5 comments about .hack Infection (Part 1) Official Strategy Guide.

1. Ok, for one thing I agree that you might not need a stradegy guide for it but if you like to use them like me I sugest this stradegy guide! But they could of added some stuf the guide is pretty short but the game is pretty short too expecially for what you had to pay for it before 50.00!!!!!!!!!! Also i very recomend FF10.



2. This guide isn't bad but it is missing some key info.
   
   1. Left out some item location. a few item locations were left out. While they are not that important, that shouldnt happen at all.
   
   2. Did not provide repsond for each character. Through out the game you can email you party member to gain GP. The proper respond allows you to gain extra points.
   
   3. Did not cover enough on the very important Monsieur and Grandpa sidequest.
   
   Other than that the guide has everything you would need about this game.



3. Being new to the .Hack series, I have found the guide extremly helpful in pointing out few tips and pointers to help you with the game.
   
   Anyone wanting to know Monster Stats, Item, Weapon and Trading Lists will not be disappointed, plus the excellent Grunty raising guide which provides you with High Level Weapons and Items very early on in the game!.
   
   Overall a very satisfying guide!
   Thank you, Doug Walsh.



4. This book was definitely helpful in a lot of ways. I did notice that there were some things that it did omit, but in a way that's a good thing. You can go through the game yourself this way and do a bit more exploring than the book goes through, so you can find things on your own. Over all this is a good buy.



5. this guide was everything I needed it for. The dungeon maps and the lists of the different items I could get and where and from what have come in handy many times as I have played the game. Also, my main goal for the first time i play the game is to get thru the story to unlock the movies and so on.... this guide has so far helped me to do just that....

2 comments about Diablo II: To Hell & Back (Dungeons & Dragons Accessory).

1. As an avid Diablo 2 fan I have anxiously awaited this new release in the Diablo storyline modules. The description of the product as covering the entire Diablo 2 game from Act One to Act Four merely wetted my appetite for more. Imagine my dissappointment to find a product containing poor guidelines for encounter levels, recycled artwork, pages of filler (repeated monster descriptions from Diablo 2: Diablerie,) and typos so obvious you would think that this was rushed into production and not seen by a proofreader. Any adventure whose pricetag is 50% higher than the price of the core books should be stunning in content and form, presented without errors, and be clear in the descriptions of game mechanics. I have only the highest praise for all the changes made to the new edition of the rules. The sliding exp scale, rewritten character classes, and the smoother combat all add to the enjoyment I and my players experience in our weekly sessions. The first Diablo adventure had us playing 8 hour marathon sessions each night for almost 2 weeks. Perhaps my expectations were too high for this product, but it is disappointing in falling short of the standards I have seen in other books recently. I am sure that any inconsistancies in the rules contained in the product will be brought up in a forum either on the web site or in Dragon Magazine, however nothing can take away from the flow of a session as greatly as a player stating "... but I read online that ..."



2. This book was poorly made, not worth your money. i don't know [who] wrote this but he really needs to go back to english classes. The book was not put in order. They just took the diablo II computer game and put it in a book without worrying about the rules of 3rd D&D.

   Do yourself a favor...Don't buy this book!

1 comments about The Pinball Compendium, 1930s-1960s.

1. I never buy books due to the fact you can read most stuff on the net. This book however, is so well researched and put together that I STRONGLY recommend buying it. There is so much informations, and a truck load of pictures of all sorts of tables.

No comments about Ninja Gaiden (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

3 comments about Legacy of Kain: Defiance (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I don't have a huge problem with the guide other than that it is not needed. The game is very short and you could beat it in a rental. They aren't any powerup item to miss. I got lost twice and the guide did help me out then but that isn't worth the cost of buying a guide. Go to gamewinners if you stuck instead.



2. The guide is helpful to find power ups and secret areas. Also tells you the bosses weaknesses. If you get lost somewere its better to go to gamefaqs or something but the artwok is good and great for those occasinol stuck places. Worth $10



3. The developers didn't make much progress with plot development - so fans of the original Legacy of Kain will be disappointed in that regard. Although, if you've bought every single game up until this point, you're used to that.
   
   What is great about this one is that they have *finally* revamped the controls of Kain and Raziel so that fighting is what you would expect it to be given that you are superhuman, and the controls are greatly improved.
   
   Fixed camera angles bring their own share of joys and troubles. Just lettin' you know.
   
   I definitely recommend buying this if you can get it for less than $20. Totally entertaining.

5 comments about Myst URU: Complete Chronicles (Prima Official Game Strategy Guide).

