5 comments about Penny Arcade Volume 2: Epic Legends Of The Magic Sword Kings (Penny Arcade).

1. Penny Arcade is a comic that has been around for almost a full decade now, so it is nice that this year they are finally releasing a series of books that bring the comics into our homes without the need for a computer and internet, excluding how you buy the book itself.
   This contains the second volume of the series, or all the comics done in 2001 + bonus art and attempts for other webcomics, and it nicely fills out the 150 page book. All the comics are funny start to finish, with plenty of classics filling the book.
   I highly recommend the book for readers of any form of comics, and I also recommend it for people who love video games, though my bet is that they cant read this due to playing something like WOW right now.



2. The book was a Christmas present and it came in beautiful condition. Thanks!



3. Though the entire Penny Arcade archive is available on their website, the extras contained in the print versions make them well worth the purchase. In this second collection, witty commentary accompanies each comic, as well as artwork from the Penny Arcade card game and a "boneyard" of aborted or half finished ideas. Surely the humor contained therein is not to everyones taste, but to those who love it, Epic Legends of the Sword Kings will make a fine addition to your library.



4. I love Penny Arcade. The thing I enjoyed most about their books is the commentary that goes along with each comic. This is a must for Penny Arcade fans.



5. Avid Penny Arcade Reader here, and gotta say all their books are a must have!

4 comments about Shadow of the Colossus(tm) Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

1. Unhappy with this game. Some may like the fact that it is all big bosses but for me it was too repetitive, you kill a boss then end up back at the starting point to then journey to another boss to kill him and return to the starting point . . . you get the jist. Nothing to fight on the way just land to travel on and that takes a lot of time so you end up spending loads of time traveling to the boss then to fight to travel agian. Unsatisfied!



2. While this isn't the best guide I've ever seen, it's only real problems are subjective ones as regards layout and such. The guide itself is full of information, makes it easy to not completely spoil everything for yourself it all you're looking for is a quick hint (has sections on how to find the Colossi, sections on how to scale them, and sections on exactly how to beat them if you still can't figure it out). Has some very nice high-res artwork from the game as well and is very slickly presented. Features a few hidden elements of the game as well. Overall, an excellent guide worth owning if you enjoy using or collecting them.



3. The game is good but it needs some work. Sometimes your guy doesn't want to do what you want him to do. like grab or let go... They need to use other buttons and quit only using the same button for several actions..



4. I really liked this game despite the rough handling and amazingly challenging gameplay, but a game is supposed to be a challenge. I hate games that are too easy. It makes gaming basically pointless.
   
   This guide was a good source of information and it helps you find a couple of easter eggs here and there.

5 comments about Tales Of Symphonia(tm) Official Strategy Guide.

1. The book does help by giving details on what needs to be done but I am left to figure out what the guide is telling me. There is a writing and content issue here. The paragraphs end abruptly or they don't make any sense at all. The step by step guide that concerns dungeon puzzles are often more confusing then they should be because of the wording.
   
   Weapons list, armor lists, EX skills and titles list are a plus. I wish the subquest missions are integrated into the book instead of written as an appendix at the back of the book since I have missed a couple of things to do and I've had to hurriedly flip to the back to see what I can backtrack on.
   
   The affection scale is not listed on this guide. That's an integral part of the story and for it not to be included in a plus or minus list format is disappointing.
   
   Overall it's a decent guide for quick reference. Bad writing and and a sense of incompleteness hold it back from being a great guide.



2. There are times when people want to buy a strategy guide to get a leg up. Afterall, unlike most online guides they have maps and screenshots for us visual learners who can't learn by text alone. Unfortunately, the problem with being a visual learner with strategy guides, is when those guides are missing a lot of stuff. If this were a guide for an action/adventure game, it would be perfect. But RPG guides are supposed to be better than this.
   
   To begin, let us first understand what a strategy guide is. It is NOT meant to be a "How-to" book. It's meant to be just what it is: A guide. Some things the guide really shouldn't have to point out to you (does the guide really have to say which direction is North on the worldmap? It's on display in the game for cryin' out loud!). Unfortunately, while this guide is helpful, it seems far from being complete.
   
