1 comments about Game Production Handbook, 2/E(w CD-ROM) (Computer Science)(Game Development) (Computer Science).

1. The second edition of THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK provides information producers, managers and others need to successfully develop a game. Additional information on project personnel, forms, and large multiplayer online games incorporates new interviews with industry experts and real-world examples of what works and common issues in game development. An included cd-rom offers templates and supporting forms. The result is an outstanding handbook highly recommended for any collection strong in game development.

5 comments about Halo 2: The Official Game Guide.

1. Halo 2 is a very easy game and this guide will not tell you ANYTHING you won't find in about 3 minutes.



2. Let me start off addressing some things. Some people don't find a need for this guide, and that's fine, but that doesn't mean others won't need it. Secondly, those who keep saying "Go online, go online, go online," seem to have forgotten two things. One: There are people who want the information in their lap and don't have a computer right next to their gaming system. The second is simple, some people are more visual learners. They learn the game by using maps and screenshots. For some, text just doesn't cut it. Using online guides is fine, but remember when you review a strategy guide you should actually be REVIEWING THE GUIDE, not blabbering whether or not one should use an online guide (if they wanted an online guide, do you think they'd waste time coming to Amazon to buy it?).
   
   Anyway, with that out of my system, let's move on. Piggyback Interactive, for those who don't know, is a guide company in the UK. The moment you pick up one of their guides you'll be blown away! If you thought VERSUS BOOKS was good (before they went out of business) allow Piggyback to correct you.
   
   The guide begins with over 50 pages of game basics. This means getting you to learn the controls, weapons, vehicles and enemies before actually diving into the walkthrough. For newcomers to Halo 2, this is a lifesaver.
   
   The walkthrough is pretty detailed as well. They actually tell you a couple of differences between difficulty levels. You really have to utilize the maps though (which are vastly detailed beyond anything Prima, Brady, Versus, or even Nintendo Power put out). It's a guide that is written in the sense of, find the corresponding number in the text. In other words, if a "1" is marked on the map, find section "1" in the text.
   
   The secrets also tell you all you need to know, and should there be a spoiler, they alert you before moving on.
   
   Of course, even this guide has it's problems. For one, the maps are ridiculously cluttered, and there are too many symbols to remember. It's a good thing they have a fold out legend. Second, while the secrets are in-depth they didn't pin-point out easter eggs. And lastly (and this isn't a big one) there is just too much artwork taking up space where valuble text could've been. I don't say this to be funny, I say this because this guide weighs a ton with it's thick paper and all.
   
   A fantastic guide though. If you can, log on and import piggyback interactive guides. If you need a guide for Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy X (or better yet, get their FFIX guide, NO PLAYONLINE THERE!), Metal Gear Solid 3 and the like, get Piggyback. You won't be disappointed.



3. This is a work of art in itself. The pages show beautiful maps and killer strategies that cannot be challenged. This amazing book shows all weapons, enemies, vehicles and even secret areas. It has
   unbeatable multiplayer strategies and shows all there is to Halo 2 on Xbox Live. Buy the superbly spectacular guide to the best game ever right now!



4. Pros:
   Sturdy Cover
   Sturdy photo-like pages
   Great stratagey
   Screenshots
   Spoiler Warnings
   
   Cons:
   None unless you dont like guides
   
   Review:
   This guide was made in Bungie Studios itself. It is very complete and, if you are having trouble with Halo 2 it will help you. There are 57 pages of basics, a near perfect walkthrough,beautiful screenshots, great multiplayer guide, oh need i go on? I would definitly buy this guide if i were you. It is better than Prima or even Nintendo Power. If you have Xbox live plai
   y it online. My gamertag is Bug 23.



5. I got this guide for the game that I had to buy again for my son, and even thou' I've been around since the game "Pong", (ask your parents) I've seen the growth of video games to today's runners, and I have to say that I've played lots of games, I find this book to more than helpful. After playing the level, you can save your progress and go back and search out more items. I use it along with the game, my 9 year old boy laughs at me becuase I puase the game and look over the plan of action before going into battle!

3 comments about Ratchet & Clank(tm): Up Your Arsenal Official Strategy Guide.

1. This guide doesn't just help you beat the game, but gives you tips, maps, weapon description, armour description, a ship accessory list, and, of course, a whole behind the scences look at how the game was made. I actually got the stragety after I beat the game, and when I used it, I discovered all the secret unlocks and places that i did'nt even know exisited. This guide is defenitly worth the money!



2. i got it as a gift and they havn't complained and it was shipped really fast so yay party



3. My son was thrilled to learn the secrets of this game and be able to finally win. I think these type of guides are good so that the kids playing the game don't get discouraged and upset that they cannot get past an area, or know what to do.

