Harry Potter
is one of this year's biggest success stories after the four books that have
been released to date about the young boy's magical adventures, but bear in
mind that this review is being written by someone who doesn't know his Hagrid
from his Hogwart's.
Don't ask me exactly what you're meant to do, other than explore Hogwart's
School of Witchcraft, meet up with your friends Ron and Hermoine, beat the
school bully, Draco Malfoy, as well as his henchmen and get from A to B to do
what you have to in a game that amounts to an easy Tomb Raider style
3D platform adventure, presumably made easy because it'll be mostly kids who
play this and they don't want to have to faff around with pixel-perfect jumps.
The graphics are okay, but nothing special - about all we're going to get on
the Playstation for the rest of its lifetime, with its usual jagged edges
and clipping rearing their ugly head. Still, with the eerie sound of the wind
blowing in the background and an echoey appearance to everything that happens,
it strikes up a good atmosphere in general.
As for the gameplay, if you've played with Lara Croft - and who hasn't - then
you'll know what to expect, but on a far more simplified level. No particular
complaints, other than that the gaming world's moved on, but then EA
were hardly wanting to make their mark with a revolutionary one here.
Overall, this is one of those entertaining but specialist titles that'll only
appeal to those who either thoroughly enjoy reading the books, or at least
have the faintest idea what is going on - so that doesn't include me... on both
counts.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Harry Potter
is one of this year's biggest success stories after the four books that have
been released to date about the young boy's magical adventures, but bear in
mind that this review is being written by someone who doesn't know his Hagrid
from his Hogwart's.
The graphics are okay, but nothing special - about all we're going to get on
the Playstation for the rest of its lifetime, with its usual jagged edges
and clipping rearing their ugly head. Still, with the eerie sound of the wind
blowing in the background and an echoey appearance to everything that happens,
it strikes up a good atmosphere in general.
Overall, this is one of those entertaining but specialist titles that'll only
appeal to those who either thoroughly enjoy reading the books, or at least
have the faintest idea what is going on - so that doesn't include me... on both
counts.
