No comments about Saints Row 2 Signature Series Guide.

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.

5 comments about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. This game is unique. I advise buying the Prima Game Guide and obtain a download of the IGN FAQ on the game. Even with these you will find it a confusing and tough game but it is worth the effort. I sculled around in the game at first and got used to its strange russian ways. Its a good idea to do this because you then get used to some of the rules and the odd morals of the game. Good gun battles - fun wepons - good monsters - the the humanoid phychic mutant has a mind weapon that really puts the wind up you but if you can take it he can be shot in the head dead.
   It is a big game and some mistakes mean you have to go back to NEW GAME.
   Great fun and quite a challange.



2. It wasn't as open ended as I had hoped but still and amazing game. The atmosphere alone is worth the money. Really sweet concept and monsters however I was really disappointed by the online play. I have horrible lag problems with it and I'm running cable internet with dual 4200 processors, 2 gigs of ram and a x1900 pro video card which leaves me to believe it's simply the servers. Oh well, single player is definetly enough fun. Buy this game, you won't be disappointed:-D



3. If you are looking for the best path through the game, it may be better to find a free online walkthrough, especially since I heard that there are bugs in many of the side missions, making a fair number of those unstable. So, it is possible that some of the book's information about side missions is useless. I'm unsure how well the new patch, or future patches, fix these problems. The character and weapon art in the margins is extremely good, except that there is no closeup drawing of the fascinating gauss rifle, which I *REALLY* wanted to see. There are no closeups of the knife, binoculars, anti-radition drug kit, or other medical kits, either. The kits are just featureless boxes, so they do not stimulate the imagination or allow you to imagine what is inside. Some of the margin art does show excellent conceptions of what Russian special forces troops, fully loaded with their equipment, might look like in the future. Some people might like the pictures of the mutant creatures, if they like violent and horrifying stuff.



4. This guide is more buggy than the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game it purports to bring to light. It is basically a hard copy of the guide which is already installed at the \Program Files\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl\ directory created at installation. I will not get into what I think about the game, this review is for the guide and I am trying to save some people a ten spot or more in avoiding this inept work. The primary usefulness of this guide is to beginning players, but even then it is hardly worth the effort to get it, never the less the money spent. It lacks any depth in any area, the weapon, artifact and area descriptions are taken right out of the in-game PDA write up. There are no useable maps and the run down of missions is laughable as they lack the maps and simply give a general theory of completion. What I did like about this guide is that it has a rundown of all the weapons, but since the information is already in the inventory interface, it doesn't warrant purchase for that reason alone. Even in that area, the guide furthers the typos inherent in the game and copies them into the guide which had the Obokan rifles description all confused. There is some very good artwork in the guide in full color, but really most text in the book is ripped right from the PDA entries. The combat tips are in the level of explaining straffing and leaning, so if you have ever played another FPS, it is worthless in that purpose as you already know the basics. The other thing that is annoying is that the guide never attempts to shine a light on the broken side quests in the game and is seemingly unaware that item / personnel locations in these types of missions are often randomly generated every time you take a job from a character in the game. It states exactly where they will be in the guide and although they are sometimes there, they can be at multiple locations from the random generation. It also does this with artifacts that sometimes randomly generate and it will say to pick up some artifact at some location only once you arrive - it's either not there or another artifact altogether. The layout of the guide is haphazard at best and downright schizophrenic most of the times with no apparant order that is discernible. I simply cannot think of a worse guide then this. Players who have gotten even a quarter of the way through the game will not learn anything from it and even newbies should just save their money and read the PDA entries.



5. Not a lot of specific help issues. Maps not of great help. No one-page overview map of the whole game. Had to consistantly flip back and forth to find specifics for even the same section of game. Overall, not very well organized or of great help.

4 comments about Mario Party 8: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides) (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. With all the hype and excitement over the latest chapter in the Mario Party franchise, and its debut for the Nintendo Wii, many gamers wonder if it is worth it. They'll find out not just when they play the game, but with this guide from Prima. The guide for Mario Party 8 is a simple and easy to use guide that highlights all the 70+ minigames and unlockables, including hidden characters like Blooper. The maps here are detailed nicely, and shows how simple it is to play each of the games with the Wii remote. While there hasn't been a strategy guide for the Mario Party franchise since Mario Party 5 on the Gamecube, this is well worth the hype. I definitely recommend this as a must buy for new Wii owners, and Mario Party fans alike. Party on!!!
   
