5 comments about Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Collector's Edition (Revised): Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. I would like to review this product, but I can't because I don't own it yet. I ordered it almost 6 months ago from Amazon using super saver shipping. I keep getting delay notifications from Amazon stating: "We're still trying to obtain the following item[s] you ordered". But everytime I've viewed the item on the web page it states: "In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.". Maybe if you pay for shipping you'll actually get it.



2. It looks like I will never have to look anything up on the internet for this game. as for everyone complaning there is no index they must not have looked through it good enough. if you check the very last page there is a content page with page numbers for each task, equipment, moves and abilities, characters, enemies, bosses, overworld maps, enviromental effects, weapons,dungeon and the legendary checklist. though even if it did not its nothing to cry about b/c the guides so straight forward that you should not even need any help.sure there is alot of content and going through it all is exausting but its better to be exausted then to be lost and miss something. XD



3. This guide tells you everything you need to know to beat the game and the artwork is beautiful. Best guide for this game available.



4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Guide Collector's Edition is a very well written and well made. This guide is very very good.



5. A must have for the Zelda Twilight Princess. You'll get a complete walk through of all the ins and outs of the game and shows all hidden compartments.

No comments about Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

5 comments about Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design.

1. Wow, it Big, It heavy and yes my Friends it is a red Brick, But it well worth ever cent and every page. Packed full of Useful Information and Helpful Tutorials it writen with the Lamen in mind. and take you into the Skills needed to make almost a full game. The one thing it lacks is the swcripting language section. But this is forgivable as it would make the book way bigger and much more complex to read if you a new guy trying to make a few little Deathmatch levels.



2. I just bought this book, and although It seems like it's going to be great, my major problem is finding either Maya PLE 5.0's registration number, or Maya 7.0 PLE and its registration number.
   the Autodesk site only has Maya PLE 8.5 to download and there are only plug-ins for Unreal for Maya 5.0 PLE and Maya 7.0 PLE (note: there is no version for the regular Maya)
   So it kind of leaves you stuck with nothing to use. There is also nothing on the net about it either.



3. I am a Game Art Development student, and this book has been indespensible in aiding in my understanding of the Unreal Editor. Without this book, I'm sure that it would've taken me waaaaayyy longer to get things done than the limited time that I had. Even though the book is more expensive than the game itself, it is a must have for any aspiring modder or game creator.



4. This book like many others I've tried to learn from comes with useless tutorials because it uses Maya 5.0 which also requires you to obtain a key for it. You cannot get a key so you cannot install it and Maya only lets you download 8.5 now so the plugins you need that the book CD comes with are useless.
   Its as useless as "Game Programming All in One third edition". Never again will I buy any book on programming that was written over a year ago because the software updates so fast that the resources you need that the books come with are always useless.



5. Bad quality figures, bad quality of press, but, these are the smaller defects.
   It is the most useless book you can buy.
   In Internet Unreal fans communities you can find more useful tutorials and, surely, more easier to read. Sincerely, I don't understand how it is possible publish a book as this. I haven't intention to denigrate the author, I think he will be able to write better, in future. Only, I'sorry to throw my monies.

5 comments about Pirate Guidelines, The: A Booke for Those Who Desire to Keep to the Code and Live a Pirate's Life (Pirates of the Caribbean).

1. Just as 'Cliff Claven' had all the answers on "Cheers" (or at least he thought so), Mr. Gibbs has all the answers to your questions about POTC. This book of guidelines provides quite a bit of info on POTC and also about pirates in general. A must if you're a POTC fan. Very enjoyable!



2. This is actually a good book. It would be really good for the tween to teen ages, but for adults, it gets the job done. It is entertaining and can actually give you a semi-working set of rules for Pirate conduct. If you have all the moves for Pirates of the Caribbean, this is a very good addition to that collection.



