multiplayer game for Xbox Live. I want to learn the intricacies of different maps, learn where weapons and power-ups are, and compare the loadouts available in multiplayer.
   
   Unfortunately, the multiplayer coverage in this book is pretty limp... a footnote, at the end of the book. The maps in this book are micro-sized. The authors don't give any real tips for individual maps. They do have a few interesting tips, but not enough to justify buying this book.
   
   I usually expect much better from Bradygames... their books have given me a powerful advantage with other titles. But the strategy guide for COD3 is just not worth purchasing. Move on to something else.



2. I like to play this game all the time, it is really realistic to me.



3. Go online.
   Get a guide there
   Use these pictures to help get oriented.
   The maps are useful, but the games AI make the tactics
   and descriptions offered
   something you will master through other means.
   Worth it used, you can buy the game for its new price.

5 comments about Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. Tombraider is an awesome game, i would highly recommend this book. There are several puzzles, secrets etc..that without this book you would not be able to find.



2. The Prima guides for all of the previous Tomb Raider games have been spot on and extremely helpful for those times you when your in a tight spot and don't know how to get out of it. The guide for AOD however is plain misleading. I chucked mine aside and decided to wing it on my own. Apparently the guide was written way before the game was finished, so some things just don't add up, somethings don't even appear in the game and some things are completely missing. I hate to say this but don't waste your money. If you're really stuck, you're much better off hitting the various tomb raider BB's on the web. Much more helpful!



3. This guide is good most of the time but there are parts of it that are totally wrong. Lots of time it'll tell you to kill the guard and collect his gun. Only there is no gun there. This is either a problem with the game or with the book. There are so many bugs with the game it is hard to tell. Anyway, both the game and the book are terrible. Eidos should be embarrassed.



4. I'm on the 26th level, and this book got me through the last 25 levels. I'm so happy that Prima came out with this book. It tells where all the items you need are, it tells where all the secrets are, etc. It even gives detail on what you're supposed to do on both Lara and Kurtis's missions. It was very helpful to me, so it should be helpful to you!!!



5. A week after Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness came out, i bought my PS2. Along with the console and the game i bought Prima's *official* Strategy Guide. Upon starting to play, the first few levels are simple so there really isn't a use for the book until a level like Louivre Storm Drains and some of the levels following it. The guide helped me easily through some tough levels, but others like Louivre Galleries, i had serious problems. In the galleries, the guide instructed me to shimmy over four trip wires (2 of which were moving), i later came to find out this was IMPOSSIBLE. You instead must do a running jump over the wires from one of the display cases. Another problem surfaced in the Hall Of Seasons level. In that level i spent an hour trying to figure out why the door in the basement wouldn't open, i came to find out that you had to place 4 crystals by the entrance door (this wasn't mentioned in the guide). The guide caused me hours of frustration, making gameplay very uncomfortable. However, i'm giving this "official" guide 2 stars because it helped me through some levels in the game. The reason, i later found out, for these glitches in the book, were because Prima made this guide for the Sep. 02 release of AoD, they never updated it after the delays. This guide, in my opinion, isn't worth the almost twenty bucks i paid for it, the only thing i got out of this guide that was enjoyable was the full poster inside.

5 comments about Star Ocean: The Second Story -- Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. I had no idea how big this game was until I got this book. This is a very good guide, easy to understand and follow. Colorful maps and detailed item location. My only problem with this is in a few part (typically the ruins) the maps were a tiny bit hard to follow. A+++



2. I used to own the game and this guide. You'll have to severely nit-pick this guide to find anything missing/incorrect. The only mistake I found was that a sword that Claude can make was omitted. I'll let you try and see if you can find out which one. You'll find better swords though, so don't worry about it. Completionists will still get it easy enough.

   With all the things you can do in Star Ocean 2, I thought this guide would be full of holes. It wasn't. Prima did a job on this guide that far surpasses any work they have done before and since this game's release. I doubt that they or their competitors will ever surpass this kind of thurough research and quality.




