5 comments about World of Warcraft Official Strategy Guide.

1. It has everything you need to understand how to start a new character and get around the world of Azeroth. There were lots of good pointers on how to play the different races, the different classes and what servers would be best for your gameplaying style.



2. The guide is a good start for someone who has no idea about WOW. It gives details about what you should do as a beginner.
   
   For those who are already familiar with the basic stuff, this is still good as you can take this as a reference guide and use it whenver you need it.



3. For first time players you should invest in this book. It was a world of help to me. Have fun!



4. If you're very new to World of Warcraft, and have no access (or awareness) of the multiple websites that provide a lot of info and other guides to playing the game, this book would be useful for you. There are maps of most of the original WoW (not expansion) areas, as well as names, level info, and quest info. There's also some information on each class and race (again, not expansion).
   
   Again, there are websites that has every bit of info that this book has, and in a more updated state, but this book still is a good adjunct to that.
   
   Of course, if you haven't bought anything yet, I strongly recommend buying the battlechestWorld of Warcraft Battlechest, since you get this book, as well as 2 games, and the expansion guide with it. Just realize that I don't care for the expansion guide, but since anyone buying this guide is likely new to WoW, by the time they get to the expansion, they won't need the expansion guide anyway.



5. This is a great book for telling you who is in what village and that besties there are in what area. But that is where it ends. It does give information on the races, classes, and professions, but it is nothing that you couldn't get for free on the many websites out there for WoW.

5 comments about Tomb Raider: Legend: The Complete Official Guide.

1. I'm very happy with this guide. It is very detailed with nice photos. It came in good time and in excellent condition. A little long to read and it does not stay open by itself but very informative and I am happy that I purchased it.



2. I bought this book almost a year after I bought and played the game. First of all, there is only 1 down-side on this book, I expected more page filling art works, scetches, of pictures of the locations. Sure they are in it too, but small and too few.
   But never the less, don't let this spoil the book, because for the rest I found it very handy (and nice) to read. It's written in a funny way, clearly by somebody who also enjoyed playing the game and writing this book, Everything is explained in a clear way, making it sound almost too easy to get all the hidden treasures, and what I also found helpfull was a map of every level, in clear detail, where to find what, how to get there, what to find there. And ofcourse all the unlockable secrets of the game itself.
   All together I am very happy with the purchase of this book



3. This is just what I needed. Being new to the Tomb Raider series, I was in need of something to help me with the in's and out's of the game. With the guide, I have been able to get farther into the game in 3 days than I had managed in 2 months without it.



4. Hi, I'm a lover of Tomb Raider. I've played many of the Tomb Raider games. The last one out; Legend, is very fun and even better then the tomb raider games before. The other Tomb Raider games gave you a phone number to call incase you got stuck. Tomb Raider Legend does not have that. Your best bet is to get Tomb Raider:Legend:The Complete Official Guide. This way you will not miss anything and if you can't figure something out and you've spent hours on it, you can cheat and find out how to do whatever it is you're trying to do or get through. Before purchasing the book I was told of a few different web sites where I could find answers to my questions I have about Legend. Unfortunately, that did not work for me. I'm very happy to have purchased The Complete Official Guide, for Tomb Raider Legend. It's made the game much more enjoyable, even more so than it already was!Tomb Raider: Legend: The Complete Official Guide



5. I guide really help me understand most if not all of the puzzels.The bosses are fairly easy and the each of the courses are are pure fun. I love the construct of the game it's fun granted. Though it may take a little getting use to the set up of the controls.Tomb Raider is the best game that I have played in while

5 comments about Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition (New Riders Games).

1. I haven't read "A New Edition", but I did read the 1999 edition of Game Architecture and Design. I've just recommended it to the Game Designers mailing list as a valuable book. I've been a professional game designer since 1988. GA&D had a different perspective on design and has been really useful to me. I'm sure the updated edition is even better.
   Corey Cole (co-lead designer of Quest for Glory, Shannara, Castle of Dr. Brain, and others)



2. I found this book to be very interesting in designing a game from start to finish. However, finished in this case means the design document. The book sparcely covers the technical and programming aspects of game design and instead considers designing the game completely on paper.
   