3. This is a book I've wanted to buy for a long time, and I was not disappointed. Not only does it shed some light onto some mysteries of the POTC universe but its also informative about ship life and piracy in general. Great read!



4. How can anyone not rate this book 5 stars. The book is based on the premise that Mr. Gibbs wrote down the pirate code since he was always explaining it on all three POC movies. Its an easy read and a very thorough narrative of pirate history. I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more than what POC has taught us about pirates.



5. Pirate Guidelines, The: A Booke for Those Who Desire to Keep to the Code and Live a Pirate's Life is a great pirate book! I love the POTC movies! "They really are more like guidleines... than actual rules." lol

5 comments about Complete Adventurer: A Guide to Skillful Characters of All Classes (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement).

1. Been a player for almost three decades. Always seem to be a Dungeon Master and this book is helpful, though lately I tend to just sort of make up rules as I go along.
   
   For those role players who like to read, try The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This book is about a teen who role plays, goes to another world and uses the skills learned through roleplaying to help him survive. It's an action packed book that's hard to put down. Role Players rejoice!



2. This book, besides new classes, and prestige classes, contain a lot of information about new spells for all classes and feats that may lead your new adventures. I rate it OK. a must have book.



3. I find this book very helpful in my D&D games. With the new prestige classes introduce, I have completed my characters and so have my fellow gamers. I would recommend that any serious gamer aquire this book for their collection. It could be a life saver.



4. As an ardent D&D DM, I collect all the generic source books when I can. Some are so-so, but this is one of my faves. Lots of general stuff for players and NPCs, and less "weird/nutty/overpowered or dumb" Prestige classes.
   -The prestige classes in the book are pretty good, more for folk who preffer "quest/Roleplaying" than "hack n' slash". The vigilante, dread pirate and street fighter fit in well with "rough and ready", city campaigns and the like.
   -Most of the feats are pretty good (though I don't like the one that lets you use a weapon in off hand as light, uh, no, too much potential for abuse)
   
   Over all, pretty good if you're more "adventure/rp" and less "munchkin with dice", but the things in it are good "crunch" as well as "fluff"...it's nice though to see more believeable stereotypes brought to life in the PrCs, and be useful, such as the streetfighter and bloodhound.
   -It also adds the "Ninja" as a full class, and the Scout. I dislike the scout's "skirmish" ability as it makes no sense (more damage while firing on the move, eh? Sorry, not believable), but many will like the Ninja, which is different enough from the rogue for them not to overlap too much, and still be cool to play.
   
   :)



5. Aplicable to all classes to one degree or another. Very fun content and totaly worth the price.

5 comments about The Video Poker Edge: How to Play Smart and Bet Right.

1. An excellent treatment on Video Poker. Gives, as all these guides do, a quick overview of what is involved in playing Video Poker. Then she delves into the deeper aspects of choice of game which is based on the printed paytable and its implied "expected return" and volatility level. You see some games while having very attractive payoffs for those very rare hands, require a substantially higher bankroll to play with a reasonable expectation of achieving the theoretical long-term payoff while others with lower payoffs (but more frequent) require less bankroll. Lots of tables are included containing all the really essential stuff sought after by the serious Video Poker player. Now if you are NOT a serious player, this book can still be a valuable investment because there are removable strategy cards at the end of the book covering all the most common machines. Those alone were worth the price of admission.



2. This book doesn't provide much in strategy that you can't find on the net or elsewhere. I was looking for some well formated strategy charts for non-full pay games, and this book was not good for that need.
   
   One positive section was the discussion of VLTs in many racinos and bars in several states (e.g. bars in Louisiana). VLTs are not VP machines based on random number generators.
   
   The strategy cards are terrible and I think my copy was missing a page (there was a tear showing a previous perforation). If you play VP in large casinos on the strip, you won't be playing full pay games.



