Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition

There are a couple of misprints/errors here and there, but overall this is a must-have for any gamer. The amount of content is unbelievable for the price you pay. Whether you only played Super Mario as a kid, or spend hours a day on WoW, you'll love how much this book has to offer...

Guinness World Records Gamers Edition marks Guinness's first romp into the gaming culture. The gaming culture is bigger than it's ever been before. For the casual gamer, this book is like a starter kit to getting you into the gaming scene. There's a lot of good information scattered throughout the book. However, for gaming aficionados, there's not a lot of stuff here that you probably don't know. Just the same, it's not a bad book. By the looks of the Guinness World Records, you'd probably think right out that this was a book for the younger gamers. The page layout and design is similar to those World Almanac for Kids books that became popular among the youth. While this may bother a few other gamers, it does show that the book is very inviting. It begins with a lengthy introduction chapter. This will show some of the highlights of 2007, including talking about some of the heavy hitting games like Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Again, though, if you're big on the gaming scene and you keep up with the news, this is nothing new to you. Even a lot of what they mention is stuff that has been hammered into most gamers head time and time again. After the introduction, there is a history of gaming. This showcases everything from the Magnavox Odyssey all the way up to the current generation involving the XBOX360, Playstation 3 and Wii. Afterwards, it goes into talking about some of the more mainstream consoles on an individual basis starting with the Nintendo 64 and Gamcube and ending with PC gaming. This section may have better had the consoles been talked about in the chronological order they were released. It is, after all, a history section. At least for all the hardware it gives you all the specs and a few factoids and some trivia concerning each console. These sections are also accompanied by crystal clear screenshots. At the end of the hardware history section there is a list of the top 5 bestselling games on each console. After all this is over with, we finally get into some of the records and trivia on some of the biggest selling gaming franchises in some of the industries most popular genres. In the Record Breaking Games section is where the book can quickly become redundant for long time gamers, but a treat for newcomers to the gaming scene. It talks of some of the most popular games in the industry such as Halo, The Legend of Zelda, Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario Bros and Sonic as well as several other franchises that have made a huge impact in the gaming industry. Each section presents a few factoids to the series. Telling you things like whether or not it was the fastest selling in the series, the number of copies the bestselling in the series, etc. Perhaps the most interesting is when it shows you speed record completions for certain games. And despite all that, it isn't quite enough for some of these franchises. They only get two pages a piece. However, there are some interesting f

My son loves this book, if you are a Guinness Book fan, then you'll love this one.

My name is Doug Parsons, and I'm an official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, so I felt the need to address some of the comments listed on this page. The Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008 was compiled by industry insiders who are experts in their field. All records and facts have been carefully researched and have been found to be up to Guinness World Records' rigorous standards. While any book of this scope is bound to contain a few grammatical or spelling oversights, all of the facts, statistics, and information within the book are certified to be true at the time of printing. [...] As Guinness World Records is the global arbiter for official record keeping, and I am an adjudicator within the organization, I felt the need to address some of the concerns. Please be assured that Guinness World Records takes any comment, positive or negative, about our products seriously, and use them to ensure that future books will be filled with even more records and facts that our readers will enjoy.

The back cover sums it all up, "A Gamers Bible". Great job by Guinness, all their writers, experts, photographers, and of course Twin Galaxies and all their staff, in which made this book possible. For a price way less than a video game itself, I cannot see any reason whatsoever NOT to own this book. My only negative is now this will take away my "video playing time".