Strategy Guide Reviews

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Dead Rising 2 Strategy Guide Review

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Dead Rising 2 Strategy Guideby Eric Frederiksen

Dead Rising 2 thrives on secrets, hidden items, and insider knowledge. A good guide would be a godsend for anyone struggling with the undead hordes of Fortune City. Does Prima’s guide have what it takes to keep motocross star Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey alive?

If all Dead Rising 2 needed was a simple walkthrough, it would be easy to take care of it here, in one sentence: Follow the arrows, carry lots of healing items, and don’t run out of time. But that’s not nearly all there is to surviving and thriving in Fortune City, and thankfully Prima’s guide is well-equipped to help.

The guide is rife with all manner of tables and appendices. List of weapons and their locations, what weapon combinations are most effective, and how to make different mixed drinks are just the start. There’s plenty more and Prima covers just about everything, including tables and maps specifically to serve a few of the more difficult achievements of the game (such as defacing all the Zombrex posters). [Read more…]

Kingdom Hearts Birth Strategy Guide Review

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Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Strategy Guide ReviewStrategy Guide Review Policy:

My goal for these strategy guide reviews is not to discuss whether one needs the guide to complete the game. Every gamer has different strengths and skills, and one may need every bit of a guide, another may need to look up information for quick assistance once, and another may laugh at the idea of ever using a guide, even the online freebies. My goal is to determine whether the guide is 1) helpful in the first place, 2) does it encompass gamers who need hand-holding as well as those who need a quick reference and 3) how much information does it really have.

Review:

BradyGames’ strategy guides for the Kingdom Hearts franchise have been a bit spotty. The first guide was outstanding, the CoM guide was pretty good, the KH2 guide was virtually worthless, and the guide for 358/2 Days was a bit hit or miss in terms of understanding what it was trying to say. But Birth by Sleep brought in a different writer–Casey Loe–so there has been some hope that this guide will be as good as its early predecessors.

Fortunately, it is. [Read more…]

I’m too gaming ADD for my own good

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I foolishly thought that October would be a somewhat slow month for me in terms of games I want to purchase and play, so I could finish up my other games from this year before November hit. I was so very, very wrong.

It started last week with the release of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I had never heard of this game before the reviews flooded in, and every single one of them was super positive. That alone isn’t enough to get me intrigued, but the premise of being forced to help someone escape (hence the title) drew me in instantly. It’s original, the story is based off of the Chinese Legend of Son Goku, and the graphics look amazing. I was instantly sold, and I picked up both the guide and game last week. [Read more…]

Weekly Poll: What do you think of strategy guides for puzzle games?

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Strategy Guide PollDespite the request for a write-in vote for Call of Duty: Black Ops, it seems that Fallout 3: New Vegas is the highest on the want lists. This should honestly come as no surprise to me as Fallout has a ginormous following, but I’m in shock that there aren’t any votes for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. Maybe that comes in as a close second for you? Or maybe I’m just clueless as to what everyone wants.

The insane Fall line-up continues this week with Super Scribblenauts, and once again, Prima Games is supplying the guide. Their first guide was very well done, so I anticipate that their second one will be just as up to snuff. Since I liked both very much, I’m going to be picking up their sequels hopefully this week.

While planning this, it made me wonder: don’t strategy guides for puzzle games defeat the purpose of the games? For instance, Professor Layton has not had any guides, and I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that this is a good thing. Part of the reward for solving those insane riddles was the sense of accomplishment (and the picarats…always the picarats), but for some reason, I don’t see a problem with Scribblenauts. Is it because I found Maxwell to be so darn frustrating? Or maybe I just eat up every strategy guide imaginable.

The answer is most likely the latter, but now I want to know what you think. Do strategy guides for puzzle games defeat their purpose?

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