2 comments about What's New 1.

1. Phil Foglio is WILDLY HILARIOUS!
   
   His deranged view of gaming started cracking people up in the 70's, & now he self-publishes his own comic "Girl Genius" online.
   
   If you played D&D in the 70's-80's, buy this book.
   
   If you didn't, buy it anyway!
   
   Also, Ms Dixie Null is not real. Really! There IS NO DIXIE NULL.
   And she's busy Saturday night anyway. So there. :p



2. Showed up way too late for the occasion I bought it for. The binding process didn't give enough of a gutter, resulting in some art and text getting cut off. Still love the work itself.

5 comments about Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus (2nd Edition) (Other Programming).

1. First of all I have a master of science degree in computer graphics. Second, Phillip Vaira, this is the only review that you wrote, and not only you but also many people who gave this book 5 stars, they only have one review. Therefore it is very suspicious whatevere you are writing. But apart from that, I can give you many good reasons why you should avoid Andre Lamothe's books:
   - this book is a recycle of his earlier books. with every new book he always recycles the same things
   his new book: Tricks of the 3D Game Programming Gurus-Advanced 3D Graphics and Rasterization
   also uses directx 7.0 :lol: - i told you about recycling
   - his uses global variables all the time as optimization tehniques :lol:
   - he is a terrible programmer
   - his friends write fake reviews for him
   Phillip Vaira says: Best book for any graphics programmer
   are you kidding me ??? shut up man. you and all others like
   Daniel Smektala.
   trust me people all andre's books are terrible.
   I agree with you IQ160. Avoid andre lamothe. Man if you value anything you would wrote at least one good game in your 25 years of career. Do yourself a favour. Retire.



2. To offset all the reviews I saw, I rated this book 1 Star because it is simply outdated. Many of the examples don't work and the current version is DirectX 9.0c rather than the book's DirectX 7.0.
   
   It was probably once a good book but not now.
   
   As a beginner to DirectX I found it particularly hard to learn.



3. This is a decent introduction to how games are written. If you already have an understanding of windows programming and COM, you will get a lot from this book. The point of the book is to teach you how games are structured. As a software professional I am well versed in object-oriented design, design patterns, software methodologies, etc. I can read and make sense of the MSDN documentation on the latest version of DirectX. What I lack is domain knowledge of how to actually write a game. This book teaches you that!! This book takes all the information from other disciplines, calculus, physics, linear algebra, AI, software development, and shows you how to integrate them and build a game. A remarkable achievement. The code itself is not very good, but I can figure out how to write code. What I didn't know was how a game was structured.
   
   
   Part 1, chapters 1-4 cover windows programming. Most of this isn't very interesting. Except that it covers how a game is structured: 1. Initialization; 2. Enter game loop; 3. Retrieve Player Input; 4. Perform AI and Game Logic; 5. Render Next Frame; 6. Synchronize Display; 7. Loop; 8. Shutdown.
   
   Part2, Chapters 5-10 cover DirectX and 2D Fundamentals. This stuff is very interesting. Remember that algorithm you read on how to draw a line. Well you can see it here in action. Remember reading about collision detection. It's covered. You may want to look at other books with more detailed explanations, but this book shows that stuff in action.
   
   Part 3, Chapters 11-15 cover Hardcore Game Programming. This section shows how AI, and physics are involved. For a better understanding of AI, you may want to read Programming Game AI by Example by Mat Buckland. That book is inspiring. The last chapter puts it all together to actually make a simple asteroids game.
   
   In college I took a calculus class here, a physics class there. Each class was taught in a vacuum. It wasn't until I read this book that I saw how all the material I learned in college was interconnected. Sure you'll have to read a book on Physics, and another on AI, but this book shows you how to put them together and build a game.



4. I have just read all the Amazon reviews of this book going back three years, and one things stands out -- nobody recommends any other book to replace this one. That tells me a lot.
   
