When I was a kid, I loved watching the “Guinness World Records” TV specials to see the guy with the crazy long mustache or long, twisted fingernails — the weird stuff.
But the book was a bit of a snooze — useful for school reports but not something most people would just sit and read cover to cover.
Modern Guinness books are a lot more colorful, and today’s giveaway really pops. And I knew I liked the just-released “Guinness World Records 2013 Gamer’s Edition” when flipping through I found a page on comics in gaming and a bunch of stuff about the Atari 2600. In particular, I thought it was interesting that Superman was the first superhero to be featured in a game (in 1979). (My parents thought I’d never beat it, but I did pretty quickly — can’t say that much anymore.) DC Comics was also the first publisher to do a videogame tie-in: “Atari Force.” They also did some graphic novel one-shots, such as “Star Raiders.”
The danger with this type of book is that with the speed of change in the videogame industry, some info is already moot. They say, for instance, that “City of Heroes” (a fun MMO) is still going strong, but it shut down late last year.
Regardless, gamers with a penchant for statistics and trivia will find a lot to enjoy in this book. Among the tidbits: Anime voice fave Steve Blum holds the record for Most Prolific Videogame Voice Actor (Male) at 261 games as of May 10, 2012. His female counterpart is Jennifer Hale with 133. “Tron: Legacy” is the highest-grossing game-centered movie with more than $400 million worldwide. The most expensive DLC is a $77,000 virtual diamond chisel for “Curiosity: What’s in the Cube?” The most viewed trailer is for “Grand Theft Auto V,” which has had 23 million hits since its November 2011 debut, even though the game still doesn’t have a solid release date.
For your chance to win , send your name and address to ehenrickson@detnews.com. Use “Guinness” as your subject line, include which format you prefer and enter only once by Jan 25. U.S. entries only.
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