   Price: B+
   
   Maps: B
   
   Overall: B 1/2+



2. this is a great game not only for kids, but for adults too. My wife and I play this game with our 5 and 7 year old all the time, we enjoy it as much as they do. The only thing that we dislike about it is that we cant seem to figure out how to open a new board or open up new characters and the book doesn't explain how. Maybe some day we will figure it out.



3. What else can I say? The games are good, the mini-games are fun, the graphics are great, but there's no real need for a player's guide. Still, some people feel the need to own all game guides...If this is your style, don't hesitate to buy it. We have all the Mario Parties for the GC, GBA, DS and now this one...but we won't be buying any more guides for the various MP games.



4. This book does not tell you more than you could figure out quickly while playing the game.

5 comments about The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick.

1. Face it, whether you're a white hat or a black hat - hacking is hacking. Alas, the term "ethical hacker" is merely a way for those breaking the law to rationalize their behavior. Littman did a great job of exposing this great debate in the book. In the field of information security, Mitnick is known to all of us as the king of social engineering. Let's be completely honest (even Mitnick and Littman exposed this in the book)... Kevin is not good at hacking but rather at exploiting the human factor. That is - humans are the weakest link in this whole information security thing - not the systems themselves. You want to design a secure system? - educate your users, administrators, managers and executives on how to be wise and vigilant and adhere to a sound security policy.
   
   Thank you to Mr. Littman for showing us the many sides of Mitnick's life. I look forward to reading about Poulsen next in "The Watchman".



2. This is the best book I read about Kevin Mitnick's exploits, time on the run, and eventual arrest. It reads like a thriller, is true to it's subject material, and is informative too. If you want to know the story behind one of the country's most noted computer hackers, this is the book to read. (Until of course he publishes his memoirs :-)).



3. Well, maybe it's because I always wanted to live the new economy revolution that happened there in that time and I always wanted to be "connected" even if I was too young and my parents could not understand my point. I'm a bit "obsessed" by this story and not just because there's still something to be clarified, but because the scenario and the period where these events are based mean something in the Internet history. I've red the books, the documents, the reports, the old post messages and nearly everything that is available on the net, and I can say that definitely this book add something more to all of that. I like the author's perspective as well because he wants to understand what's really behind. Of course, as the author's himself said, the book is based mainly on dialogues and interviews with all the people involved in the story, but at the end I hoped there was the chance to extract more details about who really attacked Shimo and why Kevin was handling Shimo's files. I got the feeling that all the phone calls reported were at the end too dispersive and distant from the real secrets of the story. But I believe the author did that to point out what was really behind Kevin's way of behaving, and what really was his point of view, and the book is really successfull in that. Probably what left me a bit disappointed is that I hoped at the very end the author could ask Kevin something more to get more light on all the story after his capture, but probably just my expectations were too high.



4. I saw the movie "Track Down" with Skeet Ulrich and that intrigued me enough to want to read this book.
   
   I really enjoyed this book and found it very informative and fair to the subjects, since it is a true story.
   
   highly recommend if you are interested in computers and those that hack, just from the vicarious thrill, as well as how to protect yourself online!



5. The same author wrote "The Watchman" which is about Kevin Poulsen. I loved that book and this book.
   
   It's good to read a more reliable story on Mitnick than what came from garbage that John Markoff wrote. You actually get to hear the stories the way Mitnick explains them. He trusted Littman (the author) enough during his hiding time to call him and talk to him for hours at a time and explain what he's done, what he didn't do and his life on the run. You also get to see snippets of how corrupt John Markoff sounds during this entire thing and I don't think Littman even meant to do that.
   
   I do like "The Watchman" a bit better... at times reading the long conversations between Mitnick and Littman can get a bit repetitive or boring... However, most of the time it's very interesting.
   
   I'd suggest reading "The Watchman" first and then reading this book, as you'll notice a whole bunch of tie-in's from the characters in that book and how they relate to Mitnick. I found that fascinating how everyone was linked in one way or another...

2 comments about Visualizing Quaternions (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology).

1. Beautiful production (typesetting, graphics, layout). The mathematics is on the informal, intuitive side. I consider this a luxury purchase, not an essential part of one's hardcore math library library. Somewhere on the shelf next to Tufte's books on visualization of data.



