3 comments about Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Official Strategy Guide (Brady Games).

1. Maps are too small and lack detail. I got the feeling the writer was too much in bed with the developers and distributors of the game.



2. pros: good detail of game play, plenty of maps
   
   cons: could have more detail of some game play areas & maps



3. good guide however the maps are too small; not enough info about development of characters;

5 comments about Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984.

1. Great for a trip down memory lane, but certainly not a "scholarly" approach to the videogame era. Still searching for a book that takes the most academic approach to this medium, but this one is certainly appealing if a bit irreverent in terms of its overall presentation.



2. A really fun book ... and one that conjures memories of the old days of video gaming. I had forgotten some of the games and graphics of those early years, and it was fun and interesting to read and see them again. This book is as much about the photos and graphic layout as the text, but make sure to read it ... the text is insightful, well-researched, and thorough. I can relate to Van Burnham's personal recollections and her weaving of those experiences into the history of videogaming makes this book memorable and remarkable. Gotta go ... I've got to figure out how to get my Colecovision hooked up to a plasma for a round of Mr. Do!



3. If you have any love of video games beyond your couch, this book will make a great addition to your library. If you have a superiority complex and need to out-snob your friends about the history of Pong and where the name Donkey Kong comes from- buy this book now. Also recommended- Arcade Fever, I am 8-Bit, Everything Bad is Good for You.



4. this is a rather large book, more of a visual treat than a book. It has a generous helping of photographs, all of them in colour. That alone is worth the price of the book. A good coffee table book.



5. I've never seen anything quite like this before. From cover to cover it's BIG, glossy, fascinating, well written and most of all, BRILLIANT !
   The pictures are huge and the way it's laid out is great.
   If you've played Classic arcade games in the 80's or now, you simply must buy this book.

5 comments about Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. This truly is one of the better guides I've seen in a long time. With Prima being the larget producer of such books, I generally approach these manuals with more than a little wariness, since the experience is generally hit-and-miss, but I have to say that the Prima guide for Pool of Radiance efficiently and effectively covers all the bases that a good guide should.

   The centerpiece of the guide is the walkthrough for the game, which is fairly well written. Of course, considering the fact that this is a Dungeons and Dragons game that they were writing a guide for, they probably didn't have much trouble ahead of them (random encounters are rare, and the guide itself is written like a book and paper adventure key). The maps they provide are well rendered and easy to follow in most cases, and the occasional side tips that they offer are helpful, for the most part.

   One thing that I would have liked to see is a little more focus on character creation and subjective advice from the book's editors. As is so often the case with these sorts of guides, the sections on gameplay are little more than reprints of the game documentation. A greater number of sample characters, some expanded elaboration on character design, or another fully illustrated sample party or two would have been a welcome aid. The point of these guides, after all, is to allow the player to more completely experience the game, and it seems as though a lot of potentially useful material in that regard has been cast off.

   On the whole, however, the guide is still exceptional, with complete coverage of every location or encounter in the game and, if not exceptional, a respectable amount of character creation advice and explanation on elements of the gameplay rules.




2. Don't buy it, it's full of bugs. And if you buy it, wait with installing the game until they have released all the patches.
   It crash often, the save games gets corrupted and worst of all, the uninstaller have been reported to making havoc with your windows register.



3. While I agree with everything the other reviewers said about the description of character classes and the easy-to-read maps with great descriptions of the areas and details of exactly what you will find there, this hint book has two very serious flaws I found.

   The first is that in all the "walkthrough" descriptions, in many of the places they tell you what to do to get through the area ONCE YOU GET INTO IT. But they do NOT say, for instance, "before you can get into this area you have to complete such and such quest." I thought I was at a serious impasse early in the game because the book described in the main halls that the word of the dragon was required to open one of the doors, and you had to talk to some creatures there to get the right word. When i first went there, THERE WERE NO CREATURES THERE. They did not make any mention of the need to complete previous quests that would activate the creatures in the area. This is not the only section of the book with this flaw. You can't walk through the areas as they are presented in the book, step by step...there are still a lot of things to figure out and finding the right hint can get very confusing.