4 comments about RPG Tnt: 101 Dynamite Tips 'n' Techniques with RPG IV.

1. This is not a book for learning RPG but it is a good source of information how made RPG programmes better. If you are a beginner or intermediate RPG programmer I am sure that you find a lot of usefull information here.



2. I started out on the Sys38 and then went to the AS400 in 1989. Cozzi's book have always been on either my reference shelf or my wishlist. Cozzi has always provided leading edge information on RPGxxx in a digestible format. It's not for pure beginners but it is an invaluable resource for those of us that are still trying to pry out that last bit of functionality of this wonderful box we call the AS400.



3. This book is a good book as a reference. If you already have experience in RPG then this book can help learn new and more techniques. It would have been nice to have a index.



4. This book really tells you how to do amazing things with RPG IV ! For me, that have been using the RPG language family since System/36, this book give me knowledge about the kind of things only available in other languages before RPG IV. Almost all of these tips are really new and incredibly useful to my day to day work.
   
   Great book !

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

5 comments about The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. I never played the original game for the Super Nintendo but, I picked up this game very quickly. I beat this game once without the guide and after I looked in the guide at a store I decided it was worth it for all the extra's I may have missed. With the help from this guides step-by-step fashion I beat this game a second time with a hundred percent completion. It was the greatest feelling ever to know that you had all of the items and heart pieces that the original game designers had put in there, hoping a few selected people would find all of them. This guide also has the multiplayer Four Swords guide but, I haven't looked at that yet. This guide is a worthwhile investment for any Zelda fan. It is a huge commitment to beat a very long game, such as this one, because it really tests your patience level. Patience is required just to beat it without one hundred percent, this guide is for those perfectionists who can't leave a game unbeaten. Bryan Stratton did a very good job on this guide. Best guide I have ever played from and believe me I have played among many confusing guides and this one was well laid out compared to some.



2. This guide is very, very dumb cuz all it duz is take the fun out of the game. A game is supposed to test your brain in mysteries and adventure, but with this (so- called helpful) guide, it takes every little step for you, and all you need to do is move your finger to move your Link dude, and that's that. Game Over.
   -sucks



3. This book didn't help me at all! The maps are useless, there aren't any good tips and it overall sucks!!!!!



4. THIS BOOK IS THE BOOK FOR THIS GAME. IF YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT THESE MAPS LOOK EXACTLY LIKE THE DUNGEONS LOOK LIKE, THEN U MUST BE BLIND, HAVE THE IQ OF 2, OR JUST CRABBY CAUSE U CANNOT BEET IT!. Seriously though, this book is the greatest, it tells you everything you need to know, even the new qeust, dungeon , and sword move. Trust me, the maps are beutiful, and they are so sharp, you can point out a bush, and count its pedals, you know, the little ones you slash with the sword, yeah. Take it from me, A gamer whos beet it 6 times, 3 from the book , by then i knew it by heart, so, trust me on this, buy it!



5. When you pay money for a gaming guide, you'd expect a comprehensive coverage for the game. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past : Prima's Official Strategy Guide (now, that's a long title) does exactly that. This guide has all the information you need to beat the game handsomely, including tips to collect all items, strategies to beat various enemies, and some very well-rendered images of the maps.
   
   I particularly like the layout of the walkthrough, as it provides a step-by-step guide to doing things. While it may be too structured for some people, I personally find this should be the way to do things. The sidequests are listed as and when you should do them to minimise backtracking, and this helps you to save time. The dungeon walkthroughs are also nicely structured. Prima used the "numbered room" approach, which links the text to their own numbering on the maps. This makes sure that unless you're really bad, you won't get lost. Of course, the book also provides effective fighting strategies, which could just be the information for you to destroy that tough boss.
   
   All in all, this is a great guide book for one of the greatest Legend of Zelda games ever. If you need help in progressing, you should do yourself a favor and get this.

4 comments about Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality.

1. This is a very interesting book that deserves more attention than I fear it's likely to get. The author has used his experiences with synthetic game-worlds to write a thought-provoking look at the social landscape of the future, and craft a compelling argument for the way games will influence "reality" in the years to come.
   
   The author has more game-experience than I was expecting when I picked up this book, and has avoided the easy traps and overgeneralizations that often plague writers who are attempting to explain or interpret synthetic game-worlds. This lends his thesis on the economics of fun a verisimilitude that makes even his more extreme predictions seem a likely vision of what-might-be. Not only is this a book for the interested game, but even more it's a book for the businessman, and the policy-maker, who will more and more benefit from his insight into the games people play.



