Hi, I got my book in the mail yesterday. Here's what I thought about it: Overall the book is above average. I'm new to DB but I do alot of visual basic programming where I work and I've read a lot of VB books. First of all, the authors talk in simple, plain english. They make relevant comparisons to modern-day games (ie Doom III, Unreal T. 2003, Half-Life, Quake III, etc...), which has helped me lot.
The first few chapters cover the interface and even talk about DarkEdit, DarkMatter and DBPro. They also cover programming basics (variables, arrays, etc...) and, of course, Hello World!. That's about as far as I've gotten. I think from there they cover inputs (keyboard/mouse/joystick) and outputs (sound). Then on to 2d and 3d stuff.
It also appears that they cover most of the commands that you will need to get started. As for the CD, it comes with a trial DB and DBPro and all of the examples in the book. As for "big projects", there is one 2d number game and one 3d racing game.
In my opinion, I don't think the book has enough real world/project examples like most other programming books to. On the flip side, it seems to teach you enough to get started.
Overall, if you are already know how to do most of the basic stuff, then you don't need this book. Stick to the message boards for help. If you are a beginner like me, get the book, learn the basics, then hit the boards. I'll let you know as I get deeper into the book.
If you do decide to get the book, the cover price is $59.99 US and I got it from Amazon.com for about 44.00 US with shipping.