   The second bad flaw this book had was the incomplete index. For instance, I found something called a "stronghold key" that I could not figure out which door to get open. If you want to ask "what is the stronghold key and which door does it open" the "stronghold key" does not appear in the index, nor does "key, stronghold". Again, this makes finding the right hint you want very difficult...unless you know exactly the area you are in and look up the hint IMMEDIATELY after you find something new, the book is just a pain to search through for the correct hint.

   If you just want a general overview of the game and area descriptions, and some good maps to follow, this is a good book to get. If you're looking for an answer to a specific problem, this book will only help you if you are willing to spend a bit of time searching through it...it can take time to find the right solution...very disorganized in that sense.




4. I am a fan to Prima's strategy guides. They are indepth and thorough. Some of the games that are out now are huge, and sometimes you need some help. Look no further. Prima has you covered.



5. I was having trouble with Pool of Radiance because there is SO much to do and everything is so spread out. I like to do all the quests and see and experience as much as possible. I got the book for the maps, so I could make sure I got to everything in the game. The book is incredibly useful for that - it has extremely detailed maps and tells you about every single creature/quest/item there is to find and experience in each section of the game.

   It also does a pretty good job of describing the characters/skills/traits/etc... but I'm not much of a min-maxer, I just like to play the game. I give it five stars because it did exactly what I wanted it to do - gave me a map and some direction for playing.

5 comments about Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando Official Strategy Guide.

1. This guide contains maps and where to get all platnum bolts and nanotech boost which is REALLY helpful! It tells you info on weapons and when you should use them and how to get through stuff and answers to electrolizer and infiltrator puzzles to thats also really helpful. It also tells you how to get all the skill points and tips on getting them. A really great guide but a bit confuseing at times un-fourinetly



2. get this game it rules when you are playing dont buy any guns
   save up for the ryno2 on planet barlow its only avalebl in the gagditron place



3. this game is asom! its twice as long as rachet and clank 1 and you are supposed to play this game twice!



4. Many people may disagree with me on this, but this game just isn't very fun. THe graphics are wonderful, and when you play the first few missions, you feel as though this is one of the greatest games ever. Then that feeling comes to a screeching halt when you buy your first armor. If it weren't for the friggin' armor in this game, I definately would have given this a five. From one point on, you have to continuously buy armor in order to make it through a certain few levels, because if you don't you're screwed. The last armor is a million bolts. A MILLION BOLTS. To raise that grit I had to beat one level ten times, and seeing as how the level was huge, that got extremely boring. In order to raise money for this without doing what I did, you would have to spend nearly nothing throughout the game, which is hard seeing as how it is necessary to spend up to 10,000 bolts in order to gain one little bit of info from some cheap citizen. I am a big Jak and Daxter fan, and I'm used to big environments where you can choose how to approach the situation. Not so in this game. There is one and only one way to get to a certain point, and the environment just goes in one big circle. However if you were a fan of the first R&C and you can't help but waste more money on crap like this, go ahead. I won't stop you.



5. i no this isnt that helpful but this is jus one of those games that make gaming reach a new level and thats it. and 4 that kid before me u dont have 2 buy all the armors i beat it the first time wit the 2nd armor and bought the rest in the chalange mode. so.......

No comments about F.E.A.R.:First Encounter Assault Recon (Prima Official Game Guide).

2 comments about Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach - Quest and Class Handbook (Prima Official Game Guide).

1. One of the better internet games I have played. Well put together and not buggy.



2. Has a lot of general info but not much specifics, like any of the hints, what the skills actually do, anything on the enhancements, that kind of stuff.

5 comments about Beginning .NET Game Programming in C#.

1. Let me start by saying that I have no intention of being a game developer, but since I need .NET for my job, I thought this would be an interesting read. It doesn't disappoint at all.
   
