Rating: 
Summary: A good strategy guide if you don't know the game
Review: Got MOO3 and the guide for my birthday. Both are pretty wortheless, but the guide especially so since it is no guide. If you loved Alpha Cnetauri or the Civ games, you'll be severly disappointed with MOO3 and the strategy guide.See other reviews for details. Don't waste your money on this...
Rating: 
Summary: book and game pretty worthless
Review: Got MOO3 and the guide for my birthday. Both are pretty wortheless, but the guide especially so since it is no guide. If you loved Alpha Cnetauri or the Civ games, you'll be severly disappointed with MOO3 and the strategy guide. See other reviews for details. Don't waste your money on this...
Rating: 
Summary: this book is awesome
Review: honestly, I have no idea what's in this book, however, I do know that MOO3 is going to be a ridiculous game; and a stratagy guide to explain it all will be great. the stratagy guides for the other games were top quality, and i expect the same of this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Worth Much In My Book...
Review: I have yet to write a review and I am reluctant to write one about a strategy guide before the game is even released, but I found myself compelled. The content might be there. I will not know until the game arrives, but the format is plain silly. There are numerous sections listing fact after fact that would have been better given in a table with a little blurb to highlight the most interesting aspects. I found the book a terrible introduction to the game. If the game comes with more info in the manual, I would suggest skipping this book. Any strategy given is presented with broken scenarios and lame platitudes that I feel fall well within common sense. What reference material is there is suspect. I would be surprised if I ever will need to refer to this book after I get the game. If you plan to buy this with the game, you might reconsider and wait to see what documentation comes with the game. Actually, why bother? Most information online will probably outstrip this book within the first few days of the game's release. I just wanted a preview of the game. My mistake. I should have waited. Oh...and I almost forgot! The screen shots are awful. Not a one is sized bigger than a matchbook. So if you are trying to see what they are refering to in the pictures, forget it. They are too tiny.
Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Much In My Book...
Review: If the in-game help is as good as Civ3's Civilopedia + Scenario Editor then this book will be completely useless for anything but newbie strategies. I was overall dissapointed. I was looking for reference tables (if the game should lack it), formulas and algorithms for the economics and combat (Orion Secotor has theem but they are outdated - published the IFPs were removed).. The best part of the book for me was the race overviews and that they have been ranked in general difficulty. Not a bad as RollerCoaster Tycoon's prima guide (glorified manual), and not as good as SimCity 4's prima guide (totally rocks).
Rating: 
Summary: Useless to semi-usefull (depends on how in-game guides are)
Review: If the in-game help is as good as Civ3's Civilopedia + Scenario Editor then this book will be completely useless for anything but newbie strategies. I was overall dissapointed. I was looking for reference tables (if the game should lack it), formulas and algorithms for the economics and combat (Orion Secotor has theem but they are outdated - published the IFPs were removed).. The best part of the book for me was the race overviews and that they have been ranked in general difficulty. Not a bad as RollerCoaster Tycoon's prima guide (glorified manual), and not as good as SimCity 4's prima guide (totally rocks).
Rating:
Summary: no reason to buy it now
Review: it is Feb 25th and the game is out
no reason to buy this guide to whet your appetite
no reason to preview the game
get better information online
...await the patch, maybe, but
consider the only favorable review is from Texas
--enough said.
Rating:
Summary: not a strategy guide
Review: its more like a manual spin-off than a strategy guide. It doesn't tell you how to do anything. It has lame tutorials for all the races and it only gives you some *hints* (all of which you can find out online). The whole book basically leaves it up to you figure everything out. It could have been so many times better. Its almost like the person who wrote it never played it and just read the manual and interviewed the staff to get some details. Instead of giving you strategies and tips on how to play more effeciently or giving you different styles of play, it just goes through all the screens one at a time and repeats most of whats in the manual. The name of book is false advertisment. It should be named:
Master of Orion 3: The Ultimate Space Strategy Game: Prima's Official Redundant Manual
Rating:
Summary: not a strategy guide
Review: its more like a manual spin-off than a strategy guide. It doesn't tell you how to do anything. It has lame tutorials for all the races and it only gives you some *hints* (all of which you can find out online). The whole book basically leaves it up to you figure everything out. It could have been so many times better. Its almost like the person who wrote it never played it and just read the manual and interviewed the staff to get some details. Instead of giving you strategies and tips on how to play more effeciently or giving you different styles of play, it just goes through all the screens one at a time and repeats most of whats in the manual. The name of book is false advertisment. It should be named:
Master of Orion 3: The Ultimate Space Strategy Game: Prima's Official Redundant Manual
Rating:
Summary: .. maybe worth a look. . .
Review: Prima is notorious for having factual errors in gameplay on the games they review, since most of the games they review are still in the beta(testing) phase. It is all about shipping the game and strategy guide on the same date. Most strategy guide buyers know this, as well documented in the MOO3 forums. However, if you are dying waiting for this game (like me), it's a nice book to whet your appetite...
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