Changing My 2 star review to a five star 
By A2QUCS3K9V29CR on 2008-02-27
Go to "very silly games" dot com to get the source code.
(no spaces in the names).
the author is apologizes for the error on his site.
The XNA GSE and Visual Studio Express are available at the Microsoft site.
It IS totally free to write games to Windows, and easy to port over to the XBOX 360 later.
I give 5 stars because the author jumped right on the source code issue.
And since I got the code I found the book very helpful.
It helped me understand the other 4 or 5 books on XNA and C#.
Book is there, other useful extras missing 
By A2R31VLT2YPJF1 on 2008-02-29
I decided to buy this book over others because of the promise of example code, XNA Express and C# express all on a provided disc or discs. This is why i ordered the book but none of this stuff exists with the book. All I got was the book. Microsoft wants money to send a disc and the authors website doesn't have all the code to download. So this is totally an incomplete product which was obviously published before everything was ready. I guess this is fitting, isn't this how the whole game industry works anyway? Seems fitting for the first lesson this book teaches a new developer is "release it before it's done, fix it later".
Makes XNA easier to understand
By A2Q9AMGZ61MU36 on 2008-03-01
Ok so the book dosen't come with a CD, big deal you can download everything online. The main point is the content within the book. I found the book very helpful. It gives you definitions to common terms, makes easy to understand comparisons from real world things. All in all a good book for begginers.
Very helpful book
By ASBFX0BBNLGT7 on 2008-03-14
I got this book at Barnes & Noble, so it was the 'newer version' without the CD or the promise thereof. It wasn't a problem at all for me, as everything is very easy to access online...and I'd prefer to buy the book at a cheaper cost and download the software than pay extra for a CD.
The content, at least the part that I've read is very informative for a newbie programmer like me. I'm only on Chapter 3, but if you're already experienced in C#, this book might not be for you. Everything is clearly explained, and the length of the book is perfect - long enough to be thorough, but not so long to be intimidating. Highly recommended.
Pretty good intro to XNA - some minor issues
By A1B6ZVVOL5D3P2 on 2008-05-26
I've been going through a lot of online tutorials, training videos and all the big XNA books out there. I'm at a 'middle' level of knowledge and I wanted to pick this up just to reaffirm what I've learned. Looking at it, I knew it was going to be more basic that most books and I knew that going into it (which allowed me to get through it fairly quickly).
The book starts off as a great little intro to XNA, but as it progresses seems to get into the same issue as a lot of other XNA books, it just starts leaving things out and expects you to be following along with the source code (which is downloadable). I'm ok with more advanced books doing this, but for a complete beginner, I know this could end up a little confusing (and I believe this book is geared for that audience).
The only other minor gripe would be (and the author alludes to it being an issue at the beginning of the last chapter) - the programs created begin to get to that point where they are starting to get a little complicated and keeping all the code in a single file starts to backfire. An introduction to OOP and classes would have greatly benefited the examples for the last few chapters. I don't think it has to get into great detail, but after explaining namespaces and even using structs, I don't see why the code couldn't be broken out to some basic OOP. Nothing fancy is needed but having some separate classes would have been nice and I think much easier (even for beginners).
Other than those minor issues, I feel the book is a good intro for someone who knows some basic programming of any language and wants to dabble in XNA. Someone that hasn't done any programming would also be fine, but I'd recommend a C# book to get the full set of basics. The first 3/4 of the book are well written and go by quickly with some fun examples. It's an introductory book and a pretty good one at that. I recommend for anyone starting out and wants to get their feet wet.
- In addition to NOT having the promised CDs...
By A3BPJH95DZ819Y on 2008-02-29
As others have pointed out, the CDs promised with the book are not there. Even though they are said to be there on the back cover of the book, so the bad description is not Amazon's fault.
But in addition to that, there's another GOTCHA! If you sally forth, even without the CDs, you then get to a section on setting up your Xbox so you can download code to it. You have to join the XNA Developers Club to use the communication software. The club membership is a whopping $50 per quarter (or they'll give you a bargain if you join for a year - $100).
This book that I bought as an inexpensive diversion into game programming is quickly turning into one of the priciest self-learning exercises I've EVER gotten involved in.
I can't review the actual merits of the book itself, because I can't spend money fast enough just to get set up and started.
Sadly, the whole thing is looking like a shameless attemp to bilk Xbox gamers out of even more money. I guess the original $1000 I spent on the console, games and accessories just isn't enough for 'em.
- Is this the same book?
By A1PUN2TSSGQ2KC on 2008-03-03
After going to numerous retail (Borders, Barnes and Nobles) and their onlince counterparts + Amazon, I've come to the conclusion that someone at Microsoft dropped the ball. Each time I ask them to key in the ISB for the book titled "XNA Game Studio Express and Visual C# express edition", expecting to find a book with a CD. And each time I locate it on the shelf there is a similar book called "Microsoft® XNA® Game Studio 2.0: Learn Programming Now", with the same ISBN, same Author, similar cover, but without the CD. What gives? Is this the same book, but with a changed name shortly before release (i.e. Revenge of the Jedi)? If so, where is the CD. If someone from MS Press reads this I hope they will clarify this.
- Good book but not quite
By A2MBAW9GLU1DMI on 2008-03-26
*NEWSFLASH*
Forget about the not downloadable code... It can be found a very silly games dot com. If you want to learn more about XNA. Buy this book...
*END NEWSFLASH*
First of all let me say that I think that this book is very well written. It explains things quite easy and I think beginners are going to enjoy this book quite a lot. Even medior programmers can learn stuff from this book. And I think everyone gets a pretty good insight on how XNA works. Having said that, there is one complaint and preventing this book from getting more than 3 stars.
The book tells you to look at examples quite often. And as I am one that likes to see code examples I find it very annoying that the CD is not available. But as some of the previous reviewers mentioned everything is downloadable so I went out for a search.
So I thoughed I get it of the Microsoft press site. But as it turns out the CD is not downloadable atm. So well, lets try searching via Google. Nothing to be found. Perhaps I am looking in all the wrong places, but I you write a book and refer to code examles quite a lot I think they should be easily available. This is not the case atm. So herefore 3 stars and no more.
Talk about a BIG shame.
So in conclusion. When you think of buying this book make sure you have the code examples. Than this book is going bring you lots of joy. If you cannot find them, my advise would be. Leave this book be till you do.
- Where's the 2.0 stuff?
By A2WA5G4FU3KKR1 on 2008-04-29
This book is really simple. If you are just starting out, you may want to start here -- although I might would suggest starting with a straight C# book (or online tutorials).
The book has 2.0 in the title, but I couldn't find anything new to 2.0 discussed in the pages.
- Amazing so far!
By A33EFXC94II3Z7 on 2008-11-13
If you're new to XNA like I was, this will make an excellent book for you. For someone with no programming experience, you might want to get that first. This book touches on really basic concepts for review but probably does not go in depth enough to teach it to you.
But for someone with programming experience, but not XNA experience, this book has been amazing. Everything is very clear, the code runs great, and i've actually had fun doing it. Apparantly there is source code online, but I've never gone to the site. Everything is in the book, so if you read and understand it, you should be able to do it on your own and actually learn something.
For someone with XNA experience that wants more, you'd probably just find review materials in here. You'd be better off looking elsewhere. But for someone in my shoes I'd definately recommend this book. It's everything I wanted it to be.
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