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Gears of War Strategy Guide Review

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Gears of War Strategy Guide ReviewI can already hear my friend @GreedyRaven yelling, “OLD GAME IS OLD!” in response to me even mentioning this game, but give me a break; I got into the Gears franchise a little late, okay? Even old games and old guides deserve reviewing.

This guide in particular became very handy when I fired my husband as my partner. Suddenly, the game became quite more difficult, even without Dom dying all the time (although, he kind of still did anyway–that guy has a death wish). On top of that, those COG tags were stuck in some strange places–or I guess I should say, former Gears died in strange places. So, if I hadn’t dredged up this book on the Amazon Marketplace, I most likely would have rage quit Gears of War shortly after I fired my partner–unless I swallowed my pride enough to beg him to come back.

While Gears itself is very straightforward, it’s not always easy to figure out where to go next thanks to its dark levels, shades of brown, and bad lightning. Even though the maps in the Gears of War strategy guide were also just as brown, I could easily pick out where I was, if I was heading in the wrong direction, where I needed to go next, and what COGs or weapons were available. In large, dark areas like the Stranded’s village, the Imulsion Factory, and the Fenix Estate, these were more than greatly appreciated.

The walkthroughs themselves were impeccable. Every time I followed the guide’s suggestions, I had very little difficulty–a/k/a I or Dom didn’t die as quickly–getting through the sequence. Or, if I used my own methods, I would find that my method that worked was coincidentally the same method the guide suggested. The best piece of advice came from the strategy for fighting the Corpser. The guide said that if you followed its instructions, you could defeat the Corpser in less than a minute, right before the Wretches appear to make your bad day even worse. I never could finish off that Corpser before the Wretches arrived and killed Dom. Once I followed this strategy, that ugly thing was gone in no time.

Page of Gears of War strategy guideMost impressive was the overall design and layout, as depicted in the image to the right. As you can see, the walkthrough paragraphs are neatly laid out, the COG tags are clearly marked and separated from the walkthroughs, special tips are segmented away from the walkthroughs, and there was even enough space for some game artwork that wouldn’t detract from the text. Once again, Brady Games has shown that guides can be decorative and artistic without impeding on function.

In addition, the writers were kind enough to throw in some humorous tips to help brighten up your dark journey. For example, one of the tips to the right suggests that you shoot at the lights above the Locust, as then the Kryll will swoop down to quickly feast on them. As the guide puts it, “This conserves ammo and it’s fun to watch!” Yes, yes it was fun to watch.

The guide also included small sections on the multiplayer aspects of the game AND strategies for co-op play, depending on the difficulty level that you choose. These aren’t half as in depth, but they really delve into how to fully take advantage of playing with a human over an AI for certain situations in each Act. With the main walkthrough already present, this was a nice touch that they didn’t have to include but is always appreciated.

As for a real bonus section, the guide includes interviews with the Epic Games developers. I’m not sure what it would have meant to me if I had played this game back then, but reading back on how inexperienced all of these famous devs were–like Cliff Bleszinski (CliffyB)–made them all the more endearing. It was a little fun to see how much all of them have progressed and grown from just a few years ago.

If you’re looking to get the most out of your very brief adventure with Marcus and Dom, the Gears of War strategy guide will not disappoint, unlike some of the game’s AI. For those who need every COG tag, who want to fight through the hordes of Locus without a partner, or need some assistance killing bosses on Insanity mode, you definitely won’t regret picking up this guide. And hey, if you just like to collect Gears memorabilia, then the interviews and the concept artwork should be more than enough to entice you to add this book to your collection.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Author: Doug Walsh
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Guide Review

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Marvel vs Capcom 3 Strategy Guide ReviewMarvel vs. Capcom 3 (or MvC3 for short) is quite possibly one of the most anticipated fighting sequels to grace consoles in recent years, and it does not disappoint. With an abundance of characters, a new art style, and some HD love, this is certainly going to be creating frat house arguments for years to come. Those who want an edge up on the competition should look no further than the wonderful BradyGames guide, as this book is packed with helpful tidbits of combat love that is sure to aid your blistered thumbs.

The guide starts out with some excellent breakdowns and directions on how it all comes together. For example, it points out that all the moves listed are based off your character standing on the left side of the screen. The guide then goes into great detail breaking down the basics of combat terms like footsies, frame rate, hyper armor, and so much more. Seriously, there are five and a half pages of terms to brush up on. You may never use them, but it is worth reading and makes it much easier to understand the rest of the content.

