Once I discovered that Future Press‘s Vanquish strategy guide had codes for movies to watch online, I’ve really been curious as to what IGN Guides would offer. Their guides are often great for assisting screenshots and videos, so I thought we would have a real battle here with Print v. Online. Instead, I found that IGN offered one aspect that is really more useful than the print guide and the rest of their guide is unfinished.
I understand that maybe Vanquish isn’t one of the top games on their priority list, especially since Fable III released soon afterward and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood released last week. But to not have a completed guide for a game that takes eight hours to play a month after game release? That’s a little ridiculous.
All that is completed so far is how to play, some unlockables, Pangloss Statue locations, and movies for boss fights. There is no other walkthrough, so there are no tips on completing each mission with the fastest time possible and the most points, which is kind of the main focus of the whole game.
So what is useful with IGN’s guide? IGN has spectacular information on finding the Pangloss Statues. For each statue on each mission, they provide large screenshots that clearly show where each statue is along with written instructions on how to find them. The Future Press guide has maps and a few screenshots, but the screenshots are often small and there are usually just one per mission (each mission has four statues). One point goes to the online guide, but that’s the only point it gets.
The winner is Future Press’s print strategy guide. It’s actually complete, it provides links to movies for help, it lists all the game’s secrets, and focuses its walkthroughs on the game’s leaderboards. What more could you ask for, aside from a lower price?
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