Do you use strategy guides?

[Tatsu]

What is your view on strategy guides? I don't have many of them (the official one for Fable and one of the FF games, the ones that came with Super Metroid, Mystic Quest and Illusion Of Time and in unofficial one for Champions Of Norrath) but I've noticed that I tend to lean on them way too much when I play a game. The older I get the less patience I have to look around for secrets myself when I'm stuck in a game. I really thinkg this is a shame but still I go online very fast to use a walkthrough when I have problems with a game. Besides that some guides are very well done with lots of pictures and other extras, so it's still a bit tempting to buy one.

What about you, do you buy guides or at least use the online walkthroughs or are you more the type that wants to beat the game by their own? Or do you even collect guides? I heard that their value goes up with time. And which guide is the nicest for you?

[Videogamerdaryll]

Do you use strategy guides?


Rarely...

Though I have accumulated quite a few.. x_x

The Last strategy guide I bought was for Doom 3..and I did put it to some use.
..before that..The GTA SA strategy guide,that's been put to lots of use..

[jdc]

I'm not one of those who buy the guide at the same time that they buy the game. Unless it's a special guide like the Limited Edition FFX2 book, I'll usually just hop onto Gamefaqs for the help that I need.

I buy any N64 guides that I see, since they go with my collecting and they can be had for cheap. Just scored a Jet Force Gemini guide, which is nice because, in typical Rare fashion, you really NEED a guide for that game so that you can see where the hell you're supposed to be going. LOL

[squidblatt]

I use a guide now and then. Usually it's a Gamefaqs walkthru and not something I've paid for. I did use the Windwaker guide in order to get done with collecting map and shard pieces quickly. That was more for relief of tedium than anything else. I also have the GTA Vice City guide which I will probably use if I ever get around to playing the game.

Back in the eighties, I wrote a few letters soliciting hints to a Computer Gaming World columnist named Scorpia. She'd (I think it was a she, but maybe it wasn't) write back with detailed answers no matter what game it was.

[maxlords]

I buy guides for most games and usually use them as I have no patience anymore. If something takes more than a few minutes to find or figure out I just use a guide or FAQ and be done with it rather than spend the extra time. If there weren't SO MANY GAMES I wouldn't, but if I didn't, I'd never finish anything...

There are some games I don't need em for. I just beat Republic Commando in like 1 day with no guide, but other games like Persona and Shadow Hearts Covenant I'll use the guides heavily.

[Rugal]

I buy guides for certain games but rarely use them. I think i only ever used my DMC, FFX and Fire Emblem guides out of the 20+ i have.

[DigitalSpace]

Depends on the game. I just bought a Final Fantasy VIII guide for $2 a couple months back in hopes that it'll encourage me to play through the game soon. I'm about to buy a few current-gen game guides from a friend of mine for the same reason.

[rick weis]

i use guides once in a great while, but only after i already beat the game. (to see if i missed anything)
i don't use online walkthroughs,
i collect guides for all the resident evil games and all the Mario games. i don't think many of them go up in valve maybe a few of them. (i could be wrong)

my favorite one is for resident evil 4, because it came with a really cool looking poster.

Rick

[ozyr]

I tried once, but the guide didn't actually help me get past a spot I was stuck on. Last time I'll ever buy a damn hint book.

[Crush Crawfish]

I buy guides for most games and usually use them as I have no patience anymore. If something takes more than a few minutes to find or figure out I just use a guide or FAQ and be done with it rather than spend the extra time. If there weren't SO MANY GAMES I wouldn't, but if I didn't, I'd never finish anything...

That's exactly how I feel. I don't have the patience like I did when I was kid. It's much better than getting lost and never finishing the game, that's for sure!

[GLASSJOE]

Yes I used them when playing the final fantasy games. Such as ff 8 and 10

[hezeuschrist]

All depends.

I certainly collect guides, and I usually want to have it around just incase (my internet sucks anyways), but a lot of times I'll keep it tucked away and not use it unless I've spent a good deal of time on something that's ridiculously annoying.

For example, in God of War in the second level, you have to go into a room thats got a pressure switch and endlessly spawning minotaurs. You've got to use Medusa's head to turn one of them to stone on the pressure switch then run out the gate. Well, the camera pretty much sits right on the pressure switch (long skinny room), and you have to lure one all the way back to do it, but I just stood right where they spawned and killed everything that came out. After 20 or so minotaurs I got fed up and checked the guide, and subsequently felt very dumb.

[Cthulhu]

I buy strat guides when they strike my fancy (has an art section, music CD, the stars are right, whatever), and use FAQs for the games that I don't buy the guide for. My general rule of thumb is that if I get stuck for 20 minutes, I check the guide. I like working through games on my own, but after a while, I'm more likely to give up on the game entirely rather than try any more... so I use the guides then.

[LAGO]

I use them if I am really truly stuck on something or if I want to check and see if I missed something.

I bought the FF9 guide to help me through it ... which happens to be the absolute worst guide I have ever seen in my entire life ... Go online for more hints pffttt forget that guide it is a waste of paper.