3. Excellent, understandable and I'd rec. to any one looking for a 'how to' on video poker



4. This is a very well written book for beginners. Other authors on this subject introduce their books as suitable for a beginner in the first few chapters but the following chapters are difficult for the novice to read and understand. Linda Boyd, perhaps because she is an educator, writes clearly and fully introduces new vocabulary before using new terms in her explanations.



5. I was looking for a book on video poker that covered most of the recent games and optimal strategy for those games. The book does just that, and more....

5 comments about Viva Pinata: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. I don't usually get game guides because they spoil the fun, but sometimes you just want to know what kind of fertalizer to use, and this one tells you everything. It's a good reference for those who don't want to take notes on a game that is purely for fun.



2. One can get quite far in the game by just paying attention, experimenting and luck; however, sometimes it's nice to have a reference when you want to attract a particular Pinata or produce a particular variation. While a lot of this information is freely available on the web, I find having a book to flip through, more practical while playing the game.



3. I will keep this review short and sweet. Many have covered the basics.
   
   Viva Pinata is not new. My son has been playing it for a while now and the progress has been steady, but slow. I felt that he is starting to loose interest or at least, I'm starting to feel useless.
   So i decided to get this guide. The first ever guide i get for any game (I'm 36 and i've been gaming since i was 6).
   
   Man did it change his life. I was blown away by how much of this game is revealed, new challenged uncovered and objectives to look forward to.
   
   And Unlike the reviewer who thought this came out late. I think all Strategy Guides should come out a year or more post game release. It will add so much more replay value, renew interest in a game, almost removing a shroud. Interest in a game would be prolonged...
   
   And, as a bonus, my kid is actually forcing himself to read through the book, page by page.
   
   That alone is worth 5*s



4. But found that this game is fun for all ages. It has it's childish moments, it's bright colors, cute little pinatas running around and funny noises; but there really is no substitute to the kind of gaming enjoyment this game will provide. It's kind of a SIMS crossed with the original cartoon. You control the pets, take care of them and protect them from the bad pinatas in hopes of creating secret pets and luring newer and better pets in to your gardens. The features and pretty abundant and all add to the variety of game play allowed. I wouldn't feel bad recommending this game to my friends or allowing my 5 year old child to play.
   
   The only thing I would like to warn the parents about that may be thinking about giving this to their kids is the pets are able to reproduce and create little pinatas that are delivered as eggs to the loving parent pinatas. Basically two pinatas are looking for love, you get them together, play a mini game. Upon successful completion of the mini game the pinatas do a dance...literally. A cut scene shows the pinatas do a variety of world dances to the appropriate music. I only mention this because I don't want parents complaining that no one warned them that the game may cause little Timmy or Janie to ask questions about where babies come from. Regardless of that, I'd recommend this game for all ages.



5. As far as game guides go this is one of the most complete I have encountered. It makes a great book to have handy when you are sitting there and playing. It's not laid out as a walkthrough, but rather as an encyclopedia of sorts. Because Viva Piñata is so open-ended, it makes this layout the best method. You can easily glance through the book and if you see a piñata you like, you can see all the prerequisites that go into attracting it and getting them to stay, plus any of the extra color variations of them you can obtain. The book also makes it a whole lot easier to go buy items when you can look right in the book and know the cost and variations before you even head to the village to shop. Some guide books can ruin the experience of a game by providing you every step that you should be taking, this book on the other hand becomes that ultimate game manual that you never had. So grab yourself the Piñata bible and go out there and get gardening!

5 comments about Cycle of Hatred (World of Warcraft) (World of Warcraft).

1. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an easy read, with a good plot. If you are looking for a book with a lot of World of Warcraft history, you won't find it in this book. What you will find is a good fantasy story set in the World of Warcraft universe involving "big name" characters.



2. I tried reading it twice...read for a bit and decided i didnt like it and put it back on my shelf, decided a few weeks later to try it out again...still couldn't finish it let alone get past where i stopped reading the first time (which wasn't far)..completely uninteresting...