   I am a software developer who hasn't done any Windows interface programming in several years. During those years I've done some Java programming, but mostly low level C programming on Linux and embedded systems. Recently I needed to do a custom Windows interface for an embedded system, sort of a "dashboard" that would display data from the embedded system and allow the user to interact with it. I needed a quick refresher course on basic Windows programming, plus some ideas on how to do the custom controls I wanted (e.g. speedometers, scrolling line graphs, sliders, etc.). I went looking for the right book, and on the third try I picked up this one.
   
   For my purposes, this book is almost perfect. It covers the basics of Windows programming in the first three chapters, at exactly the level I needed, then moves quickly into Windows graphics programming. By the end of the first seven or eight chapters (about 400 pages, which took me two days to read), I was convinced that I should write my program like a simple 2d game, and I had enough information and explicit examples to do it. Within another three days, I had a working version of the dashboard.
   
   In my experience, most Windows programming books get lost in the bottomless pit of Microsoft gobbledygook. Once the author goes there, the reader is truly lost. This book is different. LaMothe has exactly the right attitude about it -- he cuts through the immense Windows overhead, shows exactly how to use a minimal set of necessary Windows functions, and encourages the developer to get on with creating their own software the way they want it to look and behave.
   
   It's true that this book is five years old, and uses an old version of DirectX. But programs built with that version are still supported by the latest DirectX runtime. Since the number of DirectX calls used by the end of Chapter 8 is quite small, it should be trivial to convert them to the latest version, which is my next project. If anyone knows of a better book, or an equivalent book that is current, please tell us about it.



5. This book provides excellent information for anyone who is looking to understand the fundamentals of game programming. Inside, the reader is taught how to make a fully-functional 2D Windows game, complete with graphics, audio, input, AI, and physics. The software in the book is created step-by-step from scratch, allowing the reader to see how everything works together. It uses DirectX 7.0, which is antiquated these days, but still provides a plethora of material for the reader to learn and expand upon.

No comments about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games).

5 comments about Beginning Game Programming, Second Edition.

1. I was very disappointed with this book. There was insufficient instruction regarding the installation of the DirectX SDK. Most of the source code is incompatible with the included compiler. After manually entering the source code into the Visual C++ IDE, most of the programs would not compile. Thinking I may have made some typographical errors or overlooked some of the code, I then copied the source code directly from the included CD and became even more frustrated that this code would not compile either. Don't waste your money on this book.



2. This book has exellent information, but the author spends little time emphasizing the basics. I am about halfway through the book and i have just stopped reading it becuase it is so confusing. I am very experienced in php, and know basic C and C++, and was surprized i found it so difficult to understand. If you can catch on quick enough though then im sure the information given is great, i expecially loved the first few chapers before the code, where he explained about api's and how directx works...



3. I've had this book for two days now and am already half-way through it and the examples. Please NOTE*** Something that is reiterated throughout the beginning chapters is that this book is an introduction to GAME programming using directx, not an introduction to game PROGRAMMING. The code in this book is developed using a C/C++ compiler, and the brilliant author uses Microsoft Visual C++. As the author mentions many times, you should be knowledgable in C/C++ to really have a good understanding of the code. That being said, even his explanations of every line of code shouldn't confuse someone at least familiar with some programming.
   
   The writing style might be somewhat "cheesey" to some readers, but I felt myself so enthralled in the book that I couldn't put it down. Mr. Harbour inspires you to want to develop games.
   
   While I haven't yet reached the 3D part of the book, I really liked the explanations on Windows programming, and the eventual directx programming. One of the best "features" of this book is how the author explains what the different lines of code actually do. Too many books give you code without telling you what it does.
   
   I recommend this book especially if you have no idea how a game is programmed. I do have a lot of programming experience, but not low-level windows programming. I had no idea how to display a window, or to 'blit' a surface. Now I do!
   
