Does anyone know of good, safe (non-virusy) game guide and FAQ sites? I've used GameFAQS for years, and it's a good source, but I heartily dislike what little I've seen of the community and I'd not only like a slightly friendlier looking place to exchange tips and read guides, but someplace where I can put up a guide or guides that I write without having been a posting member for ages.

IGN has some good in-house ones but it's riddled with ads and whatnot. There are still fan-made ones, in good old .txt format. Some are posted to forums which have a crapload of ads.

Game Banshee is okay. XBox360Achievements.com has decently friendly forums (friendlier than I'd expect from people playing on Live at any rate). Geezer Gamers has nice folks, not many guides I don't think though. Some specific games have pretty awesome forums, you can find everything Pokemon at http://www.serebii.net

Gamebanshee is great for RPGs but I've never explored their community. Xbox360Achievements is focused more on the achievements than actual walkthroughs though they are great for looking up where that last bloody secret is, the forums usually have 1-2 achievement guides that show where all the collectibles and the like are. They're definitely friendly for new people putting up walkthroughs though the chances are good that there's already a walkthrough for any game you pick (they're bloody fast over there)

Thanks! I was thinking more of older games, actually. Gamebanshee sounds like a good place to check out!

And I don't suppose Xbox360Achievements is going to help any when I don't own an Xbox360, is it? Or is it for lots of systems? :)

Hehe well in that case it is probably less useful but for games that are on both platforms, it might still be a good place to explore

GameFAQs is still the biggest library around but yes the community would give 4Chan a serious challenge for the biggest troll nest on the interwebs.

Mmm.

*licks lips*

Hmmmm...

*fingers sword hilt*

There's XP in them thar hills!

http://www.sorcerers.net/ is really good for RPG stuff as well.

I use StrategyWiki, personally (which, as the name implies, uses a wiki system). It's not as big as the other sites, but the ability to include images/tables/sidebars/etc. and contributing to shared guides rather than duplicating effort is immensely beneficial. Because it's a wiki there is of course no submission verification delay nonsense either.