I miss video game strategy guides

[Xarpho's Return]

If there's one thing about modern games it's the near-complete lack of strategy guides, with most of the useful information in Wikia or some shit.

Every notable video game got one at one time and while a lot of games (particularly Prima) got what was basically walkthroughs with maybe some screenshots, there were often tons of useful information depending on the game. Maps (some full color, some just sketches), developer interviews, official art, extensive charts and bestiaries, and others could be found in the pages, and often made for good reading in and of themselves.

Most online sources are just no replacement...

 

[I'm Really Feeling It]

Why spend any fraction of the budget on a colourful and fun guide when a Discord tranny wanting to get paid in exposure writes pages and pages of autistic drivel for free? They even shove it down your throat as the best way to play so no need to worry that the information won't reach some people.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Anytime a Pokemon game came out, I always got a guide for it. I think after Gen 5 I stopped because at that point the internet already had all the details once gen 6 and later came out.

One of the non-pokemon strategy guides I wound up getting was one for the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection on the PS2. It was a pre-order bonus that also came with a soundtrack CD. It had some stuff in it that the FGC considered bullshit, such as Cammy being a good counter to Guile. Personally, as a Cammy player, I think it's somewhat true, as I've had my fair share of wins against Guile players.

 

[generic sauce]

Fuck nigger are you going to talk about scholastic book days next? Reddits over there faggot ---->

 

[Magicat]

Online resources have ruined that novel experience of exploration and discovering secrets. These days game wikis are beyond comprehensive and hand-holdey.

I remember having a few official guides back in the day. Illusion of Time (SNES PAL) disclosed missable item locations, but was never hand-holdey.

See the RuneScape wikis these days. There's no fun when the answers to literally everything in the game is on them.

Communities with autistic trannies and liberal fags spreadsheet pvm rotations and spoonfeed newcomers. The common mentality is to read/watch a guide before doing anything... and that sucks.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

If one loses internet access but still has vidya, it'd be like going back to the pre-Internet days with no strategy guides available.

 

[Dysnomia]

If one loses internet access but still has vidya, it'd be like going back to the pre-Internet days with no strategy guides available.

This is why I hate the slow death of physical media. You will regret it if anything happens to your internet access. Much like with the death of malls it has consequences a lot of people can't see because they are so used to easily getting what they want in seconds. I'm still hoping malls bounce back as people tire of cheap fast fashion garbage and how it's actually not a value at all if it falls apart after a wash or two.

Anyway, getting back to strategy guides:

For me, my laptop is one of those big, older ones and I keep it on my desk. It's not that portable. My TV is all the way at the other side of the room. I use the attic as my bedroom and it's pretty spacious. So I have to keep getting up to look at stuff if I'm playing a console game. I hate looking stuff up on mobile. I hate soft keyboards and the way things look on the screen. Having actual paper guides is great. They are fun to read and collect. I no longer have my guides because I've moved a ton of times. But i enjoyed them when I had them.

You can always use a notebook to make your own guide. I think I still have one for SotN. I didn't have the guide or a computer at home when the game came out. So I used a spiral bound copybook to note all the drops and item locations because I knew it was a game I'd play multiple times.

 

[The Connected Nose]

Any time someone mentions strategy guides, I always think of this classic.

 

[Soup Sammiches]

I also miss when games used to come with a novel that was the instruction manual.

 

[Testacles Maximus]

The Banjo-Kazooie strategy guide didn’t tell me about stop ‘n swap.

 

[Reminmyster]

Remember the last one i got was for the lego star wars force awakens game

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Online resources have ruined that novel experience of exploration and discovering secrets. These days game wikis are beyond comprehensive and hand-holdey.

I remember having a few official guides back in the day. Illusion of Time (SNES PAL) disclosed missable item locations, but was never hand-holdey.

See the RuneScape wikis these days. There's no fun when the answers to literally everything in the game is on them.

Communities with autistic trannies and liberal fags spreadsheet pvm rotations and spoonfeed newcomers. The common mentality is to read/watch a guide before doing anything... and that sucks.

The thing about guides is that you can pick and choose stuff that you need help on, like glancing over to make sure you won't miss certain events or items, help with that one boss, or the cheat to access infinite money.

The Riven guide (Brady, I believe) had five different walkthroughs (probably not a coincidence, as the game was centered around five as a core theme), each going gradually from "hints and musings" (like, "when you leave Jungle Island, you should've figured out the submarine, the Fire Marble Dome, etc.") to a full walkthrough where everything is laid out.

Wikis tend to spoil everything outright.

 

[Colon capital V]

Fuck nigger are you going to talk about scholastic book days next? Reddits over there faggot ---->

2023 animeavatar newtroon doesn't appreciate old artforms, next time make sure the rope actually hangs on the ceiling fan instead of failing to ACK you like how your parents failed you, faggot.

I also miss when games used to come with a novel that was the instruction manual.

 

[generic sauce]

2023 animeavatar newtroon doesn't appreciate old artforms, next time make sure the rope actually hangs on the ceiling fan instead of failing to ACK you like how your parents failed you, faggot.

My steam accounts older than you faggot

 

[BlackDragoons]

I worked my ass off for this hunk of a beast.
(Picture not mine)
Made playing the game so much easier as I was too retarded to complete some of the quests.
I stupidly sold it plus my xbox Game of the Year Edition to a friend of mine who would shortly disappear from the face of the earth.

 

[Thiletonomics]

The sad part about Strategy Games, is that the Live Service aspects of today's games means that those said guides will become obsolete after a few patches, if they were still a common thing today.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

i remember my dad buying me this big world of warcraft book with all its secrets. what he didint know is most of the information would be irrelevant in the next patch lol.

i hate everytime i look for game info, google takes me to fucking reddit everytime. speaking of what i miss from games, i miss game manuals.

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

Yeah, retail vidya releases nowadays are/were just sad. Shitty DVD case, one disc that doesn't even have the game on it, and possibly a tiny pamphlet with some gay ass code you don't care about. I've come to appreciate big(ger) boxes and the few CEs I own, they look genuinely nice on a shelf, especially when the cover is one of those fake 3D images or embossed. The Oblivion one in particular is a fat bastard because it also includes a fat 400 page guide which was my troubleshooting help when UESP wasn't so easy to access.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Gaming was infinitely better in the 90's & early 00's, but the peripheral stuff like this is often glossed over, but was really a cool part of the experience too. I didn't get them much but still miss strategy guides.

All the other physical stuff was nice too, like instruction manuals, the interesting artwork on the cartridge, etc.

 

[Mayor Cody Travers]

I also miss when games used to come with a novel that was the instruction manual.

Simcity 2000's manual was at least one of the epitomes of this.

While you had the appendix section at the back of the manual when you wanted cut-and-dry details, the tutorial and explanations of how the game worked was wittily written, well-designed to suck you into actually reading the damn thing. But what really sold it was the snippets, artwork, and essays - with a whole bunch of them collected in a Gallery section - on what it was like being in the big city. This is back in 1993, when America and its culture were on top of the world and "the End of History" seemed to be a real thing with the end of the USSR. Part of why that fel so was that cities in America were coming out of their huge 80s crime waves and even the LA Riots of '92 were done with, now in the past. The art and words in that manual painted the city as a thing of wonder, of life. And back then? They were right.

"Do cities even have futures? Of course they do: it's just that the future isn't what it used to be." -Keith Ferrell.