Remember when video game manuals were awesome?

[SL33TBL1ND]

I miss those things. Sigh.

 

[AgentBJ09]

Agreed. Manuals need to start getting big again, and they need more world/creature/character fluff.

I still have the Hexen manuals, which have multiple snippets of fluff writing, but that's part of the charm. Then there's Deus Ex, Morrowind, Oblivion, The Witcher, and quite a few others.

I can somewhat understand the reasoning behind 'going green' with regard to the manuals, but if these companies had any semblance of a clue, they would notice that people still pay good money for the classic manuals online. People want manuals with good stuff, or at the very least, thick ones with plenty to read.

Also, I know these companies have technical and creative writers, so it should not be that hard to create manuals that are thicker than eight pages. Seriously.

 

[Solo-Wing]

Metal Gear Solid 4's manual tells you how to play the game by way of a comic.

That was pretty cool, but honestly a manual is something I might read a little bit of in the restroom and ignore otherwise.

MGS3 also did that, but I gotta say I loved the Sly 2 booklet.

 

[redisforever]

The older C&C games had awesome installers. That ended with C&C Renegade.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I bought an old dos game off ebay, terminator:skynet and was amazed by how the manual focussed so much on back story and concept art and funny comic jokes.

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

The older C&C games had awesome installers. That ended with C&C Renegade.

I remember this! It was funny how the DOS version had the way cooler installation, with animated machine doohickies and everything. Meanwhile on Windows 95 you just got a background pic!

 

[emeraldrafael]

Maybe its cause it was PC, but I dont ever remember seeing a REALLY good game manual that "wow'd" me. Probalby the only one I saw that was cool was the Muppets racing one cause it gave you cheat codes in it.

 

[redisforever]

The older C&C games had awesome installers. That ended with C&C Renegade.

I remember this! It was funny how the DOS version had the way cooler installation, with animated machine doohickies and everything. Meanwhile on Windows 95 you just got a background pic!

Yeah, the RA2 install was so cool, and after renegade, it just became a standard, boring, installer.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Fallout 3 had a pretty good manual, if I remember correctly. Had a cool layout and some useful tips, I was happy with it.

Worst manual ever goes to Modern Warfare 2, hands down. 6 or 7 pages of black and white that don't explain anything.

AC:Brotherhood's is worse...its a pamphlet.
The actual "instruction manual" is in-game.

Well you arent being lied to so thats a start...


So I own a terrible copy of a game called RISEN and...

the book is in about ~3-4 languages and is thick enough to kill rats...

RDR had a pretty cool manual

 

[Bobzer77]

Fallout 3 had a pretty good manual, if I remember correctly. Had a cool layout and some useful tips, I was happy with it.

Worst manual ever goes to Modern Warfare 2, hands down. 6 or 7 pages of black and white that don't explain anything.

AC:Brotherhood's is worse...its a pamphlet.
The actual "instruction manual" is in-game.

So I own a terrible copy of a game called RISEN and...

But Risen is awesome