   Lastly, I've seen some people said they had trouble with compiling the source code. I haven't tried it with the given compiler, but if you download the FREE MS Visual C++ Express, make sure you aren't using a UNICODE character set, then you shouldn't see any problems.



4. Jonathan S. Harbour is an excellent author. His books are very informative and very easy to read. He has a knack for taking subject matter that would put you to sleep, and making it fun to read.



5. Besides the few mistakes that make it difficult to compile code etc. the book is very good for beginners. It starts with the basics of windows programming framework then adds DirectX, onto 2d graphics then finishes with 3d. Each chapter has questions to test your knowledge and it CLEARLY states the answers are in the Appendix which ISN'T included. I have contacted them and they just state, "nope no appendix sorry". So if you are unsure of an answer your never going to know the answer. It also has a program he uses called meshview which doesn't come with ALL SDK's (maybe I have a newer one that has it removed). So the whole section on optimizing mesh's is worthless to me (I have searched for it on the SDK ON THE BOOK's CD!! and online to no avail) Things like that throughout the book make it just a so so book to me. Anyhow don't expect a complete 100% thorough book.

4 comments about The Video Game Theory Reader.

1. The Video Game Theory Reader begins not with a bold statement or manifesto for interpreting video games but in a far more grounded manner with a foreword from Warren Robinett who is widely regarded with having revolutionised gameplay in 1978 with his design for the Atari 2600 Adventure game. Robinett opens with an obvious but inescapable question about the acceptability of video games: 'It is hard to say what ranks lower on the artistic food chain than video games. Comic books? TV sit-coms? X-rated films? These ratlike vermin at the bottom scurry to avoid the thunderous footfalls of the towering behemoths of the art world.' (vii-viii). Robinett argues that most new art forms require an 'enabling technology'-cinema had the motion picture camera-and now video games have the affordable home PC (preceded somewhat by dedicated gaming systems like the Atari, which seem to have come full circle with new console Nintendo, Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox systems). With the technology firmly entrenched and a large body of work (the games) available for analysis, it's time for the critics and theorists to pay attention. As video games become increasingly complex and, more to the point, socially entrenched, the humble video game has become a worthy subject for critical analysis and a new cultural studies field is emerging. Moreover, the fact that in the US, UK and Australia video games sales outstrip the box office takings for first release films indicates that video games are playing an increasingly substantial role in our leisure hours and social interactions. While editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron may be overstating the case somewhat in claiming that 'the video game has recently become the hottest and most volatile field of study within new media theory' (1) , this collection certainly goes a long way to ensuring that video game analysis will have firm critical footholds.
   
   Wolf and Perron's excellent introduction goes a long way to illustrating that the field of video game study and theory does have both a lineage and its own proto-canon of important texts. As well as sketching the history of video game design and analysis, Wolf and Perron highlight four key elements of video games which distinguish them from the amorphous umbrella of new media: graphics, the changeable display almost always on a pixel-comprised screen; interface, the all-important connection between the game and player, which usually includes the graphics, but also speakers, microphones, keypads, joysticks, as well as onscreen elements such as sliders and menus; player activity, 'the heart of the video game experience' (15) and key to video game design; and algorithm, the program and procedures which must be to some extent unique for each different game.
   
