No comments about World of Warcraft: Arthas (World of Warcraft).

1 comments about Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising Official Strategy Guide.

1. In 2012, the intro sequence of the game Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising tells us, the world went sane: everybody agreed to put an end to war. But not everyone was content with this paradise on earth -- and a couple of decades later some villains began spewing missiles all over the globe. And the only one to stop this madness is YOU -- as captain on the experimental cruiser "Antaeus". Even though new technology has made it possible literally to raise your soldiers from the dead, it is a tough job to be the only person able to save a planet. And this excellent strategy guide from Bradygames is exactly what a strategy guide should be, and ought to be used as such: not for cheating your way through the game, but as help in annoying, apparently impossibly difficult spots that else might make the player dump the game in frustration halfways through the campaign. Buy it, but use it only when you have to. In that case -- as for all PC game strategy guides -- it will serve you well and ensure that you get as much fun out of your game as possible.

No comments about Flights of "13Mike" Book 1: A Microsoft Flight Simulator Companion (Flights of).

2 comments about Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing.

1. Books on electronic gaming and video game culture predominantly concentrate on the history of the industry or on nostalgic returns to retro gaming, often punctuated with coloured photos and screenshots. Digital Play is one of the few books currently available that provides an insightful look into the social, cultural, and economic relationships between game players, and the engaging game texts, technologies, and market forces of the information age. As interactive gaming continues to establish itself as a major global media business, it becomes increasingly important for us to employ a critical perspective of the blossoming industry. Kline, Witheford, and Peuter's Digital Play couldn't have arrived at a better time.

   Digital Play is cleverly divided into three segments, each focusing on different bearings of interactive gaming but effectively converging into a single conclusive "coda." Discussion begins with a theoretical approach to analyzing gaming and its industry as it relates to circuits of interactivity including culture, technology, and marketing. Theoretical concepts collected from media theorists Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams, are successfully transferred to the medium of the videogame. What follows is a look at the existence of interactive gaming in a post-Fordist, and postmodern society of information technology and hyper-reality. This facilitates the understanding of historical circumstances of developing circuits of interactivity outlined in earlier chapters. While the first segment may seem theoretically and linguistically intense, it remains deeply involving and is ever mindful of the topic at hand: video games.

   The second segment of Digital Play covers the historical background of games from their early beginnings in the military-industrial complex to the relentless corporate firefight known to many as the "console wars." However, unlike previous electronic gaming texts, the historical accounts are retold stressing the importance of technology, culture, and marketing. Digital Play thus provides a fresh and extremely entertaining parade through electronic gaming's past. What readers may find most absorbing in this stretch are the political-economic struggles endured by the gaming companies (Atari for example) who pioneered the industry only to meet with fierce competition and an unstable market for interactive entertainment.

   The initial chapters of Digital Play concentrated on technology and communication studies, and the following chapters zeroed-in on history and marketing practices. However, this theoretical triad could not be complete without the presence of one more area of study: game culture as an industry and practice. In a chapter entitled "Workers and Warez" the authors examine gaming technologies on global levels of production and consumption, such as the exploitation of off-shore labourers and increasing levels of hacking, console "modding", and software piracy. Subsequent chapters provide studies in branding and licensing, violence and gender, and my personal favourite...political economy. Chapter 12 assembles the major themes of Digital Play, suggesting that Electronic Arts' best-selling game "The Sims" can be viewed as a microcosm of our own capitalist society, wrought with consumerist ideology. While we manipulate the digital Barbie dolls of our virtual technology, so too does a system of communication technologies, global enterprise, and postmodern digital culture manipulate our symbolic relationship with the logic of a capitalist system.

   I thoroughly enjoyed reading Digital Play and wouldn't hesitate to purchase any game-related books that any of the authors might publish in the future. Digital Play offers an engaging critical look at the gaming world's industry, technology, and culture, and should not be ignored by those looking to study interactive games from an academic viewpoint or by those simply looking for enjoyable reading.




2. "Digital Play" critically analyzes the video and computer game industry and theorizes about its significance in contemporary society. The book is somewhat unusual in that it is the collaborative product of three authors, but the writing seems to blend perfectly and makes for a consistent and high-quality read. The end product is an accessible and entertaining book that could serve to introduce a wide audience to critical postmodern analysis.

   Nick Dyer-Witheford of "Cyber-Marx" fame is one of the authors. Mr. Dyer-Witheford's influence is discernable in at least several sections where the post-Marxist themes of corporate control versus freedom that are evident in "Cyber-Marx" are used to very good effect. First, he deflates the wildly optimistic claims of techno-utopians such as Alvin Toffler, reminding us that technology remains in service to corporate profits and therefore narrows and limits the possibility of "choice, interactivity and empowerment" that digital games purportedly offer. Second, Mr. Dyer-Witheford points to piracy and hacking as evidence that freedom from corporate control and a return to "play" in its purest sense may yet remain possible.

   The authors contend that video games are worthy of serious study because they represent the "ideal-type" postmodern commodity. So whereas the automobile is closely associated with the "industrial capitalism" of the Fordist era, the video game embodies the "information capitalism" of today's "perpetual innovation" society.

