Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The 2006 Gamer's Tome of Ultimate Wisdom

My copy of The 2006 Gamer's Tome of Ultimate Wisdom: An Almanac of Pimps, Orcs, and Lightsabers arrived from Amazon on Friday, and I finished reading it yesterday.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the preview chapters I had seen were very entertaining, and I'm happy to report that the full book is as well. It's an excellent read, and I hope that it becomes an annual series.

Full disclosure: author Bill Abner is someone who I consider a friend, even though we've only met once (for about sixty seconds at E3 one year). He's also considered the dean of sports game reviewers, even though sports games aren't the focus of the book. And we have this bizarre and amusing history of other people confusing us for each other. So I wanted to like the book, but as it turns out, wanting was not needed--it's just a terrific book, period.

If you're wondering what's in the book, well, damned near everything. Bill crammed an impossible amount of material into the book--I'm suspecting that he didn't sleep for the last nine months. The sheer breadth of topics is absolutely amazing--every single aspect of gaming is covered, and in-depth. And a huge number of games are discussed, both current and past. You'll see retrospectives on many of the best games in history, including all kinds of historical nuggets that you might have forgotten.

So if you want a compendium of all things gaming, this is it. And it would make a great gift for the gamer in your life. And if the gamer in your life happens to be you, it would make a great gift for yourself as well.

Here's an Amazon link:
http://tinyurl.com/7pa27.

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