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Seth
Last Man Standing
Joined: 23 Jan 2002
Posts: 1008
Location: Faerun |
Right now I’m between the games (fished NOLF2, tomorrow starting Hitman2) and was going though my favorite games or more like manuals. What happen to good manuals, to find something specific is like looking for needle in the hay stag.
I have to say the best manual so far and I don’t think it will be ever beaten is for Jagged Alliance 2, then Fallout mainly for it’s humor, even BG wasn't bad. What other games had some good guides? Of course I don’t buy the games just because there is a good helping book there, but it’s a perk.
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Money - An article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven, and as a universal provider of everything except happiness. |
Wed Oct 09, 2002 12:01 am |
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Jaz
Late Night Spook
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 9708
Location: RPGDot |
The funniest manual I had was for some incredibly stupid and repetitive SNES game (forgot the name, unfortunately, should call my brother... I gave him my SNES and games a few years ago). But the manual was good, really hilariously written.
Best 'translation' I ever saw was that of FPS Mortal Coil. They managed to get installation instructiuons translated by some program (I think), you had to re-translate everything to get the gist of what they wanted! the best sentence I can remember was
'Einsellen Sterbliche Rolle auf Ihre Harte Fährt ', which turned out to be a literal, completely wrong AND mis-spelled translation of
'install Mortal Coil on your hard disk'.
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Jaz |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 12:07 am |
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Roach
SBR Belfry Bat
Joined: 20 Jan 2002
Posts: 3233
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Warcraft: Orcs and Humans had a good manual. For it's time it had a very indebth story written inside, as well as a good amount about each of the nuetral units. It was also written on off-white pepper with tatered edges, it made me feel like I was reading some old scrolls. |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 4:48 am |
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Provis
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 872
Location: Middle of the Forest |
It's not really a manual but I got a stratagy guide for UO bundled when I bought UO way back when and I used to read and reread that thing every waking moment that I wasn't playing the game, I loved UO so much.
*sigh*
Memories
*sniff*
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--
"Yea, so what I didn't like Planescape: Torment, what are you gonna do about it?" - Provis |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:56 am |
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Gig
Southern Spirit
Joined: 20 Feb 2002
Posts: 3226
Location: NFG Headquarters |
Where did you get NOLF2? Can I order it? It doesn't come out until Friday here. Do you have the English version? Please! Please! Please!!
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''Perhaps I'm old and tired but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design coastlines. I got an award for Norway.''--Slartibartfast |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 1:36 pm |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Manuals, I do not use them much, only when I am stuck and I need some help :]. |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:46 pm |
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ButtOfMalmsey
Village Idiot
Joined: 07 May 2002
Posts: 785
Location: Mississippi |
Best manuals for readability- Electronic Arts
Worst manuals for readability- Strategy First products that are not called Kohan
Best manuals for content- Blizzard
Worst manuals for content- Electronic Arts
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"It has been a grand journey- well-worth making once."
-Winston Churchill, 1965, on Life
I saw this in a movie about a bus that had to SPEED around a city, keeping its SPEED over fifty, and if its SPEED dropped, it would explode. I think it was called, "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down."
-Homer Simpson
=Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Member of The Sixth House=
::Captain of the Black Company:: |
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 6:58 pm |
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mDrop
High Emperor
Joined: 06 May 2002
Posts: 479
Location: Under the desk |
I think the worst part about manuals is the fact that many companies just give you a PDF on the game CD. What happened to those thick manuals you got with older games? I'm all for saving trees, but daddy needs his fix of some good printed manuals 
I remember the huge piles of books you got with old, hardcore flight sims like Falcon or Apache. Or the Ultima-series manuals. Old games even had some neat stuff bundled with them, you didn't have to wait for the GOTY-edition to receive a lame poster. Ultimas had cloth maps and coins with pentagrams, etc..
Nowadays, I don't read the PDF-manuals unless the game is too hard to get without studying first. What could a manual of a FPS possibly tell me?
The NWN manual was printed, but the quality was bad. A lot of important stuff was missing, the charts were imperfect and there were some blatant errors..
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"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
- George Bernard Shaw
- Member of The Nonflamers' Guild -
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Wed Oct 09, 2002 10:24 pm |
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Provis
High Emperor
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 872
Location: Middle of the Forest |
ACK
PDF manuals. 
They aren't as bad when you buy a game that is the el' cheapo version that only retails for 10 bucks and comes in a jewel case (I liked the old el' cheapo version of games better, they came in a box about the size of a DVD case, I got so many great games that way, Ultima underworld I&II, the complete ultima 7, ultima 8 ( Yea I liked it, what of it;)), system shock, the crusader games (I want a new one of these  ), etc), but a PDF for a brand new $50 game is simply BS.