   The walkthrough is basic. It's written to where you should only refer to it if you're stuck. It's a quick easy to use walkthrough. I didn't have any troube understanding puzzle solutions (if the writing is confusing, just look at the screenshot, easy as that). I also didn't have any trouble being guided in the next direction. It seems like it's done it's job right? Afterall, all the EX skills and Techs are in the guide, and they're covered pretty well in an easy to use table. Items list, weapons charts, all the neat misc. stuff is here.
   
   But there are problems.
   
   The writing, as the others have pointed out, is confusing sometimes. Some paragraphs really DO end abruptly. And there are instances of them being none finished, but here's the trick to that. When a paragraph isn't finished, it means the next few words are the title of the next section. A technique BradyGAMES must've picked up from Versus Books along the road. It doesn't work though, as you can clearly see by the other reviewers who didn't seem to spot this sooner.
   
   The walkthrough has more problems. An RPG guide NEEDS MAPS! I'll shout it from the roof-tops until the day I die! Without maps, an RPG guide is damn near useless. Where are the treasures? I don't know because the guide doesn't have maps! You'll have to rely on directions, and they don't even lead you to all the items. The good news is there IS an items list for each area.
   
   Also, what's with the bestiary? I understand that it goes by the monster list in the game, but if it were alphabetical, it would've been easier to use. If you encounter an enemy for the first time, you'll have to flip through endless pages to find the enemy you want. More importantly, why aren't monster stats called out in the walkthrough? They are for bosses, but not regular enemies.
   
   And let's talk about boss strategies for a moment. I've never seen a guide with such horrendous strategies before. Here's a boss strategy from one of the late bosses in the game. I can put it right here!
   
   "Use ice, water, or fire attacks to defeat the monster, in combination with physical attacks and techs."
   
   Now, what did you learn? Weakness? Yeah. But what about what the boss attacks with? What about what YOUR characters need to defend against? Does the boss cast status effects? Nobody knows!
   
   Finally, there's no affections list. One of the most crucial parts of the story and character development, and the guide doesn't help you with it. What choices do I make for my characters to like me? Hell, I don't know.
   
   I liked the side-quest sectin. Very detailed, but I wish they'd call them out in the walkthrough. I had a case of page-flipping after damn near every completed area just to see if a side-quest was availible. I'd waste precious game time (and some life) just seeing if a quest was availible.
   
   Seriously though, this isn't the worst guide in the world. If you need help with the main quest, it WILL help you. You just have to make really good use of those screenshots and tips. The tips DO work, and you will find all the titles, EX Skills and obtain all the techs using this guide. You won't master the game with the guide, but you'll come close in more ways than you think. The only MAJOR problem with the guide is the Character affection and lack of maps. Other than that, you should be just fine with this guide.



3. Once again Dan leaves us hanging. There is a lot of information that could be here(need I say maps?). Also a lot of poor paragraphs and directions leave you studying the pictures to find out whats next, not the text.



4. These guides are normally great, but this guy left some loose ends that forced me to go online for help to progress the story. Events and items he claimed were in a certain area were not. In short the guy was a little too brief for a game as long as this on is.



5. I remember liking this guide as I used it to beat this game, but at the same time it occasionally left with me unanswered questions. Perhaps there was an occasional error as well. Still, overall good buy to get all the little bits you're missing.

3 comments about SOULCALIBUR IV Limited Edition Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames)).

1. I pre-ordered this thing because it was solicited as being "leather bound". I was stoked that Brady was really giving this special edition the business. so Amazon tells me they are out and delayed until September THE DAY it is released. A week later they change the description so it no longer reads that it is bound in leather and then I go to cancel my order and I can't because my merchandise is being "prepared". The book comes with the CD but if I had known that this thing was the exact same book as the normal version otherwise, I would not have purchased it. The book gets low ratings not because it is a bad supplement, it is quite good... but because Amazon or Brady got me to order this thing through false advertising so don't reward them by purchasing it here.



2. When I think of a game guide from BradyGames, I think of the exquisite job they did on The Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time or other guides I've purchased from them in the past. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the folks @ BradyGames hired some Prima writers with the farce they published between these two (NOT LEATHERBOUND, Amazon) covers. With the exception of the nice character shots, this book is worthless. Especially as a moves list.
   
