Go over to your set of games and open them up and check the manuals, see which ones are in full colour, which have more than five pages, which include gamelore and which include a notes section at the back. I've always felt you can tell how much a dev cares about their game by the effort they place in their manual, if it's four pages of toilet paper like Ubisoft and Activision games then the first impression you get of the game isn't a positive one. Alot of people here may not remember it but manuals used to be semi novels of content and include all the information about the in-game history along with some related information for real life, such as red orchestra teaching you about submarines or Age of Empires teaching you history. Spending those moments reading the manual on the toilet or browsing it while the game installs are some of the best ways to get you in the mood of the game before it starts.

Bethesda does pretty well with their manuals by today's standards, full colour, at least twenty pages, lore related information and pictures but unfortunately there isn't a notes section the one key page which turns the manual from a tutorial to a useful resource people will keep coming back to. It is the cheapest and easiest page to make for a manual so it has always baffled me why so many devs don't include one but beth if you add that nearly blank page you will have a better manual than 90% of the devs today.

As a fun game for everyone else go compare the amount of detail between your manuals from each year and if you have them pay attention to the amount of detail added or removed for sequels. As a starter take a look at the new vegas manual and then the Fallout 3 manual, if you had never heard of the games after reading those manuals which would you think is less polished?

Reading manuals on toilets......good times

agreed. When I was younger, back when I bought Morrowind, I remember that we had a one-hour ride to do before we got home. I just opened the manual, started reading, and then looking at the artwork... I didn't even finish it by the time we got home lol

Yes and forests were also bigger back then. Save the trees. :thumbsup:

About the only thing I do read the manual for.

:thumbsup:

Would like a manual that shows all in CLOSE DETAIL!!!!!! what skills do when you raise them.

Also a list of the perks available

Spells available

etc, etc.

I think the New Vegas manual is pretty decent, but it doesn't include lore or that 'notes' section:

http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/22380/fnv_gfw_manual-10-steam.pdf

Perhaps they want players to discover the lore while playing the game instead of having to read the manual, which most people probably have never seen.

I recently downloaded Daggerfall and was sure impressed by the scope of the game manual (pdf now). Pages and pages of everything you need to learn about the game with dozens of pictures and even a bestiary.

I reallly care about the map though, it's the reason I purchased Morrowind - I saw how large and detailed it was and I had to buy that game.

What I liked about the Morrowind Map was that it was stylized picture of the game world, complete with oversized cities, giving a preview of what each town looked like. I also would have lots of fun consulting my paper map about the locations of Daedric Ruins and then trying to find them in-game.

Biggest Manual I've ever owned (still do) was the Homeworld Historical and Technical Guide, Goddam its a fine manual indeed, nothing comes close.

Baldur's gate and games in that series such as Icewind dale had lengthy manuals - mostly on game mechanics, but they sure were hefty and helpful in character planning - which I like.

Very nice manual, but topped by the Independence War manual and Dynamix's Starsiege lore compendium (which was separate from the already-large manual).

Yes this would be nice.


R.I.P Ensemble Studios.

Also when I got oblivion I was in the city (I live in a small town) and when we were driving home I read the manual over and over. :sadvaultboy:
-------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- / Manual /
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ /////////// /
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------/ ////////////
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ----- --------------

Yeah, Age of Empires had actually blue bindings because their manuals were so big and they had several pages of notes. Stupid Microsoft disbanding Ensemble....

Goddamm Game companies not drowning us in Manuals of epic proportions anymore D:

I always loved reading the game manuals before I played them. I would even go back and read old ones for fun.
I always liked the game manual I got for starcraft...
That was a minor novel, or it was an expanded verson of the manual. It was at least 40 pages...


:thumbsup:

Erm, but th estrategy guides put out much of the info that would have been in the game. Tree savings is thus reduced a bit.


I was going to mention these. Spiral bound none the less :thumbsup:

break

I detest the paphlet style that games now have; examples in the rules help me figure theings out better rather than the just do this. In fact, my first visit to the forums was because I couldn't figure out MW's bartering. I loved reading those manuals; of course I also loved reading the orgiinal DM Guide :blink:

Of course, the cynic in me says that the game company can make more money by liscensing info and having publishing companies pay for the info and then publish it in their strategy guides.

Oh, and for large rule books, try the old Avalon Hill Adv. Squad Leader rules....not computer, but one dang big manual! (AD&D excluded)

Civilization 3 had one of the biggest manuals i can remember... good times... good times...

Seriously i would buy a collectors edition of a game if it included an awesome manual.

rofl, ah yes good times. yeah please no assassins creed: brotherhood size manuals

I love manuals that are fun and informative. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood's manual is one of the tiniest things i've ever seen. It doesnt even have the controls!

I remember Baldurs Gates little side notes from Elminster and .... that Bard....

Ha! Good Fun!

I never looked at the manuals I just play the game and your right AC2 doesn't even have a manual, but they are really just a money grubbing company

Best one yet for me as bathroom material was EliteII - Frontier. Recently destroyed in a water leakage accident, but it was worth a small burial ceremony. 3 books, including one that had a lot of short story fiction in it, plus a fairly extensive map of the closest region in space. Awesome!

Game manual, although not for computer games, I highly suggest getting rulebooks for RPGs even if you don't play them - excellent "toilet material" I.e. Role Master basic I believe was 4 or 5 books (expands to 20-30 books I believe, maybe more by now). One such book covered magic alone and probably around 150 pages.

Don't read manuals too much but it is true that you can tell whether the company cares about the game judging by the size of the manual.

It's mainly been cut back due to cost cuttings along with of coarse attempting to get better ratings from different organizations like Greenpeace I'd figure.

The manuals were nice, mostly for controls and directions along with an overview of some characters and the main story. But lets face it, majority of us read these on portables and while there are many on consoles who read the manual this has been mostly figured by tutorials at the start or the whole manual somewhere in the menu/ menu gives overview of controls and machanics separately.

Thus while nice the manual isn't needed. While "nerds" have grown accustomed to seeing manuals as a tradition fact is they were mostly to get controls along with the legal documentation into your hands. And placing those inside the disk itself is a better option. I've heard of people writing tips/tricks/etc. Into a given notes section of a manual but I don't see the harm in writing it on a blank oiece of paper you might have.

On the other hand I find a manual or a map like those in GTA IV and RDR in a way did help establish a feeling of quality and craftsmenship in the total package no doubt. But at the end of the day aslong as what's on the disk is up to snuff and there's a readable scanned manual/ or an overview of mechanics in the game there's no need for a manual.

And brushing aside "polish" I hope your not calling New Vegas an inferior game by saying the smaller manual with New Vegas might represent a shortcomming.