"Official Strategy Guide" Hello Does anyone find these books useful? Or are they just EA trying to make more money? I'd like to get the best out of my game, and was just wondering what you thought of them. Thanks x
My opinion, gleaned from using the web, is that they are full of useful information about the game, but that all of the facts are derived from EA well ahead of the game's final release. (The books have to printed and shipped to stores, while the game can undergo final testing and tuning for a good month or season longer ... most printing is done in countries like China and printed material is shipped by sea because airfreight would make the books expensive as printing them at home.) For that reason it is well-known that many books contain significant factual errors (eg times taken to achieve specific goals, recipes for fruit juices, career chance card results and outcomes and probabilities. Most people buy guides to help them quickly discover how to achieve all the aspects of the game's playing modes. In actual fact most often you can as easily discover how to get a specific result (eg get a child into private school) by using a community site, such as this one to ask your question, or just to use a search engine like Google eg: "sims 2" "private school" "how to" as above but with cheat added to the search terms or with hack I have never bought one and wouldn't consider doing so. But I don't want to put anyone off buying one. Each of is free to spend our money how we want ... but don't expect a guide to be a magic book that is (a) a source of perfectly accurate information and (b) a source of information that is not freely available elsewhere.
I rather like them. I use them to get acquainted with the game before I actually play it. I don't worry about little details but it's nice to see the various features that are available before hand. You can get a lot of the information from going to a fansite or even the official site, but I prefer to find the information on my own if possible, rather than asking on a fansite. I checked my guides and they all say that they were printed in the US. Perhaps the guides sold in other countries have other sources for their printing.
I always liked the guides as they had better reference to all the build mode objects and the tools too. sadly this expansion has no new build tools or objects except for some walls and floors and a few ground paints.
can i just say the official guide helped me in my science test , lol something to do with genes and reccesive and dominant and so on... but i use them alot they help when i pick a career for my sim just to name one example
I like the guides and will quite often refer to them first before replying to someone on here who needs assistance with something. I have almost all the guides except University for some reason. And Freetime, don't have that one yet.... *gets blank stare in eyes* Must...Buy...Freetime... *walks off like a zombie*
Thanks for the input guys. I like the idea of getting the guides, but am still saving for Seasons . Maybe one day, when I'm rich.... x
Well whichever guide you get will be updated? I've got Sims 2 guide and obviously half the things in there have changed with the expansion packs
Each guide only talks about the features included that expansion pack. Like if you get the freetime guide it's not going to tell you how to run a business as that info would be part of the OFB guide. It will give you any tips that might help with running both expansions, but it will be focused more on the Freetime aspect than the OFB aspect. Not everyone has all the expansions so it doesn't makes sense. You can however buy the box set which is Sims2 base game guide through the Bon Voyage guide now: Amazon.com: Sims 2 Box Set: Prima Official Game Guide: Prima Games: Books
Is this the box set with the seven guides for $20? I got that. My only complaint is the printing is really small and the pictures are in black and white. They were wrapped in the box in plastic, so I couldn't look through them first to decide if I wanted them or not. I still like to read up on this game though to tide me over.
the box set!! what a life saver! although i'm saving up for the big colour guides. colour is so much better oh and also in a couple of the guides a picture covers some of the writing but it was only $20
I found my Sims 2 guide the other day.. So I've got the Sims 2 and Seasons guide I don't use them though as I tend to experiment with the game to find out what I want to do.
Considering what I have read here I would never buy an official strategy guide. Apparently the strategies are not so "official" afterall. That seems like a waste of user time, money, and energy to go out and buy a guide that isn't correct. Seems to me it would make more sense to release the guide a week or two after the game is released. Just seems kind of reckless to me.
they are a bit overpriced, but i think for people who don't want the guides, the $20 boxset is still good, it helps with the careers. although in saying that i have to admit everything in the guides is on the internet anyway.... so go with the internet, it's easier
There are free insert samples on the Sims 2 website as well. I've got the Sims 2 and Nightlife guide which I am never going to use. I might Ebay them lol.
I got the Box set from my girlfriend for Christmas. I loved it, but yeah the pictures and print aren't big and it isn't in color.
Cool avatar alphaspot. That's cool you got that box set for Christmas. I thought it was $20, but I looked on the box and it was actually $25 lol. That's for those who might be interested in it. Yeah, I wish the type was a bit bigger. Color pictures would also be a good thing.