   Walter Holland, Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire's first chapter 'Theory by Design' looks at the feedback loop between design, play and theory in the realm of 'edutainment'-educationally oriented games-and uses four case studies to illustrate how designing games-to-teach involves utilising, critiquing and extending video game theory. Wolf's own article in the collection looks at the role of abstraction in video games. He traces abstraction from a technological necessity, due to the processing and graphics power of the earliest game devices, to an exploratory artistic potential for current games which almost all now tend toward representational techniques and the digital holy-grail of photorealism. Alison McMahan's 'Immersion, Engagement, and Presence' then looks at methods for analysing 3-D video games as opposed to their 2-D predecessors, focusing on degrees of presence and immersion in different games and game types, including a useful case study of Myst III: Exile. Miroslaw Filiciak's 'Hyperidentities: Postmodern Identity Patterns in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games' (MMORPGs) looks at the phenomena of MMORPGs where hundreds or thousands of game users participate in a shared virtual environment and argues that MMORPGs actualise postmodern ideas of self more so than any other medium. Filiciak's chapter, while ambitious, tends to get stuck in explicating various postmodern theories of self rather than the specifics of MMORPG gameplay, making this the weakest chapter of the collection. By contrast, Bob Rehak's 'Playing at Being: Psychoanalysis and the Avatar' intertwines a rich knowledge and appreciation for the historical spectrum of video games with an equally broad knowledge of psychoanalysis and film theory to produce a provocative chapter which explores how the video game avatar operates from a mediated mirror stage through to far more nuanced and subtle notions of identity. Torben Grodal's chapter 'Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles: Video Games, Media, and Embodied Experiences' starts from the premise that video games are primarily 'different realisations of real-life activities' (129) and makes the argument that the best critical tools for engaging with video games are thus drawn from cognitive psychology. Maintaining a focus on embodiment, Martti Lahti's 'As We Become Machines: Corporealised Pleasures in Video Games' examines the oft-touted idea that video games and cyberspace fetishise a 'meatless' disembodied view of subjectivity. In contrast, Lahti argues that the technologies of video games complicate corporeal responses in a number of ways, not so much erasing the body as reincorporating it in a cybernetic system which to some extent actually re-emphasises the material body for game players. Mia Consalvo's 'Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games' also delineates how video games can complicate aspects of identity, but this chapter focuses specifically on sexuality. Consalvo conducts tight focused readings of Final Fantasy 9 and The Sims, exploring the ways sexuality is portrayed, the potential for non-heterosexual readings and activity, with the latter especially interesting in Consalvo's examination of the massively popular The Sims. Markku Eskelinen and Ragnhild Tronstad 'Video Games and Configurative Performances' add performative perspectives from theatre and drama studies, highlighting the role of pleasure in reading video games. Gonzalo Frasca's chapter 'Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology' follows in which Frasca outlines ludology-the study of video games not anchored to analyses of narrative-and shows how useful Espen Aarseth's ideas of cybernetic texts are in studying video games as simulations rather than representations. The following two chapters by Bernard Perron and Chris Crawford both focus on interactivity and narrative, the former from a more theoretical viewpoint and the latter more technical. The final chapter, Patrick Grogan's 'Gametime: History, Narrative, and Temporality in Combat Flight Simulator 2' examines similarities between gametime, gameplay and recent feature films, such as Pearl Harbour, and concludes that gametime is inherently ergodic; temporality is dictated by the episodic experiences of the game itself.
   
   As this brief overview illustrates, the chapters in The Video Game Theory Reader range across a huge spectrum of academic disciplines, from new media studies to cognitive psychology to literary analysis and gender studies. Most of the articles are extremely well written, making firm arguments for the importance of analysing video games in contemporary society, and providing many theoretical tools with which future work can be performed. Video game analysis and ludology may be a newly emerging field, but The Video Game Theory Reader guarantees that it's a field which will have considerable theoretical groundings and provide important insight into contemporary popular culture.



2. This book is an introduction to a nascent field within new media studies: video game theory, or ludology. As such, many of the essays contained herein are trying to get a grasp on what constitutes video game studies, period. Some of the questions broached are as follows:
   
   What would constitute a formal analysis of a video game?
   What features do all video games share (what can we classify as a video game, anyhow?)
   Which approaches are best for the analysis of video games: semiotics, psychoanalysis, cinema studies, cognitive psychology?
   
   This volume takes a few baby steps towards answering those questions. Gonzalo Frasca, for instance, makes the important argument that even the simplest games cannot be considered in mere narratological terms, but must be considered as a simulation. He then uses Roger Caillois's terms paidia and ludus to establish a tentative typology of video games.
   