1. It is a little tough to give a complete review for I just started the game. So far the guide has been helpful when I got stuck.



2. As a long time explorer in the MYST universe, I am very familiar with its mythos and conventions, and therefore any product which deals with these comes under close examination for validity and usefulness. I am glad to report that as they so often do, PRIMA has gotten it right in their guide to MYST: URU. The guide serves two purposes, firstly to aid you in solving the game's puzzles if (and when) you get stuck, and secondly to enhance the players gaming experience with its artwork, hints and extra information both about the game and its creators, Cyan.
   
   The 'explorers aid' sections are divided between a fast walkthrough, giving the most direct path from beginning to end, and also a more immersive 'narrated' walkthrough giving softer hints for solving the puzzles and helping to creatively visualise the exploration experience. Both are useful, the former if you want only to complete the game and see all its 'puzzle secrets' revealed, and latter if you prefer to truly immerse yourself in discovering the 'artistic secrets' and exploring the ancient cultures and histories created by Cyan. This second portion is written from the point of view of a fictional explorer who has walked the paths of URU before you, and has left journals of their travels. Therefore the solutions to puzzles are revealed gradually, allowing players to read only so far and (hopefully!) solve the rest of each puzzle themselves.
   
   Also included in the guide is a substantial colour section on the origins of Cyan, the MYST series and how URU came to be. If you are interested in how the Miller brothers began this epic saga in the very beginning, or in the various fascinating techniques involved in producing a game like URU, then this section has some amazing personal interviews and historical information about Cyan and its employees which kept me reading until I had finished it; I couldnt put it down! In fact, this was the first part of the guide I read, and I think for many MYST fans, the most interesting.
   
   However, whether you are a diehard fan of the series, or if URU is your first foray into the universe of MYST, PRIMA's guide is an invaluable resource, both for its in-game assistance, and for its mind-expanding art and factual information. Enjoy!



3. this was here so much sooner than the quoted time! thanks for such great quality and speedy delivery! i didn't even pay for a rush!



4. Great to receive the book in a timely manner.
   
   Regards
   
   Joyce Parratt



5. An incredible game. While the online portion of this game has been on- and off-line several times due to technical and non-game-related issues, this offline version is very playable. A series of fascinating worlds that as of this date, five years after its original release, fail to be duplicated even nearly by any other game. While some games will have much more sophisticated-seeming graphics *techniques*, this game is much more sophisticated *artistically*. The puzzles are intelligent and immersive (see my review of Myst 4 and 5), and are engaging enough that you'll want to play it, then give it to your kids to play, and help them play it, it's very viral and intelligent.

5 comments about Street Fighter? Anniversary Collection Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Take Your Games Further).

1. The Street Fighter Anniversary Collection Official Startegy Guide is a very good, it goes well with the game. Very well actually. There is alot of useful information is this guide about both of the games present in The Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. The guide list every character present in both Hyper Street Fighter and Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, plus it also lists every move in each mode in Hyper Street Fighter for each character and it also lists every move for each character in Third Strike with a brief description of each move and frame data of each move. It also lists some strategys for each character and bad match ups for each character. And as an extra treat it comes with the Third Strike soundtrack. This is definitly worth reading. FINAL ATOMIC BUSTER!!



2. I got the guide in the mail today. Just upon flipping through it quickly, it is definetly a good guide. So before I criticize it at all: If you want to learn to play SF3: Third Strike, this is a great guide, and is the best way, [...]so it's worth it without a doubt.
   
   Anyway, so when you actually use the guide, and try to use it to get better with a character, you may run into some problems. First off, there are definetly some mistakes. From looking at the Oro page, some of the descriptions don't match the actual move, as in just a typo, printing error..but still could confuse a newbie.
   
   Also, the thing that REALLY annoys me about the guide is how it labels each move of a character. For an example of what I mean, everyone knows Ryu's special moves: Hadou-Ken, Shoryuken, and the whirlwind kick. But have you ever heard of...Sakotsu Wari? Me neither. But apparently, Sakotsu Wari is F+MP, Ryu's overhead punch. Now, that would be fine, but it is definetly NOT fine when the guide says to use Sakotsu Wari when the opponent is crouching, and I have no idea WTF Sakotsu Wari is, so I have to flip back to the moves index, only to find out that I would have understood them 100% if they had just said F+MP, which they said previously in the guide anyway. That applies to all of the characters.
   
