Do ya? Personally, as soon as I get a new game I throw it in and start playing. I just noticed FFX had a beautifully colored book with it and was wondering why I never saw it before .

Anyone else read the instruction books for games or do you just start playing?

yes.

For 3d shooters, I usually go right into playing, but for a game like civ3, then you really need to do a little reading. In game tutorials help quite a bit.

never.....I play and play and play some more. If I get stuck in a level I will finally pick up the instructions, and exclaim," OH, that's how you do that!"

RTFM!

Yes, I usually skim the manual, play for a while, then read it more thoroughly once I have an idea of the game.

It's always amusing to see people asking "How do I" questions in the online forums that they could've gotten the answer to in seconds by checking their manuals.

Of course, many manuals suck and are woefully out of date. There's also a increasing trend in PC games to give you the manual in PDF format...very annoying.

I play a lot of strategy games, and it bugs me when a lot of important information is deliberately left out of the manual so that you have to spend extra money for the strategy guide. The irony here is that the strategy guides are often even more out of date than the manuals! Good thing most games have fan sites where you can easily access this information for free.

Games come with manuals?

Wow...whodda thunk it.

I usually skim through the manual before I play and read it more carefully after I've played for awhile.

I just read to find the controls then play the game. The only PS2 game I can think of that had a color manual is FFX, and it is the only one I have looked at all the way through.

I always at least skim through them first, paying close attention to the controls. Most of the time I read the manual first. It's just sort of a tradition with me, a way of savoring the moment I finally have a game I've been waiting to buy for a year or more.

Games that I buy I normally do...rentals I just try to get a feel for the game to see if it is worth a buy.

nope

I usually pop the game in right away and try and figure out controls myself.
Then if I can't figure something out, i'll look at the manual.

Did this with Fifa 2002, and it helped a lot. At first I was like "ok, i can kick the ball in the air and on the ground". After reading the manual I now use almost every manuever possible (like crossing the ball with a spin on it and then heading it into the goal).

Only thing I still can't do is bicycle kick, but that's off topic...

I'm in consistant. Sometimes I savor, sometimes I skim and sometimes I jump right in.

I always read 'em... They make great throne reading.

There's nothing worse than playing through a game and later realizing that there was something your character could do and didn't even know it.

Speaking of game manuals one of the best I found was Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Ages for the GBC, the character drawings of Link are really cool looking with all the moves and characters.

Another interesting book is the one I have for Shenmue 2, which is in 4 different languages

Of course the instruction book winner is Lunar 2, Working Designs included a 100+ glossy page hardcover book with a cloth ribbon bookmark fixed to it. I was afraid to touch it at first it looked too delicate to touch .

I should look at the instruction books more often, I'm discovering all these things I never knew I had.

Yeah when I take a poop they are I usually finish them by the time I "finish"

I'm obsessive-compulsive. I have to read them....

Exactly!

That too.

I played through the first three Mario games before I finally picked up a manual and learned he could jump.

Same here. Rush home, pop in the game, mess around with it for a while...after a few minutes of getting nowhere, I usually have to take a dump. This is the only time I read the instructions.

Nope.