What happened to game manuals!?
- Thread starter Ninonybox_v1legacy
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I remember the manuals for the first two Zelda games had tons of cool artwork and really laid out the story for you. That's unnecessary in today's world because it's easier to convey a story in game. It is a shame though, Nintendo's manuals were pretty classic nerd reading back in the day.
no..Im actually notSonic Doctor said:
its got "Vault dwelers durvival guide" on it, its very detailed, printed in colur and even has thase little retro instrctional pictures
You've left the safty of the vault. What now?[/B]
The moment you exit the Vault, you will notice a piercing bright light. Like a creature of the night, your eyes are not accustomed to the bare sun . Make sure to sheild the retinas of your eyes with tinted goggles. (then it goes to show if goggles are unavilaible, how to put your hands over your eyes to shade them)
like I said an introduction by the Dev's
[i/] Nuclear war. The very words conjure images of mushroom clouds, gas masks, and bewildered children ducking and covering under their school desks. But it's the aftermath of such a conflict that truly captures out imaginations, in large part because there's no real-world quivalent we can realte to. Mankind may have witnessed the horror of the atomic bomb, but thankfully we've somehow succeeded in not blowing up the enitre planet. At least, not yet.
Fallout 3 presents a much grimmer reality....(and it continues from there for a few more paragraphs) [/i]
now regardless of ones opinion of fallout 3..all that effort (and especially the introduction) make you feel like you have somthing special, that what yourve bought is worth it and had some thourght put into it
not like *basic insctructions* USER AGREEMENT...WARNING...LICENCE....COPY RIGHT PUBLISHER WE WANT YOUR MONEY!!!
hence why I was rather dissapointed in fallout New vegas's manual
but anyway..I never read the manual when I was younger..and I doubt many bother
Yeah, all that is in the online manual, but with what I said, unless I print the manual out, I can't take it anywhere.Vault101 said:
But what you said proves my thoughts on 360 platinum hits editions of games, at least the GOTY ones.
I have the platinum hits edition of the Fallout 3 GOTY edition, it comes with the the game disc and dlc disc, and the leaflet that says to go online for the in-depth manual.
I also have the platinum hits double pack that has Saints Row 1 & 2. Other than the discs, it has a small square of paper that says to go online for the manuals, and a square of paper with an ad for Saints Row the Third.
A month ago I got the platinum hits version of Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY edition, it did come with a nice 20 page manual, but while the GOTY edition has the 3D experience with the 3D glasses included, the platinum hits GOTY edition doesn't come with the 3D glasses to use on the 3D experience. Luckily, my dad got me a new printer for Christmas that had two pair of 3D glasses that came with it.
Of course the reasoning behind all of it is the price, since all platinum hits versions of games I have bought have all been 20 dollars, that is why corners in parts of the whole package have been cut. Though, I think the 3D glasses with the platinum GOTY Batman: AA was a really stupid corner to cut, I wouldn't have minded having an online manual, if it meant that it came with the 3D glasses.
Boy am I glad I paid an extra ten dollars and bought the 5th anniversary edition of Oblivion for 30 dollars, instead of spending 20 on the GOTY edition which would have probably been sent as a platinum hits edition, and I would have gotten very little extra. By paying the extra ten dollars, I got the nice silver colored metal case with plastic title sleeve, nice sized game manual, a really nice world map on what I would consider fine paper, and three discs(game disc, dlc disc, and bonus making of Oblivion DVD).
So, it never hurts to pay a little extra. Though I wish Amazon would label the GOTY editions so that I also know that they are the platinum hits editions as well. Because in all their pictures, they show the GOTY editions I get as being plain GOTY editions, but when I get them, they are always platinum hits GOTY editions.
well Im jsut saying..it came iwth my GOTY version of the game (PC..dont know if that affects anything)Sonic Doctor said:
I also got Oblivion GOTY which I think may have some with the manual..but also a map of shivering iles (I think) and the standard cyordil
which I like was that red dead redemption came with a kickass map/poster, which was a nice surprise
Like the GOTY edition of Borderlands I got last summer, it came with an awesome map/poster.Vault101 said:
I was thinking about getting the RDR GOTY edition, but I decided to save the money for my pre-order of the collector's edition of Mass Effect 3.