2. I read and thoroughly enjoyed Castronova's first book on the subject: Synthetic Worlds. And, as in SW, Castronova is at is strongest in Exodus when he explains the "realness" of virtual worlds. The main thesis of Exodus is that because synthetic worlds are more fun, people will increasingly choose to spend time in them over the real world, and that, eventually, the real world must remodel itself, taking cues from virtual worlds; eventually the real world must become more fun. Exodus, though it has a few interesting new contributions, is terribly repetitive book that takes way too long getting to the substantial points. When it finally does, it is shallow in its descriptions and analyses of how, exactly, the exodus to synthetic worlds is going to radically affect the real world.
   
   The biggest flaw (among the several I found in the book) is Castronova's thesis itself - that the real world will eventually have to model itself on synthetic worlds. The flaw is evident in his use of "migration" as the metaphor for what's going on with synthetic worlds. He explains that a family migrates from Old Country to New Country, and then tells its friends back in Old how great New is. Eventually, after hearing how great New is over and again, those that stayed put in Old put pressure on their government to change the country, to make it more like New. Castronova provides no historical examples of this, and I don't know my history well enough to know if this is how it has happened in the past, but the flaw in the metaphor is, and Castronova admits this himself, that the synthetic migration isn't physical, and therefore not permanent. It's super-easy to switch from real to synthetic, or among various synthetic worlds. This undermines not just his metaphor, but his entire argument...
   
   A better metaphor, one that incorporates the ease of movement between places/activities, would be engagement in different activities, like sports: I play baseball when I want to hit home runs; I play football when I want to score touchdowns; I don't complain that I can't hit a home run in football. Or even more broadly: I go to the gym to work out; I go to the library to study. I don't complain that I can't run on a treadmill in the library. Why wouldn't this be the result of synthetic worlds? I hop into WoW to partake of the "good vs. evil" shared lore. I hop into SL to sell virtual real estate. I hop into the real world to go for a run, eat lunch, take a nap, kiss my spouse. Why should I expect to be able to do any of these things in the other worlds? Once it's established that the synthetic worlds provide fun, and that the real world does not, why/how does it follow that the real world must aspire to be more fun, like synthetic worlds? Why would I demand that the real world also be fun?
   
   Castronova's argument that people will go where their utility is highest points to the same problem in his argument. He thinks synthetic worlds provide the highest utility, so off people go. But it's not as simple as "the world with the highest aggregate utility wins." There are different goods to be achieved in different worlds, so people will always come back to the real world for the goods that only it can provide (Castronova raises the issue of childbirth/rearing in a different context, but I think it's an adequate example of what I'm talking about here). Now, maybe some day in the future it really will be possible to hook up electrodes and "virtually" experience things we once thought we could only experience in the real world: eating a cheeseburger, having sex with our partner, giving birth to a child. But I think we are far from that point and can still easily say that there are just some things that we can only do in the real world. It seems more likely to me that we'll end up in a future where we go to synthetic worlds for fun, but still come back to the real world for other activities, even if they aren't fun.



3. This book was not what I expected. It is primarily a reflection on lessons learned through development of digital games that could be applied to real life. The author doesn't seem to have any expectation that they will be applied exactly as described and doesn't address the myriad details that would need to be dealt with for that to happen, but the whole concept provides a lot of interesting food for thought.
   
   For example, two general themes that cut through a lot of the lessons are the importance of fun and the idea that people's experiences playing digital games are likely to influence their expectations for how things should work back in the "real world" outside of games. So if the book had been called something like "Real Life Lessons from Digital Games," it would have delivered well on the expectations set by the title.
   
   As it was, I found the title misleading for a couple of reasons. First, while the title refers to "Virtual Worlds" most of the lessons relate specifically to game-based virtual environments. Social worlds such as Second Life are discussed, but the author specifically acknowledges the fact that these are quite different from game-based environments which have clearly defined goals, roles, rules, rewards, etc. Therefore, if your interest relates more to open-ended worlds, such as Second Life, that are used for a variety of purposes and are not focussed on a single unified game, then there may be less in this book for you than you would guess from the title.
   
   Second, the Exodus part of the title made me think that the book would talk more about what will happen within virtual worlds when more of us spend more time in them (e.g., How will it change the ways we work, play, communicate, consume, etc? What are the legal and political implications since so many more of our interactions will involve people from other countries?), but as stated previously the book is more about how interacting within virtual environments will change our expectations for interactions outside of those environments. Related to this is the idea - which seems to stem in part from the games versus more multi-faceted worlds distinction made previously - that we will at any one time be in either the virtual world or the real world and not both simultaneously (at least in terms of our attention). My own belief is that over time virtual worlds will become integrated with the other parts of our lives just as the Web is now, but that type of integration is only discussed briefly in the book.