   In someone's lazy attempt to hit the beach early one weekend before this thing went to press, the controls for the X-Box 360 & PS3 aren't even included! They show both controllers in the very front of the book, with a legend that a cursory glance will have you assume is just explaining the differences between Sony's 'geometric' approach vs. Microsoft's traditional A/B button styles.
   
   Well, you'd be wrong. My husband has never played the PS3 console so I was going to let him glance thru' this book while playing the game to help him familiarize himself with the button layout and character combo lists. What I found out was the book just takes BOTH consoles' controllers and then maps a legend all their own over that! For instance, when you look up a character, say Voldo, and want to know how to perform a simple kick, you'd think the writers would list the corresponding 360 and PS3 buttons respectively. Nope. In the moves list kicking is pressing "K"...What the heck is "K" you ask?? yeah, so did I. You'll have to refer to the front of the book again, where the diagram of both controllers is, to see which button they re-named "K". And so on.
   
   It's hard enough to explain what they did, let alone figure out the coding they created to cover both controllers' button functions.
   
   Why they didn't just release two different books is beyond me. I haven't listened to the OST yet, but even if it's crap, it's still better than the travesty that is this BradyGames guide, and other than the nice (but limited) artwork, is the ONLY reason this isn't a 1-star review. I'm shocked at the level of laziness it took to crank this out.



3. I bought this guide for one reason and one reason only; to help me get through the tower of lost souls but there is very little strategy for the specific levels, just some vague pointers. King of the physical realm has beaten me, beaten me like a red headed step child. The guys are way too strong and I have no advice to help me. Sigh I think I would learn my lesson. Never buy fighting game strategy guides. The only real help is a list of the character's moves and you can get that by hitting the start button during the game and going down the menu which tells you the characters moves. On the plus side there is some nice art work and bios on the characters but if I could do it over I would buy the regular guide. Or maybe none at all.

5 comments about Playstation Nation: Protect Your Child from Video Game Addiction.

1. This book was the push I need to stop game playing in our home. The authors spelled out exactly what was happening with my two boys and online game playing. It was like reading dialogue from my boys and I. Since, the boys stopped playing online games our entire household is a much more peaceful place with the boys spending their time playing outside, reading, using their imaginations and I am no longer the bad mom constantly telling the kids to get off the computer. I feel like our children, teens, and young men are having their lives stolen by computer games. It is a free choice but it is truly addictive. Think of the hours wasted playing online games, especially while a child is growing up. I have friends whose husbands spend hours playing games. What a loss. I recommend this book to all.



2. I purchased this book because of my concern for my 12-year old son and his future. This book affirmed my strength to resist letting him lose: a zest for real life, social skills, and maturing. It's too easy to turn to a virtual world than to face the real world and build coping skills needed for life. Without being overly dramatic or too technical, the Bruner's provided factual and subjective information while citing other authors, sources, and scholars on video game addition.



3. This book is well written and contains citations for the references used. There are an increasing number of kids and adults who fit the criteria that this book illustrates. It will teach you how to understand and deal with the newest addiction that is destroying families and children all over the world. This is an easy book to read and will give you the references to do your own homework on the issue as well.



4. This book, and the idea it supports, is garbage. Video games are becoming yet another excuse for bad parenting, following in the footsteps of television.
   
   Parents: stop trying to play the victim and raise your damn kids yourselves.



5. I travel and speak about gaming addiction and right now this is the only book on gaming that I sell. I am going through this book for the second time because it is so good. If you are a parent and have a concern about your child's gaming this book is a great investment.
   
   This books only limitation is that it has an over the shoulder point of view of gaming. The Bruner's lack of first hand experience sometimes shows. But what they lack in game experience they more than makeup for in parental expertise. I own several books on this topic and if you are a parent and you only buy one book on this subject you should buy Playstation Nation.

3 comments about URU: Ages Beyond Myst (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I got my Prima Official Travel Guide today. It's the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst strategy guide, but it's written as a sort of travel journal by a "former" writer of game guides whose life has changed dramatically following his experience.

   It's written with a good knowledge of the game and its history, and has a good synopsis of the background, which will make a novice to the series appreciate Uru all the more. The style is pleasantly witty. Even the forward from the editor, and the "advertisement" paid for by the DRC at the back of the book, are in character and amusing.