[Tron 2.0]

Only as a last resort or when i'm.... tried of looking up the answer online.

[GobopopRevisited]

Rarely here too... I think the last time I actually "used" a strategy guide was for Pokemon Red and Blue, even then I just got it for all the info on moves and such. Never really use them for the strategy.

But I usually buy ones I want just to look through them, or so I can look at the maps... because looking at maps is cool. I bought the Halo 2 guide when it came out just because it was pretty darn attractive. Easilly the most well-made guide available.

I can't stand how they publish strategy guides along side releases though. Most of the time, all the good stuff about a game is discovered weeks or months... or years after a game is publish, and your $16 strategy guide is out of date. Instead of all the Skulls and other secrets for Halo 2... you got "Explore everything..." Why? If you were published after the game, the writers would have had time to catch up with all the REAL specialties, instead of just being able to mention "trying to climb buildings" or "get as high as you can"... Took us like 4 years to get GoldenEye codes!

[goatdan]

I try to avoid them at all costs. Only if I get really stuck in a game will I pull up info on it, and that is always the last result. I feel that if I have to go to a strategy guide, the game was probably really poorly designed.

[legov8]

Yes, I use online guides every now and then.

[youruglyclone]

I can't stand how they publish strategy guides along side releases though. Most of the time, all the good stuff about a game is discovered weeks or months... or years after a game is publish, and your $16 strategy guide is out of date. Instead of all the Skulls and other secrets for Halo 2... you got "Explore everything..." Why? If you were published after the game, the writers would have had time to catch up with all the REAL specialties, instead of just being able to mention "trying to climb buildings" or "get as high as you can"... Took us like 4 years to get GoldenEye codes!

strategy guides are a sort of instant gratification deal, supposedly they use reviewer or near complete builds to write those guides so some stuff is missing. besides if they waited for everything to be found guides, wouldn't be released for a long time, specially with the advent of the internet paper guides have almost made obsolete, so the rush to get them to the consumer is greater. however it's good to know that guide publishers are giving people more incentive to purchase the guides, dvds, art books, full color pages (nothing pissed me off more than to pay 14 bucks and have nothing but black and white pages).

besides guides seem to depreciate like crazy (pennied out guides anyone? never seen a pennied out game though right) so there's a higher urgency to get the guide out since you can find all that stuff for free on the web now.

as for the original topic.

yeah sometimes, in fact god of war forced me to open the guide...
spoiler alert
how the hell was I supposed to know that I had to kick the box to hit the switch and then roll backwards to get through the door
spoiler end

[youruglyclone]

oh yeah I'd also like to note that doublejump books is very commendable for what they did with the disgaea guide, on a new printing they updated the guide with more info...so yeah hopefully more companies can follow doublejump's example.

[zmweasel]

oh yeah I'd also like to note that doublejump books is very commendable for what they did with the disgaea guide, on a new printing they updated the guide with more info...so yeah hopefully more companies can follow doublejump's example.

Most strategy guides don't sell out an initial print run and still have enough demand for a second run, as with the phenomenon that was DJ's Disgaea book, but both Prima Games and BradyGAMES use their websites to correct errors and supplement info in their printed guides.

-- Z.

[zmweasel]

strategy guides are a sort of instant gratification deal, supposedly they use reviewer or near complete builds to write those guides so some stuff is missing. besides if they waited for everything to be found guides, wouldn't be released for a long time, specially with the advent of the internet paper guides have almost made obsolete, so the rush to get them to the consumer is greater. however it's good to know that guide publishers are giving people more incentive to purchase the guides, dvds, art books, full color pages (nothing pissed me off more than to pay 14 bucks and have nothing but black and white pages).

In the days before CD, guides were written with final builds of games, since it took two or three months for a cartridge-based game to be manufactured. These days, it's only a few weeks between a gold master and the manufacturing plant, so guide authors have to work with beta versions, often using the master only as a final check to verify that what they've written still applies.

As for why guides ship day-and-date with games, it's more about tie-in sales than competition from GameFAQs. Most games sell most of their copies in the first month at retail, and the guides have to capitalize on those brief bursts of excitement.

-- Z.

[lendelin]

I certainly use guides. Certain games/genres became so big with so many hidden items and ester eggs, it is almost impossible to get everything on your own w/o wasting precious time given on earth.

I can't imagine playing a Metroid Prime getting everything out of the game without a guide....and that is what I go for, I want to be in every little secret area of the game.

But guides are not only useful for game hints, it is also about archiving game content. Screenshots, more importantly maps, are a great way to archive the game. It is also about re-living your game experience looking at a guide for a game played years ago w/o playing the game itself.

From the moment I got seriously into gaming, guides and (published and self-drawn) maps were alsmost as important to me as the games themselves.

If you couldn't tell, I love guides. :) ...and I store them and buy them for reasonable prices, and have them on shelves like the games.

[Daft Punk]

I wont buy one unitll I try everything avail . Even then I usually just go online to find the info I need.