   It covers various topics including concept, character creation, play balance, and working with the programming team. The examples included are simple rock-paper-scissor rules with other interesting variations. It covers how to document object attributes and the game effects they have. By following the book the new developer should realize the author's ideal development environment, where the developer(s) make a design document that is sufficient for the programmers to code without requiring constant attention from the designer(s), and thus freeing designer(s) to work on a new game (with a new programming team) while the current one is programmed. This approach is explained more fully in a rather lenghty section near the end of the book. Additionally, the author comments on the industry's currently development model, and compares it to his model.
   
   There appear to be several flaws with the book. For example, the author favors first-person perspective shooters as the most interactive type of game and therefore the most fun. The emphasis placed on interactivity seems to be mostly in the form of different ways of doing the same task (i.e. shooting different guns, etc.). To me this seemed to be adding features that did not radically affect gameplay, something the author warns not to do. Also, it is mostly written in the form of experience and ideas applied to real world examples and not general game theory. While general game theory is not completely neccessary, serious developers should learn general game theory and not just a few working examples, if they want to innovate and not derivate.
   
   Overall, this book succeeds in its goal to provide a beginner with a basic idea of game development and does it without complicated theory and math.



3. This book should be on the shelf of every game developer and designer. It's a relatively complete guide to the development/design process of a video game and will give excellent insight into the techniques and approaches used by the professionals of the field. It covers a lot of topics so it ends up not being (nor pretending to be) a specialized "textbook", but it is a very high quality overview of the creative phase with many great tips and guides. Placing an example game design document at the end of the book was a classy and very appreciated decision :)
   
   If you're interested in game design or game development in general, please, do buy this book. If you're interested in a specific area of development, such as general coding, buy game programming gems or game programming graphics gems if you're into gfx. If you're looking for a hardcore game programming guide, this is not what you want.



4. The authors often lose plenty of time talking too much.
   I do not recommend this book to anyone, although one can find anything interesting it is not necessary to read the whole book to learn the new concepts.



5. I began reading this book expecting to learn something about game programming and architecture but what I came out with was less about programming and specific technical advice (though there was some of that) and more about the process of creating games, including how someone might attempt to manage a game development project. Even though my expectations were not met I can honestly say that I was not disappointed. The book was very well written and thorough in many ways (e.g., project management, "what is a game?") and weak in others (e.g., programming tricks, guidelines).
   
   The first half of the book was dedicated to the process of creating games. The project management side of game creation. There are plenty of books about gaming programming with API X with Language Y. In my opinion these books are frequently unfulfilling because they concentrate on tiny details (such as a specific method in DirectX). Things you should be able to glean from help documentation such as the MSDN or user forums. They rarely show the larger picture. Game Architecture and Design introduced me to a side of game development I had never considered and this was easily the most interesting and well thought out portion of the book. I've often thought about what kind of game I would like to create but I never asked myself: What is a game? What makes a game fun? How do I design a game specification document? What sort of project management pitfalls might I come across and how can I void them? This book constantly asks these sorts of questions. Interestingly, while reading through this section I found myself asking the same questions when playing through some professional big budget games and found that even the professionals could have used this book to improve their games.
   
   The latter half of the book touched upon the actual game architecture. I found this part rather weak. Though it promotes the idea of abstraction, modules and flexibility these are not new concepts to software development in general and are covered in better details in books dedicated to software design patterns, techniques and technologies. Some of the suggestions are more suited to company policy such as variable naming guidelines, commenting etc. That's not to say that these things aren't important (I personally try to adhere to a particular style), but I'm not convinced these sorts of opinion driven items will fit everyone's coding style.
   
   Overall I found the book incredibly engaging, especially the first half of the book. I've always thought about game development in terms of classes, variables, source control etc and I never questioned what happens before coding begins. I would highly recommend this book to any budding game developer in so far as understanding the entire game development process, from inception to documentation to creation. Though not the Rosetta stone for game developers it is an excellent resources for beginners and experienced developers alike.

5 comments about Digital Video Hacks: Tips & Tools for Shooting, Editing, and Sharing (O'Reilly's Hacks Series).

1. I learned so much from this book. In fact, I've already implemented several of the ideas and have had great results. If you're semi-professional (video has been added to your responsibilities but you have no experience with this medium) BUY THIS BOOK.
   
   Who would have thought of parchment paper and clothes pins to diffuse light and create a softer, more natural light over the subject? That's just one of the great tips I've already started using.
   
   I've bought several digital video books while trying to learn this medium, and this has been by far the most useful.



