I just posted my review for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Check it out to see what I thought!
http://www.giantbomb.com/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/61-22766/user_reviews/?review=9279
As many of you know, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is out his week. Before reading this post I suggest that you watch the launch trailer.
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/launch-trailer-harry-potter/52096
I absolutely love Harry Potter. The universe is rich, fun, and really can suck you in. The books are absolutely brilliant and even the movies are decent(some better than others). There is one part of Harry Potter media that installment after installment is underwhelming. Of course I'm talking about the games. I blame EA, they own the franchise and are more worried about putting out an installment to be released at the exact time a new movie comes out than they do about quality and imagination. I don't see why they feel the need to mirror the films either, why not use a little imagination? Isn't that what Harry Potter is all about?
After watching the trailer you will notice a few rather distasteful things. The game trailer is essentially an in-game movie trailer. There is no gameplay footage, they are trying to make it appear almost epic to life changing proportions, and the game will mirror the movie very, very closely. Even though they don't show gameplay you can really see the presentation took a hit on this one. The graphics look worse than some xbox 360 launch titles, the facial animations are terrible, the voice acting and script are some of the worse I've ever heard in a game. "Are you ready to embark on our dangerous of a quest?" "You can do...MAGIC" , how many utterly terrible lines can you squeeze in a trailer that lasts for less than two minutes? It think EA may have brokens some records here.
It's a damn shame they waste opportunity after opportunity to create a good product with such fantastic source material. When you put no compassion into a product this is the kind of garbage it yields. As severe as this sounds, I hope the product sells terribly. Developers without great source material can create games 10X better than this, yet EA is determined to waste it in order for them to make some quick cash hoping it sells because of the name on it's box. EA, your name is on the box too, someday I hope that catches up with you.
I'm most likely only getting one game this summer and Call of Juarez is looking to be it. I'm a little worried about the multiplayer and length of the single player campaign so I'm going to wait for a few reviews to roll in. I was one of the few who really enjoyed the first and the second looks much better based on the gameplay videos. I expect a ton of reviews to come out tomorrow but it would be nice if a few came up today. The multiplayer modes look fun but I am worried about weapon/map variety as well. I'm hoping it turns out!
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