The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim: Official Game Guide, Collector's Edition

***Edit: After several hours with the guide, I can officially declare the Collector's Ed. Strategy Guide for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: One of the greatest books ever written.First off, the text, the pictures, everything, feels... stamped. You can FEEL each letter, in every sentence, the paper, feels... rough... real... natural. They're are several screenshots with every single side quest, what the surrounding area looks like, what the NPC you need to talk to looks like.And the interactive map? Don't get me started, it has every single solitary nook and cranny of every spot in Skyrim laid out.Oh what about the Giant poster map that comes in the back of the Guide Giovanni? Does it HAVE EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE POINT OF INTREST ON IT LIKE THE EXPLORER PERK IN FALLOUT? - YES!But what about the armor locations? Does it tell me where? Better yet, it tells you who/what/when/where/how/why and how much to acquire/forge every armor in the game.Let me put it this way, I will be doing a video tomorrow which will contain a proper look at the guide. It will be on my youtube channel GFWScarface.Table of contents is 4 pages long, the index is something like 20pgs long.If David Hodgson reads this, I am stupified at how much time and effort you took into putting this Tome together.I read that it took you and a team of appx. a dozen+ people OVER 2,000+ hours to make the collector's guide.Assuming you worked 8hrs a day, thats roughly 250 DAYS, give or take how many hours you worked on it per day.Did I mention the Holy Bible style Foot Long Ribbon page makers? And that there's two of them? And they are black?I HIGHLY RECOMMENED THAT ANYONE WHO BUYS THIS GUIDE ACQUIRE A PAIR OF GLOVES PREFERABLY MEDICAL/LATEX FOR THE COVER LEAVES FINGERPRINTS BADLY (you skin exfoliates oil naturally, no matter how many times you wash your hands it will come back, TRUST ME, I've wiped my guide down about 10x already, now I ONLY touch it when I have a pair of medical gloves on [you know like in the Emergency room?]}BUY THIS GUIDE!*Initial unboxing review:As of the past week and of this writing (11/13/11) this guide is no longer available for purchase from several online retailers including Amazon. I fournately pre-ordered mine back in July for I knew that a near 700 page guide was hard to make and with David Hodgson and the team at Prima spending over 2,000+ hours on the collector's guide, it was special.Now first thing anyone playing Skyrim should know: Explore.The main questline and all the side quests (ALOT OF SIDE QUESTS, with detail on them too) are in here, but also, my favorite part: Locations of all armor/weapons/collectibles and a online interactive map that is downloaded with a unique one time code.Now of course there is much more, and I haven't read every single page, but I will tell you this: the Skyrim Collector's Guide is by and large; The best strategy guide for an RPG (close tie with the Dark Souls guide) ever.The binding is very good, I have the Battlefield 3 guide, and it's about 330 pages (not even HALF the size of this guide) and the binding is below par, you can look and tell that if you laid it down, open on a page for too long it would begin to tear.Not so with this Skyrim Coll. guide. Plus the hardcover art is VERY nice.What more is there to say? If you can even FIND one of these guides (for less than $40 that is, anymore and they are price gouging, which any seller will since it is sold out everywhere) buy it, because my local gamestop, walmart and barnes and noble are all sold out and CANNOT get anymore in from the publisher (Prima) so it looks like we have ourselves a genuine coll. edition.

As you all may know, Skyrim is one of the best RPG games ever made (My opinion) and for one of the best RPG games ever made it needs a strategy guide to complement it and this guide has it all, from choosing the type of character you will enjoy most when playing this game, to finding all treasures scattered throughout Skyrim, to just completing the main quests. They have step by step instructions on everything, literally! It's such a detailed guide that I would say it's the best strategy guide I have bought and for 16 bucks.. it's so worth it!Character Selection:Choosing your character is probably the most important thing in the game reason being, you must choose a character that fits you and your style of fighting. This guide shows you everything you need to know to choose the perfect character. It describes all the attributes (e.g. Destruction, Restoration, Alchemy, etc.) so you know what to increase and what not to increase upon leveling. It also gives you advice on which "follower" would be best suited for you, that is if you desire one of course.All Quests:If you are ever stuck in a side quest or one of the main quests for a guild or something this guide shows you what is to be expected on that quest so you can prepare yourself. It doesn't say what there is to loot but it says if there is treasure worth getting. On major quests it informs you of special weapons for example, Chillrend. Yes it's back.Basically, this guide is amazing. You have to see for yourself, trust me and get it because it's so worth it!

I picked up the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim but quickly found myself lost in the game. I thought picking up this guide might aid in my gaming and help keep track of the items and missions.This Game guide is a hard cover and is built to last which is a good thing. The game is so large you will constantly be referencing to this book. Soft-back game guides have a tendency to have pages come loose from the glue that attaches them to the spine which I feel will not be an issue here.The content of the game guide is incredible! It is mentioned that the company ,Prima, took over 2,000 hours to complete and it shows!You have a walk through on the main quest, side quest, information on how to beat the enemies, locations for items as well as information on items, weapons, and armor.PROS:++ Hard Cover and built to last++ Detailed and very informativeCONS:++ Included map is glued and smallCONCLUSIONThis guide is a must for anyone that is playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim let it be a fan of the series who wants every task completed or someone that is new and needs assistance.