2. This is a very interesting book in the Morgan Kaufmann series, and will appeal to those with a mathematical bent. Visualizing quaternions is broken into three parts. Part 1 treats the elements of quaternions, and parts 2 and 3 treats advanced mathematical topics that place considerably more demands on the reader's mathematical knowledge (and also on the author).
   Part 1 is an introduction for those readers new to the topic. As far as introductions go, it is not too bad. It does in fact contain one important subject - quaternion interpolation - that is not always covered in other texts. Hanson covers interpolation in part 1 and again in part 2. If your interest is computer animation, this may be sufficient reason to acquire the book...analogous to purchasing an album just to get one song. However, if you are completely new to quaternions and want to develop a firm intuition grounded in first principles, then a book that is at least an order of magnitude better is "Quaternions and Rotation Sequences" by J. B. Kuipers.
   
   Parts 2 and 3 are the most interesting parts of the book. Hanson presents a series of small chapters that discuss quaternions from different advanced mathematical viewpoints (differential geometry, group theory, Clifford algebras, octonions). The chapters are small, and so they by necessity contain references to the literature where the considerable background material required for understanding the topics is developed. If you have a good background in differential geometry and some abstract algebra, then the chapters are quite nice. In this sense, parts 2 and 3 of the book are more appropriate for mathematicians.
   
   The technique of including routine, "turn the crank" type of calculations in the text, and deferring the sometimes considerable details and theory to references allows Hanson to cover more topics than usual. However, it is exactly those details that distinguish between what is useful and well conceived mathematical theory from mathematical gibberish. Deferring details to the literature can also encourage an over-reaching of the author beyond his understanding of the material. Hanson has walked a fine line here, but still I must mention two issues that I found annoying:
   
   1) A Riemannian manifold is not specified only by giving the charts ("local patches") as Hanson seems to think on page 352. One must also add constraints on the topology -- typically Hausdorff with a countable basis of open sets. These are not just moot considerations; the topology allows a construction of a partition of unity which in turns guarantees the existence of the Riemannian metric. In particular, the mild condition of paracompactness will ensure the existence of the partition of unity.
   
   2) It is a gross over-simplification, and mathematically non-trivial, to claim the basis vectors of Euclidean space have precise analogs in Fourier transform theory, as Hanson does on page 340. Heuristic analogs...yes... but precise analogs?...only if one has developed the necessary mathematical machinery using the theory of distributions. The inner product relation ei.ej = kronecker delta ij given by Hanson on page 340 would have to be generalized to a delta function. It was one of the major accomplishments of 20th century mathematics that Schwartz was able to put the delta function on a firm mathematical basis with his theory of distributions (for which he received the Fields medal) Before Schwartz, delta functions were at best a useful computational tool in the hands of physicists like Dirac who were guided by their physical intuition, and at worst, an example of the mathematical gibberish alluded to earlier.
   
   
   
   In short, this is a good book for those with the mathematical prerequisites. Those with a more traditional background in computer science might be advised to first peruse a copy at their local bookstore to verify it matches their interests.

2 comments about Grandia III Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames).

1. ...The question is how badly will you need it? Grandia III is a fairly linear and straightforward game. It doesn't have a whole lot of secrets and there aren't very many (if any) sidequests at all. So do you really need a guide? Well, not really. But if you do get one because you're stuck or just need the extra leg up, you should be glad there's a quality guide out there like this one. It'll let you know what's ahead of you and help prepare you for the most dangerous foes.
   
   The guide begins with some "advanced tips". So if you're the type that picks up a strategy guide for the game basics (helping you adjust to the battle system if you're new to it, or anything like that) then you won't find them here (but your instruction manuel is there for that reason, of course). However, for what it's worth, most of these tips are pretty good. They help you learn where some of the best level up spots are and how to acquire some good gold early on in the game. There are also tips for the gambling, for creating mana eggs, and also giving you info on rare enemies like the Lucky Mink. They also list out which enemies have the most hit points, are the strongest etc. In a way, it seems like they're just trying to make good use of paper in the beginning.
   
   Afterwards, the real strategy begins. Everything you need to know about characters is here. All their skills and how to get them, beginning stats and how well they are in battle. A chart is also provided to show you just how characters level up. Each character is given a set of stars next to each stat. For example, if a character maintains a good HP level as they level up, the guide gives them three stars. This can easily be used to tell you who is best for what.
   
