Support NeoGAF

[Ceb]

What about the DVD-cases? It feels very cheap to me.
Especially GCN-games. All that empty darkness surrounding the tiny disc.
The cases take up too much space compared to the jewel-cases of last gen.
Also, you never get to see beautiful art behind transparent plastic these days. Only the
Metal Gear Solids and a few special edition games have this.

On the front of the case you now have all these logos and icons that used to be relegated to the back. On Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow I count 4 ugly logos cluttering up the artwork. I'm not including the Konami, DS and Nintendo logos. The back is a total mess with double the amount.

When you start a game you have to go through several screens of useless information not relating to the actual game.

When publishers expect people to pay more for games this gen, I say go to hell.
Start providing actual content to go along with the game-experience. I'm never going to pay for just virtual data ever.
I want an actual item with some real value that I can clean, shine, sort and build forts with. Geez I wonder why people pirate games..

Silent Hill 2 PAL is easily my all-time favorite in terms of overall packaging.

Unlimited SaGa PAL is also gorgeous, but too bad it's a shite game.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Capcom and EA are the worst when it comes to manuals, at least here in the states. They're almost always in black & white, and contain little information or anything of interest.

Wait...what? Every Capcom game I own has a manual that is in full color and has tons of character bios, enemy listings, weapons, etc...

EA on the other hand still sucks ass.

 

[Sanjuro]

Yeah open up any EA published manual of the last few years and be amazed by the whole 4 pages of black and white content.

 

[FlyinJ]

Yeah open up any EA published manual of the last few years and be amazed by the whole 4 pages of black and white content.

They're actually 6 pages, they needed an extra 2 pages so that the disclaimers, epilepsy and piracy warnings could be explained more fully than the 3 pages they already took up.

 

[JoDark]

Microsoft has great manuals. Just look at PGR3, Kameo, and PDZ. Conker was awesome, Age 3 is excellent.

I HATE the crappy few page b/w bs that some publishers put out now. Lazy cheap ass shit, especially if the damn game is $60.... chEAp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kewk]

I hate manuals. If it were up to me I would do away with them in favor of having all information that would have gone in the manual to be appropriately placed in game.

 

[Eel O'Brian]

For a crap game, Black Hawk Down had an excellent manual. Part military and weapon history, clear and easy to understand. Full color photographs of weapons, etc. I liked that manual much more than the game.

 

[teepo]

no one has mentioned the gta games? i guess the people who care about manuals and such don't even play those games.

 

[Tarazet]

Quality game manuals seem to be a dying art these days.

Back in the late 80's, early 90's, alot of PC games had bloody magnificent manuals.

The Microprose range of PC flight simulators (F117A Stealth Fighter, Falcon, F15 Strike Eagle etc)particularly stand out for me, those things were bloody tomes that were basically technical manuals for the planes.

They also had chapters on military rules of engagement etc, flight log books etc... they made the game such a rewarding package all round.

These days you are lucky to get a PDF manual on the disc. And I frigging hate those things.

I still have a complete F-117A, so I know exactly what you mean. I took everything out to photograph it and it covered my entire bed.

 

[Jive Turkey]

If it were up to me I would do away with them in favor of having all information that would have gone in the manual to be appropriately placed in game.

Um...It usually is...

 

[Sea-Dragon]

Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 - They're still the only game manuals I've brought with me to a restaurant to read in lieu of an actual "booook". An hour at Denny's with some cheese fries and the Fallout manuals is a recipe for serious cholesterol and serious fun.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

The most recent manual I liked was from We Love Katamari.

One of the worst I've seen was for Phantasy Star Online for XBOX. "Please go online and download the PDF!"

 

[bill0527]

I always thought that Tecmo made nice manuals. They're pretty informative and one of the few companies still producing full-color game manuals.

 

[Teknopathetic]

Civ IV's Manual is pretty meaty. Same with Age of Empires III.

 

[_PsiFire_]

Gabriel Knight 1 & 3 comics FTW.

 

[Illuminati]

Civ IV's Manual is pretty meaty. Same with Age of Empires III.

You think that is meaty, the Baulder's Gate II manual is metal spiral bound to hold the damn thing together. Reminds me of a cook book.

 

[Teknopathetic]

So is the Civ IV manual. The BGII manual is slightly larger, though. NWN's is larger too.

 

[BocoDragon]

I gotta say.... Nintendo's manuals of old are the only ones I pine for..... except they're still doing it. Every title I buy has colorful pages, neat story tidbits..... the problem is, when you're 21, game manuals are far less enjoyable than they once were

 

[Illuminati]

Now that I think back on it, some of the old school adventure games had some of the best manuals. Nothing beats this, I think it came with Return to Zork so it should count:

Online form here: http://jzip.sourceforge.net/frobozz/

 

[Littleberu]

Arcanum manual is pretty awesome, too.

 

[Troidal]

Yeah it really sucks when publishers turn manuals into B&W just to cut back a few cents on printing. Shows you how much they care about presentation.

Japan on the other hand...no complaints there. They even have the luxury of doing limited edition boxsets

 

[Vormund]

Best manual ever.

That's a classic. :lol

 

[Emotions]

Sega manuals always suck, Nintendo, Capcom,
Namco and Atlus ones are my fav.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Wait...what? Every Capcom game I own has a manual that is in full color and has tons of character bios, enemy listings, weapons, etc...

EA on the other hand still sucks ass.

The PS2 ones certainly are lacking, it doesn't matter if it's their big budget franchises of Onimusha, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, to the Street Fighters, it's just black and white cheapness all around.

 

[Keru_Shiri]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the original FF1's manual, which was not only full-colored, larger than the standard NES booklet, and gave detailed instructions for gameplay. But also included tips for team building, strategies for combat, and a walkthrough for lighting the first two orbs.