I find online games are very often but not always simply copied from Bradygames guides. Some of them are really good, extraordinarily more indepth and detailed than official guides, but how can you really know if it's going to be or not. For example, there are a lot of 100% In One Game guides for FFX-2 on the internet. There's also one in the Bradygames guide, and it has two flaws in it, one which would prevent you from getting 100%. These FAQs usually appear in list form, and almost every single one of these particular FAQs I've found on the internet *cough*including the one on this site*cough* are all listed in almost the exact same order and all have the exact same two mistakes. I thought that was rather funny. There is one on gamefaqs.com that is rather good, but again how can you know?

So it all depends on how much I plan on using a strategy guide if I need one. If I just need a quick reference, then I'll go online. But if I find myself needing one quite a bit, I'll buy it for the simple ease of flipping through pages rather than scanning a text file. And they have pictures, always a plus. I find the flaws in official guides miniscule at best and easy to compensate for. However, some of the more indepth secrets of some games are left out of some guides. I guess some secrets are just that secret.