instruction books

[The Madman]

Remember Starcraft's manual? More than half of it was an elaborate and surprisingly well written back-story for each of the races, another section was an extensive illustrated list of each unit in the game, and there were even little tidbits of added knowledge and tips strewn throughout the book. And that was a relatively little manual for its time!

But my favorite? The one from Baldur's Gate 2. It's like a guide to how to create the perfect character along with an extensive 'spellbook' style setup describing every spell in the game and its uses. Toss in the amusing side-notes from 'Elminster and Volo' as well as the quality of the printing, and you've got a quality product.

Not only were they pretty much miniature strategy-guides for their respective games, but they could be genuinely entertaining to read on the side.

And those were the norm at the time. I really miss that era of PC gaming. Nowadays console packaging is the norm for PC as well as console, so you're lucky if there's a five-page pamphlet thrown in.

 

[kazork]

The last wing commander had a really great one. It had a lot of back story with radio and message logs from pilots.

When i was a kid i would read the instruction book multiple times and look at the pictures and the art.

 

[Artemis923]

I was re-reading the Diablo II manual the other day for whatever reason.

I'd be hard-pressed to think of one I've seen lately that tops it.

 

[Aethren]

It's come to the point where I'm actually judging games not on their instruction manuals, but by their official strategy guides. Though I oddly enjoy reading those. Especially Oblivion's.

 

[Mirroga]

I wanna know what happened to the pretty concept art, witty guides, and elaborate instructions.

Its the same thing that happened to applying realism to video games. Everything turns serious, concentrated mostly to graphics upgrading than gameplay, concentrated to physics engine than fun, and sprinkled everything with dull brown and gray color.

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

I only ever bothered with the manual from Neverwinter Nights. I was absolutely new to D&D so that gave me some useful pointers. Besides that though, I never use them. I do buy a lot of games on-line, so that might be related lately.

 

[McBurks]

I read these as soon as i get in my car,It adds more suspense,so when you get home your amazed at what the book actually taught you.

 

[IntoxicatedKnight]

I love instruction books, most of the time anyway. Rockstar's instruction manuals are brilliant, Grand Theft Auto's as tourist guides, Midnight Club: Los Angeles as a car catalogue and...

You will never get a better Instruction Book then Manhunt's (Written as a buyer's Catalog)

Bloody AND useful.

 

[Major_Sam]

I bought the Assassin's Creed guide and its art book full of the concept drawing and painting for about 25 bucks which really good. I absolutely LOVE the art book. It has given me heaps of costume ideas. I enjoy guide and manuals etc. GTA's books are always great.

 

[Cheesezorz]

If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book.

 

[Legion]

Gears of War 2's is quite good, it's set out like a combat manual a soldier might have.

Even if they are no longer "needed" they were always interesting.

 

[rosac]

I liked RE4's manual. It gave a basic intro to the character, and some hints that were actually rather helpful. (My best kill was shooting through a door with shotty before throwing a firegrenade at the 20 villager trying to eat my precious limbs.)

But yes, manual quality has gone down in the recent months. Dunno why tho.

rosac

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I'm not sure why, but I thought this said instruction boobs.
Anyway, while I'm here, I like a good instruction book with backstory etc. filled in. As a PC gamer it gives me something to read while waiting for it to install.

 

[MasterStratus]

I'm not sure why, but I thought this said instruction boobs.
Anyway, while I'm here, I like a good instruction book with backstory etc. filled in. As a PC gamer it gives me something to read while waiting for it to install.

Why did you have to give me that thought?
I can't unthink it.
It's going to be here forever.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

I agree. I've had this theory that instruction manuals (especailly for larger more in depth games) have been thinning out over the years simply to sell more stratergy guides for another 20-40 bucks. 9 times out of ten i get by without either. But for example the last three stratergy guides ive bought were fallout3, Oblivion, and FFX. Before those i couldn't even remember.

 

[high_castle]

It's come to the point where I'm actually judging games not on their instruction manuals, but by their official strategy guides. Though I oddly enjoy reading those. Especially Oblivion's.

You should play/read Morrowind's. It gave you background on the realm, on each of the races, etc. Oblivion's cut quite a bit of that out.

I used to read manuals when I was a kid. We'd buy a game, I'd spend the ride home from the store tearing open the box and devouring the manual until I could actually get home and play the thing. As an adult, what with driving myself to the store, reading the manual in the car would be hazardous to my health and that of the people in the lane next to me. So usually I pop the game in and go from there. If the game's controls are very unintuitive, I'll pause and read the back of the booklet to figure out what the hell the developers want me to do.

When I do bother glancing at the instruction manuals, it's usually as an afterthought or if I can't figure something out. But there's not much there anymore. You're right, gone are the days of Baldur's Gate or NWN manuals giving as much info as a Prima strategy guide. Some of the info in those manuals was only implied in the games themselves, so you had a more complete experience by reading them. Now there's very little at all inside the manuals, so you're fine skipping them (like I do) and just plugging into the game itself.

 

[WolfThomas]

Arcanum's manual was fantastic, not only did it list all the devices you could make and the spells you could learn, have detailed information on all the races, filled in the background history, had chapters on basic SCIENCE/MATHEMATICS (inclined planes etc) leading into Magic versus Science, but it had a recipe for banana bread, which turned out pretty damn tasty.

 

[Drakulla]

Game books in the US have never been that great compared to their Japanese counterpart. The Japanese put more time, thought, energy and love into a game book where as the US devs and publishers look to save money. It's art and it has to complement the game and the case in Japan while its just a piece of paper in the US. If certain US devs could get away with not releasing a game book, they would. Plus Prototype is published by Activision so those cheap bastards aren't going to show any love for a game book. Spiderman Web of Shadows game book was just as crappy, also published by Activision.

 

[wgreer25]

You know, I am an engineer and as such I have a good sense of efficiency and when something is non-value added. Instruction books have no purpose in a current gen game. All you need to do is add one little option on your start menu and have scans of the manual with whatever information you want in there. It can save game developers money by not having to print out and insert manuals. This is the electronic age people, for a video game there is no reason to have a physical manual.

I am the furthest thing from a tree hugger, but things like this are wasteful and we as a society need to take advantage of our technologies that would allow us to not create more waste (i.e. electronic books).

 

[gigastrike]

I realized this too. I was reading random instructuion manuals to games I had (cause I have that kind of time) and I noticed that the ones from N64 games were way more interesting than the ones for the Wii.

The N64 books had bios on all the characters, a list of all the moves and tips on how to use them, and even a prologue to the game! All Super Mario: Galaxy had was a list of characters and moves in 3 languages.