   What stand out is the author's repeated advice that you need to "just do it" from end to end to understand the process of creating a game. I think that's true for most tasks in programming, but it's especially true here. There are a lot of basic concepts that apply to nearly all games, and it's funny because you begin to think about them when you play one!
   
   Clearly if you want to get deep into 3D math, you'll need another book, but this one gets you started at least with an understanding of the basic DirectX tools.



2. I'm surprised this book has gotten the reviews it has (I actually ordered it based on them). The errors in the code/instructions are horrendous, and I'm only on the second chapter. (Many steps seem left out) I suppose I cannot understand why someone would write a instructional book and then fail to follow their own steps to check if they work.
   
   That being said, the book is not all bad. I've learned a few neat things from the previous chapter. I suggest, in the future, the author(s) include source for each 'step' in the projects and have others check their instructions. I would be entirely lost without the downloadable source code (apress.com), but it's a shame readers have to rely on it.
   
   If you can, check it out at a library for a week before you buy.



3. Quick Advice:
   
   Download C# Express from Microsoft's website, it is free right now. Also download the Summer 2003 edition of Direct X.
   
   Everything will compile except Space Wars 3D (I am so happy now, see below). I am missing files, its 3:00 am, I will look for my (or their mistake) in the morning.
   
   Also go to the Apress website to download all the code including the VB.Net version of the book. It seems they left out key files (Like images for chapter 3) for the C# version that you can get in the VB.net download.
   
   My Story:
   
   I got this book because I wanted to learn C# and have some fun. I certainly enjoyed the first 3 chapters. They were very nicely written and friendly, which is why I bought the book. I also like that the book explained the basic concepts clearly (which is all I am looking for right now). So far, fairly self-explanatory, follows with what I already knew and expected (it confirmed how I thought it all worked procedure wise).
   
   However, when I tried the book code in visual studio 2003 I kept getting errors. Mostly from me copying what the book had. I then had to tweak everything to get it to work. I later found it much easier to just load the code from the website. However, this does not help learning if you just compile and view. The step-by-step examples for the later chapters would have been nice for these early ones.
   
   After a short hiatus (6 months of wasteful job searching, which I am still on) I came back to work on chapters 4 onward. I found these to be very difficult to work with. I kept getting errors. After a few 5:00 am nights, I discovered it's not the code it is VS 2003 it just won't run it for some reason. Gives me a .net compilation error. I bet it has to do with patches or version differences of the .net framework.
   
   I was about to bag the book and write a bad review (mostly because I could not find quick help anywhere) when I decided to check Microsoft's website. After downloading their tools and converting the files to VS C# Express everything ran great. By the way, online resources say to use this with 2003, but I keep getting a greater version used error when working with 2003, so they must have done this in 2004. My advice on what to get is above.
   
   So after a bit a fun and a lot of short-term frustration I am happy once more and can continue my studies. My goal is not video games, but research and development for engineering. I just wanted a pretty way to render my results.
   
   To note, Direct X has had some major changes so the book is now dated, but the logic on Direct3D, collisions, and general procedures is still good. Direct Play is out, I am not sure about Direct Sound or Direct Input.
   
   When you buy a book you expect to get higher quality material then what you would find online. Overall, I would say it is better then some information I have found online, but it certainly lacks in certain areas such as better explanation on DirectX functions, though it does a good job where needed. For instance some spots in the DirectX documentation is lacking, the book does a good job of explaining those parts.
   
   Microsoft has plenty of new resources online now including better explanations on what was missing before, so I am unsure if this book is a buy anymore. I will say it is a good first start.



