Keri Honea - 125/183 - Strategy Guide Reviews

Monday Gaming Diary: Teh Haloz

November 28, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I pretty much started Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary as soon as it landed in my hands and then played it nonstop. My review is still in the works for Gaming Angels because I am a slacker, so I can’t divulge too much into my thoughts, but I will admit that I liked it far more than I thought I would. Despite how bad the level design was–not to mention boring–I still had a blast. So much so, I started looking into picking up the other Halo games.

And then my friend and fellow EvilCast cohort, Blake, surprised me with Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 3: ODST as Christmas gifts. He said I had to get Reach on my own, but I was so blown away he sent me the others that I didn’t even notice that Reach wasn’t in the mix. I had a girl moment and teared up a little bit, and then I thought about being nicer to him on the podcast, but the girly moment passed and I realized being nice to him on the podcast was a terrible idea.

I can’t wait to start on the rest of the Halo games, but I need to focus on other games I need to review for GA and guides I need to review here. I got word that the Uncharted 3 patch for gunplay is out, so I will go back to that this week.

But over the weekend, when I wasn’t doing tons of wedding stuff and cooking food, I returned to the world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This is one game I don’t want to slip through my fingers in 2011. I really want to finish it, and I made great progress over the weekend. All sidequests are done, and last night, I landed in the last area of the game. I’m looking forward to seeing what gets explained and what doesn’t, as well as seeing if I have the need to play it again to see a different ending. At this point, it’s a distinct possibility, but that will have to wait for others. My stack of shame has doubled in just a week thanks to Blake and the November releases.

At least I can safely say that I will not be bored any time soon.

Strategy Guide Advice: Including Collectibles in the Walkthroughs

November 23, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

See how Space Marine includes collectibles? All should do this.

I haven’t “submitted” a tip for future strategy guides in awhile, but while using the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary strategy guide this past week, an issue came up that spurned me into enough annoyance to proffer some advice to guide publishers. And here it is: if a game has collectibles–no matter how strange they may be–always include the collectibles locations with the walkthroughs.

Granted, this is the first time I’ve come across this issue. In the Halo Anniversary guide, none of the Skulls or Terminals are marked in the walkthroughs. If you want to collect them all, you’ll have to use an appendix in the back of the guide.

Newsflash: I should only use appendices for collectibles when I’m replaying something or if I need to find where a certain collectible is. When going through a game for the first time, I want to know where all the collectibles are instantly. I don’t want to flip back and forth to find them. Even just marking them on the chapter maps would be nice.

The whole point of having and using a strategy guide is to make gameplay more efficient for the gamer. Not including collectibles in the walkthroughs is a far cry from being efficient. It’s annoying, and if I wanted to use a guide like that, I’d rely strictly on online guides, which are typically set up that way.

Strategy guide publishers…please do not make this a new trend with print guides.

Monday Gaming Diary: Me and Master Chief

November 21, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I’m currently reviewing Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary for Gaming Angels, and I have been half-looking forward to it and half-dreading it. I’ve been looking forward to it because I wanted to see what everyone was so hyped up on. I was dreading it because everyone was so hyped up on it. I was sure I was going to hate it, just because I have a tendency to hate what’s popular, but I was hooked before the first level was over.

The gameplay is a ton of fun, and I really like the story. I have to admit that the appearance of the Flood disappointed me as I’ve played numerous games with a similar plot mechanic. Of course, then I had to get over that disappointment and remind myself repeatedly that Halo came way before any of these other games. That led to me getting disappointed in a lot of games, like Gears of War 3, so I had to stop that road of thought.

My biggest complaint about Halo is that all of the indoor levels are exactly the same. Sometimes, it’s literally exactly the same, like in the Two Betrayals level. Master Chief does nothing but run around in circles. Sometimes the circles go up, and sometimes they go down. But they’re still circles. And they look the same. Thank God the gameplay is so fun, because otherwise the levels would bore me to tears.

The boys at Penny Arcade really said it best:

Let me emphasize once again: I like Halo. I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m looking forward to playing the next few games. It’s just that the original Halo was not perfect by any means, and I do have some criticisms…like I do with other games. Believe it or not, I have some gripes about the Mass Effect games.

Now if you’re looking for some entertainment about my criticisms with Halo, then I recommend that you all download and listen to the latest episode of the EvilCast, where I make my EIC fanboy so mad, you can hear him choking on his anger.

Skyrim Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide: Why Should I Buy?

November 16, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

Most likely due to the massive size of the Skyrim strategy guide, the Collector’s Edition doesn’t really offer much more than the paperback edition in terms of extras. The hard cover is gorgeous, no doubt. There are also two cloth bookmarks within, which are perfect for marking where you are in the main story and where you are in sidequests. The only extra content the CE provides is a download code for an interactive map:

The interactive world map includes over 150 location maps covering all 9 Hold cities. Each map shows the locations of every vendor, trainer, skill book, NPC, and unique item in the realm. You can toggle points of interest on and off and zoom in and out.

That said, I have to admit that I highly recommend splurging for the Collector’s Edition.

Why?

The guide is so massive to begin with, you might as well spend the extra $10 for a nice cover and included bookmarks. You may never use the interactive map, but you’ll never regret buying the beautiful hard cover. For a game like this, I can’t see a reason to NOT buy the CE over the paperback. If I could have gotten my hands on a copy of the Dark Souls strategy guides, I’m sure I would have recommended the same.

Modern Warfare 3 Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide: Why Should I Buy?

November 14, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

Without a doubt, Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most anticipated games this year, pretty much like how it is every year. This game will sell more copies in the first week than most games could hope to over the course of a year, simply because for many people, this is one of two games they buy all year. It’s well known for having both a fun campaign and multiplayer counterparts, but it’s just as well known that most people play it strictly for the multiplayer. As such, BradyGames’ Collector Edition of their strategy guide was pretty much strictly for multiplayer fans.

This CE has a nicer cover and additional artwork in the fly pages, but that is all the extra it contains in its innards. It has an extra tactical guide for the multiplayer maps that stands up on its own for easy map viewing. It’s spiral-bound too, allowing for easy flipping through as you switch from map to map. On the back of each map are the different versions of each map for all six types of multiplayer matches you can play, as shown below.

Overall, I was a little disappointed. I like to see more come with a Collector’s Edition than just a flip chart for multiplayer maps. Extra artwork, developer interviews, a portion of the game soundtrack, even an attached cloth bookmark…any one of those things.

Unless you just really dig the multiplayer to the point you could see yourself constantly using these maps, it’s hard to recommend shelling out the extra money for the Collector’s Edition. If you’re looking into getting the guide for MW3, pick up the paperback, Signature Series edition instead.

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