3. Prima unleashed probably one of the most voyeristic walkthroughs out there. Very little is held back, letting you in on almost every item, Public Action, town, major secret, boss stat, relationship factor and the most imporant one: how to pickpocket.

   Okay, I'm joking on that last one, but to be honest, this is one of the best ones I've seen despite a few not-so-obvious spelling errors and a few (minor) mistaken facts. But other than that it is jam-packed and a worthy addition to your gaming needs. Too bad that the quality is only hindered by the flimsy material they used to make it, which really holds it back from a perfect score.

   Prima, this is how every guide of yours should be.




4. The prima strategy guide is a must have for anyone who wants to pursue different endings for Star Ocean: The Second Story. I highly recommand for video gamers to play and beat the game first before they buy a strategy guide.



5. This is, by far, the best guide you can have while playing Star Ocean. This guide is full of great tips and information that will help with every aspect of the game. There are detailed information on all the characters, monsters, weapons, Private Actions and much more.
   
   If you're like me and don't like to go online looking for some help and want something that you can thumb through, this is the guide to get.

5 comments about City of Heroes (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I use my book all the time. To help myself and to help other players. It is a little outdated in that it doesn't have the badges n it, but being that I have 2 computers, it is no biggie to pull the site up on one and the game on the other. Hubby and I both love it...though I use it more. : ))



2. The strategy guide is outdated, and should be revised for the current issue of city of heroes, the book still refers to the villains "council" as Fifth Column, and there are other things that are clearly outdated, it would be nice if Prima would take the time to give us a quality product, all in all, I would say, if there is a marketplace seller with a cheap price on this, go for it, it's been useful, but don't pay full price for an outdated strategy guide.



3. Very helpful guide. Much of CoH is not easy to understand and this guide really helps.



4. Sadly, this book was outdated and inapplicable the day it hit the stands. Repeated changes to the City of Heroes interface, infrastructure and gameplay have moved the game so far away from this book it often seems to be discussing an entirely different game. In many ways, it is.
   
   If you're looking for a quick start guide, strategy guide, or even just a collection of helpful hints, this is NOT the book you want.



5. After owning the paper-back original version of this guide for COH, I bought the ring-bound version. The ring-bound version is up-to-date through Issue #6 and it is in a totally different printed format than the paperback version. It is also designed differently and probably has much better information in it since it was created well after the game had been out for a long while. Go for the ring-bound version if you want more current information. The paper-back version is good for starting, and most of its basic strategies and concepts will help you design a good character with good powers.

5 comments about The Sims Makin' Magic (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. The Sims Makin Magic, the FINAL expansion pack for the original Sims has just been released. As with every pack, a prima game has released a strategy guide. There is something you have to understand before you purchase this item. Yes, it is helpful in figuring out what to do for the first few days, but almost all the information included you could look up on the internet. Also for the SEVENTH time now, over half of the book is devoted to the original Sims, while only the last part is set aside for the new expansion pack. It says in the book this is for all the people who have only the expansion that the book is talking about, but by this point almost everyone who is buying Makin Magic has at least one other expansion. This book is 240 pages long, and the Makin Magic section doesn't start until page 129. Every time a new expansion comes out, I buy it and the strategy guide, to see if they have changed their ways. I have been disappointed. This is a HUGE waste of trees and resources, not to mention money. The information was very helpful, and they have a FEW pages that I think I might refer to often, but if you really want the info that is in this book, go to thesims.com and read the transcripts or find a good fan site. You do not need this book to play the game, and the more guides I see in this format, the lower I will rate them because Prima just doesn't get it.



2. "The Sims Makin' Magic: Prima's Official Strategy Guide" is a great buy! It's chock full of useful tips and information and a must-have for any Makin' Magic fan. The first half of the book is a basic recap of the original "Sims" for anyone who doesn't already know how to play ;-) The second half details "Makin' Magic", everything from how to raise your dragon to spell lists to dueling tips. I found several sections especially helpful...