   The book has tons of game information. It contains the text of all the notebooks, journals, and letters in the game. There are many snapshots that look like Polaroid pictures taped or paperclipped into the book. The text is in a handwriting font that isn't too hard to read. Of course, there are also maps, and descriptions and pictures of how to do all the puzzles.

   In my opinion, it's a real shame that the entire interior of the book is done in black and white. That's the only fault I find with it. If it were all done in color, it would awesome! I'd certainly be willing to pay more for a full color edition!




2. Not too clear. Prefer the way it was done in Myst. Beware! if you download URU updates, this book becomes obsolete. Correct me if I'm wrong PLEASE!!!



3. This guide is one of the best I have seen. It seems Prima has a knack for putting a strategy guide for the games we love. I try to buy only guides by Prima, but sometimes I'll play a game that they don't have guides for so I must look for other ways. But on an overall vote as to a complete walk through and solving puzzles I highly recommend Primas Guides, and give them a vote of 5 Stars on a level of 1 to 5 and 5 being the highest vote to obtain. They are very detailed in explaining what to do as you take your journey through your game.

5 comments about Developing Games in Java (New Riders Games).

1. The good things about this book that the author modulates the basic game componets into various class such as screen manager, input manager which enhances the reusability of the game code.
   
   Also, a game can be easily built on the existing class without much tweaking of the original source code.



2. First off, this book is fairly easily to read if you have some programming background. This book is obviously not aimed at beginners, so it will require atleast a basic knowledge of Java to make any sort of sense.
   
   What I liked about this book is the rather large number of projects you have to build right from the get go. However, what was most disappointing about this book was the lack of explanations as to what, exactly, is going on in the code. For instance, his section on mouselooking basically dumps two pages of code on you, filled with new algorithms that are accompanied by zero details about how they work or why things are done that way. There aren't even comments in the code that step you through it.
   
   That aspect of the book is really saddens me because that's all that seperates it from a typing exercise and a great lessong in game programming.
   
   Having said all of that. There are some basic functional things you gather that are useful if you are brand new to game programming.
   
   What I had hoped to gather out of this book was more than just code. I hoped that there would be principles that I could extrapolate and take with me from project to project. Regretfully, I don't think this book accomplished that goal.



3. I have had this book for a couple of years. It is one of the best games programming books I have read. Be aware that over half the book is devoted to developing a software 3D engine. I found this to be quite high quality and I have even ported it to C++ with no issues. The engine supports texture mapping, shade mapping, z-buffering, collisions, pathfinding and BSP trees. As the author states, learning how things work in software helps when you later use hardware 3D rendering. To be honest, I was really impressed with the speed the 3D demo ran at, considering most people still think Java is slow.
   
   The first half of the book develops a nice game framework to help with redifining keys, choosing a screen resolution, sound effects, animation and 2D scrolling with collision detection. There is enough info here to produce a good Mario clone. There is a chapter on networking but it seems disconnected from the rest of the book (I think it was written by a different author).
   
   One of the best things though is that all the source code (available from his site) compiles straight off the bat, and works with no modifications. I cannot tell you how rare this is for a computer book. All the examples are built as Ant scripts and I simply imported them into my IDE (IntelliJ IDEA, but most other IDEs can also import Ant scripts). They all compiled with no errors and ran exactly as described in the book.
   
   In summary this is an excellent buy for the intermediate Java programmer who wants to get into 2D and 3D games.



4. Early attempts at Java game programming usually meant incorporating a foreign framework in your code. With the latest advancements in Swing, it's become easier to develop rich media applications in Java. Developing Games in Java takes this rich framework and explains thoroughly how to best utilize it for both 2D and 3D games. The book could easily be used as a primer in game and graphics techniques as well. Concepts like collision detection, path finding, scripting, and AI are well covered, making this a complete introduction to developing great games in Java.



5. Pretty darn great book!
   Chapter 1 starts with threads, locking and multithreading animation!!
   This is for serious programmers, serious game developers...you gotta have some experience in JAVA development in order to get the best from this book. Beginners will take some time, but eventually prevail.
   A must!!

3 comments about NFL Head Coach 09: Prima Official Game Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).

1. This is a high quality guide for NFL Head Coach 09, which is currently (August 13, 2008) only available when you buy the bundled Collectors Edition of Madden 09.
   
   This is the guide that should have been included with the game itself. Nearly half of this guide is filled with instructions on HOW to play the game and HOW to use the Play Editor - and that's a good thing.
   