Once your morning terminology reading is done, the guide goes into a good amount of depth on the basics of the various game modes and combat fundamentals. This is a section that should certainly not be overlooked by novices to this series, and veterans will find it valuable for learning the new combat systems in place. Remember, MvC3 may look like a fast and furious button masher, but there is a deep fighting system buried under all that chaos. If you have no idea how to combo break, crossover assist, or trigger a team hyper combo, this section is a must read.

Finally we get to the meat and tatters portion of the guide: the character strategies. This is where BradyGames did a nice job when it comes to a fighting game strategy book. There is a fun profile giving a small chunk of bio information on each character, a power grid breaking down character stats, and even a display showing players what button to push to get various alternate costumes. It is basic, but nonetheless a nice touch.

A page from the MvC3 Strat Guide

Easy to grasp combos make you king of online tournaments.

The fighting moves start with basic attacks broken down by standing, crouching, aerial command, and crossover. Each section gives you a basic attack button to push, the hit count, damage, recovery time, and even a picture at the bottom to show you what the attack looks like. From here, special moves and hyper combos are detailed with descriptions on how they behave, like illustrating how the Plasma Beam from Dr. Doom will finish 15 frames faster if you use a Light Plasma Beam vs a Heavy Plasma Beam.

Finishing off the character section has some basic strategies and combos for players to add to their fighting repertoire. I did find this section to be useful for basics, but I would still turn to YouTube to watch the combos in action and pick up new tactics not detailed in this book.

The last section of the guide is reserved for Trophies, Achievements, icons, and titles. Trophies and Achievements are easily detailed on what you need to do, and I was able to acquire some basic trophies in a matter of moments thanks to the guide. The icons and titles are just as conveniently laid out, making it simple for fighters to quickly look up any title they want and see the conditions they need to meet in order to obtain said title.

Overall this is a great guide and I found little to no issues with the commands or tactics detailed for the various characters I tried. The part that will be inaccurate is not due to BradyGames, but rather Capcom and the player base. As specific characters are nerfed, and various combo strings adjusted, the damage numbers in the guide quickly become inaccurate. It is not a breaking point by any means, but remember that your favorite character may behave slightly different from what is in the guide. Outside that, this has become my bible for all things MvC3.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Authors: Joe Epstein, Adam Deets, Ian Rogers
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher

Duke Nukem Forever Strategy Guide Review

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Duke Nukem Forever Strategy Guide ReviewI’m here to review strategy guides and chew bubble gum…and I’m all out of gum. I am back from Duke-Vegas to review the Duke Nukem Forever: Balls of Steel edition strategy guide. Duke Nukem has always been a cult favorite who dropped off the map for quite some time, but he’s back to deal with the Alien Scum who have kidnapped his babes.

Trekking through Duke’s world can be dangerous on its hardest difficulty, but with some steroids and some beer, anything is possible!*

*please do not take steroids and beer together as I am sure it’s quite dangerous unless you are Duke himself.

Going through the first couple of pages, the guide does a nice job of telling you the history of Duke Nukem. If you are under the age of 20 or so you probably never heard of Duke Nukem before his latest game. No problem there, though, as the chapter “There And Back Again: A Duke’s Tale” has you covered on that. It chronicles his history from 1991 to the infamous delays and ultimately the revival of the game as well as all of the characters in the latest game. I always like it when a guide takes you through the history of a series.

The thing I liked about this game initially was the ability to pretty much interact with anything. Whether it is a toilet, sink, or whatever, if it has a switch to it, you can pretty much interact with it, and some of them provide an “Ego” boost thus making your health bar larger (sounds like a Beavis and Butt-Head joke). The guide does a good job of showing you which interactions earn you that precious Ego Boost you will need by the end of the game.

With all of the great stuff I have liked about the guide so far, here is where I find it not as necessary. The game’s objectives are simple enough and even glow and the levels are very linear so really there is no need to back track, and you cannot get lost unless you really are not paying attention. What ended up happening was instead of following the guide for what to do next I was following it to see exactly what Ego Boosts I was missing since some are obscure. Not the guide-makers’ fault, though, about the game being so linear, but I still wanted to point that out.

The guide does do a good job of letting you know what Trophies/Achievement opportunities are coming up too, which is always a plus for me. There was an annoying trophy in which you had to get 280,897 points for an Ego Boost and one million points on a pinball table for a trophy. The tips it provided helped me get a trophy that I was ready to come back to on another playthrough.

The main area I needed the guide for was the last boss, which can be quite frustrating on its hardest difficulty, but there are some tips/pictures provided to help. After a few tries with the guide’s details, I was able to overcome the boss and get that nice shiny trophy for beating it on “Balls of Steel” difficulty.

