Reviews (4)

Exceptional Learning Tool
Find exactly what you need to do in Photoshop and follow the easy illustrated steps. There is no need to read the book, got a difficult project, look it up and it is finished in no time at all. This book contains tips & tricks used by Photoshop Pros worldwide.
So clear and helpful!
I love the creative projects in this book. Not only are
Another great addition to my Photoshop Books
Lynette has done a great job digging out some of the most hard to find tips and tricks to help me with Photoshop CS2. There are so many Photoshop books out there, but Lynette's easy to understand, yet powerful tips have already helped me in things I do with Photoshop everyday. I recommend this book to all Photoshop users. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    4. Computers    5. Computers - Desktop Publishing    6. Desktop Publishing - General    7. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    8. Photoshop   

Reviews (12)

A great book!
I was most happy with all those V-speeds I can't seem to find anywhere else.Good advice inside.

Good Resource
I purchased this book after I read the other reviews.Some of them were not as good as others.I have long been a fan of Flight Simulator and I have purchased all the hints book to go along with each one.I found this book to be a great resource and I have used it daily.
Nothing New Here
Nearly everything in the book is just a re-hash of information that is in the learning center section of Flight Simulator. More depth and breadth of information is needed to merit purchasing this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Aviation - General    2. Computer Books: Web Publishing    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Games    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. Video & Electronic - Flying Games/Flight Simulation    8. Aviation skills / piloting    9. Computer games    10. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General   

Reviews (204)

A Guide?! Are you kidding?
Normally I do not write reviews... however I feel the complete and utter deficiency of this guide require me to do so. First off this is not a guide. It is a reference book to an online site that is pretty much no longer available. The entire guide gives brief information but does not tell you how to collect all the items do all the quests, or sufficiently beat bosses. This guide and the people who wrote it make me extremelly frustrated... What if someone wants to beat this game with all the items and does not have an internet connection? It is so thoughtless and full of, well, no information. It is possibly the biggest pile of bologna that I have ever witnessed in a published work. If i haven't fully shown my miscontempt for this guide let me say this; I am a generally peaceful person but if I were to fight anyone in the world (other than a political figure) I would fight the creators of this guide for their thoughtlessness. ARgh!!!!!! do not buy this item!!!!! save yourself!!!!

A guide that refers you to another guide
This is the lowest quality strategy guide of Final Fantasy ever. This is my review
I ordered the book because I had the game, but hadn't been able to find the book in the stores. It's a cheat book for a PlayStation game. So far it actually seems to help less than the other books I've used in the past, but until I actually finish the game, I won't really be able to comment fully on that. If you're playing a Final Fantasy game, always get the book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers - Games    3. Final Fantasy (Game)    4. Games    5. Games/Puzzles    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Video & Electronic - Sony Playstation    8. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General    9. Games / Video & Electronic   

Reviews (20)

Outdated but useful in some ways
This book is not even in print anymore. There are three expansion packs out now. This book only covers the first one (Rise of the Zilart) and does not cover Chains of Promathia or Treasures of Aht Urghan at all.It is useful to newbs who are trying to find their way around the game, but there is nothing in this book that cannot be found on the internet if you just search for it. There are numerous sites that contain much more useful information (Such as allakhazam) but the problem with them is that the way this game is written, you cannot Alt-tab out of it to view another web page. Once you are in the game, you have to exit it to access any other programs on your pc (I play pc version exclusively....this doesn't apply to PS2 or X-Box players).
there is an updated verison
because online games such as these change on a regular basis, this particular book is out of date as a newer version has been issued. also since there is another expansion for teh final fantasy 11 game called Chains of Permathia, another version, probably called fall 2004 will probably be released soon.

Should Have Shipped With The Game. . .
This guide is nothing more than a decent instruction manual for FFXI. The idea was good and if you started playing the game, let's say, back when it was first released in Japan, this so-called guide may have been helpful. But times change and so do MMORPG's. Don't get this guide unless you have a time machine so you can go back to when it would have been useful. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computer games    3. Computers - Games    4. Entertainment & Games - General    5. Games    6. Games/Puzzles    7. Video & Electronic - General    8. Games / Video & Electronic   

Reviews (8)

Terrible Book !!!!!!!!
This book is terrible. Badly written from a grammer standpoint.
Title- misleading
For people venturing into architectural visualization, this book is not for you. Not enough content for 3d modelling(building) and other architecture related stuff. I quite agree with the other guy that the title should be changed to 'Basic 3ds Max'. However, even this title is not appropriate since the author had not covered many important features of 3ds max. The exercises are so simple and won't help you very much in building up your confidence on 3ds max even after you finished reading this book. The book is expensive and lacks quality. I won't buy a book from 'friends of ed' publications anymore.