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"Yea, so what I didn't like Planescape: Torment, what are you gonna do about it?" - Provis |
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Thu Oct 10, 2002 12:32 am |
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Pinnen
Wearer of the Hat
Joined: 19 May 2002
Posts: 7092
Location: The Sandy Beach Resort |
Pdf manuals a truly horrible. When the need for a manual arises, (in game. as always), you have to shut down the game, open the pdf, and read until your eyes start to bleed. Then start the game, and in 9 cases out of 10, you have forgotten the solution. I liked the old books. used to read them when having a cigarette-break. Or better yet, when in need of the manual, I took a cigarette-break. Now I haven´t even opened a manual for three years I think.
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CaptainWorshipperNonFlamer
CrossTopicBaner |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 8:09 am |
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Jericho
Chicken?
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 1535
Location: Toontown with the SANDY BEACHES |
I never used manuals.. Mostly its full of non-useful information. Its more fun calling a nice friend (you know who you are) and ask him what to do.. then i get to learn a few tricks thats not in a manual too
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Never argue with the insane. They will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
And according to Lintra it is contagious
Quote from Val to Jericho: "You're an evil little cat, you know that."
Quote from Dhruin: "*Sigh* If only I was as perfect as Jericho"
Quote from Mr Roach: "We all wish we were perfect as Jericho" |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 10:03 am |
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mDrop
High Emperor
Joined: 06 May 2002
Posts: 479
Location: Under the desk |
With some games, manuals are really important. Especially the hard-core flight simulators (what happened to them?) were impossible to learn and play without studying the huge manuals describing combat strategies, usage of radars and different airplanes. I think learning those things was half the fun. It was great to fly the F14 Tomcat with full realism when you were trained enough to use all of the equipment almost intuitively, getting maximum efficiency out of every single aspect.
Could it be that games today are so dumbed down that you don't need proper manuals anymore? Hardcore simulations are extremely rare, especially in the areas of proper naval/flight simulators, which used to be my favourity games for years.
I still think about Silent Command II and Falcon 3.0, those games were great.
_________________
"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
- George Bernard Shaw
- Member of The Nonflamers' Guild -
- Member of The Alliance of Middle-Earth -
- Worshiper of Written Word -
- Proud supporter of E.H.U.A.O - |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 10:15 am |
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Pinnen
Wearer of the Hat
Joined: 19 May 2002
Posts: 7092
Location: The Sandy Beach Resort |
Dumbed down are indeed an excellent term. Could also be that they develop games so that they easily can be converted into oter platforms. Playstation2 are not known to have 100+ button to configure.
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CaptainWorshipperNonFlamer
CrossTopicBaner |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 10:37 am |
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Jericho
Chicken?
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 1535
Location: Toontown with the SANDY BEACHES |
I like dumbed down. I dont buy a game to sit and read a book, i buy it to play and have fun. I just came to think about tie-fighter.. there i actually read the manual.. you used all buttons on the keyboard for all kinds of stupid things.. all you wanted to do was fly around and shoot other ships down. great game btw 
_________________
Never argue with the insane. They will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
And according to Lintra it is contagious
Quote from Val to Jericho: "You're an evil little cat, you know that."
Quote from Dhruin: "*Sigh* If only I was as perfect as Jericho"
Quote from Mr Roach: "We all wish we were perfect as Jericho" |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 10:53 am |
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mDrop
High Emperor
Joined: 06 May 2002
Posts: 479
Location: Under the desk |
@Pinnen, sadly, it is a good term. I think the dumbing down started before this cross-platform trend began. When the big business got in and game houses grew, they needed to take the "casual player" into account. The games had to be easy enough to into in an hour. It was not necessarily the complex controls, but also complex game mechanics.
Which would be good, since not all games need to be really complex and have great depth. But because of these demands, the more complex and serious games virtually disappered. Many games that started as ambitious ideas got toned down in the process to appeal to bigger audiences. I remember many interviews about games I had really anticipated saying 'Well, we started with this really great idea about a complex game, but then we agreed with the publisher to change it some that it appeals to the casual gamer also'.
Other games tried to combine both approaches, given both the hard-core gamers and the so called "casual gamer" what they wanted, but few succeeded, most racing games and some flight simulators can appeal to both due to flexible realsim settings, but most CRPGs can not.
Maybe this is just pointless whining about how good things were back then, but I think that looking at the developement of gaming industry proves me right.
_________________
"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."
- George Bernard Shaw
- Member of The Nonflamers' Guild -
- Member of The Alliance of Middle-Earth -
- Worshiper of Written Word -
- Proud supporter of E.H.U.A.O - |
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Thu Oct 24, 2002 12:50 pm |
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