4. I got a used copy of David Weller's book: "Beginning .Net Game Programming in C#" from Amazon.
   First of all, using the word Beginning in the title of this book is deceptive. It's not a book for beginners in any way.
   The author not only assumes you are an experienced Windows programmer, but that you already know how to work with graphics and are more than familiar with Creating Event Handlers using OnPaint, etc.
   In the first chapter, in the classic Microsoft style of documentation, he begins by bragging about all the wonderful graphics things you can do with C# like; Gradients, Alpha Blending, Cardinal Splines, Transformation, etc. but doesn't have the courtesy to supply a single code example to show you how to do any of these wonderful things!
   In fact, if you leaf through the book page by page, you will find that there is not a single complete code example in the entire book. What the author refers to as "snippets" are nothing more than poor, incomplete code examples. As we reach the first code "example" the author says "The following code shows how to draw a simple red rectangle... " No it doesn't! All it is, is a lonely OnPaint method. The author doesn't bother to explain how to make it work, but proceeds to tack on one of those little Note: fields saying that you need to create an Event Handler. The example supplied however, is an Event Handler for something else entirely! The next example shows you how to create graphics objects from an image but doesn't bother to explain how to import the image! You are expected to magically how to do that I guess.
   It is clear that the author: David Weller doesn't even understand the topic material. What he did was go to somebody that DOES understand how to program and got a half dozen cheezy programs which he devoted a chapter each to, with a feeble attempt to tack a bunch of comments inbetween.
   If you want to make a Tetris clone and not much else, there's a very slim chance you might get something out of this book. Although you will have to type up pages of code yourself before finding out whether it will even run or not because there is no CD included with the book. The author assumes you know so much about programming already that, quite frankly, if you knew that much, you wouldn't need his lame book.
   The author is neither a programmer, nor a writer. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. It gives me a big knot in my stomach thinking how many other sincere beginners will end up wasting perfectly good hard earned cash on this complete waste of trees.
   Dillinger



5. This text presented the concepts of game programming well. However, the examples available with the book were not complete. They were missing classes that need to be purchased/downloaded from a third party.
   
   Part of learning a new programming/technology concept is having a working model. This book failed this portion of the learning process

4 comments about Versus Books Official Perfect Guide for Wild Arms 3.

1. This is a pretty good guide. I only have about two or three small problems with the guide (see below) but to be truthful it really is one of the best and most well-organized RPG guide I've seen.

   To start off, if you want a guide that won't take the fun out of WA3-then this one is for you! There are not plot spoilers in the guide making it more useful.

   The walkthrough is well organized and easy to use. Its quick, organized, and most importantly, to the point! With beautifully done maps, and clear screens. The boss strategies are good at first, but then begin to lack a little. Not to mention that the guide doesn't give a strategy for optional bosses, but it will say the stats at least.

   You can find all 15 EX keys relatively easily with this guide in hand. They also have all the Millenium puzzle solutions, and all the side quest.

   The world map is nice but as in most RPG games nowadays you probably won't need it. The other gripe I had, as I have with RPG guides from VERSUS off the past is that they have no battle tips for beginners and no game basics! What kind of guide doesn't help you get adjusted to the game first?

   Oh well, moving on, the items list could've used more detail than I got from it, but hey, its still there so don't worry about it. It would have also been better to have an Arcana list in the back instead of making me fish through the walkthrough.

   OVERALL: This was a great guide. Not a "Perfect" guide (their WA2 guide was much better) but not a "Strategy" Guide either. Its more like you companion rather than just a book that gets worn on the shelf.

   POSITIVE
   +Detailed maps
   +Organized walkthrough
   +No story spoilers
   +Find all 15 Ex keys
   +Millenium puzzle solutions
   +All side quests and secrets

   NEGATIVE
   -No game basics and battle tips
   -No strategies for most optional bosses

   Pretty good guide. I'd have given it a five if it didn't have all thse small little tweaks that they didn't work out.




2. Typos, poor explanations, no details. It helps, and you'll need it for this game - but it seems very rushed.



3. The whole book is okay but it seems rushed and not personally talking to you like some other guides and has no story explanations or add-ons anywhere. Giving spoilers is a bad but helpful thing and helps you learn what your character's personalities are like. Not even any character bios or explaning what the H**l force points are or what the heck is the point of the game. In this case the game is great and gives you a post-modern wild west feel...