2. I found the book to be very practical and have the
   kind of "nuts-and-bolts" pointers that I like. You
   don't have to read it cover to cover (I didn't) but
   can pick it up and go to the points that interest you
   or where you are currently in need of help. It refers
   to various "commerical products" that the author has
   used to get the job done. I found this helpful. With so
   many competing products to chose from it's nice to
   hear, "If you get product X you'll be able to do Z,"
   rather than buying and hoping (or not buying and
   wondering). Kuddos to the author.



3. This book covers many aspects of video. Labeling tapes, making excel spreadsheets for saving information, time code on tapes, how to achieve certain effects, lighting, and green screen effects just name a few. The book is general to most all video software and is a very usefull tool I'm glad I purchased. Don't let the term "HACKS' fool you it 's only refering to tips or tricks.



4. Great book with great content I recommend it to anyone who want to take there film making a step forward and is to busy or lazy to download the information from the internet becaue it is all there. Spread around of course but you will find every piece of information even most of the pictures used in this book so. If you have time and dedication you can save yourself the money by looking it up on the internet.



5. Not soemthing I would read cover to cover, but the individual "Hacks" that I have read are pretty good. I have lots of books along this line and this is one of the bet. I put it up there with Stu's "DV Rebels Guide" which is also incredible. If you like the Rebel guide, you will probably like this as well. Lots of good stuff. Enjoy!

5 comments about World of Warcraft Bestiary (Brady Games Official Strategy Guide) (Brady Games Official Strategy Guide).

1. Why do most folks want from a book like this? Well, you would expect to see a fairly comprehensive listing of the monsters that you meet in World of Warcraft, but you should get more. An effective book would not only provide very basic information, but indicate where these monsters roam and maybe a line or two of information about what/who they are. You won't find any of that extra information here and it is very disappointing. Thumbing through the book, you stumble upon interesting creatures and you wonder, "Hmmm where will I see this one?" yet the book provides zero information in this regard.
   
   The book's organization is rather odd, they don't put similar monsters together because they state that more significant mobs of that species deserve their own entry. Nice concept, but in the end that means there is zero reference that those other significant mobs exist if you only read the main entry for that species. To make matters worse, they have placed an index in the back of the book requiring you to look up mobs by other names that aren't indicated by those other names in the main listings.
   
   Part of the biggest attraction to Warcraft is the extensive lore, and Brady missed a large opportunity to provide fans with lore/context/history on all of these monsters. In the end, it is more of a pretty picture book with information that could have been gleaned online with much more detail. Brady Games really missed the point of a book like this and how valuable it could have been. It just leaves you wanting more than it offers and doing more research on WowHead or Thottbot to get that info. For that reason, the book loses two stars in my review. It might be better to pick up this one on the markdown table somewhere.
   
   One interesting item that it does show you is how often Blizzard utilizes the same character models with just a few different colors!



2. Excellent product and is a pretty good help for looking up beasts info in the game. It does help to let you know what you may be up against in a given area.



3. This book is purely academic, with no applicable use in the game. Yes, it gives you the stats, etc, but nothing else. If the book was going to be of any use, it needs to include the location of the mobs, what they drop, and any quests (if any) they're the target of.



4. I concur with the other reviews of this book. Without disclosing the actual location of NPC this book is not very useful. Considering the other Dungeon manuals also include the loot that drops from bosses this information could also have been included.
   
   Pass on this book and get the strategy guide or the dungeon guides instead.



5. When I heard Bradygames was making this guide, I was excited! Wow, comprehensive information about all the denizens of World of Warcraft in my lap! No more looking them up individually online!
   
   Sadly, this guide is woefully lacking such key information as:
   - Where they are located (even a general zone would've been helpful)
   - Immunities/weaknesses
   - Elite/Non-Elite
   
   Because of this, I find myself not looking anything up in this guide, and still go online for all of my bestiary needs.
   
   If you just want to know how many different creatures inhabit World of Warcraft, and want to see what so-and-so boss looks like, then this guide is an interesting read. If you need any crucial information to keep you alive in an encounter, or even just to FIND a creature, this guide is really no help at all.

5 comments about Heavenly Sword: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. Adds some spice to the other species, fun and easy to read book! Real helper!



2. Let me state this up front: I don't own a PS3, I've never played this game, and odds are I never will. However, based on what I'd read about this book, it had a great gallery of conceptual art in it and, as a devotee of movie, comic book, and video game conceptual art, I decided to check it out. I was certainly impressed. The book contains a substantial conceptual art gallery in the back, and the art stands up with the kind of designs you'd see in an "Art of Star Wars" volume. I was certainly impressed, and I hope this trend of putting out more video game art in book form continues.



