Don't buy this book.

January 01, 2004 at 12:00 AM in

A book about the N-Gage? Gotta have it! A$30 of postage and RRP later and I've wasted A$30 and the few minutes it took me to realise that the book is crap.

The book is two parts hype to one part ego trip, and it's all snake-oil. It should be listed in the fiction section. The author indicates that he wasn't intending to write another book after his previous, but he got all excited about the N-Gage. I'd bet it was after Nokia drove a dump truck full of money up to his house.

Do not make any decisions or commit any money based on the ideas presented in this book. While the book is technically correct in places as to what the N-Gage is capable of, it's conclusions about what gamers, en mass, actually want is flawed beyond belief. Gamers do not want to be potentially bothered at any moment of the night or day because of a game. Gamers do not want to be stalked in the real world by the same prats that run every hack they can find in multiplayer FPSes.

Here's an example of the sort of "information" presented:

I waited until I had access to my scanner again before I wrote this review. This image is the reason. I don't know where to begin when describing how crap this is. Suffice to say it is crap and should be avoided at all costs.

I love my N-Gage and I do believe it's a wonderful device, but not for any of the reasons listed in this book. Avoid.