The Sims Box Set 1 thru 5 (Prima's Official Strategy Guide)

On the plus side, these books each do a pretty good job of explaining the details and nuances of playing The Sims and the various expansion packs. In-depth explanations, detailed inventories, and exhaustive matrixes can give the semi-obsessed player some valuable information. However, and this is a big however, this collection has some fundamental problems.

First, the books are shrunk-down versions of the original books, and are printed on newsprint-type paper. This makes it difficult to see some of the illustrations. The small print, which looks muddy on the paper, is also difficult to read.

Second, the first 60% of each of the guides to the expansion packs is nothing more than a condensed version of the first book. The result is that half of the material included in this set is repeated. Had someone taken the time to do this right, they would have edited it all down to one, big book that consists of the entire first book, and the last 40% of the other four books. Maybe they...Read more

Ok, the bad stuff first - which has been mentioned a lot here. The books are shrunk down to a much smaller size than your average strategy guide, so the pictures and illustrations are really difficult to see. Second, the first half of each book is the same in all five - just basic info about the Sims. So there is a lot of wasted space and material you have to skip over to get the new information on whatever expansion pack the book is for.

The books small size makes them easier to store though, they can even sit on a bookshelf in front of all the other strategy guide since they are so much smaller. They also come in a sleeve so that they all stay together nicely. While most of the information is repeated in each book, there is a good amount of new information that is really useful - even for long-time Sims players. Every time I open up the books I learn something new, and I've been playing the Sims for several years now.

Overall, for the price I can't complain too much. The...Read more

These books are okay, and would be a great help IF you could actually see anything on the teeny little photos in these very small paperback editions. If they were the full size books, 9x7 or larger, the captions of the photos would make sense. It seems some of the photos were mixed up while downsizing and some, no matter how hard you look, do not match captions. In others, understanding of course they are b/w photos, you cannot tell what the characters are doing or even what the author(s) are talking about. When they made the books for this set so small, they ruined any help they might have been. I was not impressed and won't buy any more of these sets of guides.