Half-Blood Prince: Preview

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the video game, is to be released on June 30th this year to coincide with the films release date. It was originally scheduled for November 2008, but when the film was pushed back so too was its computer counterpart.

For anyone who hasn’t played a recent Harry Potter game, it’s essentially an adventure game that throws you into a sandbox-type world that takes you through the sequences and events that unfold in the movies. You’re allowed to discover Hogwarts for yourself (well, most of it) and jump into a whole host of missions and side-stories along the way. You can also of course attend lessons in which your wizarding powers will become stronger as the game progresses, learning new attacking and defensive spells, as well as a few charms to help you on your quest.

This game in particular, just like the movie, and the book (surprise, surprise) follow the story of Harry, in his attempt to prepare himself for a final battle with Voldemort, whose powers are strengthening and his attacks on both the Muggle and wizard world are becoming more frequent and more powerful. Taken under the wing of headmaster Dumbledore they both go in search of facts and artifacts that they believe crucial to stopping Voldemort and his group of Death Eaters once and for all.

The game is set for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PC, Mac, DS, PSP and Nintendo Wii, so there is definitely enough options for everyone to get their hands on a copy right from the off. The Nintendo Wii version will offer platform-specific elements that will utilise the Wii Remote and its features as it did in the previous Harry Potter game, the Order of the Phoenix. Not only will you be able to brew potions with rhythmic movements of your remote, but you’ll also be able to partake in wizard duels, and even Quidditch. The game will sadly lack any MotionPlus functionality however, but that’s not too surprisingly considering the fact that Nintendo are saving it for games such as Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort in an attempt to infuse new life into the console.

The DS version of the game will include a lot of what the Wii version does, but instead you use your stylus for wizard duels and such. It also comes packed with a collection of mini-games, such as Gobstones and Exploding Snap that are up to this point version-exclusive.

Craig Bryan, NoobFeed