There is a section for multiplayer, but the multiplayer component is pretty shallow so don’t expect anything mind blowing as far as tips and tricks go, but it does show you the spawn points of armors and weapons throughout the levels.

The end of the guide is actually what I ended up liking the most, the “Art From The Vaults” section weighs in at over 100 pages of concept art and comments from the development team. I am a sucker for concept art and this collection is pretty nice and gives you a behind-the-scenes style look at what they were going for with this game.

I really liked the presentation of this guide, but unfortunately this is one of those games that does not need a big detailed strategy guide to complete it any differently other than finding all of the Ego Boost moments and the tips for the boss fights. If you are a Duke Nukem fan though such as myself I can still recommend the guide for those who want a collection of art from the game and a history of the series. But for those who do not even know who Duke is or they don’t care then this guide doesn’t really offer much for them.

SGR Rating: 3.5

Guide Authors: Joe Epstein, Doug Walsh
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions Available: Paperback and Limited Edition
Acquired via Publisher

inFamous 2 Strategy Guide Review

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inFamous2 Strategy Guide ReviewInFamous 2 had a lot to live up to due to its predecessor’s high bar of quality, and its strategy guide had very similar standards to live up to. I raved and glowed over the inFamous strategy guide, and I expected the same results from the inFamous 2 strategy guide, even though they come from two different publishers. With the exception of a few annoyances, BradyGames’ strategy guide for inFamous 2 did not let me down.

The walkthrough is as straight forward as the game’s story missions, and while it’s next to impossible to get lost with the walkthrough’s assistance, it’s very possible to get frustrated with the occasional lack of direction. For example, the tesla missile missions are quite possibly the most frustrating missions in the story. The player is given very little direction as to where the tesla missile needs to be guided, and the guide offers almost nothing in addition. For the most part, this is fine, but a little map of where you’re supposed to end up with a screenshot of the final destination would have been really, really nice for some of the trickier tesla connections. And in other instances, when the guide does give tips on where to send your tesla missile, there are far easier routes to be found than those given, such as those in Fort Philippe.

My only other gripe with the story walkthrough is its spoilers. The inFamous 2 strategy guide is one of those guides that has every piece of the narration and action written down. If you look too far ahead, such as while flipping to the next section for help with side missions, you may accidentally stumble upon a major spoiler. That said, I’d rather a guide say too much than too little, so this isn’t detrimental, but it was still a bit annoying to me to see all of the cut scenes dictated out before me while I’m trying to find exactly where I need to go post-cut scene.

However, anyone who has played inFamous 2 knows that the story is not what takes up most of the time of the game; it’s collectible hunting and the side missions that eat up your time, and fortunately, this is where the strategy guide shines the most.

inFamous2 Strategy Guide ReviewMost of the side missions are far more difficult and/or tedious than the story missions, and you can’t unlock a good number of them without performing a certain act first, whether it’s by completing a particular side mission or killing a specific person in a specific location. All side missions in the strategy guide are organized by the time of their appearance, so it’s fairly easy to find out which side mission you are missing without flipping through the entire section. Every side mission has its own map and clear set of screenshots, and side missions are never found on two pages outside of the fold. It was incredibly easy to quickly look down at the book and figure out instantly where I needed to go next. This was especially helpful for the Overcharge missions (see image on right).

Another section in the guide contains separate maps for the blast shards and dead drops, which I really only found useful for the dead drops. There are way too many blast shards for a map alone to really be useful, especially when trying to hunt down those elusive ten last shards. In that situation, it’s really best to do 60 side missions and acquire the blast shard sensor upgrade.

The most useful part of this section is the trophy guide. Many of the trophies are straight forward, but a number of them are a bit baffling, particularly the one that contains the secret to finding the last dead drop. For example, the Mountaineer trophy is awarded for climbing to the top of the three tallest buildings in New Marais. While one can simply climb to the tip top of every building and hope one of the climbs will sound the chime, it was nice to have them all neatly pointed out as well as provide tips for combining trophy attempts.

For bonuses, the inFamous 2 strategy guide includes a very hefty section on creating your own levels for the UGC–something that all of the UGC creators should have looked at before shelling out their drivel for the trophy. And of course, there is a back section just for fans consisting of gorgeous concept art and interviews with the game’s creators. In other words, this guide is not missing a thing.

BradyGames has knocked yet another strategy guide out of the park with their inFamous 2 strategy guide. Not even a tour guide could give you a better tour around New Marais.

SGR Rating: 4.5/5

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