4. The only reason I gave this guide two stars was because it had a walkthrough. Remember the good ol days? When Versus Books released all the good guides? You could never go wrong when you went with Versus Books. I remember their FF7 guide...it was the greatest RPG guide ever made! Then came their Resident Evil 2 guide which is arguably their best (competing with their FF7 and MGS guide for that title), next was MGS and then Zelda 64 and they went on and on.

   Is this guide another "homerun" like their Wild Arms 2 guide was? No...in fact its one of their worse guides. Versus Books has obviously started to fall where they once succeeded. Ever since their Grandia II guide on PS2 (never saw the Dreamcast one but I've heard its the exact same) their guides have only grown worse.

   First of all, the guide has a nice walkthrough but unlike past guides they don't have "Basic Training" section. They don't even have character bios. What ever happened to Versus Books going beyond your average strategy guide? Now they're BELOW your average strategy guide. The guide goes directly into the walkthrough from the get go. No introductions or telling you how to use the books or anything. They don't tell you stats for overworld monsters and the walkthorugh is full of typos. There was a key point in the game where I was supposed to return to Little Rock. The guide said I had to return to little twister, and while it was easy to differentiate it took a moment because the game didn't say where to go next at that point.

   The item appensix isn't detailed but they did cover the Millenium Puzzles. Also, while they didn't take the fun out of te game the walkthrough was very bland and unintersting to read. It was as if a robot was talking to me in my mind. What's worse? Not enough screenshots. They showed ONE measly screenshot for each task to do when you may need a few more.

   Also, this guide has no bestiary and that isn't a problem but they also do not tell you overworld monster stats. Also, should an enemy reappear in another dungeon, the guide forces you to flip back several pages (much like their Grandia II guide did).

   My biggest gripe...well not so big gripe, was that they gave no tips on how to raise your ARMS which I could've used some suggestions. Another small gripe that I had was that they didn't detail personal skills or arcana very well. I would've like if they had an Arcana table in the back or something but they coudln't even do that! It's all in the walkthrough which is an endless amount of pages!

   The only reason to get this guide would be for the EX File Keys and puzzle solutions. Everything else is pretty much useless, no good boss strategies that only tell you to attack and heal. They don't tell you what to expect from a boss like they did in past guides. Maps are also very undetailed with minor flaws but they're difficult to navigate.

   Lastly, the world map isn't drawn to scale and they're missing some locations! Not only that but they don't give good directions in the walkthrough to get to those areas.

   Now for those red hot juicy secrets that Versus Books is really good at collecting. Wait...umm...there are no cheap tricks anymore! They cover basic secrets already mentioned in the game. They don't help you defeat secret bosses (no overall strategy like they did in WA2 guide.). They give you EX-File keys and they explain the secrets of "Finest Arts" but they don't cover the cheap tricks you can do (There IS an infinite money trick for this game!) and they don't tell you what you can steal from enemies either!

   Overall, there is no reason to waste money on this guide. The last good RPG guide I saw from Versus books was Grandia Xtreme. Now that was a good versus books guide, but eversince WA2 and their Pokemon guides, I haven't seen any good RPG guide (or very many good guides period) from Versus Books. Whatever happened to going BEYOND the game? Leave this on the shelf and go to GameFAQs.com for game info.

5 comments about Macromedia Flash MX Game Design Demystified.

1. I have read this book but it got really complicated towards the 300th so page so make sure u know good maths and have a good grip of Flash MX ActionScript.

   Otherwise, this book is pretty good.




2. I'm a graphic designer with a little bit of scripting knowledge from director. I've made quite a few simple games in director and was looking to jump into actionscripting because of its web friendliness.

