Rating: 
Summary: This book blows
Review: Although I have looked through this book thouroughly, I do not feel it is worth a full summary of it's faults, however I will mention the major ones. First, much of the information in this book is inaccurate or just plain false. The author's grammar is appalling, it makes you wonder if the editor even read the book himself. The author's teaching style is horrible. For example, on the topic of integration: "How do you know the integration is like this? You cheat. In appendix E you will find a table..." What did this teach you about integration? Absolutely nothing. This book claims to teach advanced topics such as AI learning but does not deliver. The author manages to confuse you even in basic concepts with his horrible teaching style. Looking in the front, you will discover that the author has only been in the game industry for 4 years, this explains a lot. A guy who is about 21 and knows very little about game concepts is going to try to teach you how to make them. I'm glad I borrowed this book from a friend and didn't waste my money on it. I would advise against this book no matter who you are. If you want a good book on programming in C++, check out "OpenGL Game Programming" by the GameDev.net guys. They know their stuff and their sample code is actually useful! Save yourself the grief!
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for game programming beginners...
Review: Being a VB programmer myself, with very little exposure to C++, I found this book to be a wonderful read and a great help in getting me started on the road to programming my own games (which, by the way, is the reason I became a programmer to begin with). Sousa offers great lessons on C++, which any newbie can clearly understand, with excellent examples and a marvelous teaching style. There are, however, some problems with the book (hence the 4 star rating). Most of the screen shots aren't anywhere near the code they are supposed to support, and a lot of the notes and side tips don't seem to belong to the text they are paraphrasing/helping. Also, in some code examples he tends to go about things the round-about way, instead of attacking the problem directly. All in all, I can look past the problems this book has and say that if you want to be a game programmer, buy and read this book before you get anything else. This book will definitely get you on your way!
Rating:
Summary: Great introduction
Review: Do you want to write your own games?
Then learn C++ (if don't know it) and buy this book. Game Programming All in One features introduction chapters on physcics, math, DirectX8 Graphics/Audio/Input, game design, AI and a lot more. This could've been the best book i ever bought if it wasn't for some minor errors in the source listings and other trivial problems. If i could, i would give it 4.5/5, but i can't so i give it a strong 4/5. I wont give it 5/5 because the book isn't perfect and then its not worth a 5/5 rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for all levels
Review: get this along with the Zen and Lamothe books, know C++ and WIn32 (good review here) and you should be ready to rock and roll. Along with a lot of hard work and dedication of course.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book, but could have been written better
Review: I bought this book in conjunction with the OpenGL Programming book in the same series. I read the OpenGL one first, and found that it contained nearly the same information as this one. De Sousa's book went into more detail and introduced Direct3D, but I found his code examples to be overly complicated and, at times, difficult to follow. I am pleased with the book, but if you are just getting into graphics programming, the OpenGL book by Kevin Hawkins and Dave Astle is better written, easier to follow, and uses simpler procedures. The sample engine is also better documented and easier to design. Overall recommendation is positive, but there are better books out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Needlessy Complicated
Review: I bought this book in hopes that I would be able to program 2d games using DirectX. I was only partially correct. The author spends more than half of the book developing a library called Mirus, which is just portable classes to impliment in games, while completely masking all directx functions. you would think creating a sprite would be easy? or not! it takes him 4 classes, AND a text file just to successfuly create an image you can display on the screen. using directdraw you could do it with 1! With the way he has this set up, you would have to create a text file for every type of sprite you would want to make. even in the end, you only know how to use this Mirus library, as he wizzes through the directx functions so fast you cant comprehend them. HE TEACHES HIS WRAPPER CLASSES, NOT DIRECTX GAME PROGRAMMING. Algorythums and AI, physics etc are probably all good, but i havent gotten there yet. im looking for a better source for 2d programming. i do not advise this book if you believe it is going to quell all of your needs. buy this book only if you want to develop games specifically the way the author wanted. very few universal ideas are taught. too specific. i advise you stay away from this book if you only want to create 2d games, directx 8.0 when used with his 348967349867 classes is needlessly complicated.
Rating:
Summary: Good Effort - For Complete Beginers... BUT!
Review: I would give this book 2 and a half stars but I can't! So I rounded it up, for good effort instead. :)
I think some of the reviews I have seen on this book have been a little dramatic and harsh. But they have some valid points. So I will attempt to write a fair review by splitting into Good Points and Bad Points. Having worked through the book entirely I feel able to do this.
Good Points:
From the point of view of a new programmer, this is a good "starting" book. It does introduce some interesting basic concepts in game design.
