S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Prima Official Game Guide) [Paperback]

Dan Birlew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2007 | Series: Prima Official Game Guide

Memories Gone, Mission Unclear, Area Unknown...Prima Can Help

•Basics of stalking thoroughly explained: hunt and trade like a pro stalker in The Zone.
•Complete summary of all main quests--includes rewards received and side quests.
•Full guide to all secondary jobs; learn which NPCs have the best jobs and what they pay.
•Complete list of weapons and items to make sure you have the best gear available.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Prima Games (March 22, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761547738
• ISBN-13: 978-0761547730
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,335,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Birlew is an author and video game expert who has been writing official, published video game strategy guides since 1999. His original career goals included acting and directing. Video games always excited Dan since he was seven years old, but at the age of twenty-six he began honing his playing skills with the goal of becoming an expert gamer. He enjoyed publishing online documents regarding games, known as "FAQs". Dan inadvertently created an online persona for himself when he wrote and self-published on the Internet a plot analysis of the highly popular survival horror video game, Silent Hill. "The game's story was somewhat vague, and demanded that someone try to explain it," says Birlew.

Upon receiving an overwhelming number of positive responses from other Silent Hill fans, and after some gentle nudging from his wife, Birlew decided to set aside his acting and directing activities to establish a career as a video game strategy guide author. He sent writing samples to several publishing companies. Based on the merits of his very first submission, he was hired by a major publisher within 24 hours. Birlew says, "It was as though I had won the lottery."

Birlew has authored over sixty published video game strategy guides and seeks other methods of publication, such as review columns, articles, and other non-fiction video game-related books. Birlew says of his passion for games, "I love exploring video games, the industry, the culture, the fans -- and there is so much of it about which I can analyze and write." He also bears a strong desire to publish fiction, and is currently working on a novel concerning the paranormal.

Dan Birlew is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and has lived in Pennsylvania, Texas, and California. He now resides in Las Vegas with his wife of seventeen years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Besides video games, Birlew also enjoys Japanese films and dining with his family and friends in the restaurants and clubs of Las Vegas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Guide, April 16, 2007

By 

Jeremy Williams (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

My first thought when I received this guide was that the guide was a bit on the thin side. After reading through the guide I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was pretty thourough. The maps are well placed and the other information contained in the guide was very helpful. The only thing that I noticed missing was a list of the various special weapons that you could find in the game. The lack of such a listing is the only reason I gave this guide 4 stars instead of 5.

2.0 out of 5 stars Organization-NOT, August 13, 2007

By 

Brian L. Glasgow "BigBriLee" (Cloverdale,CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

Not a lot of specific help issues. Maps not of great help. No one-page overview map of the whole game. Had to consistantly flip back and forth to find specifics for even the same section of game. Overall, not very well organized or of great help.

2.0 out of 5 stars Why do I keep buying Prima guides?, June 24, 2007

By 

FuzzyLiftingDrink (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (Prima Official Game Guide) (Paperback)

This guide is more buggy than the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game it purports to bring to light. It is basically a hard copy of the guide which is already installed at the \Program Files\THQ\S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl\ directory created at installation. I will not get into what I think about the game, this review is for the guide and I am trying to save some people a ten spot or more in avoiding this inept work. The primary usefulness of this guide is to beginning players, but even then it is hardly worth the effort to get it, never the less the money spent. It lacks any depth in any area, the weapon, artifact and area descriptions are taken right out of the in-game PDA write up. There are no useable maps and the run down of missions is laughable as they lack the maps and simply give a general theory of completion. What I did like about this guide is that it has a rundown of all the weapons, but since the information is already in the inventory interface, it doesn't warrant purchase for that reason alone. Even in that area, the guide furthers the typos inherent in the game and copies them into the guide which had the Obokan rifles description all confused. There is some very good artwork in the guide in full color, but really most text in the book is ripped right from the PDA entries. The combat tips are in the level of explaining straffing and leaning, so if you have ever played another FPS, it is worthless in that purpose as you already know the basics. The other thing that is annoying is that the guide never attempts to shine a light on the broken side quests in the game and is seemingly unaware that item / personnel locations in these types of missions are often randomly generated every time you take a job from a character in the game. It states exactly where they will be in the guide and although they are sometimes there, they can be at multiple locations from the random generation. It also does this with artifacts that sometimes randomly generate and it will say to pick up some artifact at some location only once you arrive - it's either not there or another artifact altogether. The layout of the guide is haphazard at best and downright schizophrenic most of the times with no apparant order that is discernible. I simply cannot think of a worse guide then this. Players who have gotten even a quarter of the way through the game will not learn anything from it and even newbies should just save their money and read the PDA entries.