   The lame 12 page pamphlet that EA ships with the game itself is basically useless and this guide answers most of the gameplay questions. There are so many things happening behind the scenes in this game that you would have no idea about unless you either figured it out on your own (which would take hours and hours worth of restarting Career mode to fix your mistakes), or took a look at this Prima guide.
   
   The second half of the guide details various play strategies for each of the NFL teams. It breaks down each team's best offensive and defensive plays in easy to understand terms (strangely, it doesn't include any player names in any of the descriptions, only their jersey numbers). They've also included a pretty good primer on professional football offensive and defensive formations and strategies in general.
   
   I would have liked to see a bit more detail about the "strategy" of the off season and free agent tendencies. Instead, this guide acts more like the (missing!) instruction manual and doesn't give you many specific things to try, like bundling draft picks with signing bonuses in order to snag elusive players.
   
   Likewise, although the Play Editor section is descriptive and explains it's function very well, but doesn't offer you much advice regarding WHAT pieces and parts that will make for a great play. Unless you're already pretty good with football strategies, you'll learn HOW to move the X's and O's around, but you won't learn WHY. Some illustrated examples would have been great.



2. As the other review alluded to -- This makes for a great instruction manual. As far as a strategy guide, this is not. It more or less tells you how to play the game, and what different options mean. And a lot of the instructions are pretty much direct from the in game tutorial. For as in depth that this game seems to be, as well as being essentially a brand new franchise (I get Madden skimping on docs, since most owners already have played and know the controls), it needed a better manual than was provided.
   
   And maybe that's where the pain lies. The game itself isn't that good, but that's okay as it's only $30(as found with the Madden Collector's Edition), but since you need to buy this manual to know how to play, the game is now a $50 game. And, that is more money than the game itself is worse.
   
   Also adding to the dissapointment of this guide is the quality of the manual. The manual itself is very short at 160 pages. There are typos galore. And the paper it is printed on is about the quality that a cheap magazine comes in.



3. Good book and thorough enough on each aspect of the game. A must for Madden or NCAA Football players looking to get an edge in making their own plays. Gives you more control over features the other two dont.

5 comments about Chrono Cross Official Strategy Guide.

1. Normally on my RPG games I like to play them through without the help of guides, but Chrono Cross is so non-linear and has such a wide base of characters there is no real way you could find many of the cool stuff in the game without this guide.

   Simply put, it's well laid out, as bright and colourful as the game itself, details where all the items are located, and gives advice on how to beat the more difficult bosses.

   Yes, you can complete the game without this, but you would most certainly miss out on a lot of awesome subquests, groovy characters, and very helpful items, you woulnd't want to do that now, would you?




2. ok this book is great help. It tells you how to get each charater and illstrates each one also. It's worth getting.



3. First of all, the game's layout is just beautiful. Lots of artwork, screenshots to help you out, and full-colour maps.

   The walkthrough is rather good, (even though you keep having to flip to the back for the maps) The boss tips are right on, and all the items you can find are listed as well as enemy info and pictures. Info on New Game+ is also included (though i did notice a few things missing..) Also, all the characters, the specials, and info on how to recruit them is listed flawlessly.

   This game isn't difficult (and a guide isn't needed to beat the game) but if you're a completist, and want to get everything there is to get in Chrono Cross, this guide has everything you need.




4. ~The guide is sufficient as it includes all the basics taht a guide should have. ... The guides also does not includes many important side quest things such as a list of monsters that can be mimicked. The guide also does a poor job of explaining some of the consequances of the choices you make. The maps in the guides are also annoying as they are located in the rear so you'll have to flip back and forth.~~ However this guide gives fairly good illustrations as well as complete list of charachters, their quests, items, elements, boss strategies and such. A def. buy if you really like the game and Def. superior to other bradygames guides (such as FFIX)~



5. You need to play it through at least once on your own. This book really ruined the game for me. I used it the first time through and all I did was look ahead to see what items were around, the bosses, and who I could get on my team. There was no mystery left in the game. By the time I finished I had gotten all the genies, weapons, and characters, so why play again? I think that you should play the game first without out it. Games are fun because you don't know what is going to happen. That is what creates the adventure.

No comments about Make WoW Gold Guide.