   A chart listing all the spells/charms and cookbook recipes and their ingredients was especially time-saving as I no longer had to keep running back to the family spell book/cookbook to check ingredients. The descriptions of each spell are also listed so you know what to expect and don't end up blowing your hard-earned MagiCoins on ingredients for a spell that doesn't even help you that much.

   This strategy guide is also packed with tips on how to complete quests, how to win a duel, where to find rare ingredients, info on magical rewards, funhouse designs, how to hatch a friendly dragon, and a helpful general guide on how to begin your highly rewarding magical career.




3. I played the game for about five hours and I made notes on spells and charms. I then purchased this book thinking it would give me a complete list of spells and charms and no it doesn't. It did give me everything that I had already wrote down.

   It only gave me one other spell and it doesn't say what it does you will just have to try it out and see. It gives you one other charm but it doesn't say what it does you will just have to try it out and see.

   I alread know how to play this game, I have every expansion for the Sims, I just wanted a complete spell book and I feel I was robbed.




4. I first purchased the expansion pack, Makin' Magic, and played with it for a day or so, and then I purchased this book on the expansion pack hoping for some tips and tricks and some more info on the game. Unfortunately, I didn't find what I was looking for. The book does have some good charts about what spells require which ingrediants and what it takes to do a spell right and takes you for an overview of the game, but there weren't any helpful tips except for one or two. And everything I read in there I had already figured out just by playing the game. There also aren't any cheats in this book like there are for the rest of the books (on the rest of the expansion packs). Overall, I found this to be a bit of a disappointment. If you are buying it with the game then I guess it'd be alright, but if you already bought the game and played around with it for a few hours then you know all this book can tell you.



5. In my opinion, I don't know wether to get because it is usefull, or not to get it because it isn't usefull. I have been dying to get the Sims Makin Magic since the time my friend told me about it. I own every Sims Expansion pack that there is. The original Sims, The Sims Livin Large, The Sims House Party, The Sims Hot Date, The Sims Unleashed, and The Sims Superstar. I was actually VERY disappointed in the Sims Superstar, but that's what I get for getting it just to spend my hard earned money. I thought that the book would be usefull, but when I heard that there are 240 pages and only 111 are devoted to The Sims Makin Magic, I was kinda bumed. Somebody, PLEASE help me make the write decision! (I only filled in the star because I had to, don't take my word based on the stars, do it based on my most likely unhelpful review because I haven't bought the book yet!)

5 comments about Final Fantasy Anthology Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games).

1. It really doesnt get better than this folks. This book has it ALL. There is absolutly nothing you could possibly want that isn't presented in this magnificent tome. In fact, you could go through the whole game plot and all just by reading the book! It is CHOCK FULL of pictures and is made of nice durable material with a semi-hard cover. ...



2. Although FFA was superbly done, this guide leaves...something to be desired. There wasn't much space devoted to character stats, and the mpas could have been presented in a better way. Overall, though, this guide will get you thourgh FFA, without giving away ALL of the plot, and giving you many of the secrets needed for mini-games, etc. A must buy for a FF fan, but not for many other people.



3. This is an essential guide for the Anthology. It covers weapons, armor, accessories, and abilities well. A few reservations, though: 1) There is no extensive list of where to get Blue Magic spells for FFV (you'll find hints scattered throughout the wlkthrough); 2) There is no clarification of which classes can equip a certain item for FFV. Otherwise, you cannot ask for a better guide.



4. This is a remarkable book with hints and tips on how to beat bosses, get secret items, and completely beat both 5 & 6. I would recommend you first try to beat it yourself before buying this book. If you still have trouble getting the best out of these games then go right ahead and buy it. If you still are stumped after looking at the book then I would give up and play another game.



5. My girlfriend got me this guide for Christmas the year the game came out. I wasnt to sure how well it would help me, mainly because Cassady had to cram two games into one book. Well, he managed to do it, and to do a hell of a job with it. Each game has step by step walkthroughs that are a great help and helps you with tons of secrets. This is a very good guide.

No comments about Mega Man X Command Mission(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Take Your Games Further).