I think manuals are/were great for elaborating on advanced concepts. My own prefered way to learn a game is to go through a tutorial for the basics, and then refer to the manual to dig deeper into the game.MaxwellEdison said:
I'd say if a game doesn't need a manual for advanced concepts it's lacking depth. It doesn't need to be a printed manual, in some cases an online wikipedia or in-game training courses can do the same thing. StarCraft 2 is a good example of a game that manages to teach some advanced concepts through in-game scenarios. I think it still is handy to have a printed ressource to refer to while playing, alt-tabbing can be annoying sometimes.
The lack of manuals is caused by a few developments IMO:
- Simplistic gameplay easily explained by tutorials.
- A desire by publishers to sell strategy guides separate.
- A move to digital distribution.
I remember how Homeworld practically had an encyclopedia with the first two games, even if the one for Cataclysm was full of spelling errors and inconsistencies. It was amazing. As for today...well, actually, manuals from the SNES days look a lot like them. Unless you're talking about Killer Instinct, which had combos in the manual, all there really used to be were controls, story blurb, and so forth. I'm not sure there were that many good ones then either, unless I just missed them.
Game guides are and were where it's at. I don't even get them for the GameFAQs use; I get them because they have great art and sometimes extra concept work and stuff that you don't see in the game itself or on the Internet.
Game guides are and were where it's at. I don't even get them for the GameFAQs use; I get them because they have great art and sometimes extra concept work and stuff that you don't see in the game itself or on the Internet.
Muh... Manuals were something I read while the game very slowly installed on my Win 98 =3. Now I get most of my games off steam or other online sources, and I usually just do something else when they install. Hmm... Maybe it's not as exiting any more, to get a new game =3.
Well considering I get a lot of my games of Steam then if you need a manual you'll have to look online. I think they're just more effort for the developers than they're worth. You shouldn't have to read a manual before playing a game to play or enjoy it. The backstory and style should be integrated into the game. If you have to stop playing to read a book then you've made a mistake in your design.
This is another reason why I love the Witcher series, they still make proper manuals. But still nothing comes close the manuals of the past. I still have my Heroes of Might and Magic III manual laying around, I remember when I was a kid (~10 years old) I actually took the manual with me to school to "read", which I couldn't because I hadn't learned to read English yet!
- Apr 1, 2009
- 15,526
- 4,295
- 118
- Gender
- Whatever, just wash your hands.
After wallmart made publishers make the game boxes smaller they discovered that even with less stuff in them they still sold so now they are getting rid of everything since they can and games still sell.
I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but on top of all the other reasons, there's just no way to fit a decent manual into the DVD cases anymore.
Unless you get one of those [special/exlusive/limited/etc]-edition boxes, then don't expect the manual to be worth the paper it was printed on.
[reminiscence] I remember a long time ago, when you bought a game, you'd get this box with your game CD's, manual, posters, stats/information charts and other game-related items... Good times.
Ah, to read through the manuals for Baldurs Gate, Fallout 2, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, Shogun: Total War, Age of Empires, HoMM3... Some of these would even become my bedside reading. /nerd
Unless you get one of those [special/exlusive/limited/etc]-edition boxes, then don't expect the manual to be worth the paper it was printed on.
[reminiscence] I remember a long time ago, when you bought a game, you'd get this box with your game CD's, manual, posters, stats/information charts and other game-related items... Good times.
Ah, to read through the manuals for Baldurs Gate, Fallout 2, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, Shogun: Total War, Age of Empires, HoMM3... Some of these would even become my bedside reading. /nerd
*raises hand* me too. textbooks for all they sucked, if new, also smelled good...Gammayun said:
OT: I've kept all my old manuals. Though mostly they just sit, occasionally they do come in handy as I only have a couple official/unofficial game guides total. And the manual for Baldur's Gate II comes with a hefty amount of D&D 3.5 stuff including spell lists, I'm keeping that one for the reference material alone.
I do kinda miss a manual that made me want to read it, as opposed to "eh I'll just turn the game on and if I get stuck I'll look if I haaaave to." Usually these days, though, the questions you need answered aren't in the faily little manuals anyways, OR the in-game tutorials/info stuff (Sims 3, I'm looking at you).