Not a comprehensive guide for architectural visualization
The author lacks creativity in presenting effective tutorials for the reader. A simple house and a bunch of exercises on teapots, spheres and other built-in 3ds max objects. While I understand that the aim of these simple exercises is to showcase 3ds max features, he should have at least provided more challenging exercises (geared towards the architectural visualization industry) either at the end of each chapter or at the appendix section of the book. There were no tutorials on how to render an building structure using night-time settings, interior structure using both daytime and night-time settings, somehow the reader would have to figure-out the settings for himself/herself. There were no guidelines on a lot of topics that would be very helpful for people working in the architecture industry for instance there were no examples on how to superimpose a 3ds max building into a photograph (an important feature to showcase the proportion of a proposed building to adjacent existing structures) no examples on how to create lights using manufaturer's specs. and no examples on how to use third party plug-ins such as RPC from archvision to provide vegetation, trees, people, cars in your 3d building model. -Again these topics, you have to learn it on your own. The author has also a habit of applauding a particular 3ds max feature in architectural visualization but fails to provide exercises/tutorials on the other hand (eg. panorama exporter, hair & fur effect for 3d grass). If your local bookstore carries this product, find time browsing it before buying this book. Bottomline, this book is not a good reference for the architectural visualization industry and for people planning to study 3ds max 8. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - 3D Studio    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. Computers - Other Applications    8. Computer modelling & simulation   

Reviews (7)

Good software engineering book
Well, needless to say, Eberly rocks. This is a great book on game engine architecture - even though it's less mathematically intensive than Eberly's other books (which, for many, is a good thing), it has a very good coverage of software engineering aspects of game engines, as it explains in detail how (and why) the WildMagic engine is organized. Do keep in mnid, though, that the book's purpose is not teacing how to develop games or algorithms for that - it's a software engineering book, and a good one at that.

Acceptable book with some significant failings
This is an acceptable introductory book for the architecture of an AAA-quality game engine, under the consideration that it has so little competition.
3d Game Engine Architecture
The title says everything, this book treats most aspects concerning game engine design architecture and programming. Although not focusing in the next generation graphics architectures and shaders, it does provide an excellent basis for core engine andunderlying graphics architecture design. General programming topics such as memory layout and shared object references are also discussed. A great book for begginers and a nice reading for professionals. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Games    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Design    4. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    5. Computer games    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Computers - Games    9. Programming    10. Three-dimensional display systems    11. Computer graphics software    12. Computers / Computer Graphics / Game Programming   

Reviews (15)

A good book that doesn't go quite far enough
If you're like me, new to texturing with a bit of Photoshop experience and not much of an artist, you'll appreciate how this book starts slowly and builds to more and more interesting and challenging projects. You'll be surprised and pleased at what Franson can guide you into doing with so little effort on your part. You'll be pleased at finally using parts of Photoshop that you've looked at, but never tried. I think this is a great book to get you started texturing and producing some great results fast.
Dissapointment
You better know photoshop before you buy this book,because the author doesn't tell you were some of selections are in photoshop. Plus after I managed to make some of the textures which did look good in photoshop, they looked terrible in Maya7 when I rendered the scene. Some of the textures I can not complete because I dont know photoshop that well and I have no idea what the author is talking about or were the selections are that I need to use...

