Monday, March 12, 2012

Walkthroughs

Online
The frustration associated with a video games 9 times out of 10 is associated with being perplexed by a puzzle,  bogged down by a boss, or lost in a level or something to that effect. The other parts is due to the multiplayer aspect of all your favorite video games. Those 13 year old angst filled teenagers that make you want to pull your hair out. Anyways, before giving up on that game and walking away, why not try a walkthrough? Many people like to go out and buy one of those $25-$30 books on the video game or download some software for it, however; there is no need. All you really need is internet access and a little bit of patience. There is a multitude of websites that you can find by simply searching it in a search engine. For example, search The Legend of Zelda walkthrough in Google and thousands of hits come up. Most are bogus and not the one that you want or they don’t have enough information or the wrong information, but with a little patience you will find what you are looking for. Just remember, you’re saving money. I myself am a disciple of the website Gamefaqs. I seriously have looked on it for almost every single game I have played. However, this is not the only website devoted to getting you around whatever obstacle looms in your path. Here are a few:


  • Gamefaqs: Gamefaqs is powered by Gamespot which is a fantastic game website. Gamefaqs not only offers walkthroughs but they also give you game reviews, Top 10 reports, news, and lots of other cool information about upcoming.  
  • SuperCheats: SuperCheats is very similar to Gamegaqs as far as what they have to offer on the website except the layout is a little different and they aren’t powered by Gamespot. However; they do offer a part of their website that has wallpapers from all your favorite games that you can put on your computer. 
  • Game Wiki: This is is powered by ign and of the four I have listed here is pretty basic. They don’t offer walkthroughs for the older consoles such as N64 and Super Nintendo but they everything from PSP to the Nintendo 3DS. So if you are looking for information on recent games you’re A- OK otherwise you should go somewhere else.
  • Neoseeker: Neoseeker is even more basic than ign’s game site but they do offer walkthroughs for the older concosles. The website layout isn’t anything fancy but it does get the job done. It also has updates on hardware that deals with gaming. 


If I were to rate these in order of descending awesomeness it would be Gamefaqs, IGN, Supercheats, and then Neoseeker. But, these are my opinions. You should look into them yourselves and determine which of them is your favorite.


Hitting the Books..
For those of you that prefer I more "profesional" approach to your walkthrough experience, there is a multitude of books you can purchase that will help you with your games. There are a lot of books that are specific to certain games but, they are not as abundant as those found on the interenet. An example of these books would be the very large guide that was recently released with Skyrim. It contains information on every town, quest, dungeon, race, treasure, etc. They typically do not give you step by step instructions on what to do, but they do provide a lot of useful information.

You can purchase these book from specialty game shops, Amazon, eBay, and multiple other places. I have only ever bought the guides for Skyrim and for Fable 2. Both where very useful and extremely helpful but, I could have found any of the information from them online.

To conclude this post, I recommend going the easy and cheap way. The internet. Although it isn’t necessarily reliable, there is some good information out there and it’s free. :)