Strategy Guide Reviews

A Strategy Guide for your Strategy Guides

BradyGames Announces Signature Series and Limited Edition Strategy Guides for Diablo III

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I was hoping there would be a strategy guide for Diablo III, and BradyGames confirmed it on Tuesday with a press release. Better yet, there will be a Limited Edition as well as a Signature Series copy.

BradyGames is pleased to unveil the official Diablo III Signature Series and Limited Edition Strategy Guides. Players and critics worldwide expect Diablo III to raise the bar for the action/RPG genre, and the official strategy guides from BradyGames will match Blizzard Entertainment’s hotly anticipated new release every terrifying step of the way.

The Diablo III strategy guides will release the same day as the Diablo III game on Tuesday, May 15th.

Signature Series Features (448 pages): 

  • Receive the most ambitious coverage ever provided in a walkthrough, including coverage of every quest in all four Acts.
  • A visual encyclopedia of all 240 creatures in the game, including critical stats and detailed descriptions of special attacks, abilities, and behaviors.
  • A complete rundown of all active and passive skills for each Hero.
  • The only complete overview of the Diablo III crafting system.
  • A comprehensive exhaustive listing of all base equipment items, weapons, armor, and accessories.
  • The official resource for Blizzard’s amazing new online Diablo III commodity exchange for buying, selling, and trading items in the Auction House.

Limited Edition Features (496 pages): 

  • Featuring a remarkable, one-of-a-kind sculpted metal bookmark featuring a multi-level relief of the terrifying Lord of Darkness.
  • Unique to the Limited Edition, an incredible 48-page art section features the armor sets of Diablo III from concept to execution.
  • Get all the game-tested strategies of our Signature Series packaged in a multi-layered, embossed hard cover with holographic foil and a premium finish.
  • Receive a redeemable code for a free Flash version of the strategy guide, downloadable from the BradyGames website.

Get your preorders in now, people. We hope to have a giveaway here as well, but we never know until they arrive, if we’ll even get one! These are sure to be hot commodities, if for nothing else to be collectibles for Diablo fans.

I can’t wait to see them! (And I know Blake feels the same way…)

Monday Gaming Diary: Binary Domain and Halo…Binary

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Binary Domain

I looove you, Binary Domain!

I received my review copy of Binary Domain last Saturday and pretty much worked on nothing except Binary Domain. It was hard, as The Witcher 2 arrived on Tuesday along with a copy of the strategy guide, but I remained vigilant. Even playing on Normal, the game does not take that long to complete, and it was officially conquered on Friday afternoon.

That game was far more fun than I expected it to be. With a name like Binary Domain, I completely expected it to be similar to The Syndicate, and I couldn’t have been further from the truth. It’s really more of a Gears of War game with robots and a touch of SEGA flair. The characters were entertaining, and holy crap was the story fantastic. Just when you thought you had one twist in the plot, it surprised you with another.

The game wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the means, but it was very enjoyable, and it’s a downright shame that it only sold 20,000 units since its launch in March. I have a feeling that it’s going to go the sad route of Vanquish, which never got the attention it deserved. Maybe it will become a sleeper hit, and then maybe a sequel will be made. The foundation has been laid for there to be a sequel, and it would be a shame to never see it come to fruition.

Due to the changes my E3 schedule has brought on, I started  Halo 2 this weekend. Holy cow that game looks terrible. I haven’t played a PS2 or GameCube game in ages, so blasting back to the early aughts was a bit of a shock. I’m sure it looked fantastic upon release–I remember the days of the Halo 2 flu epidemic–but it hasn’t held up well. On the plus side, there are virtually no load times.

Since there are no Achievements to obtain and I’m running on a tight schedule, I’m playing it on Easy and burning right through it. According to the guide, I only have about six chapters left to get through, so that should give you an idea how easy it really is. I’ll put it this way if you need better examples. I never have to take cover. EVER. I’ve had a shotgun to the face, and all it did was lower my shields. Easy almost means “win” in this case. I wish I could say that it means that I’ve never died, but once the Flood appeared (grumble, grumble) that statistic collapsed in a hurry. I fucking hate the Flood. Give me Covenant to shoot at; at least they’re entertaining.

I really don’t have an idea as to what is going on in Halo 2, but I’ve been told the story doesn’t become clear until Halo 3. Not sure what is up with that magical number 3, but whatever. At least it’s fun to play, and it was a little fun playing on the side of the Covenant, even though the Arbiter’s armor sucks monkey balls. I never died until I had to play as him. I guess that my friend Blake is right; Master Chief is a badass.

Shhhh…don’t let him know that he’s right about anything. It will just go to his head.

SGR is Going to E3 2012!

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E3 Prepped Stack of ShameAh yeah, it’s official. I will be going to E3 2012 with the Gaming Angels, which means I’ll have plenty of tidbits to share with all of you about the games I see and hopefully I’ll meet with the guide publishers again. I had an absolute blast at all three of those meetings.

And so, as a result of this recent development as well as learning of a few of the appointments I will be taking at the show, I’ve had to completely readjust my stack of shame. I am GA’s shooter expert, and I’ve already been told that I will be analyzing Halo 4. That’s great and all, but my OCD personality needs to have all the information before I go in there, which means I need to play all zee Haloz gamez. The three I have are back in the stack. Dear God I hope that the campaigns are typical shooter campaigns–a/k/a short due to multiplayer–and they aren’t as long as the first game. I’m still surprised at how long Halo: Combat Evolved was.

