Well, after 6 months of preparation, writing, playing, encoding, re-encoding, uploading (and re-uploading), GamerGuides.com is ready to be thrown to the GRCade members for some hush-hush BETA testing.
To give you an idea of what to expect at the site it currently comprises of 6 full game guides. Doesn't sound like a lot does it? What if I told you that the site had over 650
different HD tutorial videos (encoded completely separately again in Standard Def for YouTube, so that's over 1,300 unique videos - encoded and uploaded nearly entirely by me
), over 200,000 words between all 6 guides (about 110,00 of those are probably all Dalagonash's!
), God only knows how many HD screenshots and best of all?...
The site has the facility to keep a track of the collectables you find, so by simply ticking them off in the guide (as you find them), you can return back safe in the knowledge that you never need to wonder what item you still have to collect! As far as we're aware, NO other guide website out there allows you to keep a track of all the hidden items in a game, making it MUCH easier to get that 100% (especially as more and more games resort to massive item hunts to extend the life of them *looks at Assassin's Creed*).
The guides are all available for free (alas with adverts, no item tracking and only 480p video), but for a measly £10 a year (which is a stupidly cheap
80p a MONTH, that's less than my App guides!) you can become an early supporter and get access to the exclusive item tracking, 720p HD video and access to our future guides on day 1 of the games release - say hello Gears of War 3!
- where as free guide users will get access to the complete guide a week later (which is STILL waaaaaay before even GameFAQs or sites like IGN).
I genuinely believe the site has what it takes to become one of the best guide sites on the net, it has social network features built-in, a number of experienced strategy guide writers and future plans that will nurture future guide writing talent.
All I ask is that you spare me a few minutes, check the site out - for free - and see what you think. It's not perfect yet (hence why it's only a soft launch for now, gives us a chance to iron out the bugs), so your feedback at this stage is invaluable. But I'll be completely upfront and say that I hope many of you will believe that the content (now and - more importantly - in the future) is worth paying for. A tenner a YEAR for complete guides available on day 1 of a games launch is cheaper than a single official paper guide for one game, and we'll be offering HD video, screens and text (hooray for early game access!
.
http://www.gamerguides.com Feel free to leave your thoughts here or on the custom forum on the site itself. I'm genuinely looking forward to hearing all the positive and negative feedback from the people that matter most. All of you.