Texturing
I bought this book primarily to get information on texturing for 3D software projects. A lot of it is done in photoshop, so if you don't have that program (or maybe Corel Draw, or something similiar) I am not sure how useful it can be.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    3. Computer Graphics - General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Computer games    8. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General   

Reviews (6)

Meh... Next.
Nobody can deny that Mr. Rodney knows how color management works in Photoshop better than most people, but unfortunately, knowledge of a subject doesn't make you a good writer. I find the bulk of Mr. Rodney's ramblings (both those published on his website-that-time-forgot and posted to various discussion groups and mailing lists) to teeter on the verge of complete unreadability most of the time, and while my hopes were high that a good editor might tame his curious linguistic proclivities here, they were quickly dashed upon skimming through the text. What's worse, the illustrations and photos in every single copy of this book I've ever seen have suffered from severe magenta color casts, leading one to wonder why the author and his publishing company failed to practice what they preached in bringing this title to the public. If you didn't know who Andrew Rodney was to begin with, you'd likely think him full of beans based on the appearance of the plates in this volume. After all, why should readers believe consistent, predictable color in print to be a realistically attainable goal when even the guy who wrote the book on the subject can't seem to achieve it?
The best tutorial introduction to CMS.
Get Andrew Rodney's book, and a copy of Real World Color Management, and you'll have the best existing CMS tutorial and thethe best reference text.
Real world techniques to tackle color management
Thanks Andrew Rodney, I just received your new book and I just couldn't wait to thank you for having made all this knowledge available to us.This book will be a milestone on the subject of color management as it dares to go into the nitty-gritty details of "how to make it work in real life".
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Subjects:  1. Adobe Photoshop    2. Adobe Photoshop (Computer software)    3. Computer Bks - Other Applications    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer Graphics - Design    6. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    7. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    8. Computer graphics    9. Computers    10. Computers - Other Applications    11. General    12. Techniques - Color    13. Cinematography, television camerawork    14. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Reviews (11)

Half-life - More please
This book reveals what goes on behind-the-scenes at Valve and how the PC / Console game - Half-Life and Half-Life 2 has developed over time.
Great book, but with limited appeal.
As the review below states this book isn't a behind-the-scenes book or a chronicle of the development of the game nor is it a book discussing the technological merits of Half Life 2 or the Source Engine. Although, it does contain elements of all of the afformentioned parts, it is in the end an art book, but a great one at that with great color, a sturdy build, and a clean uncluttered design.
Great pictures, not much else
I guess I was looking for more of the details behind the making of Half-life 2, not just tons of concept art.The artwork is very nicely presented in rich glossy color, but the behind the scenes content isn't there.If you want a better book for looking behind the scenes of a computer game, get the Doom 3 Making Of book instead. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. Computers - Games    3. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    4. Historic Preservation    5. Video & Electronic - First-Person Combat Games    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Games / Video & Electronic   

Reviews (4)

Great Pinball book with high quality pictures
You can't go wrong picking this one up. A must for any pinball enthusiast or beginner.

A Must Have For A Pinhead
This is a wonderful work of Pinball Book Art.I checked out this book from my local library and it is a must have.The book is heavy and very well made.The photos are very detailed as well.The book takes a certain aspect of the game such as scoring and breaks that parts of the game down, while the next chapter may focus on pinball sound.The book has so much information in it about history, features, and rare pinball features.A book of this size is bound to have a few mistakes and this book has a few small mistakes, but those are very minor and this is a very detailed work and there is no way one man can know it all about pinball.If you enjoy the game of pinball, you need to check out this book.It will not show you how to repair or maintain the game, its focus is history about the game and its evolution over time.I hope you enjoy this book and also keep enjoying playing the wonderful game of pinball.

Casi igual que jugar una partida de pinball
Muy buen libro sobre pinball. He recordado aquellos pinballs con los que empez� a jugar a principio de los 70. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Antiques/Collectibles    2. Board    3. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    4. Pinball machines    5. Video & Electronic - General    6. Antiques & collectables: toys, games & models    7. History of specific subjects   

Reviews (5)

Top of the line!
The book I got was in excellent condition, and when I looked through it. Wow! I was blown away. It's extraordinary. Such and incredible piece of art! There is so much to learn from the artists in it, and it'll be such a great inspiration. One of the best books I have ever bought!

quick and painless
Actually I had bought the first concept book from blizzard and loved it. And when I found that it was available through amazon I was relieved becuase it was part of limited edition package. But anyhow the delievery was quick and I am pleased with the art. Alot to look at and get inspired from.