   I understood everything for the first couple of chapters but from then on I got more and more confused. This book jumps in the deep end and unless you've got a good head for mathematics/programming I'm guessing that most people will find themselves lost.

   If you're looking for books to help you learn actionscripting from the start. I would recommend buying 'Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source' and 'actionscript for flash mx' together, both of which I found to be excellent.




3. This is a very interesting book from quite a number of angles. The book is strong on discussing Flash centred technique, good on algortihmic tradeoffs but possible a little limited in in its key example. It will definitely help Falsh developers do better. The author is honest about the limitations of Flash as a game developmnet tool. The bottom line is that Flash is good a tightly defined games where some tradeoff with real-time interaction is allowable, but don't expect tthe full functionality (or speed) of a conventional games engine. There is a wealth of useful information in the book. If you have any handle on programming and Actionscript you will gain a lot more by taking timeover this book. The coding is good, and the algorithms are actually meaningful and useful. The author is clear about strengths and limitations of his approach A very rare characteristic of games books.



4. Let me begin by saying that I consider myself an intermediate Actionscript Programmer and have created several games with Flash, anticipating this book would assist me in my ventures.

   At first glance this book seems terrific. You get a large collection of games that vary in genres. Even more appealing is the multiplayer game support.

   But when you read more into you discover in the first chapters, most of it is understandable (even the physics and trigonometry) but even with your first game, you can run into troubles. I purchased this book interested in the multiplayer games. I had never done anything with this genre and wasn't sure how players could connect with one another. I discovered how its done, but the games are written with the author's program, Electroserver. This didn't bother me except that the demo included on the disk can only support five members at any one time. A little investigation on the site and I became more disappointed. To have the minimum on the license is 50 people for a whopping $299. Also the Tic-Tac-Toe example is a free download off this page. This made me wonder if the author was filling blank pages.

   The book has its high points, especially the pinball and platform game. It also has its low points, such as the rapid bombardment of Actionscript (as someone else put it, little fluff), as well as the electroserver problem.




5. This is it! Just about any question you could ask about game programming with actionscript in Flash is here. Starting with a design and math primer (for those of us who didn't pay that much attention in math), this book covers gaming physics, tile-based worlds, isometric games, excellent collision detection and pathfinding algorithims like A*, artificial intelligence, creating graphics, playing with sound, multiplayer games (you'll have to decide which server is best for you), and a large number of sample games and tutorials to get you started. I have never read a more thourogh work on this subject in the past 5 years. This book is not really designed for the beginner, as the actionscript is quite advanced and will require knowledge of the basics. Knowing your way around Flash is essential. The sample code is clean and very clearly explained, and Mr. Makar's style of writing is very direct (and occasionally humorous). This book is a must-have for any Flash developer's personal library.

4 comments about Myst: Revised and Expanded Edition: The Official Strategy Guide (Prima's Secrets of the Games, Vol 1).

1. Thsi is the best book you could buy if you want to solve Myst and still enjoy it after. The first section gives vague hints and a complete walk-through of the game, pointing out the cool details of the game. The second part has a quick-guide for anyone who's in a hurry. The last part of the book contains an exclusive interview with the makers of Myst. Myst was a game ment to be enjoyed, not a puzzle ment to be conquered. All the other guides just tell you the facts, not really appreciating Myst for all it's beauty and glory. This is the ONLY way to go if you want to get your money's worth out of Myst.



2. Rick Barba and Rusel DeMaria have done a fantastic job of fictionalising all their game secrets in a long walk through of the Myst world without giving everything away! This book even has a quick guid for the impatient player. This book will save you from wasting precious moments in front of the screen!!



3. I.m pleased so far,except that the operation of the maze mystifies me! i can get only one sound(N) How to get thru' the maze when the tram stops at every station? Help DC



4. Best game there is for just fun and NO killing, just perhaps good clean fun for the whole family. Let one do the controls and another person read along in this book to make one enjoyable game for all to play. Enjoy, The Larghe's