3. All right, I am going to be honest and say that I am not the type of person that buys a whole lot of strategy guides to help me through a game. But I got stuck in this game, and got one. So far so good.



4. Heavenly Sword is definately on my top-five video games right now. This game has more combos and moves than any other out there. I thought there was alot in "God of War"...Hah! I've been playing Heavenly Sword for over a month now, and I think I still don't know all of the combos. The graphics are top-notch, it's got a decent story, AND...a beautiful hero!



5. Thanks. It has helped me be better at the game. It arrived in excellent condition and in a timely manner.

5 comments about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. Very good product. Fast delivery. AAA+++. Please leave me positive feedback, if it is allowed.
   
   Thanks. God is good.
   
   Martha in TN
   sngwrtrme



2. Every time I looked in this guide it made me want to play it, but unfortunately I'm not very far. That's because my skills in this game aren't good. I did manage to get from the Vulker base to creating my own light saber. I do think you should get this cheat book. It helped me get through an area when I couldn't do it on my own (in the sewers on Teris). But above all, it's a good cheat book.
   K. (8 years old)



3. Great product, really helpful and also very cheap for mint condition A++



4. Despite the beliefs of others, I believe this guide is actually helpful. Of course, the guide is not going to pass the game for you, you have to do that yourself. More or less, this gives you an outline of what you need to do, you just have to be smart enough to comprehend what it is that they are telling you. All one should need when playing these games is to know the answers to the most difficult puzzles. If you cannot accomplish something on your own, then Knights of the Old Republic isn't for you, so look elsewhere.
   
   Of course, with everything, there is also some faults, but then everything can't be perfect. The maps are helpful to guide you to where you need to go, especially on Dantooine. From what I've seen, there are times when the guides can be wrong. They also sometimes use pre-production graphics which you look forward to and then are let down. That is practically it.
   
   One should look at these guides basically as outlines. For the most part, outlines help you learn and remember things, but they are not going to teach you everything on the subject. So learn to deal with what you've got.



5. I am one of those completist gamers who likes to get everything available the first time through the game; therefore, a strategy guide is usually an absolute must for me. Unfortunately, there is a wide variation in quality, and this one leans pretty heavily towards the lower end of the spectrum. Don't get me wrong, it's still useful, but on the whole it feels sloppy and thrown-together, rather than comprehensive and helpful.
   
   One of the things that really mars the presentation is how badly organized it is. The walkthroughs are relatively helpful, but oftentimes a crucial bit of information that was mentioned previously is left out, leaving you to flip back through trying to find it. Another problem is that the guide was apparently written for a beta version of the game - it talks about gameplay and story elements that aren't available in the game itself and leaves out others that are. Taken as a whole, it just feels like it was done in a hurry by someone who wasn't paying attention.
   
   On the whole, the guide does work, but I wouldn't recommend purchasing it - you can find much better-organized and more thorough collections of the same information for free online. It's far from unusable, though, so it'll work if you need to have something nearby for reference and don't own a laptop computer.

2 comments about First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game.

1. A great overview of the intersections of games, linear stories, and interactive artworks. This book almost inevitably leaves you with a richer perspective, because the range of articles (the uses of voice synthesizers to the Sims) makes it unlikely that you are familiar with all the terrain. The commentary discussions parallel to the main text give a feeling like chatting with your smart friends about some brilliant lecture you just saw. Thought provoking and fun.



2. What has particularly excited me is the opening chapter on "Cyberdrama"... it discusses approaches to story, game play and engagement in terms that echo what we are trying to achieve in Drama education. Throughout the book (and this is from preliminary browsing) there are discussions about narrative and simulation and disticntions being drawn bewteen perceptual positions of players ... the writers that have contributed to this book have a very clear sense of the notion of "role" and I am starting to think that this book may well serve as the basis for investigation into the role of technology in Drama ( and possibly other) education for the next few years. Other promising looking chapters include such discussions as "Moving Through Me as I move: A Paradigm for Interaction", "Unusual Positions: Embodied Interactions in Symbolic Spaces", "Narrative, Interactivity, Play and Games: Four Naughty Concepts in Need of Discipline", " Videogames of the Oppressed: Critical Thinking, Education, Tolerance and other Trivial Issues", "A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games"
   
   The authors contributing to this book are well known to anyone who's started looking into Drama and technology - Janet Murray , Espen Aarseth and Brenda Laurel are all there, alongside more familiar "drama' voices such as Richard Schechner...
   
