Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

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James
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Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by James »

With The Legend Of Zelda: Hyrule Historia attracting a lot of attention recently, I thought it worth discussing official game guides and art books. I'm a big fan of Brady/Prima/Piggyback guides and art books that accompany video games that I love; I know, I know, any/all of the information held within is surpassed by YouTube and GameFAQs a day or two after a given game's release, but that's not why I enjoy them. Instead, I adore looking through the art and extra chapters on characters/enemies/weapons/systems. These guides, especially the hardcover Collector's or Special Editions, really add to my enjoyment of a game in much the same way that manuals and maps used to.

I actually have guides for Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings despite never having played the games. I probably should, but the guides are fantastic in their own right. :?

I rarely buy the bells-and-whistles versions of the games themselves. Ni No Kuni and BioShock Infinite are the only two that have tempted me in recent years. I plumped for the Augmented Edition of Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the in-game extras, but the physical extras just don't usually grab me for some reason.

Anyone else indulge in extra-curricular purchases? If so, what is it that convinces you to lay down the extra money?
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Scrustle
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Scrustle »

As I already mentioned in another thread I have the Hyrule Historia and the Okami Complete Works, but I don't really have any other game related books, apart from a walkthrough for the original Fable. I also had a walkthrough for Pokemon Gold and Silver back in the day. Read that thing to death, and as a result it fell apart long ago.

I tend to buy quite a lot of limited editions. I stay away from the ridiculously expensive ones, and I don't buy as much as I used to, but I still get a fair amount. It used to be that I got limited editions of every game I bought, if it existed, but now I only bother with my favourite games, and I'm pretty strict about what kind of things I think are worth it. That said I just like things which feel different and special. Some of the things I've got have come with physical art objects though, not including tacky statues that is. I do have one, but it's not "art". I have the the limited edition for Devil May Cry 4 which came with a small, but pretty high quality art book. Prince of Persia '08 has a comic and CD with art on too. Shadow of the Colossus and Assassin's Creed had art cards with them as well. The Forza games tend to have pretty good limited edition content. Forza 2 has a really thick book which had lots of info on racing theory, and bios of car manufacturers which tell their histories and facts about them. Forza 3 had a keyring and a thumb drive, both of which I've found a practical use for. I lost the thumb drive though, which annoys me to no end. Forza 4 came with a really slick hardback Top Gear book containing words from the Top Gear guys. It's kind of like a physical version of the Autovista Mode. I almost forgot about Halo 3 too. I have one of the various limited editions they released for that, one of the less expensive ones. Comes with a book with information about the extended universe. My Halo 2 limited edition came with something similar, but it could hardly be called a "book".

I have some games which also came with some cool stuff that just came as standard, nothing to do with limited editions. Mostly it's stuff like maps in RPGs and other open world games. Even though I appreciate those a lot, they're kind of expected. The Witcher 2 comes with a walkthrough of sorts. Not really sure how I feel about that but it definitely makes the game feel special. I have what they call the limited edition of Skyward Sword, but it it's more of a bundle pack than a limited edition. I mostly bought it out of necessity, since I didn't have a Wiimotion + controller, but I couldn't resist that soundtrack either.
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DomsBeard
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by DomsBeard »

I've bought the Fallout 3 GOTY edition which is massive and comes with an amazing map. I got it in HMV for £1 along with Halo Reach, GTA4 and Zelda Skyward Sword.

I've bought the Skyrim one too I'll post some pics later.
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by NokkonWud »

I buy a lot of Collector's Edition games but haven't bought a CE guide since Mass Effect 3. (I do have the Ni No Kuni guide on its way though.)
I'll list them one day, but I need to catalogue them all first in all honesty!
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Alex79 »

I bought the collectors edition of Oblivion when it came out, on the PC, but other than that I'm not usually too fussed. Movies and music releases usually tempt me in to buying more limited edition stuff. I spent $300 on the ultra rare version of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV album, and I've got an assortment of other limited edition NIN stuff.

Oh actually, one of the Castlevania games on the DS I bought a special edition of. It came with a soundtrack and was in a special wax sealed case or something. I can't remember which game it was now though!
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Indiana747
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Indiana747 »

I picked up the Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning game guide for a mere 5 quid new. Its the hardback version and is absolutely beautiful. As with most RPG game guides its ridiculous the amount of research and work that must have been put into it. And for a fiver even if i don't finish Reckoning its just nice to have in my game guide collection.
Also have to mention the Hardback Borderlands 2 game guide which was ever so kindly given to me by Pete 'chunkym0nkey' Turner. It too is a spectacular colourful guide and im ashamed not to have spent more time in Pandora with chunky due to my Battlefield 3 addiction, which im getting counselling for. :lol: i will overcome the demons only to be confronted with a new one in BF4.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by KSubzero1000 »

The Bloodborne Official Artworks book came out recently in the West.
I thought I'd let the rest of the hardcore fans know that it's a wonderful product, with tons of beautiful artwork printed on high-quality paper. Only drawback is that it lacks the hardcover of the Dark Souls Design Works books.

Is anyone else around here into collecting (or importing) video game art books?
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Stanshall
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Stanshall »

Oh? I didn't know it was out yet! I have all the Souls guides and art books. They're all fantastic products, great weight and print quality. They're up there with Hyrule Historia, which is another beautiful creation. I also have the Phantom Pain guide which was rendered a little inaccurate by various updates but it's a decent looking book, lots of detail. I also recently got that Gremlin box set thing.