   Other essays, such as Mia Consalvo's essay on the Sims and Final Fantasy IX, are more shallow and contribute little beyond a superficial plot analysis and trite comments about how radical it is that a guy can have a girl avatar (and vice-versa) in a video game.
   
   I found Patrick Crogan's essay on Combat Flight Simulator 2 and Pearl Harbor (the movie) especially insightful, as it drew some fascinating connections between Manuel De Landa, Paul Virilio, and the simulation representational ethos (as opposed to narrative).
   
   In conclusion, this is a really hit-or-miss collection, which is perhaps to be expected considering how marginal video game studies currently is within the academy. Nevertheless, it contains some valuable contributions to this inchoate field between its covers, which will certainly help to legitimate game studies in the future.



3. The social impact of video games as a new media has been my focus this semester at the University of Minnesota and this book has been my bible.
   
   The articles are not only informative and thought-provoking, but very interesting. As a long-time gamer, this was an opportunity for me to look differently at a medium I thought was purely for entertainment and really see the far reaching effect that video games have not only our media and consumer culture, but also on the individual's psyche and perception of the world around him/her.
   
   If you're a researcher or just a gamer looking for a fresh perspective on this medium, you need to buy this book.



4. this is not light reading. There aren't any aliens to blast, cities to conquer, or my favorite, zombies to re-kill. Instead, this is fairly scholarly tome. It puts theories about why we really love blasting, conquering and re-killing. Not to be taken lightly but well worth the effort to read the science, psychology, marketing, and art behind our games.

5 comments about Developing Serious Games (Game Development Series).

1. Serious games is an interesting offshoot of the standard gaming industry. While most of the characteristics of the games have to be the same as 'play' games the key to a serious game is that it imparts 'a skill, knowledge or attitude that can be applied in the real world.'
   
   When the hijackers who were to crash their planes into the World Trade Center wanted to learn to fly, they used simulators. These very expensive devices move the 'game player' around in three-D to impart muscle memory to the player. Other less serious games can't quite do that, but they can still impart a lot of knowledge about how to fly a plane (microsoft flight simulator), drive a car, or drive a tank.
   
   This book presents a fairly high level overview of the serious game business. It talks about the general concepts of things like marketing (quite different than what's needed for space blasters), costs, marketing and so on. It then covers the basic techniques for game development including the specialized software that has been developed to facilitate the software development.



2. This is a very good book on serious games. It does give you probably up to a hundred examples of serious games on various fields such as the military, medical training games, educational games, simulations, etcetera. In the book serious games are categorised as: Activism Games, Advergames, Business games, Exergaming, Health and medicine games, News games, Political games, Realistic games, Core competency games, Repurposed of the shelf games and Mods. Within all these lots of examples are given that give designers examples. Unfortunately these examples are not really analysed in detail so the reader has to make up his mind if the given example is a good practise of a serious game or not. The book does give some basic ideas on what makes a serious game a good practise and gives lost of references for further study on particular serious game design issues.
   
   It does give an introduction into the development process of (serious) games, technologies, (project) management and business aspects. I could care less for this part and on a occasion or two I found the book (in my opinion) wrong. For example the game development process is being described as a `pipeline' process, thus being linear. However good games, serious or not, need to be tested and tested and tested by players and thus redesigned and redesigned and redesigned many times. You can not do that in a linear managed project, where you go from fase to fase! I have never seen it work in practice. This is what happens if a museum, institute or school wants to make a serious game and does it in a linear way: they have an idea, they design the game, they make it and then when almost all the money is gone, they have it tested by some kids only to find out it is a boring game and that it needs to be redone all over. Back to the design fase! They did manage their money well throughout all the fases, but they never realised they needed to go trough the idea and design fase up to 10 times! For this reason and others the use of MS projects as proposed in the book is a bad suggestion. MS projects is ok if you manage a construction project, not good for software development. But the use of MS projects in software development (and thus game projects) is
   another story.
   
