Prima or Brady?

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deadhead272003

CAG Veteran
I 've always gone to "GameFaqs" to get my game guides cause they are free and and you usually can find one that is a really good guide.

As far as Brady and Prima guides go - who on average makes the better game guide with respect to overall coverage of the game - endings - easter eggs and so on?
 
Like you, if I need a guide I tend to check online. But back in the day when I actually bought guide books I always went with Versus Books. They put out the highest quality guides I've ever seen. Has anyone else heard of them?
 
I typically prefer Prima, but I find that the quality of both varies. I've started looking at the guides in depth before buying them. Key things to look for:
* depth of coverage in terms of secret items (pictures, or just quick descriptions)
* maps (are they clear and are complex areas given their own maps)
* character coverage (stats, upgrades, etc.)
 
As the OP stated, when I need a guide/FAQ/walk through of a game I tend to go online and gamefaqs to check for them.

In the rare occurence where I buy a guide full price (not a penny guide), I tend to prefer Brady Guides a little bit more than Prima guides since they seem to go more in depth into the RPGs that they write about. Prima guides are also good, but the quality of the printing and binding varies greatly with them and their guides tend to fall apart.

But as others have stated, I have found that the quality of both companies tends to vary very much depending on the type of game and the game itself.

My favorite guides though, are the Versus Books from back in the day and currently the Double Jump Books. Versus Books were just the best but too bad they went out of business and I haven't seen a bad Double Jump book yet.
 
I like Brady guides more because they usually have really nice cover materials (seriously, that's the only reason for me to like Brady more). I also like Versus books when they ran a nice series of guides from DMC to Neverwinter Nights to Metroid Prime (all with bonus posters). I usually can't really tell which guide is written better or have better screenshots, since I never compared them. But I can tell you that Official Nintendo Guides are the worst POS I've ever read.

A lot of times I just go on IGN for their strategy guides.
 
brady has better quality in cover and pics
but prima has better content, more useful
also depends on the game
like the ninja gaiden prima guide sux

nintendo guides seem to be the worst though, not enough description sometimes
 
neither. I flip through them a lot, but they just don't seem like they say anything that I couldn't easily find out on my own.

but I really like Double Jump guides-- the Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne guide is about 400 pages, full color and a total LIFESAVER! My only complaint is that the ink comes off on my fingers :whistle2:\
 
[quote name='Chiba']Like you, if I need a guide I tend to check online. But back in the day when I actually bought guide books I always went with Versus Books. They put out the highest quality guides I've ever seen. Has anyone else heard of them?[/QUOTE]

yep, Versus books are awsome... especially for fighting games. Their guide for Tekken 3 (arcade version) was very very dery deep with loads of info and always sold for $10, $5 cheaper than the competition.

I usually use online guides, but the only times I pick up strategy guides are for 3d fighting games since most of the guides have alot of good input that can improve your skills as well as save you a ton of time on practicing.
 
You just missed a sale at Toys r us.. they had all guide 60 percent off which brought them down to 10 bucks each
 
[quote name='RelentlessRolento']yep, Versus books are awsome... especially for fighting games. Their guide for Tekken 3 (arcade version) was very very dery deep with loads of info and always sold for $10, $5 cheaper than the competition.

I usually use online guides, but the only times I pick up strategy guides are for 3d fighting games since most of the guides have alot of good input that can improve your skills as well as save you a ton of time on practicing.[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty much the same way. The only guides I actually open and read are for fighting games though once in a while I'll pick up a guide for it's collectibility (ie: Mario Galaxy 1&2 CE, Dragon Quest IX, etc.) and leave it sealed. So my experience with guides is pretty limited.

That said, the two guides I've been most impressed with are both Brady Guides: UMVC3 and Soul Calibur V. These are both massive books with no filler and AMAZING detail including even frame data.

On the other hand I have a Prima MK9 guide that I wish I never spent good money on. It's missing a lot of stuff, looks amateurish next to the Brady Guides and even has a lot of wrong info in it (wrong inputs for moves and fatalities). The comparison feels like Gamepro compared to EGM, back when EGM was actually good and didn't read like a millenial journalist students bad blog like it has for the last couple of years.
 
Brady been crap on RPG guides. Dragon Quest VIII and Tales of Vesperia guide are a complete joke. The Vesperia guide doesn't have any area maps
 
I usually don't get guides for myself, but my son loves to look through them for the games he enjoys. You can get better and more information at Gamefaqs, but he likes it more in a nicely illustrated book. Brady tends to have some nice frills, like the Skylanders Giants one has stickers included and they also hold together well, because kids can be rough on them.

Prima had a really nice one for Kirby's Epic Yarn, it was spiral bound and had really high quality pages. I got that one for free with the game back when it came out and it still looks brand new even though it has been heavily looked through by my son.
 
Brady tends to do all the RPGs and Prima all the action games (read: HOW YOU SHOOT?), so I've generally only had Brady guides to compare. I miss Versus guides; they were top shelf.
 
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