Man, strategy guides were magical back in the day. I used them for my second playthroughs of Final Fantasy VII through XII, Kingdom Hearts I + II and Parasite Eve. Prior to that, I was too young to really buy them myself, and prior to FFVII any adventure / RPG game I played was usually dicking around on my dad's save file rather than actually trying to play myself. I recently tried to get back into the pure crack joy of official strategy guides, but I fear they have been bested forever by Wikia. I snagged the guide for New Vegas, and it was nigh impossible to navigate. An iPad and the Fallout Wiki made things a thousand times easier to find exactly what you were looking for.

Not to say there aren't still places where strategy guides excel though. Comparing different Armor / Weapons is much easier in a book form, and a huge gloriously detailed world map folded up in the back is amazing. I'll probably still collect them for big games, but they're not likely to end up as ragged as FF VIII's.