Good stuff
I've always been impressed with the artwork with Warcraft, so books like these are always a treat. Although this one didn't have as much artwork as the first artbook the released "the Art of Warcraft", it still made an impact. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Art & Art Instruction    2. Games    3. Games/Puzzles    4. General    5. Video & Electronic - General    6. Computer games    7. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General    8. Games / Video & Electronic   

Reviews (7)

Photoshop CS2 Bible - Professional Edition Book Review

Great photos and graphics, sage advice.
The features you need, the advice you want, the examples you'll refer to again and again: that's what you'll find in this book. The experience and insights that the authors bring to this book have made it one of my favorites among computer books in general and my total favorite among Photoshop books. I recommend this edition of the Bible to anyone who has already used most of the basic features and wants some expert advice to move them on to the next level. The "Professional" tag is appropriate, but you don't need to be an expert to use the book: that's where it takes you. Don't expect this book to baby you and for every single button and dialog box to be covered, because this is a book focused on the features you use for more advanced projects, and the work that pushes the edge of the design envelope. If you're looking for coverage of everything in the Photoshop menus and tools, get the main CS2 Bible, the one that's like 1500 pages. If you want to learn specific stuff to take your work to the next level, the Professional Edition is the one you want.

Very detailed...
Good book giving the details on all the CS 2's new features. Two thumbs up! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer Graphics - Photoshop    5. Computers    6. Computers - Other Applications    7. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    8. Photoshop   

Reviews (2)

It covers a lot of material
This book covers a lot of different aspects of the Illustrator program.The only thing I didn't like about it was the texture of the paper it was printed on.

Another great self-trainer
I like the 'Bible' series of technology books from Wiley, and I've got quite a collection of them at this point.I am currently updating my knowledge of Illustrator with this book, covering CS2.I can't cover every chapter, but let me summarize with a list:
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computers    5. Computers - Other Applications    6. Biblical concordances & commentaries    7. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design   

Reviews (19)

Must have!!!
As mentioned above, this is THE book for AI. It uses plain language and explains different topics using real life examples. If you need/want to learn AI programming, this should be the first book of your collection.

really good intro book for neural nets and GAs
Although other reviewers have already pointed out everything positive about this book, I felt I also had to praise it because it's so good. It's a great introduction to neural networks and genetic algorithms. By the way the author should be congratulated for his "never include any code that you don't throughly explain" philosophy. Although it's over 400 pages because of this philosophy, you can skim/skip around 150 of them if you know some win32 programming and basic high school math/physics. The book is so concise and easy to understand that I went through it in a night and came up having a firm idea about the subject. There are also a lot of good ideas to try out throughout the book(i.e. tinkering with the source included etc.)
definitely easy
You know when a subject is finally becoming stable when simple books like this come out and explain in layman's terms. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Artificial intelligence    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    5. Computer games    6. Computers    7. Computers - Languages / Programming    8. Programming    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Video & Electronic - General    11. Computer Programming    12. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General   

Reviews (55)

Too much Conversation Text & Less photos
this book always showed up while i search about "Games History". no inside sample. too much text. i prefer more photos

When a journalist attempts to be a historian...
This has been the third book on history of video games I have read. This time, the author or, more probably, the editor went far calling this the "ultimate" history of such an underestimated field of culture as videogames are. If I buy a book allegedly "Ultimate" in anything, I definitely have to have high expectations. And this is what I expected.
The Best "History" Book Ever
Since before videogames to the release of the X-box, the Ulitimate History of videogames tells it all. A book fit for a classroom however it doesn't read like a boring textbook. There are hundrededs of fun facts and interesting stories about the people and the companies involved in the making of a multibillion dollar industry. The book is also filled with interesting quotes from the author's interviews with the people he talks about. If you've ever wanted to know how it happened or just wanted to relive it, the Ulitimate history of Videogames is for you. Well worth the price. The first time i started reading it, i didn't want to put it down. An exellent book, if you are a fan of videogames, interested in pop culture, or just a history buff this book is for you.
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Subjects:  1. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    2. Games/Puzzles    3. History    4. Popular Culture - General    5. Social Science    6. Video & Electronic - General    7. Video games    8. Computer games    9. Social Science / Popular Culture   

Reviews (11)

Coreldraw 12:The Official Guide
I selected this book after reading reviews on Amazon.com.I found the book an excellent supplement to the lynda.com training I purchased for the same program.It helped to fill in the gaps and expand upon the online training.I cannot compare it to the Coreldraw 12 unleashed cd since I have not viewed it, but I am pleased with my purchase.I enjoyed the book from start to end and that says a lot for a discriminating reader of technical publications.Because I use coreldraw 12 primarily to construct business cards, I do wish the book would have addressed color matching.However, there are other sources on this subject on the net.Enough said - great book!