3. I've read all of the Warcraft novels released thus far, played all the games, and spent 2 years playing World of Warcraft. Knowing all that coming into this book, I was left with feelings of disappointment when I finished.
   The book really brings nothing to the table concerning the major characters of Jaina and Thrall. As other reviewers have noted, they just don't seem like themselves in this book compared to how we've seen them characterized in the past. The main villain is hardly memorable and just seems to be thrown in as a plot device rather than fleshed out into something evil and interesting.
   The saving grace for this book is a deeper look into the history of the Guardians of Tirisfal and Aegwynn. Other than Jeff Grubb's The Last Guardian, there doesn't seem to be much out there on this chapter of Warcraft's history. Even that isn't enough to justify purchasing the book though.
   This book is only for hardcore fans who can tolerate a bad book, or for those who absolutely have to experience all things Warcraft. I'd recommend Richard Knaak's Warcraft novels if you're just looking at diving into Warcraft books.



4. As a semi-casual WoW player, I probably would never have picked this up, if I hadn't been absolutely book-less a few minutes before a 10-day at-sea cruise. I saw this book, and the War of the Ancients trilogy. The WotA books just looked, well, boring, and daunting. So I got this book.
   
   I'm so very glad I did. I enjoyed it immensely! The inaccuracies mentioned in other reviews, while existent, didn't really take away from the story, in my humble opinion.
   
   This book is really what sparked my love of Warcraft lore. I loved reading about the places and people that I'd visited and seen in the game, and even now, two-plus years after reading it, passages still stick in my mind as I gallop through Azeroth, four characters later.
   
   As a Warcraft newcomer, I felt that I got a better grasp and a better love of the virtual world my characters inhabited by reading this book.
   
   On a slightly unrelated note, I thought it was great how the publishers highlighted Jaina on the back cover of this book, thought it would have been nice if, you know, the front cover reflected the book's main focus at all. I suppose that the publishers felt that they needed a fight on the front to sell a book.
   
   Really, though, I've recommended this book to people who don't know or like WoW, and they've loved it, just as I did. In fact, this book is what convinced my cousin and my roommate to start playing WoW with me. They play Horde, but created Alliance alts just so I could show them Jaina.
   
   Yeah. It's that good of a book. Well, it's no Chaucer, and perhaps it's more of a marketing tool than a book, but it's enjoyable, none the less. :)



5. This was a good book, and well worth reading, but I didn't like it as much as the other Warcraft Novels.

1 comments about The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology.

1. Curious minds that have delighted in games will love this book! I adored the compilation of shared thoughts from "Who's Who" in game design. Aesthetically, the book is so cute! My copy sits on my coffee table. The book had me at the cover...

5 comments about Dungeon Master's Guide II (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement).

1. Overall this book contains about 50 pages of useful materials. The rest is really just fluff and made for a beggining gamer/DM who needs ideas for their campaigns.
   
   I would recomend just buying a low level adventure if your starting out as a DM, and save your money on this book as its quite expensive for what you get.
   
   For those who are familiar with the game, there is usefull material in the book on items, treasure charts, etc. Its just a smaller portion of the book.
   
   If you have an extra $35 dollars go for it, it not don't worry your not missing much.



2. While this book is not nearly the resource that many of the more staple books are, like the Epic Handbook and PHB2, it is still extremely useful to add more flavor to the campaign. It gives some very good tips to create details and subtlties that make the campaign much more real without seeming narrated to the players. Anyone creating a new campaign could benefit with some of the examples in the Saltmarsh city, novice and veteran players alike.
   
   There are also new and interesting traps, items, and rules that make this book very useful. I havn't read anyone talking about the Teamwork benefits, which are very interesting to me. I intend to implement them into my next campaign, assuming the players want to use any of them. The basic idea is that the group has worked and trained together, so they have studied each other to an extent that you gain special abilities and even feats when certain conditions are met. For example, a character with high Spellcraft and the Evasion ability can teach the rest of your party when to dodge a spell cast by a teammate. This means that the mage can cast fireball right on the fighter wading into melee and he gets to avoid the damage on a reflex save.
   