The CD included gives additional depth to the learning method he uses.
The programs are simple for beginners and do give the very basics in making games and OOP programming.
The terminology he uses can be amusing and I feel this helps settle the nervous learner.
It is nice that the programs he/you design in the book are as simple as possible and in the first chapters you already have a complete (if not a bit naff) program.
If studied correctly it does help you think modularly about your game design.
It is nice to have the physics elements at the back of the book.
A nice introduction to AI.
It makes you actually study the code examples to make you see what is happening, that way you learn better.
A nice chapter on getting your game published.
Data structures are mentioned and I felt this was important to have in an "all in one book".
Bad Points.
If you know C++ (like me) you already know about 50% of the book. It also misses out some very basic C++ concepts (such as multi dimensional array pointers e.g. **ptr for Array[10][10] ).
Sometimes you can be reading along and a keyword or syntax method is employed with no detailed explanation as to what it is or what it does. Such as -> and the & operator is not explained properly at all and caused some serious confusion in a friend I am mentoring.
There are some syntax errors in his code in the book. But on the CD they seem to be fixed though I did find some errors there to.
It says all in one, but it misses some items like Direct Play and also detailed mouse usage (such as point and click, which would have been handy for the game I wanted to make). It is an introduction to DirectX and nothing more.
It uses Visual C++ 6 and DirectX so any Linux or Mac coders need not buy this book.
No delving into 3D programming.
Although it teaches you classes and other advanced concepts in C++ it does not tell how to do this "well". There are several points I cringed thinking of junior programmers trying to figure out why their programs did not work at run time.
The AI intro was good but it offers nothing more than an introduction. Nor does it have any code samples for this.
Some programs demonstrating AI would be nice.
The C++ STL was avoided. Although this can be complicated it needs some of its concepts explained, as they would be helpful to know.
To sum up:
Good effort but there is too much not covered that needed to be. It really should have been about four or five separate books so more could be covered.
It is a good introduction to programming games using professional tools, but these tools are now out of date (DirectX is now on version 9 and Visual C++ is now on .NET).
I recommend it to anyone who is learning C++ and wants to make games in their spare time but there are other better books out there for them. I DO NOT recomend it to a profesional who wants to write profesional games. It is not nearly complete enough to make a good reference book.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I would suggest looking at other C++ books before even looking at this one.
Rating:
Summary: VC++ 6 Crash course & a dab of gaming programming
Review: If you are a beginner with intermediate attributes(or one level up from beginner but not yet an intermediate programmer) in C or Java, this VC++ 101 crash course is for you. Sousa does not go into much detail with Dx but rather uses Mirus to deal with Directx. Which means you have to use Mirus header files to program games. Which brings questions like: Why use an intermediary? Why not go straight to the source?
Although I did enjoyed Chapter 17: Data Structure and Algorithms, I do think that the book spends too much time teaching VC6 and encompasses too little on game programming.
This book did not give justice to it's Title.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating for a Beginner
Review: Im new to game programming, 15 years old, and wanted to get a book that solidly covered all the aspects of programming a game.I found this book very helpful in C++ until the section on direct3D. It explains the rendering processes nicely ,but then takes you to 20+ pages of almost solid code and very little explaination. This part stopped me dead in my tracks.I found myself learning nothing and just basicly typing word for word the code it provided. It goes directly from simple concepts like rendering to making animations using a complicated series of classes. After I figured out I had no idea what I was typing I had to go back and decipher his "Mirus" library myself. Then after weeks of frustration the book says "Now wasn't that hard! Not!" like I all this time I spent trying to decipher this code was some sort of fun experence. It leaves no room for self investigation throughout the author's ten-thousand page "Mirus Library". After many long weeks of learning direct x you barely get any experience with actually implementing the humungous library you typed into games. At the end of this book all I have is a big fat game library that im having trouble using considering
I DIDNT MAKE IT !!!! The book did.. and two alright games. This book isnt all bad though(or mabye it is and im just trying to justify spending 50 bucks on a book). The first section on consoles is nicely done and the C++ review helped me better than the stupid school C++ textbook has. After reading extensivly the DirectX part I have a good foundation knowledge of Direct X but nowhere near the point that i could make a decent game using "Mirus".
Mabye if you have a little more experience with programming and mathimatics you will find this book a little less complicated. For me I had a hard time grasping some of the advanced underexplaned topics yet I still got there. If you dont mind learning the concepts by typing the pages and pages of code, BUY this BOOK. If you do, go with another book. -over and out-
Shane
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