   The walkthrough doesn't waste time. It isn't sluggish at all. Each section gives you a list of objectives and then points them out to you on the map. There's more to these maps than pointing out items, goodies, save points and whatnot. They also provide you with all the enemy groups. Also, in a chart provided they tell you what to expect by battling an enemy group and how much experience and gold you'll get. This helps you decide if a battle is worth it. The screenshots are blurry, though. Which won't be a big problem, you can mostly make out what's going on. The boss strategies aren't particularly helpful. They spend a lot of time repeating the same thing for just about each and every boss (cancel attacks), but they don't always tell you what to expect. I let this slide because the game tells you what a boss is about to attack with and the guide does inform you when you should cancel. It really does a good job on providing you with defense, but not always an effective offense.
   
   The appendices section was nice, however. Giving you the low down on all the items, weapons, armor, accessories, mana eggs and skill books. When telling you about magic they do a fantastic job telling you what spells are powerful and which ones will help. They also tell you what mana eggs will make certain mana eggs. However, they do this as a list. Under Volcano Egg, for example, they'll list out every combination that'll give you a volcano egg. Was a chart too much to ask for?
   
   The bestiary is very detailed. No problems there. Everything you need to know about all the enemies is perfectly detailed in an easy to read manor. They even have a separate bestiary for the bosses, which makes figuring out the stats for a boss rather easy. It can easily be expressed that a Grandia guide probably doesn't need a bestiary, but there are times when you're glad you've got it.
   
   Overall this is a pretty satisfactory guide. 240 pages is a bit exhaustive for a Grandia guide, however. Don't be fooled by it's size. It may be detailed but there's a lot of unused space. So don't think 240 pages means you're buying a Grandia encyclopedia, it's just another basic strategy guide. However, it's a good guide. If you're stuck in Grandia III, it's a fantastic guide. Again, though, I have to tell you, Grandia III isn't a game where you'll find yourself in dire need of a strategy guide. Even if you're someone who likes to bask in all those secrets, you won't need it for the simple fact that it's a Grandia game... and a Grandia game hardly needs a guide to help you unearth all the secrets.
   
   The Good
   +Detailed Walkthrough
   +Helpful tips
   +Great character analysis and breakdown
   +Easy to use walkthrough
   +Detailed bestiary
   +Skill books, mana eggs and more!
   
   The Bad
   -A chart for making the different mana eggs would've been nice
   -The boss strategies are good on defense but not always offense
   -I just can't shake the fact that you most likely won't need this guide. Grandia III doesn't have any lucrative secrets. So if you do decide to get this guide, avoid paying sixteen dollars for it.
   
   It's a great guide, but it isn't a guide that you'll get a lot of use out of. Still, it's five star quality, so pick it up.



2. I am a fan of official game guide and I have to say that this game guide is one of the good ones. I am still playing Grandia III and so far this game guide helps me much. I love it and it worths every cent of my money.

3 comments about Official Nintendo The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Player's Strategy Guide.

1. I've liked Nintendo guides because they seem to have good insight and great mapmakers. The downside is they sometimes rely a little too heavy on the maps. Yet overall a great guide.
   
   Pros
   +Very colorful
   +Great Maps
   +No spoilers
   +Concise the dungeon walkthrough, it is easy to follow you just navigate from number to number on the map and then read the paragraph it correlates to.
   +Tells you all the movements for Link
   +List all the items and which mask's can use them
   +Gives you hints on how to survive
   +Good fairy guide with screenshots
   +Side quests are incorporated right into the walkthrough.
   +Bomber notebook guide (includes a graph of the times available, list of the requirements and rewards, and a walkthrough with screenshots)
   +Masks Guide (Tells who to get it from and were they are, also a walkthrough with screenshots)
   +Pieces of Heart Guide (A screen shot and paragraph on how to get it)
   +Bottles and Upgrade Guide (Paragraph with screenshots on how to get the bottles and upgrades)
   +Majora's Mysteries, which is a section of fun things to do
   
   
   Cons
   -Choppy walkthrough, it just highlights the key and difficult points in the game and expects you to get there on your own
   -Expects you to use the map to navigate from point to point
   -The dungeon walkthrough can seem too concise in a little under five instances, which aren't difficult to figure out, i.e. you'll need a key to enter and you'll need to find it on your own
   -No Bestiary
   -A little thin
   
   Overall its a great guide. I would definitively pick this guide up if you buy The Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition or decide to go retro and pick up and N64 and LOZ:MM.



2. Thank you for responding back. I've been looking for a Player's Guide in this game because it gets confusing for awhile. So, I don't mind cheating, which is my best bet in most games. I found what I've been looking for.