4. The central theme of Exodus is the concept of "attention migration". That is: that more and more people choose to immerse themselves in synthetic worlds (Castronova's word instead of "virtual worlds") - MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games), like Second Life and World of Warcraft. Today they have at least 16 million registered users, and the number is increasing quickly. Also, some of these synthetic worlds function like alternate societies with their own norms of conduct, citizenships, economies, codes and policies and so on. In a information society where attention is central, the increasing attention spent on synthetic worlds will (according to Castronova) create a "atmospeheric event"...
   Castronova writes well and he discusses this social phenomenon and it's probable future impact in an interesting way. Though at times I think the discussion becomes a little repetitive, and I can't totally agree that "real" societies will have to become more "fun" and gamelike to compete with the synthetic counterparts. But it is a fascinating thought.

3 comments about Multiplayer Gaming and Engine Coding for the Torque Game Engine.

1. This book grate start torque game engine programming. I like it. If you want to learn deeply Torque Game Engine you should buy this book.



2. Game programmers receive an in-depth, advanced guide to getting the most out of the Torque Game Engine, and comes from a long-time Torque programmer and trainer who knows his stuff. Discussions and descriptions of the components of the program teach how to make better games - and even how to modify the engine and source code itself. Computer libraries strong in gaming will know of Torque - and will value this important guide.



3. Bought it after reading Ed's first book. This one is not quite as good as it doesn't cover as many topics. It is still well worth the money as what it covers it does an excellent job of. Includes many exercises on the CD.

5 comments about Golden Sun & Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. It's true that this guide doesn't "walk you though step-by-step". If you need that kind of instruction, you shouldn't even be playing RPG games, better check yourself into a community college or go back to 1st grade. It shows you the location with a picture, and some hints. How to get there? Well, just walk around, isn't that part of the fun of exploring the game?



2. With this guide you are paying $5 for each game and you just cant beat that price, especially when you consider how massive each game is. But the saying 'you get what you pay for' holds true on this guide.
   
   The secret dungeon, Crossbone Island, of the first game is covered nowhere in this guide. Neither is the secret dungeon of the second game. What gives?
   And a world map, which is standard far for a massive rpg, is non existant too. It does give directions in text but these can be extremely vague in some parts.
   
   Also, there is no beastiary in the guide. Some of the rarest and best items in the game can only be gotten from enemies and this info is sorely missing with no beastiary.
   And the item database is pretty expansive but again, the best items in the game are missing.
   
   Though i have to give this guide credit. If youre stuck on a puzzle you can find the solutions in this guide in seconds. The solutions all have perfect pictures to guide you in the right direction.
   
   And last but not least, finding every single djinn in the game is made a snap with this guide. Every djinn has a bold box of info with a title that says DJINN ALERT. This makes it extremely easy to flip through the guide to find any djinn you missed and makes finding them a piece of cake.
   
   All in all this is a great guide for its 2-in-1 price.
   So while it isnt the best guide for those rare item hunters, it is great for the players that like to solve the game on their own and only use guides as a 'last resort' or to help on a tricky puzzle.



3. The book is a great help with the game. I recommend getting the book along with the game.



4. The Golden Sun games have more walkthroughs available for free than most games. Most of the online gamefaqs walkthroughs for Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are so thorough and accurate (except that some authors have problems with their lefts and rights at times) that this guide isn't really necessary unless you do not have Internet access and, if you're reading this, you no doubt do.
   
   These were the first rpg's I ever played and I was able to complete both games with just one online walkthrough I printed out for GS1 (an excellent guide by ElectroSpector) and two guides I printed out for Lost Age (the best of the two by Sunny Masud). That this guide does not include the dungeon on Crossbone Island is very puzzling. At the bottom of the dungeon is Deadbeard, the most powerful boss of the game and key to building up your experience and fighting strategy in preparation for the final boss battles. The screen shots here are nice. Obviously gamefaqs walkthroughs do not have screenshots; however, I didn't need them to complete the games and I am hardly experienced at rpg's. I need step-by-step help and I found that in the above walkthroughs. That this guide assumes a lot on the part of the player seems to open the door to a lot of frustrations to me.



5. The pictures and diagrams are very useful. Sometimes the text can be a little confusing because parts of an explanation are spread out over several areas of the text, and it's a struggle to put the whole explanation all together. Overall, a very useful manual.

No comments about Halo 2 Vista: The Official Guide (Prima Official Game Guides).