   As a high school drama teacher, I have a keen interest in new media applications in Drama education - it seems that many of our number are still focussed totally on their Drama classrooms and while they have an interest in technology are not actually making much headway with developing knowledge in the area - this retards developing discussions when there isn't a common language and some basic concepts upon which to build our discussions and investigations...
   
   I think this book "First Person" is probably as good a starting point as is available at the moment. It provides a broad overview of the scope of "new media" interactions and there is definitely what I would call a "drama sensibility" contained within it.
   
   The other book I've just started looking into is Marie-Laure Ryan's "Narrative as Virtual Reality"
   
   Narrative As Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media
   
   What looks promising here is Chapter Nine: "Participatory Interactivity from Life Situations to Drama". I've yet to properly digest the chapter - I've been intrigued by some of the statements I've encountered, for instance "For interactivity to be reconciled with immersion, it must be stripped of any self-reflexive dimension"... I'm not sure that is exactly what we are trying to do with Drama (or any form of) education - we are generally trying to become aware of the symbolic forms we are engaging with... although in a Stanislavskian sense, it might just be that this ne dimension of building belief is somehow well placed in Drama... I tend to think the Brechtian requirement for distance might be better suited... but that can be a discussion for another day... for the time being we need to start to come to grips with some key concepts in the new paradigm we have the opportunity to define...
   
   Once again... as Drama people we know the need for social constructivist approaches... I'm hoping we can live that rather than just posit it....
   
   We are trying to establish a special interest group called DramaPlayShop.org... you're welcome to drop in!

4 comments about Assassin's Creed Limited Edition Art Book: Prima Official Game Guide (N/a) (N/a).

1. I am an (allmost 60) year old lady , I have no man, BUT I've got the X-box.....playstation 2 and 3,... nintendo 64..., gamcube and the WII of course, I like action adventure en button-bashing in my games, a few years ago I played with my sons ( the parts I could't-do.... not quick enough)but they arn't living at home anymore (they are 30) so I have to try by myself......sigh... but with this book as clear as it is and beautifull pictures,!!! I am sure I can get a looooong way trough..



2. Cuando adquiri la edición de coleccionistas de Assassins Creed lo hice por el libro de arte que pense venia con el juego. Realmente venia tan solo un previo lo cual me decepciono bastante (aunque por el comic y la figurilla todavia vale la pena). Habia quedado con la curiosidad de ver todo ese trabajo detras del juego asi que decidi buscar el verdadero libro de Arte. Quede sorprendido por el nivel de detalle y buen trabajo que hicieron con el libro. Esta divido por secciones, tocando en cada segmento a personajes (principales y secundarios), escenarios, etc. Esta tan bien hecho que me parecio corto, queria mas, aun cuando son alrededor de 150 paginas dedicadas al arte de este juego. Si estudias ilustración, arte, amas los video juegos, este libro no puede faltar en tu coleccion. El juego no es perfecto, pero si es bastante bueno y entretenido. Si embargo todavia se queda corto tratando de reflejar todo el trabajo y estetica que los chicos de Ubi realizaron para llegar hasta ahi. En mi blog, camburpinton.tv le dedique un par de post a este excelente libro.



3. I haven't played Assassin's Creed, nor do I have a platform that supports it - I just wanted to mention that up front. I'm a fan and collector of conceptual art books, and after having seen the trailers and commercials for this game, I decided to go ahead and get this book. It's a nice book, certainly, chock-full of illustrations that helped in the conceptualization of the game, everything from the minutiae of the main character's costume, to various images of knights, peasants, etc. It's nicely produced, printed of good paper, and has a sturdy hardcover binding. I suppose why this book gets 3 stars is because there's nothing here that is especially eye-popping or earth-shattering here: while the art is well done, it's fairly ordinary and I wish there were more interesting designs, etc. Additionally, the commentary text seems to have been hurriedly edited, as I noted some typos, etc. I'd recommend this book for conceptual art collectors and, probably, diehard fans of the game.



4. Assassin's Creed limited Edition Artwork has a lot of production design into the riveting game by Ubisoft. You will be drawn into the production as these programmers and artist re-create the Holy Land of 1191. Actual city layouts are identical to the time period, masses of people move in and out and great care was taken in the design of their clothings, their look and their manners. All of this described in great detail in the pages of this book. One of the best how-it-was-made guides.

No comments about Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Game Centers.