   The new items, magic locations, and traps have some good ideas behind them, but nothing that a clever DM can't come up with on their own. I'm not saying they are useless, but many are hard to place into a campaign. The magic locations grant the owner specific powers and abilities, but in order for the players to get the location, it almost has to be the entire focus of the campaign. Very few are "side-quest" material, and the majority can take several sessions to get to, capture, find reagents to use them, and defend in order to reap the marginally useful benefits.
   
   Most of the rest of the book is given over to npcs. There is a very large section of sample npcs to use for a fight. Unfortunetly, many aren't optimized, but that doesn't prevent them from being used by a lazy DM that doesn't feel like leveling up every single important npc in case the players fight him. There is also a section on making npcs more distinctive. This can easily be skipped over since DMG1 has a very similar section.
   
   Overall, I have to say there is some interesting material and ideas to make a campaign world more interesting and unique. On the other hand, nothing in this book is game-changing. Useful? yes. Needed in any way? no



3. All right. Let's begin with a discussion of irony. Not irony as in the Alanis Morissette song (the greatest irony of which almost none of the things she calls ironic actually are). Instead we will talk about true irony.
   
   Those of you who have read my previous reviews may have noticed a certain resistance to a phenomena I call "prestige class bloat." DMG II arrived at my door a bit late for a review copy, and I had some time to think about how I would view the prestige classes in this book. Every other book has drawn my anger, my disdain, sometimes even my pity for their prestige classes. But this book, I thought, "You know . . . I'm gonna give them a pass on this book. They might put the contents into the SRD at some point (it's possible). I'll let this one go."
   
   And there are no prestige classes in this book.
   
   I might weep. I might actually weep.
   
   Anyway. We won't hold that against them. We won't. My review will be objective. Honest.
   
   Actually, that won't be very hard. There's a lot to like in this book. Almost everything is useful. Some of it is downright insightful. When I reviewed the first DMG all those year's ago (all right, the first 3.x DMG . . . I'm not that old, people) I was amazed at how good the advice was. This wasn't just a set of DM specific rules, it really was a guide to being a good DM.
   
   So here we are, years later, holding DMG II.
   
   Chapter 1 deals with the actual running of a game. Now, in many ways this chapter resembles the Gamemaster's Law product from ICE. For years I've said that was the best book on GMing ever written. I'm friends with one of the authors. I'm crushed to say this, but, I like this one better. The bits on how to actually run are pretty blaise, although if your DM routinely shows up surly, sleepy and unwashed you might make him read this book. No, the true genius is the treatment of the different play styles. There was a lot of insight here I've missed over the years. In this section they talk about the different type of players and how to tailor a game for them . . . most importantly, they talk about how to avoid the pitfalls caused by these players. For instance, I've had problems with "Outliers" over the years. These are the players that choose strange class/race combinations, bizarre backgrounds, and seem to set themselves up to fail. An outlier can cause a great deal of trouble in a game if they go out of control at a bad moment. This book gave the simplest advice, to give the outlier the opportunity, a specific set up, to allow him to fail spectacularly early in the session, when it won't hurt anything. By doing this you'll avoid the problem of the character imploding later and taking your plot line with him. It's the simplest advice, but I've missed it for years, and now I know. I'm anxious to put it into use.
   
   Chapter 2 deals with adventures. Now, this was sort of a ho hum chapter for me. When it's useful, I expect it to be very useful, but otherwise I doubt I'll ever look at it. It gives a section on using published adventures that I hope no one needs to read (but if you do, study it. I'm going into business as an e-publisher). It follows this up with some new traps, which are probably the most consistently useful thing in the chapter. Then it moves on to strange locations, such as the tree top city and all the rules necessary for play there. Then it moves onto special encounter rules, such as how to deal with mobs, which again, could be useful. Finally it wraps up with miniature and encounter advice, which was fine.
   