   The ideal-type commodity does not mean that it avoids crisis, however. The authors posit that the accelerating "circuits" of technology, culture and marketing that drive postmodern society in general and the video game business in particular "can be broken or come into contradiction" in numerous ways. The authors go on to critique each of these three circuits and produce many pages of very thoughtful analysis.

   For example, an interesting aspect of the industry that is often overlooked is manufacturing and the international division of labor. Electronic game equipment is often produced by proletariat labor in the poor countries of the South for the benefit of relatively wealthy consumers in the North. The authors point out that the game industry, like most capitalist enterprises that exploit the so-called free trade system in search of higher profits, will find it difficult to develop new markets for its products until it is willing to pay its third-world factory workers enough money to stimulate demand. In fact, the authors state that corporate managers should not be too surprised when intellectual property gets pirated by people who feel that they have been cheated by the economic system.

   But probably the most stinging criticism concerns the close connection of games with Cold War research and development. The "militarized masculinity" that characterizes so many games originated here and has been perpetuated by corporate marketing in pursuit of profits. But the authors point out that if the industry fails to find successful alternative game genres and graphic violence continues to escalate, future interest in gaming may be jeopardized even as the potential damage to children exposed to such psychic intensity remains unknown.

   In short, "Digital Play" is highly recommended to everyone interested in deconstructing the multi-faceted and increasingly fantastical world that has been brought to us by the "military and entertainment" complex.

No comments about Tales of Destiny II: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

No comments about Ifr Flights of "13Mike" Book 2: A Microsoft Flight Simulator Action Book (Ifr Flights of).

No comments about Video Game Cheat Codes Vol.3 (Video Game Cheat Codes).

2 comments about Crusaders of Might and Magic (PC): Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. it was a very helpful book and I enjoyed the way they put things into words it really did help me out in the end where i needed the most help



2. this book was really helpful to me in the end i got lost and then this book helped me be found (i know corny sorry) but it really was a good book to have with this game.

2 comments about Lostech: The Mechwarrior Equipment Guide (Mech Warrior 1722).

1. A good adition to any serious Gamers reference library. A must for game organizers.



2. Goes into great detail about guns and equipment but doesn't give any history or real story behind these things like 3025 did or most of the other equpment books do. Reads more like a D&D weapon book than a good and informitive Battletech source. This is another example of late era FASA junk. It would have been great if they had written it in the mid '80s.

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

1. If you like the other sims games you will love this one! I read some of the others and they say it runs slow and etc. It may be cuz you don't have enough room on your computer. It runs fast and just right on my computer. Yes it is a lot of work to get the people to become a star but it is worth it. Even if you don't want to be a star there is so much new things. Like you can swim with fish, new doors, floors, walls,even roofs and much more. Its so cool to see people singing. It's also fun just to go down there and talk to people and even see stars from today! So if your into the sims this is a much have



2. One word discription BORING. I almost died but survived barely just to write a review. Don't give this book the time of day.



3. This Expansion Pack to the sims, the sims deluxe, or the sims double deluxe is the best expansion pack ever. what you have to do is live your life( Like every other sims game in the world) exept in this expansion pack only, you can become a famous celebrity. you earn your way up from singing kareoke to acting in a big time soap opera. you can hire an agent and see who the ten hot celebrities are. Also there is a few new items, like the sky diving machine(Expensive but it helps with body and fun), and the aquarium(Expensive also, but is the best thing for fun). they also heve a new pool tabe and a new weight set. in this expansion you can still get a pet. you also can get married and have children too. I'de say this is the game of the year. Plus i can't wait untill the sims 2 comes out.

   If you want anything e-mail me at kingtroy619@yahoo.com or go to my web page at www.freewebs.com/troys_cool_site and leave a messege on my guestbook.




4. I do not have this book or the game but i intend to get it for Christmas. For those of you who said most of it is for the regular sims, look at the title! COVERS THE ORIGINAL SIMS AND SIMS SUPERSTAR! I think this will be a very helpful book for many people. Also, yes it is challenging to get to be a star, I tried on my friend's computer, but if you were going to try to be a star in real life, it would be hard too! Just find out what your Sims like and make them do that a lot. And check their bars-bladder, hunger, energy, etc. to find out what theu need.



5. I found the second half of this book very useful in trying to learn and navigate the Superstar world. It had well-written instructions, tips, and general information on how to progress from a nobody to a superstar. This certainly isn't an easy career path, but if the game was easy, why would we play?
   
   The first half had some good information as well. This information is geared towards a beginner, which may be too basic for some. But my main complaint with this section, is that it hasn't been updated! Relationships are much harder (yet in a way easier) in these newer Sims games. It has been changed from a single relationship bar, to a double system. The top bar, for daily interactions, and an average bar, for a 'lifetime' score. I was wanting a more in-depth analysis of this new rating system, but this book doesn't even mention the change. It seems that the first part was written with the original Sims game, and has simply been tacked onto each and every variation of the Strategy Guide. Which is lazy writing, in my opinion.
   
   My other quibble, is that pages upon pages have been taken up showing (in black and white no less) each and every object you can buy. I really don't see the point to this, but others may find it useful.