   Another part of the book is about the hardware and software you could use to make a serious game. The suggestions on software and the lists of examples is very good (even though there is lots more software available to make (serious) games. E.g. have a look at gamesmaken.startpagina.nl. The remarks on hardware, could be left out. It lists what kind of PC configuration you would need to make a serious game. Ok if you are a total beginner in this field, but for the 98% of the other readers it does not make much sense. This list will be outdated at the time the book has left the presses. Also, there is always so much debate on which hardware to use. The book for example suggests a pc configuration for sound recording. Now, I do not want to get into the Mac- PC discussions, but all the people I know (and I have a lot of musicians as friends) use Macs for audio recording with protocols or logic or on a occasion Steinberg software. I did not find these tools in the book. The same goes for graphics design. The book suggest a Alienware or Dell to work on. But all the professional designers I know (more than 50 I estimate) work on Macs. So the solutions mentioned in the book are not wrong, but well... you know it is too personal. I would not even write about it in a book.
   
   But ok, besides these two small issues mentioned above, I think the info in the book is very good.
   
   What I personally was looking for the most is how to really do it. How to make a good game for education, how to make a good game for a museum or how to make a game that convinces kids to eat healthy or not to start smoking. Design issues like these are introduced and discussed in this book, but not enough in my opinion. It would have made this book superb instead of very good if the writer had done that. Just maybe analyse two or three serious games that turned out to be working very well. How where they made, which design choices were made, how was the result measured, which dead ends were tried before they had the final result, how do the players respond to the game, etcetera. But then again, this might be a great subject for the next book on serious games!
   
   www.wouterbaars.net



3. Bergeron's DEVELOPING SERIOUS GAMES provides game developers with a practical manual exploring serious games: military, academic, medical and training games, to be specific. With the wealth of titles focusing on pleasure games, it's good to see a developer's guide which explains business concepts, tools which can be applied to real-world challenges and concepts, and discusses major differences between entertainment and educational gaming. Students and developers alike will find it a fine practical 'how-to' guide teaching concepts ranging from locating funding sources for such games to choosing game shells and marketing finished products.



4. This books definitely have good stuff in it, but you become frustrated because you have to dig so much. The books cover way too many issues that are non-specific to serious games. In the places where it do deal with serious games it on, however, quite successful but without being brilliant.



5. Although the name of the concept "serious games" sounds strange and evokes some debate, it is broadly accepted as a those games that are not intended for entertainment (alone), like games for education and training. The author takes it even broader and includes games-for-marketing-purposes also into this category. Almost implicitly serious games are computer-supported games, video games for short. Part of the argumentation in the book applies to non-computer games as well, however.
   
   For those who are new in this field and for those who have their roots mainly in non-computer games, the book offers a broad overview of what is going on at this moment: examples in different sectors (certainly not education alone), possibilities, underlying software, the way of organising development projects, funding, best practices etc. If you are a specialist on one of these topics you may find its treatment too simple. For topics you are not a specialist on, the book offers a valuable introduction and overview, accompanied by numerous references and interesting links. The only thing I missed was an accompanying DVD crowded with demo software, white papers, clickable links etc.
   
   As serious gaming seems to be hyping at the moment, the book was published just in time. The book is full of actual information. Therefore it is very useful NOW, although you may expect it to become out-of-date within a few years.

1 comments about The Video Games Guide.

1. The Video Games Guide is a good ole' chunky guide to video games from 1962-2006. Tailor made for a longtime gamer like me.
   
   It is presented like a film guide but I'd say its more entertaining thanks to the screenshots and the enthusiastic writing style of the author.
   