Transformers has also returned due to the possibility that Fall of Cybertron will be at E3. Well that and I just want to play the freaking game.

I have Borderlands in the list in the off-chance that I’ll have an appointment with Borderlands 2. I find that to be highly doubtful as I fully expect my boss to threaten to beat my ass for it. Either way, I have to prep for that game’s release in August.

Whether I have an appointment or not, I want to have ACR finished before E3 so I can once again be fully informed for AC3.

Of course, this all needs to be worked in midst my current review schedule, which consists of Binary Domain (of which I’m almost done), The Witcher 2, and Kingdoms of Amalur. I’m not sure what has possessed me to try to take on two massive RPGs at once, but I never have once claimed to be sane.

Wish me luck! This is a very tall and most likely impossible order.

 

Sequel Preparation

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Buyer's Remorse

From Dueling Analogs

I’ve only played one video game series where I started in the middle and didn’t play the first game. No, wait, there are two: Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted. I’ve never played the first one of either of these games; it was the sequel that reeled me in. I’m about to embark on a third–Witcher 2–but I never really like doing that. I like to take everything all in together and experience the game as a whole. People tried to get me to skip the first Mass Effect game and go right to ME2, but I refused. Aside from the fact that I already owned the first game, I would have played it anyway as I had heard that the decisions you make from the first game carry into the second.

As I look at the schedule of game releases for 2012, I realize that I have a fair number of games on that list that are sequels to games I’ve never played before. Pretty much all of them are shooters since I only got into that genre near the end of 2010. I would also like to be the one who reviews these guides, as I’m fairly certain that’s going to be asked of me from Gaming Angels on the game review side anyway. As I take a look at the list, I see I have way too much catching up to do.

Halo 4 – November 6th

I never would have thought I would have liked Halo as much as I did, but there it is. Fellow staff reviewer Blake gave me Halo 2, 3, and 3:ODST for Christmas, so they’re at my disposal…I just have no idea how I’m going to fit in four more games–can’t forget Reach–before then. I’ll just have to pray that the games run as long as the typical FPS shooter or just reside to the fact that I’ll more than likely pass the guide review off to SGR’s resident Halo addict.

Assassin’s Creed III – October 30th

Assassin’s Creed Revelations sits there, literally taunting me. I just need the motivation to freaking play it. I guess I’m tired of playing as Ezio, and well, the story for ACR is extremely convoluted, even for an AC game.

BioShock Infinite – October 16th

I have never played the first BioShock game. I have also been able to shield myself thus far of any spoilers about the game (I really do have a talent for media blackouts, I have to say). I want to play the first game. I know I don’t have to in order to play the sequel–at least, that’s what I gather–but I still want to be wholly enlightened before I get into BI.

And before you ask, no, I will not play BioShock 2.

Borderlands 2 – September 18th

Ever since I opened up my genre-base to shooters, I’ve been told by dozens of people that I need to play Borderlands. They say the story is crap, but hey, the game is fun. I’m a story gamer, but I’ve been known to like a game for the gameplay despite the story–Final Fantasy XIII-2. If it’s a crap-ton of fun, I can let a bad story slide, and I’ve heard that Borderlands is a crap-ton of fun.

Resistance: Burning Skies – May 29th

This is simply downright unrealistic. I’d have to play Resistance 2  and 3 within a month, and I need that month for The Witcher 2. I haven’t heard if there will be a guide for this Vita title or not, but I have to admit that I’m hoping there will not be. I’m also going to have to hope that GA doesn’t send me a review copy. Then I’ll be able to get to it after I fulfill my little utopian dreams.

It’s official. I really am going to need a clone. And a vacation with my Xbox and PS3.

Monday Gaming Diary: Syndicate kicked to the curb, Binary Domain welcomed

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Syndicate

Playing the game feels like this too.

I’ve been in a gaming rut for awhile now; finding solace only in Plants vs. Zombies and LEGO Harry Potter. I forced myself out of my funk this past week–with the help of writing an article for Gaming Angels about it–and finally cracked open Syndicate. Holy crap is that game bad.

I know that reviews haven’t been that favorable, but I rarely reviews before I play a game because I like to go into playing a game with a fresh, open mind. In this case, I probably should have saved myself the trouble. Essentially, Syndicate is a Deus Ex: Human Revolution copycat. It’s not a complete clone by any stretch of the means, but the similarities are to prevalent for me to see anything else. Unfortunately, Syndicate executes nothing very well. The premise is kind of cool, but the delivery is full of fail. I played halfway through the game and decided that life was too short to continue to play something that I didn’t even find fun. My stack of shame is too tall for that.

So I went back to Kingdoms of Amalur, and of course I did nothing but side quests and faction quests for several hours. I know there’s a real story in here somewhere, but I’m having a lot of fun not progressing the story.

And then everything screeched to a halt on Saturday, when I received my review copy of Binary Domain. Yeah, I know it’s late, but better late than never. Binary Domain reminds me A LOT of Gears of War–it even has a character who looks and acts like Cole Train–just with robots instead of ugly creatures. However, the game’s premise is far more interesting than just shooting robots, albeit if that is all it was, I’d be happy with that too. I won’t get into it any further as I’m playing it for review for GA, but I will say that the three hours I spent playing BD greatly surpassed the 10 hours I committed to Syndicate. Gameplay is fun, dialogue is funny, and the story is actually intriguing. Such a shame that the game did not sell well. I’m hoping it will turn into a sleeper hit, because I don’t think SEGA gets enough credit for its shooters.

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