   My last beef is the so called "matchups". It seems for most characters, the matchups are total bull****. For example, Q's good matchup is...Twelve? Uh, okay. Twelve sucks. Everyone's good against Twelve. Let's look at Twelve matchups. Twelve's good matchup is...CHUN-LI? I don't think so. I think most scrub Chun-Li's would beat the [...] out of any Twelve. But the guide's reason for this is that Chun-Li has no standard anti-air...uh..so what? He's frickin Twelve. He sucks.
   
   ANYWAY, those aside, this is a really awesome guide. What surprised me is that it even goes into advanced tactics like Makoto's Kara-Karakusa/her Abare Tosanami combos. With that said, some combos and tactics are noticeably missing, like Makoto's 100% stun combo, Kara-Oroshi/Fukiage, etc., but that's alright.
   
   Overall, I'd say this is something that people who want to get into 3rd Strike should pick up, because it has up-to-date tactics, and most of the combos and info you're going to need when you want to learn a character, and an easy-to-read and easy-to-find page for each one. Plus, it comes with the 3rd Strike soundtrack. That alone is worth the 10 (LESS!) dollars that this'll cost you.



3. It's really simple: if you own and actively play 3rd Strike, and have any will or drive to be a competitive player, then you really should own this. Frame data, matchup information -- all the good stuff that you should want and should expect to see in a GOOD fighting game strategy guide is included here. This is not your old-school, garbage Mortal Kombat guide that you bought on a whim while browsing the bookstore: this is real information provided by real, top competitive USA players of the game. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.



4. Didn't tell me much that i didn't already know. It's not a bad reference though.



5. I grew up playing SFII and later versions in arcades and pizza shops, so I'm more old school. However, when I transitioned to SFIII, I started to enjoy the controls and gameplay. I bought the guide for playing Third Strike on my PS2. The illustrations are great in this guide. Practice makes for a better player.

1 comments about Ratchet: Deadlocked (with DVD) (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. I got this guide a little bit after the game. It's really helpfull. It helped me beat the game. It gives you descriptions of every gun and mod, and armor. The walkthrough is also good too. And it gave me a really good tip on how to beat Vox in the end. So if you have trouble with this game, buy the guide, it will help.

4 comments about ShaderX3: Advanced Rendering with DirectX and OpenGL (Shaderx Series).

1. Shader X3: Advanced Rendering With DirectX And Open GL compiled, organized, and deftly edited by Wolfgang Engle (Senior Special FX Engineer at Wings Simulations) is packed from cover to cover with 630-pages of insightful new techniques, innovative approaches to common problems, as well as practical tools and tricks that will help in all areas of shader programming. All of the articles comprising Shader X3 evolved from the the working experiences of industry professionals, and all of the sections were expertly edited by shader programming experts. This comprehensive collection of ready-to-use techniques will enable even the most novice programmer to get up to speed quickly, and the more experienced programmers will find a wealth of insights and techniques to improve efficiency and avoid redundancies. Shader X3 is an essential, "user friendly", and highly recommended instructional reference for shader programmers.



2. This book is a collection of forty-seven articles around the common theme of shading images in real time. Many of these effects have been common in the movie world for many years, but in that application the shading can be done on very expensive machines and the time it takes to produce an image is not important because the resulting image is to be shown on screen rather than immediately on a display. Now, with the increasing power in the PC's in widespread use, these techniques are being brought down to the standard desktop.
   
   In this book a wide selection of authors discuss the start of the art in shading. They are, for the most part, active professionally in the graphics display business. A number of them work for ATI, the video card manufacturer, a number work for gaming companies, or for companies producing software used in gaming.
   
   This approach provides for a fast time to print, rather than one author taking a year to write the book. In this industry a year is a lifetime, well, at least a generation in the software.



3. I've bought many other rendering books like GPU Gems series, and I think this book is more practical for game developers compared with the other books. It explains many useful algorithms in good details and covers many aspects that a serious game developer should consider. As a game engine programmer, I think this book is a very good reference for me.



4. Its hard for me to treat the books of this series separately (ShaderX 3, ShaderX 4, ShaderX 5). They are all very good books of GPU-Gems level or higher. In comparison with GPU Gems, they are more academic, i. e. they are rather short and more applicable to wide range of applications then GPU Gems ones (while GPU Gems series is more scientific, state of the art, considering one particular research) and the accompanying CD is much more better (lots of working examples, most with source code).
   Sections (Image-Space, Shadows) are also very helpful to figure out what is useful for you.
   This series is not for beginners anyway, so please, go Cg Tutorial or DX SDK Tutorial and don't put 2 or 3 marks for these books because you can't cope with them.

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.