3. Never get lost in this game again. With this players guide you will find everything and never get stuck in the game again.

5 comments about Mortal Kombat?: Deception Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games Signature).

1. stupid. $14.99 for nothing. It has maybe 4 fatalities, and like 2 hara-kiris. And the konquest guide is no help. "Go to location A-8." Like I know where A-8 is! And there is no help for side missions. Only primary missions. And there are many grammar mistakes. And it doen't cover anything about the krypt! Of all things, this is one of the most important. Nobody cares about every single little move a character has. We want their fatalities! And some of the special moves are not even right. Don't get it look on the internet.



2. This guide is missing secret character moves and how to unlock them. No other secrets or krypt info was listed either.



3. I've never written a review before, because I've never been impressed enough or upset enough to do so. Believe me, I'm very much the latter right now.
   
   Everyone that has played Mortal Kombat knows that the main thing that sets apart MK from every other fighting game on the market are the fatalities. So I bought the guide hoping to learn how to do these finishers... Boy, was I wrong! Not only is the print so small and the colors so similar that I could barely read them (and even then I still can't make out some of the directional arrows), but more than half of them aren't even listed! Sure, it lists every single move possible during kombat, but I could have checked the move list to learn them.
   
   Next, Konquest Mode. Ugh, what an utter waste this "guide" is. The only quests it walks you through a blind hamster with a learning disability could have figured out on its own! And what about the subquests? If it wasn't for the tiny printing at the top of each map (which, by the way, are useless as well as you can check the map in-game anytime you wish) stating how many sub-quests exist in that world, I wouldn't believe that the author even knew they existed.
   
   Third, the Krypt. I was not pleased when I plugged the game in to discover that I had to 'unlock' half of the playable characters. But hey, it gives inentive to play the Konquest Mode (which I likely wouldn't have touched otherwise). However, there is ~nothing~ in this guide that tells me which koffin contains which secret.
   
   In short, this guide is hardly worth the pages it was printed on. Save your money, get your guide on-line. To those of you who I've saved $15 with this warning, you're welcome. To those who already bought it, my condolences.



4. I'm so glad I bought this guide at Wal-Mart as opposed to an actual videogame store. I bought it for the Fatalities, the Konquest mode, and the Krypt. This strategy guide had NO INFORMATION!!!! It actually said to look up info online! I even went to the website listed and it still had no info. Besides, I have gamefaqs.com if I want to get guides online. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!



5. One think I can say is that it sucks!It didn't help me finish the konquest game of mortal Kombat deception. Don't even waste your money on this!

5 comments about Final Fantasy Origins Official Strategy Guide.

1. I was VERY impressed with this guide when I bought it the other day and I have to say that it's helped me cover alot of material. I had already beaten FF1, but FF2 was probably the hardest for me to complete alone and I'm sure that this is the same for everone else who's played it as it is said to be the HARDEST one in the FF franchise! Without it, I probably wouldn't have gotten as far as I thought. The guide covers both games and includes info on magic, dungeons, Boss strategies etc. and just about anything else you'd expect to know from a Final Fantasy game. And well, thanks to an excellent walkthrough through FF2, I finally beat both games with just about everything covered. (except for 'Normal' mode in FF1)

   OVERALL: I give it a 10/10! Excellent coverage for both games and a nice way to get through the hardest dungeons in case you get lost. I HIGHLY recommend this book if you are having trouble getting through either game because it will REALLY REALLY help! Never have I seen strategy this good in a long time! BRADYGAMES is the BEST co. to offer these, so I say BUY TODAY!!! You won't regret it! ^_^




2. Wow, this book's got everything! Bestiary, secret items, boss strategies, everything. If you seriously are having trouble, get this guide. You won't be sorry, you'll be like " Wow this thing DOES have EVERYTHING!"



3. This is the most helpful book ever. It has maps, stats for characters and bosses and the eastiest way to beat them. The book tells you what is in each chest if they're guarded and by what. And it has what monster you'll find in certain areas and there stats. It show all the wepons armor and items and their ablities. This book is great. I used it after i beat both and i was amazed at some of the things i missed or did wrong. Personnally though i'd rather spend more time on the game and find the stuff without help it just more fun that way. But when it comesd to strategy guides this is a the top!



4. It was nice to have some over view maps of the caves and castles. It help prevent the access use of potions and death of party members at early levels.



5. its good but i didnt beat the game, so i thus didnt use the whole stragey guide so i dont know since i didnt dive into it that much