I love having the strategy guides for Pokemon games because it's almost like a collector's item. They look so good and offer so much useful information. Also, you never feel like you're cheating for some reason.
Agreed though I think they are totally different and kind of hard to compare.
Honestly with the internet being the wealth of information it is if I really and honestly get stuck on anything in a game I always just refer to it. And after getting so many guides for free it just seems like a waste of money. When I did used to get them I always did a first play through without it, then just used the guide to see what I had missed or how it would suggest different things
I buy strategy guides, but rarely use them, I more or less just view them as collector items for games that I love. I own.. 6.. Gears 2, Silent hill3, 4, Downpour, Mario 3DS, And L.A Noire. I like having the physical guide as opposed to having to sift through various sites just to find one thing in the middle of one level.
I bought one for Twilight Princess, but since then I've kind of turned against them, especially for puzzle solving and adventure games, I feel like buying a strategy guide kind of ruins the experience. It's not really an adventure if you know what's going to happen and the whole point of a puzzle game is to solve the puzzles. I can understand why people may not want to find every flag in assassins creed by themselves, but then just don't. If it's an achievement issue, well, you're not really earning that achievement if you just look it up, however those are really subjective and if you want the achievements then that's cool, no harm done. I may be able to understand tactics in a strategy guide for an RTS game, but I personally think half the fun is finding your ways to do things. Now these are just by opinions and I don't bash anybody who buys them, that's their gaming choice; but they're just not for me.
I just buy the Collector's Edition guides. They usually come with extra artwork + a poster or a map. Plus they're hardcover so they last longer than ordinary guides.
The whole point of this thread is to discuss why we would buy them when we already know they're available on the internet. If I need info on the game and I don't have the guide, of course I'm going to use the internet to figure out what to do next.
My whole thing is that I'm collecting the CE guides, only. My reasoning behind this was because they seem to put more effort into these guides and thus they valued higher, at least they are for me. I just bought the ME3 CE guide, Uncharted 3 CE and the Mirror's Edge CE guides because they all offered bonus content, such as the soundtrack for free or part of the guide includes exclusive artwork.
Plus, I like having them on my shelf. They look nice and they last longer than the regular guides.
I buy the occasional one if it's for a game I love to death like assassin's creed and metal gear solid. There are some decent reasons besides because I'm a fanboy and I want it. It is because sometimes it's helpful but more importantly comes with some really awesome concept art or a really detailed synopsis that you can't find on the web for the most part. Also games like Metal Gear Solid 4 have multiple weapons so the book has a simple but effective chart/table with all the stats I need.
I will sometimes. I really like the artwork and when they include information from the developer or development cycles. But even then I only do so rarely.