I have a real fondness for video game 'coffee table' books and often want to pick them up to leaf through.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Yeah, the release date kept being pushed back for months until it just suddenly shipped earlier this week.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloodborne-Off ... l+artworks
Might wanna grab it before it's gone!

Hyrule Historia is indeed fantastic, even though I'm not really a big Zelda fan. I also have the Dark Souls 1 & 2 Design Works, Halo Encyclopedia, Resident Evil Archives 1 &2, MGS Art of the HD Collection and Õkami Design Works, as well as a bunch of Collector's Guides. I even imported two Fire Emblem art books! Wonderful stuff.
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Flabyo »

The Splatoon art book is now out in the US, I think the UK release is the end of this week. Definitely one I'll be picking up, the recent Nintendo ones have all been excellent.

I have plenty of game art books, I'm a huge fan of seeing the process so I'm more fond of those that have lots of development sketches so you can see how things changed over time. (A lot of art books just contain renders of finished designs, which is still great but less interesting to me, I want to see the concept work!).

At the moment I can see on my shelf from here:

Valkyria Chronicles : Design Archive
Valkyria Chronicles 2 : World Artworks
The Art of Metal Gear Solid
The At of Final Fantasy IX
Fable 2 Premium Guide (which has the art book as its second half)
Fable 3 Premium Guide (likewise)
The Art of Mass Effect
Xenogears : Perfect Works
Half Life 2 : Raising the Bar
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Flabyo wrote: July 9th, 2017, 9:07 am The Art of Metal Gear Solid
Out of curiosity, which one is that exactly? Got any pictures?
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Flabyo »

KSubzero1000 wrote: July 9th, 2017, 12:02 pm
Flabyo wrote: July 9th, 2017, 9:07 am The Art of Metal Gear Solid
Out of curiosity, which one is that exactly? Got any pictures?
It's this one, from 1999.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Nice one! I have to admit, I'm a bit jealous. These Japan-exclusive MGS collectibles are almost impossible to find for a decent price nowadays.
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by ColinAlonso »

The Valkyria Chronicles art book is the only art book I own for a specific game. All the details and inspirations that went into the design of the game from major characters to minor things, like the tanks' registration plates being based on a system and not just random, were lovely to see.

Reading James's original post from 2013, I had a game guide for Final Fantasy X back in the day and I would just flick through it looking at the art (and at those Dark Aeons that I would never beat).
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Flabyo
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Flabyo »

Picked up the Splatoon art book today, and my word this is the good stuff.

Image

The D.va there for size comparison is about 8” tall (including the box).

The book starts with all the promo material, both the really stylish 2d ink wash ones and the 3d stuff. Then it goes into the early concept art for every character (including some very different looks for the squid sisters).

Loads of development art for each stage and weapon. Final renders of every single item in the game. Dozens of pages on the raw graphic design (graffiti, store signs, fonts, UI).

And then after all that... a manga, bunch of 4koma, and an archive of the best posts from the US tumblr and the Japanese twitter feeds.

Might well be the most fully featured game art book I’ve seen...
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by kintaris »

The original Prima guide for TES IV Oblivion is close to my heart because it was such an important accesory to my first experience playing that game. Scrawled all over it when I found additional interesting things in the world, or quests that were glitched or buggy, and kept it as a bible for future playthroughs. It's almost become this dog-eared antique that wouldn't look out of place in the game itself - it helps that it was designed to look very similar to the in-game journal.
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chase210
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by chase210 »

I love video game guides, no idea why. Even when there's no purpose in them these days what with gamefaqs and what.
I wanted the guide for pokemon red & blue for literally years, I used to go into Virgin Megastores on a saturday and read that guide every weekend for so long, couple of years at least, and I finally bought it last year! It's so cool.
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Suits
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Suits »

I picked up the Prima Metroid 2 Guide, it arrived from Amazon yesterday - I'd actually forgotten I'd pre-ordered it, so was a nice surprise :lol: .

It was fairy cheap and is nice to add to the collection but inst much of an art book really. Still it's nice to have these items for games you like.

I did pick up a beautiful Horizon book the other day mind, massive hard back it is. Half price too, was a bargain.
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Craig
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Craig »

chase210 wrote: July 17th, 2017, 11:15 pm I love video game guides, no idea why. Even when there's no purpose in them these days what with gamefaqs and what.
I wanted the guide for pokemon red & blue for literally years, I used to go into Virgin Megastores on a saturday and read that guide every weekend for so long, couple of years at least, and I finally bought it last year! It's so cool.
I had a guide for Pokemon red and blue. I used to love it because it would tell you the moves the pokemon learned and when, but also how strong moves were and what they did. This was valuable information back in the day when mist seemingly did nothing and the onscreen description didn't help.

However, there was a misprint, so focus energy (I believe, it's been a while) didn't have a proper explanation. For the longest time I had no clue what "He's getting pumped!' meant.
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Re: Official Video Game Guides & Art Books

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Most recent official game-related book I bought was the sheet music for Persona 4 (ISBN 9784401020904, for those searching):

Image

And of course, obvious reason, I like the music, and I really should be playing my piano more. You are more likely to find a second-hand copy through Amazon, and for a much lower price than eBay.
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