Excellent resource for CorelDraw 12
This is an extremely comprehensive guide that is packed full of clear illustrations. I consider the volume to be very readable and useful for a range of users, i.e., users new to CorelDraw or intermediate level and above. No wonder they call it the "Only Authorized Reference on CorelDraw 12"!

bad paradigm
If you're looking for a book to get you up and running with CorelDraw 12, this ain't it.This book uses the "Start with the File Menu..." paradigm. The first several chapters are taken up with mind numbingly endless descriptions of menus and tools and options, how to save files (duh) and discussions of features, the function of which the novice user has no clue. You don't actually get to draw anything until way into the second section of the book. (Note that I said Section, not Chapter). Even then, the explanations are so obtuse and convoluted that it is almost impossible for anyone without a vector based application background to figure out what's going on.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Graphics - Design    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer graphics    5. Computers    6. Computers - Desktop Publishing    7. CorelDRAW!    8. Desktop Publishing    9. Desktop Publishing - General    10. Microcomputer Graphics    11. Computers / Computer Graphics / Design    12. Corel Draw   

Subjects:  1. Computer Games    2. Games    3. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    4. Games/Puzzles    5. Video & Electronic - General    6. Games / Video & Electronic   

Subjects:  1. Games    2. Games / Gamebooks / Crosswords    3. Games/Puzzles    4. Video & Electronic - General    5. Video & Electronic - Sony Playstation    6. Games / Video & Electronic   

Editorial Review

This is an extremely literate and somewhat scholarly look at the past, present, and future of the emerging art form of interactive narrative, where storytelling, visual imagery, and reader interaction meet. With an abundance of illustrations, including a comic strip that runs timeline-style along the bottom of each page, and a corner flipbook, Read more

Reviews (17)

Beautiful but no holy grail
Pause & Effect is a beautiful book. Definitely the most visual work on the subject of interactive narrative I have ever encountered. From its almost baroque design it immediately becomes clear that Meadows has a multidisciplinary background that among other things has seen him working as a game-designer, photographer, portrait painter and writer. Clearly, this multifaceted approach is the book biggest asset, as Meadows, rightly so, positions interactive narrative on the intersection of literature, visual art and interaction design. In his view, a successful interactive narrative finds a way to transfer some of the traditional control of the author over the story to the reader who must be able to "affect, choose or change the plot". Control over the perspective and time are important to evolve normal stories with its fixed chains of cause and effect, to a new level. And with a new underlying temporal structure of 'pause and effect'.
a great introduction to the subject
This is a beautiful book, more at place on a coffee table than a bookcase. It benefits not only from its many full-color photos, graphic reproductions, and illustrations, but also from the freedom Meadows had to lay out these images with the text on the page, creating effects more typically seen on complex web pages than in traditional print books. From the Use-Case Scenario flow charts to the flipbook narrative that appears in the upper corners of the book and the related comic cell narrative that runs five panels to a page along the bottom of the book, Meadows is both telling us how interactive narrative "combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity" and showing us how these insights can be implemented in print.
students love this book
I've used this book to teach interative narrative to both media arts and computer science students.It clearly (and dynamically) covers issues such as narrative, point of view, interactivity, and design in a way that students find compelling.By threading these issues throughout the book, Meadows reinforces how all are intertwined and equally important.My students love it, I suspect, because of the high image to text ratio... but the style gets them to see and think differently.Students are inspired by both the book's layout and the interviews with media artists.This book pushes them both to understand the multiple variables that go into creating interactivity and to take creative risks.You couldn't find a better text. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Assemblage Art    2. Computer - Internet    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computer Graphics - General    5. Computer art    6. Computer graphics    7. Computers    8. Interactive art    9. Interactive multimedia    10. Internet - General    11. Internet - Web Site Design    12. Narrative art    13. Computer Communications & Networking    14. Computers / Computer Graphics / Game Programming    15. Publishing on the Internet   

Editorial Review

Aimed at the game developer or student/hobbyist interested in physics,