Fallout New Vegas Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide

The media could not be loaded. The book is pretty thick at 480 pages and packed with information. The type is fairly small, but not cringing small. The difference between this and the normal edition is the hardcover and there are 32 pages of extra content (art and behind the scenes stuff). Mine's numbered 97590, so I guess they printed a lot of collector's edition.The book is split into a few main parts: Training, Main Quest, Side Quest, Tour of Mojave Wasteland and Appendices.The Training section basically talks about the game mechanics and character development. There's an explanation for all the attributes, perks, skills, etc available, all of which I find very useful as I'm new to Fallout. There are also suggested character builds with recommended stats and suggestions on how to spend you Skill points. And of course, there are weapon information and enemy profiles.The walkthrough section is detailed and complete with all the items you can find during any particular quest. To avoid spoilers, just skip the text and follow the quest flowchart which is basically a list the prerequisites required for the quest. Items you can find are marked by big icons.Side quests come in at an overwhelming 150 pages, more than twice the pages for the story quest. Wow. They are as detailed as the main walkthrough. This where you can find cool items, gain extra experience and visit strange places. I might take a year traveling through the desert to find all these side quests without the guide. You can be sure you won't miss any even if you miss talking to any characters.Maps come in a few form and they are very useful. The pullout poster map has 3 maps showing the roads, enemy hangouts and collectibles respectively. In the book, the maps are close-ups of areas and blueprints of buildings with details down to the room level, and the list of collectibles and quests.If you're a collector-type of player in the game, then this book (or the paperback edition) is for you. I'm not too sure the extra 32 pages of art/stuff/hardcover is worth that extra $6 or so - but it's not too much anyway.(There are a few pages from the art pages on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

LOVED:- Art section in the back. Had some great pictures of the posters you see throughout the game.- Detailed fold out map. Printed on both sides, with every collectible, point of interest and easy to read grid format.- Quest TREE! Shows the entire quest line and options. Saves so much time... as oppose to the Borderlands guide which just listed it by mission number and just casually mentioned a quest had a pre-req with no page number to find said pre-req. In the FNV guide, it'll let you know exactly what your actions lead to. Even has some alternatives.- Suggested character builds. I went with a generic build in FO3 since I didn't really know any better. Avoided the mistake this time and went with the suggested power armor and weapons build the guide had. It'll keep me on track for the perks I want late game. There are quite a few suggested build types so you are bound to find one to fit your style of play.- Layout of all towns and shows you what items are to be found in each building.- Has a warning for every game play change between FO3 and FNV.NEEDS WORK:- Towns are sometimes listed without their zone coordinates. This happened to me early one while looking for the detailed map of Goodsprings. Eventually found the coordinates and flipped the appropriate page.- The pro's and con's of each faction could use more detail. There is an intro piece on each but I had to go further into the walk-through to see how exactly siding with one side cut off others, including sub-factions. I went with NRC because... well I'm from California. Wish I had more of an idea of what I was getting into.- Missing at least one of the Free Quests. I ran into one in Goodsprings that was not listed. It was the typical damsel in distress ruse from FO3 so I knew what was coming. Though, it would've been helpful to know there are few items at the end that worth it.DISLIKED:- Length of art section. Wish it had a few more pages.This guide is definitely worth the price and a must have for people who want to experience the entire game. It is high quality, easy to follow, and very informative.