   I've spent a good few hours dipping through it and still feel i've only just scratched the surface. It's one of those books that's so packed, whatever page you open it on you find a game you remember. When i'm at work I find myself thinking `I wonder if it's got Road Rash or what about Wing Commander?' and it hasn't disappointed me yet. So the video games guide, you get the full five stars from me.

5 comments about Arms and Equipment Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game).

1. To add a better sense of diversity, this book is an awesome tool.
   It give a greater depth to the technical players out there



2. Glad I bought this book. The Star Wars RPG left many questions about weapons and technology open. This book answers about 30% of those questions, which is a lot of material.



3. For SW fans who absolutely MUSt have every possible variation of weapon, speeder and droid available, then this book is a good purchase, however, nothing in this book is a vast improvement on what's in the core rules.
   
   On the up side, there seems to be no redundancy in this book, meaning that if it's listed in the Core Rules, then it's not listed here. The downside being that you have to have both this book and the Core Rulebook handy for a complete list of items.
   
   A MAJOR NEGATIVE is that there are no weapons/droids/vehicles/etc. tables for quick reference like there are in the core rulebook, which makes comparing items at a glance much more difficult (I got around tis by printing up a comparison table in excel).
   
   Also, to my great dissapointment, there are not starfighters, cargo ships, etc. at all in this book. Only speeders, walkers, bikes, etc., none of which are all that impressive. Infact, save for the armor and possibly the droids, there's nothing impressive about this book at all.
   
   I did, however, like the ability to customize and personalize weapons, armor and--to a limited extent--vehicles.
   
   Some weapons have minor benefits here or there to the ones in the core rules, such as an increase in damage, but at the cost of range and/or accuracy. Spending more will not really get you a superior weapon (unless you personalize). Sorry folks.
   
   I have a HUGE beef with the armor section. Armor lists the type, proficiency requires, cost, max dex bonus, speed, armor check penalty, weight, availability, era, and damage reduction, but not the DEFENSE BONUS the armor provides! WTF???
   
   All in all this book could have been done MUCH better. I don't recommend it.



4. WEAPONS
   The selection of weapons is HUGE (even adding more types than the RCRB has listed). Each weapon has WPs & break DCs (which I also like). Along with new rules on Customizing & personalizing weapons.
   Species chip (a optional device for Sonic weapons) - which increases effectiveness against a selected species (a few species is listed, but a GM can add more if he/she wishes) - and they are pretty cheap too.
   
   ARMOR
   Vast selection of armor & protective gear. Also rules for non-human species.
   
   DROIDS
   All Astromech units are included (which are my favorite). They also have many, many more droid types & units listed.
   
   VEHICLES
   Rules on custimizing. A big selection including : airspeeders, swoops, speeder bikes, and many more.
   Also for the STAR WARS fan who is familiar with Tatooine, this book also includes the popular "Sandcrawler".
   
   OTHER
   There's even a section on jetpacks & other devices that let you fly.
   
   There are a lot more things in here (buy the book, I'm not telling you everything).



5. This is a very useful volume filled with lots of information and ideas for gear. My GM has already used it to modify some of the ships in our game with information from the book. Thanks to that our survival percentage has just gone up. (I'm not thinking about how the danger quotient of the bad guys has gone up too.) ;-)

2 comments about Second Life In-World Travel Guide (In World Travel Guide).

1. Sean Percival's book is one of the best about Second Life I have read. He takes you to many of the best shopping, entertainment, educational, adult only, and island living areas I have seen in Second Life. This book takes the reader off of the mainland and shows that the users of Second Life are truly creative; many of the locations featured in this book far outstrip the mainland content both visually and in software performance.
   
   Percival's writing style is easy to read and entertaining, and serious or funny in an appropriate way. I have read some of what I call, "The Linden Approved" Guides.Those books have the feeling that the writers were simply mouthpieces for Linden.They also offer little in the way of things to do. Percival's book on the other hand, is easy to read; you can pretty much open up to any page and find something interesting or fun, without all the technical hoo-doo. This book is witty and offers a fresh look at what Second Life truly has to offer the adventerous avatar.
   
