Hi, so I noticed that they have the official guide on amazon for $16 as well as at gamestops around me for about $28.
Is the guide worth it to those who bought it?
I understand that it is about 656 pages with a crap ton of maps/pictures/info but is it essential?
I haven't bought a game guide since Resident Evil: Code Veronica, haha.
Any opinions and reviews are welcome

Opinion: Yes.

I have some very minor issues with it but they'd need spoiler tags. My problem is certain items in the index are not correctly indexed. It points you to a handful of pages, but those pages only *mention* the item in question and they tell you nothing about where it is found.

I've also found it to be very good table reading. That is, in a room with lots of porcelain and no actual... tables.

It doesn't exactly give you strategies on how to beat some of the creatures (Dragon Priests, anybody?) but it does give you recommended levels for areas. And, of course, it gives you maps.

I like a physical book better than a wiki.

Bought mine for 24 Euros at a local gamestore. Well worth every euro. Got the last book of the second shipment in three days here.

I'd say useful not essential, unless you want to know every walkthrough and secret right away. After I finish a game on my own with as few hints as possible, I like to go back and find all the stuff I missed, and this is when I feel I need the guide. I didn't want to wait for the free wiki sites to be finished (will take awhile), so I bought the electronic version from steam and it seems OK. I haven't used it all that much yet though, except for the maps which are good, but the rest seems to be thorough and well organized. It also has a search function which I do prefer over the print versions.