Zerker on 21/7/2009 at 20:52
Quote Posted by Al_B
I found that a little off-putting with some games. Manuals that contained details of every weapon, upgrade and creature that you could encounter spoiled some of the suprise. I prefer games where the introduction of these things is as part of the in-game narrative, not by randomly encountering it on the pages of an instruction guide.
Yes, but in this case it's a turn-based strategy game, and depending on what scenario you play you may have access to all units (for your race) up front anyways. And the game will tell you unit stats when you click on them; it just won't give you a useful complete list that you can use to compare across all possible units.
Dresden on 21/7/2009 at 22:22
Some that have already been mentioned:
The Last Crusade's Grail Diary. The only way it could've felt more authentic is if it had a leather cover. Cryptic writing, sketches, coffee stains, newspaper clippings, etc. You'd be very lucky to find something like this in a collector's edition nowadays.
Fallout 2 Manual. Just for looking like a real spiral bound notebook.
Diablo Manual. This thing had some killer artwork inside as well as dark poetry and quotes in the margins.
SimAnt Manual. It had a lot of ant puns and ant facts in the margins. I know more about ants than I care to.
Monkey Island 2. As annoying as the copy protection was, the Voodoo Mixing Wheel was pretty cool.
Any manual for a Nintendo made NES game. Pure nostalgia. Instructions on how to play the game with drawings of the characters on each page. Also the American manual for Metal Gear which completely made up shit about the game's story which the game then contradicted.
DarkForge on 23/7/2009 at 11:22
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
SiN + Wages of SiNHad journal entries (+ sketches) written by the protagonist John R. Blade.
SiN was my very first thought on this topic. I absolutely love the journal and all the pics - made it seem so much more personal. The pics (not sure about the entries) are also on the CD as well, providing great avatar fodder.
All three of the Half-Life manuals (HL, OF and BS) are top notch in my book. As mentioned by others, a lot of manuals that add to the background and atmosphere of the game's world in some way really appeal to me. I was fascinated to learn in that initial letter that Gordon Freeman accepted his Black Mesa job via telephone conversation - given that Freeman never says a word, I can only imagine how that went down! :cheeky:
Even a couple of my old Amiga manuals spring to mind, like Lemmings or Bart vs the Space Mutants. Man those Lemmings were cute!
I really do lament the death of the manual. I guess it was an inevitable demise, but even so... readme files just don't compare to actually holding that booklet in your hands. I still hold on to all my manuals, and don't ever see myself getting rid of them.
Thirith on 23/7/2009 at 11:28
Quote Posted by Zerker
Yes, but in this case it's a turn-based strategy game, and depending on what scenario you play you may have access to all units (for your race) up front anyways. And the game will tell you unit stats when you click on them; it just won't give you a useful complete list that you can use to compare across all possible units.
I've definitely found this to be the case with
Civilization IV and
Alpha Centauri. Reading the manuals, I started planning strategies in my head on how best to tackle the game. A good manual makes me feel more involved in the game, and this is one of the way in which it can be done.
Matthew on 23/7/2009 at 11:30
And a big fuck-off poster of a tech tree! :D
nicked on 23/7/2009 at 12:22
Quote Posted by DarkForge
All three of the Half-Life manuals (HL, OF and BS) are top notch in my book.
I just realised/remembered - I never got a manual with my original copy of Half-Life. It was missing from the box. :( I didn't even realise there was one until years later so I couldn't even take it back.