   Speaking of adventures, Percival (aka sean Voss in-world) also features an in-world companion to his book where he offers tour services and landmarks to locations both in the book and otherwise. Hello, can anyone say innovation??? No CDs, no paid websites. Just good fun ready to access at the click of a landmark. In fact, the name of his island in world is Landmark Island, I found it in places in the Second Life Search Function. Easy, straightforward, interacive. That's using 3D internet the way it should be used!
   
   Linden approved books are expensive, and they offer little more in the way of content that a person can't learn from other residents or experimenting with the building tools in-world. Not to impune Linden Approved titles; they are great for beginners, but I was looking for something more. I found what I wanted in Percival's book. It is much more reasonably priced, has a more fun tone, and offers the in-world companion. I highly recommend this book for anyone who really wants to get the most of their Second Life experience.



2. I just received it today, and I love it! It's gorgeous pictures and well written reviews make it a wonderful, up to date view into the world of second life. I've been a resident for 2 and a half years, and it let me discover new places that I still didn't know existed in game.
   
   <3 Sarah Nerd

5 comments about Kingdom Hearts II Limited Edition Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides) (Official Strategy Guides) (Official Strategy Guides) (Official Strategy Guides).

1. I just got the KH II Limited Edition Strategy Guide shipped to me yesterday! It was great! The outside is a hard cover of sora and the gang,the cover holds the books. There are two books the Jiminy's Journal and the official strategy guide. There are 4 different covers: Valor, Wisdom, Master, and Final form of Sora. U can only get one of them. I luckly got the Final form version of Sora for the cover.
   
   -(The 1st book)Jiminy's Journal:
   - Has 400 stickers of the same size as the 100 dalmation in the first KH strategy guide.
   - The Strategy guide has info on all the character you meet and the worlds. Even the Heartless and bosses.
   - The journal is like a grocery list, like a check list for everything in the game that you wont miss and it even tells you what kind a cutscene there is for what world. Every world you go to, they have a picture for every you get, like certain potions or maps, shards, AP Boost. It even tells you where in that world to get it like for example: there are 2 potions and 1 HI-potion in the Mansion(Foyer) in Tranverse Town.
   - Every character you meet and every boss, or heartless , and even CUTSCENES are in there. Once you have meet that character or defeated that certain boss or discover a new heartless or saw a certain cutscene, you put a sticker there to indicate that you are done with it. For example: In Agrabah, you have to meet characters like Aladin, Jasmine, Genie, and etc.. Once you have met them already, you can get the sticker with their face on it from the back of the Jiminy's journal (one of the 400 stickers)and put it in the box next to the picture of Aladin indicating that you have already met that character. There are also stickers of potions to put on so you know which and what kind of potions you still need to find.
   
   -(The 2nd book)The Official Strategy Guide:
   - This book has all the info on important characters. The moves, ability, level-ups, limit-commands, and their stats.
   - It is basicly a walkthrough of the game. Every step to the end.
   
   I hope this helped all of you and encourages you to buy it. It is really worth it to buy it! Especially if you are a bbig fan of KH and Final Fantasy like me! ^_^!



2. This is the ultimate gift for the ultimate Kingdom Hearts fan. Not only is the back cover customized with a beautifully glazed image of one of Sora's four forms, there's also an extra character booklet that gives you even more detailed information on every single character within the game. To top it off, the entire package is neatly stacked in a stylistic cover case.
   
   This makes for a great gift and the price is absolutely worth it.



3. I bought this for my son 15. y.o. He already had the same book but hisone is the better one I guess, well he LOVES it and cant put it down! So I am very happy with my purchase!



4. This is the best biggest guide to any game I have ever bought, I love it! I read it just like a book, it is so awesome!



5. Very informative, has lots of detail, comes with many extras. Must-buy for any Kingdom Hearts fan.