Review: The Book of Games

GameXplore, the first company to systematically describe, compare, and categorize the content and challenges of interactive games, brings you The Book of Games. It is a hard back glossy book made especially for gamers. With 450 pages, it is a huge reference to consoles on the market today and PC games. It is astonishing the amount of information that is to be found, when you delve deeper into this book. It covers Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 2, Sony Playstation 3, Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) and Windows PC. Each one of these has their own pages covering the features, capabilities, design factors, multimedia and specifications. Laid out with glossy images, that are eye catching. It also covers the hardware of the consoles and PC. The one that is especially interesting is the information on the Nintendo Wii.

A lot of research is done into games and violence and the book covers this too, with an informative chapter about how studies have been carried out to try and link games to violence. The future of video games goes into detail about what we could expect from video games from the next generation. "The world of video games is an evolving organism, much like a spore, where you start off in a tide pool and fight other creatures to survive, thrive, and develop into something that will rule the world some day" is how the chapter starts off and very true too. It then goes on to explain about hand held gaming, games that get you off that couch, reality, educational and socially conscious games. Game Heroes are everyone's favourites whether you are 3 or 63, there is always one hero in a game you love, being Sonic, Mario or maybe Lara Croft and this chapter is very interesting. It gives you the history and information of the heroes in the gaming world.

150 different games (34 Xbox 360 and 54 Xbox, doubled up if they are the same game but on a different format) from all the formats I mentioned are included, all with their own double pages. Information such as a game summary, challenges- the author gives you a challenge to do with the game, game facts- including the publisher, developer, first released date, game genre, cinematic genre, time period the game is set in, complexity, US and EU ratings, main features, game world size, play time, your role, moral, replay value, whether it is multiplayer, online, how much reading is involved and similar games is included for all 150 games. The other page is full with screenshots and laid out very well. Motorbike fanatics would be interested that it does cover Tourist Trophy, but not MotoGP. The games are categorised by genre and each genre chapter starts off with an explanation of the genre, with history, examples and what it tests in relation to skills. The genres covered are Action, Adventure, Entertainment, Racing, RPG (Role Playing Games), Simulation, Sports and Stragedy. Perhaps one of the most confusing genres is that of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing games) and the chapter on MMORPGs does explain this rather well. Hitting on games such as WOW (World of Warcraft) and the upcoming Warhammer Online. For example did you know WOW has attracted over six million players? or that Dark Age of Camelot can hold more than two hundred and fifty players, in real-time battles?

The making of Age of Conan is another interesting chapter, and they interview the developers, Funcom, who are also behind games like Dreamfull The Longest Journey and Anarchy Online, about the development of Conan. The best of 2006, takes you through 2006 covering the highlights of the year plus E3. Games are frequently being made into movies, for example Doom 3 and Lara Croft-Tomb raider and the book tells you how these came around from the games, explaining the history of both game and movie. There is an extensive index at the back of the book that arranges the games, not only in alphabetical order, but in many different ways as well. It lists them in platform, PEGI and ESRB ratings (especially useful to parents). Also near the back of the book you can find a glossary. Very much like an encyclopaedia it lists the terms used in the book and gaming world and explains what they mean. So now when someone mentions XGA, you will know exactly what it is and what it means.

The thing that surprises me is that the book is supposed to cover major games on all games currently on the market, but it omits games like Forza Motorsport, MotoGp series, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (although it does cover Liberty City Stories), StarCraft, Myst, Final Fantasy, Rainbow Six or Splinter Cell. Gears of War doesn't get a mention either. The book seems to be have written from someone who is more a PC person than a console gamer; this is not necessarily a bad thing though. I would have also liked to see a chapter on Xbox Live, as this along with the PC online side is a revolution in gaming and deserves to be in a book like that. The Book of Games is worth a purchase and I would defiantly recommend it, and it is something that you can pick up and read between gaming. It is an excellent reference to gaming terms and is very well presented and beautifully illustrated. Just the right size too to pick up and read. Parents would also find this book very useful when deciding what game to buy their child. I look forward to volume two, which they plan to publish in November 2007, and another one each year after. If you would like to suggest games or articles they could add to future volumes, please drop them a post in their forums.. More information can also be found on their website. The Book of Games can be bought from these stores retailing at �20.99.