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Modern Warfare 3 Collector’s Edition Strategy Guide: Why Should I Buy?

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Modern Warfar 3 Strategy GuidesWithout a doubt, Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most anticipated games this year, pretty much like how it is every year. This game will sell more copies in the first week than most games could hope to over the course of a year, simply because for many people, this is one of two games they buy all year. It’s well known for having both a fun campaign and multiplayer counterparts, but it’s just as well known that most people play it strictly for the multiplayer. As such, BradyGames’ Collector Edition of their strategy guide was pretty much strictly for multiplayer fans.

This CE has a nicer cover and additional artwork in the fly pages, but that is all the extra it contains in its innards. It has an extra tactical guide for the multiplayer maps that stands up on its own for easy map viewing. It’s spiral-bound too, allowing for easy flipping through as you switch from map to map. On the back of each map are the different versions of each map for all six types of multiplayer matches you can play, as shown below.

MW3 Multiplayer Tactical guide MW3 Multiplayer Tactical guide MW3 Multiplayer Tactical guide

Overall, I was a little disappointed. I like to see more come with a Collector’s Edition than just a flip chart for multiplayer maps. Extra artwork, developer interviews, a portion of the game soundtrack, even an attached cloth bookmark…any one of those things.

Unless you just really dig the multiplayer to the point you could see yourself constantly using these maps, it’s hard to recommend shelling out the extra money for the Collector’s Edition. If you’re looking into getting the guide for MW3, pick up the paperback, Signature Series edition instead.

Uncharted 3 Strategy Guide Collector’s Edition: Why Should I Buy?

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The Collector’s Edition of the Uncharted 3 strategy guide has EXACTLY what I want to see in Collector’s Editions. I’m not a fan of a CE of a guide just being a hardcover edition and that’s it. Yes, the hardcover makes them ten times prettier, but give me something else. Give collectors something that’s worth the extra $15. In this case, Piggyback Interactive and Prima Games definitely have.

Yes, that is a copy of the Uncharted 3 soundtrack tucked loosely in the front cover. As a hardcore video game soundtrack nut, I nearly squealed out loud when I found it.

The last image is a photo of one of the examples in the character gallery in the back. Uncharted 3 is already so graphically beautiful, so why include extra concept art or anything similar? All the extra artwork we need are artwork samples directly from the game. If you think these photos of Elena are breathtaking, you need to see the rest.

Do those things appeal to you? Then go buy the Collector’s Edition, pronto. I am more than pleased with these extras, as they definitely fit what a collector of the Uncharted series would want to collect.

Battlefield 3 Strategy Guide Collector’s Edition: Why Should I Buy?

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If you’ve seen these strategy guides in a retailer, then you know how massive these puppies are. Even I couldn’t believe they were so fat for a game with such a small campaign. I honestly had no idea that you could go into multiplayer so deeply, but I’ll save that for when I actually write the review of the guide.

As expected the big differences between the guides are the bonus material–the paperback guide has zero bonuses–and the covers. You can see everything for yourself below, but I have to say, unless you’re a diehard fan of everything behind the Battlefield franchise, save yourself the extra $15 and pick up the regular guide. You can make an argument that most CE guides are like this, but I haven’t seen one this focused on the game studio and behind-the-scenes development before. The only non-studio bonus–aside from the additional artwork–is the inclusion of a short story as depicted below.

I like the short story, and I really like reading behind-the-scenes stuff when it comes to games and movies, even with games I’m not a hardcore fan of, but I still can’t recommend the CE unless you just love Battlefield and/or EA Dice that much.

However, it is quite the gorgeous book.

Gears of War 3 Collector’s Edition – Why Would I Buy?

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If you’re a die-hard fan of a series, you often need little reasons to buy a collector’s edition of anything. Take me, for example; I bought the Kingdom Hearts 2 collector’s edition strategy guide and that was one of the most worthless guides in my collection. Why do I have it? I love the Kingdom Hearts franchise just that much. It’s a little pathetic, yes, but I’m willing to live with that. So chances are, if you’re just as hardcore of a Gears of War fan, you’ve already bought the CE guide.

But just in case you’re on the fence, here are the differences between the two guides.

The Covers

Covers of the Gears of War 3 Strategy Guides Inside covers of Gears of War 3 strategy guides

The Bonus Material – Comic Book

 Gears of War 3 strategy guide tables of contents Gears of War 3 strategy guide tables of contents

Gears of War 3 strategy guide bonus material
Personally, I’m stoked for the comic book, but I know this probably won’t be enough to appease other fans. I’ve started to read the books and comics, so naturally, I’m quite pleased.

Bonus Material – Soundtrack Sampler

No picture, sorry, but the back of the CE guide does contain a sampler CD of the Gears of War 3 soundtrack. The sampler contains 9 tracks that are roughly a minute long apiece. It basically solidified something I already knew–I’m going to be buying the soundtrack. I adore video game soundtracks, and after listening to the Gears of War 2 soundtrack on Spotify, I knew both soundtracks would appear in my collection.

So there you have it. Are there enough bonus goodies to make the $15 price difference worth it to you?

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

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