Do you buy strategy guides?

[Ando85]

I know all the information about games is available for free on the internet, but I like buying strategy guides. They are fun to collect, and I like flipping through them on the john. I don't really use them to hold my hand thru a game but they are a good reference. Also I feel like I have the "full set" if I have a game and its official guide.

Do you buy them?

 

[Dane Tesston]

Yep. Have been for years now. I've always been a collector at heart, and getting a game and the guide that goes with it has always been a personally fulfilling thing. I'm also loving this recent trend hardback guides. Now if only I had the money...

 

[LookingGlass]

I've never bought one, but I did get a hardcover Super Mario Galaxy Collector's Edition strategy guide for free with my copy. So that was cool.

 

[Vault101]

the only game guide I would ever buy would be the dark souls one

and its the only Ive never seen in stores..go figure

 

[sextus the crazy]

Yep. Reading them is fun in itself. Hell, I own a kingdom hearts guide book and I haven't ever played or owned them game.

 

[evilneko]

Nope, why would I want something that's erroneous and out of date?

 

[SovietSecrets]

I can't afford artbooks and strategy guides along with games so only artbooks!

 

[Sleepy Sol]

The only guide I have recently bought was the UMvC3 Strategy Guide. It's godsend for...well...just about everything in the game. One of the most well done guides I've seen. Other than fighting games I don't buy them much anymore though.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I used to, and I the ones that I have I still use, but when I got the internet it just made more sense to use the guides available for free on places like GameFAQs than shell out 15 quid for a strategy guide. I do like and prefer a proper book, to be honest, but when there's cash on the line like that, it's easier to go to GameFAQs and trawl through there instead.

 

[DoPo]

I would buy one, if they weren't ridiculously overpriced. Compared with "free" on the Internet, of course. Heck, GameFAQs generally has more than one for the popular games and they get updated regularly (well, at least some of them).

 

[Epona]

I still buy them but then rarely use them. For example, I bought the Final Fantasy XIII guide and only used it to help with the Eidolon battles. For Skyrim I bought the hardcover collectors guide and have never used it and Final Fantasy XIII-2 is still in shrink wrap. I need to stop buying them.

 

[AD-Stu]

With pretty much every game under the sun having its own wiki these days, I don't really see the need - I've got enough stuff cluttering up my house as it is.

 

[Cythen]

For some games, such as Final Fantasy, if I feel the game needs it to achieve all trophies

 

[uzo]

I bought the hint book for SSI's Dark Queen of Krynn.

But that was back when games were actually tough. Unlike the wuss guides available now.

Goddamn ... DQK ... Takhisis is a total *****.

 

[Ryu-Kage]

I used to until Nintendo stopped publishing their own. When GameFAQs does the job much more quickly, accurately, and for free, I don't see the point of strategy guides any more unless you're far from a computer.

Also, the trees used to make Prima guides (probably the biggest strategy guide publisher around) might as well have just died from being eaten from the inside by beetles, because Prima guides are complete SHITAKE MUSHROOMS full of misinformation and failure.

I should probably get more art books, though. Those might actually be helpful.

 

[targren]

Also, the trees used to make Prima guides (probably the biggest strategy guide publisher around) might as well have just died from being eaten from the inside by beetles, because Prima guides are complete SHITAKE MUSHROOMS full of misinformation and failure.

BradyGames isn't much better. I still remembered the FF IX strategy guide. There was NOTHING in it. Everything was all "Go to playonline to read this hint!" (this was back before Square changed the PO site to be for the MMO). Playonline didn't even have a login or anything that came with the book. ANYONE could have gone to it.

After paying $20 for the damn guide, it was downright offensive.

 

[soren7550]

Every once and again I'll buy one. A few I only bought because they came with extra content (Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed I bought because they came with art books, but I also wanted them because I didn't have internet back then). One I bought because I wanted to look at the pictures.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Yup, I've got a big stack of 'em. I like having all the information in one book within easy reach. Sometimes it's just more pleasant to rifle through a book than searching the Internet. That, and I like the art. That said, some guides are complete crap. Bradygames and Prima Guides are just bad. Horribly bad. But at least there are Piggyback Guides, which are made of epic win: complete, correct, concise and beautiful.

Still, I only buy them for huge game with content you might miss without a guide, stuff like Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid or Elder Scrolls (the Skyrim guide is horrible, don't buy it).

 

[MetalMagpie]

I used to, back before online resources became as good as they are now. I would still like to for favourite games, but it just seems a silly use of money.