Corey J. Mach said
I have tinkered with game programming of and on for years. It always started the same. I'd want to learn to make a game.
I'd buy a book. after a couple weeks I'd quit in disgust. "Why do they make it so freakin hard?" I'd ask every time. I'm sorry but C++ programming and DirectX SDK programming just plain sucks (sadly c++ is better than the alternatives though...) I absolutely hate it. After I started with C# and .NET I just plain won't go back. Id rather not program at all If I had to do that. with C# it's actually FUN! whatta concept?

So anyway, I'd go through this cycle. I'd bounce back and forth between books each proposing their way of learning to be the best and each espousing various game engines and I'd always end up stymied at some point because of some technical hurdle I just couldnt get past. Oh I could do the projects in these books just fine (assuming the code actually worked. Which is rare I have found) but inevitably when I'd try to do something outside the framework of the book I was using I'd always fail and be totally frustrated.

So I bought this book and I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. A cookbook for programming? thats probably just marketing bull or so I thought...

Fast forward to few weeks later after doing the recipe's in the book I find that I am actually making real progress for the first time ever!! Im actually making real components to my own game engine and figuring out how to solve my own problems instead of relying on someone else's game engine. Some one else's crappy code. No more! I'm on my way baby!!!

The writing is very clear. All of the code I've used has worked flawlessly which in my experience with these books is simply a miracle.

If you want to learn XNA 3.0+ I HIGHLY recommend this book to you. It is head and shoulders above the rest.

Jesus R. Bosch Ayguade said
I like the idea of the book, but the code samples don't like me (they use many custom functions, that you have to look how are internally made at code samples you have to download)... also, all chapters are referencing many other chapters, so the reading is very difficult

John A. Marcovitz said
If you need to develop in 3D with XNA 3.0 by all means get this book. It can be either a step by step treatment of XNA game rendering for the beginner, or a problem solving solution approach for the advanced user. For my Role Playing Game, I needed an introduction to animation and terrain effects and was treated two large sections on the subjects(chapters 4 &5). His web tutorial is good too.

[...]


So try both at the same time. Many of the free tutorials on the web, including creators club, are still for XNA 2.0 and are out of date and in some cases are incompatible with 3.0 development. Not so here.

The code download has one drawback, chapter 4 is not available on [...].

-John

M. tsouris said
This book has been very helpful. I was already a little familiar with XNA programming, so this book was a good logical next step. It does not cover game dev from beginning to end, but covers a lot of advanced techniques that you will quickly need to know after you start. I'm building a 3d game and this book has been a very valuable resource for research. Besides examples, i think the explanations are really insightful. Especially when he covers the optimized and non-optimized way of doing things (like billboarding).

Developpez.com writers said
The book XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in XNA) suggests to us to discover the Microsoft's framework XNA under a new approch. Stop to beginner tips, Rieme Grootjans offers to us a more profesional vision of the game developement with XNA. Under the form of 95 questions and answers, it will present through its 650 pages a detailled approch of many concepts of the game programming. Dispatch on 8 chapters, it will touch the visual aspect like the 2D programming or the 3D environment simulation. But we will be able to improve in many other domains like sound or network on the XNA API.

The first we can see in reading this book is which present itself under a programmaing referency for the XNA programmaing. Each point is detailed under the form a detailed Q&A and argued through examples. Which are independent from one to other and can be read in your best order. This could be confused for a linear reading because there is often referency to other Q&A of the book from the first pages.

A the background level, the subjects are of all difficulty. We will be able to find articles for beginners but also many articles for more advanced programmers. Some systems like Octrees and Defered Shading are presented to be developped under XNA. These points are often very well presented and detailed "step by step". Unfortunatly, we can find always in the problem to explain more the questions theory than the real usage of the Microsoft's framework.

XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in XNA) is a very good book for the developer who have some knowledgeof XNA and who want to get some answers on advanced questions. If we pass through minor problems of the chapters which refer from one to others, Riemer Grootjans suggest here a very good book with a higher level of difficulty. The approached subjects are very interresting and allows to throw ourself deeply in the game programming.