   Chapter 3 deals with building a campaign. Most of the advice is pretty good, but the detailed examples of some medieval environments was truly spot on. I've studied a lot about medieval culture (I'm no expert, but above the gamer layman) and I thought they did a fine job here, especially in examining the fine line between realism and the style of play that is conducive to a good game. You absolutely need to compromise to find the perfect ground between the two, and I loved this book for even trying it. The rest of the chapter treats with general subjects like building a city or magical events and I looked upon it and I called it good.
   
   Chapter 4 outlined the city of Saltmarsh. You know, I could have done without this chapter. I mean it was fine and all, but I thought the locale was a little too evocative of specific images to be as universal as a city in a book like this needed to be. We needed a Homlet, or better yet, a location that doesn't carry the baggage of roleplaying history with it (either good or bad). This chapter just didn't work for me as is. No offence to the writer. I believe this one went astray at conception (and as a game designer, I know the feeling. I've taken the fall for decisions that weren't mine in at least one book.)
   
   Chapter 5 deals with NPCs. Its starts with a treatment of contacts and hirelings, plus a section on unique abilities. Then it hops into my favorite part, the complex NPCs. Lets face it, when you suddenly need a Blackgaurd, you need it now and it's not something you can wing and do it justice. This section gives a nice sampling of these types of difficult-to-improvise characters.
   
   Chapter 6 is the character chapter, it starts with apprentices and mentors and moves on to running a business. Then it hits on teamwork benefits, like those given by special training in Heroes of Battle. I'm still glad these were added into the D&D system and I'm anxious to see more. Then it moves onto prestige classes. Sigh. Now, I was willing to see a few prestige classes in this book, hoping they'd make it into the SRD. Let's face it, only so many people can create versions of the Knight before you're accidently stepping on a half-dozen copyrights. I doubt anyone would sue you over retreading the same ground as everyone else, but we need to stop beating this poor horse. Still, they went a different way. This section is on how to build even more prestige classes. When I read the words, "Why make your own prestige class?" I wanted to find a set of precision needles and stick the one after another into my eyes. Flash forward ten years. "Why did he kill so many people, officer?" "Well, prestige class bloat was bad enough, but then they came out with DMG II. It was the beginning of the end." The chapter wraps up with some stuff on PC organizations.
   
   Finally, the finishes with expanded magic item rules. The book needed this section, and I was happy with it. Of particular note is the section on magical locations which are essentially giant, immobile magic items. These types of locations have worked their way into my campaigns several times over the years. I was happy to see them here.
   
   Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would recommend that everyone who intends to run a game read at least the first chapter. I thought it alone was worth the cover price, and so if you can find a good use for the other material in the book, so much the better. Now I'm going to take a nap an imagine a world where prestige classes are few, balanced, and in some way prestigious.



4. This book has several good points. It has some new material and a few new things for players and GM's alike. It's one irritating thing is the number of "after you buy the canned game book spend 4 hours reviewing it". It could have had a lot more things to help those of us with a creative mind that like to generate our own worlds. It is, overall, worth the money.



5. I'm not going to go into this review too much; understand that my depth of dungeon mastering goes above and beyond the norm and I can get very wordy with my critiques. The DMG 2 (Dungeon Masters Guide 2) is AMAZING and should've been the first installment instead of the second. Know this. Wizards of the Coast were under pressure to produce the 3.5 system and needed to get a guide on the shelf that cohesively conveyed game rules and mechanics. Of course there were sections to help a DM create a game world; however nothing that compares with the DMG2. As backward as this might sound, if there are any beginner Dungeon Masters out there who might be struggling with campaign/world creation - the DMG2 is going to put everything into perspective and read much more like a normal guide than stereo instructions (so to speak).