Harry Potter Gets Azkaban Game, Stone Brickbats

Thanks to TotalVideoGames for its article revealing EA's announcement of the Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban game adaptation, due some time in 2004 and giving fans "the first chance to play as friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, along with Harry Potter, switching between characters and utilising their key attributes and skills to resolve challenges." An interview with the game's producer over at IGN Cube further reveals players "will also get the opportunity to control Hedwig and to fly Buckbeak, the Hippogriff", and this internally-developed EA title will hopefully work better than the recent Warthog-developed Sorceror's Stone adaptation, of which 1UP commented it was "a mystery why anyone would want such an imaginative world filtered through trappings as bad as these", and IGN PS2 lamented was "strangely nowhere as compelling or refined as Chamber of Secrets."

Movie ports...

[indros13]

...always bring up the following question for me:

Are there any good ones, for PC or otherwise?

In my, admittedly limited, experience with games based on movies, they all too often really suck. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we're paying money to simply interact with on-screen characters as opposed to having a creative and innovative plot and interface. The Star Wars franchise, for example, seems to be so focused on porting every movie and book story to video game that they don't bother with the kind of inventiveness and follow-through that mark pure video games, such as Wolfenstein, Warcraft, or Simcity.

Anyone else have similar experiences with movie ports? Were either of the first two Harry Potter games any good?

Re:Movie ports...

[musikit]

you know when i went to gdconf i attended a session on building video games off of movie/tv IP and the person who ran the show often complained that the company they purchased the IP from was always cutting ideas/game concepts/money/time from the video game in the interest in getting it to market before the IP wasn't "interesting" to people anymore.

i only say this because often the game maker wants to actually make a cool and interesting game but is cut off by the publisher or IP owner. as far as movie/tv related games go rent them from blockbuster if they suck you wasted $5 if they're cool go out and buy them.

Re:Movie ports...

[Masami Eiri]

My cousin has both on PC, and Sorcerer's Stone GBA.
While not great, they were good timewasters.

Re:Movie ports...

[molafson]

Are there any good ones, for PC or otherwise?

People seemed to like GoldenEye for the N64.

Re:Movie ports...

[Blakey Rat]

Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 was probably the best game ever published for that system.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a very good RPG based in the Star Wars universe (but not on any specific movie.)

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (and Elite Force II) are very well-done Star Trek games. (TV, not movies, close enough.) They even had the cast of the show do the voices.

So yes, they do exist.

Some good ports exist

[Trillian_1138]

I would have to say there are a couple fun ones out there.

While not strictly movie-to-game ports, a number of the recent Star Wars games have made excelent use of the Star Wars universe. "Knights of the Old Republic" and the two recent Jedi Knights games come to mind. And the Rogue Squadron series, which takes place during the origonal trilogy, is pretty damn awesome. That said, all of the strict Star Wars movie-to-games have sucked (except for the SNES versions, which almost entirely ignored the plots of

Re:Some good ports exist

[culain]

Resident Evil anyone? And is anyone else waiting for a counterstrike live action movie? (where waiting = dreading).

Re:Some good ports exist

[h0mer]

The real question is, is it possible to create a game-to-movie conversion?

Oh, I can think of one. [apple.com]

The Slashdot favorite

[Anonymous Coward]

We're waiting for the "Order of the Phoenix" game, where we Slashdotters can play the fat smelly house-elf who grumps about everything. It's hardly a stretch at all.

Re:Play as?

[secolactico]

I think Ebert said it best when he mentioned that she was in "the early stages of babehood".

She's about 13 I guess, so we'll have to wait a few years to see if she shines or burns out (think Dana Plato). I can't remember a child star that did well past puberty.

Re:Play as?

[the Man in Black]

I can't remember a child star that did well past puberty.

Dude. Come on. [google.com]

That's an obvious one. Punky Brewster [google.com] is also quite the piece. Not to mention Nikki Cox. [google.com] Dear, sweet Jesus.

Re:Play as?

[secolactico]

Ok, now that I re-read my post, I wasn't clear enough. Yes, all those actresses you mention are quite an eyeful, but they all became involved in projects that stink to high heaven.

Punky Brewster? Besides that show, I only remember her in a baaaad movie about a professor accused of murdering or some shuch.

Alyssa Milano: Rent poison ivy 2. Quite hot, she is, but besides "Charmed", I don't think she's been in anything good.

Nikki Cox: hotness! Limited to bad sitcoms, apparently.

Dana Plato was quite hot

Re:Play as?

[Maserati]

There was a Poison Ivy 2 ?

WTF ?

Re:Play as?

[Matrix272]

Yes, all those actresses you mention are quite an eyeful, but they all became involved in projects that stink to high heaven.

OK, let me point out one obvious choice that's still making some good, entertaining movies / TV shows: Kirsten Dunst [imdb.com]. She was fantastic in Interview with the Vampire in 1994, when she was only 12... that's pre-pubescent, yet now, she's making movies like Spiderman. Or, how about Christina Ricci [imdb.com]? She's got a rack that I'd kill for, just to suckle on for an hour (or week).

its the fourth one we want!

[odorf]

We all want to be able to play as Frank Bryce!! Then we can go into the local pub and slaughter all those people that are talking bad about us. Especialy that dot person...

The first one's ending sucked

[TerryAtWork]

I never did beat V. And there was no quick way in, either...

Swapping characters...

[mrpuffypants]

...reminds me of the old Day of the Tentacle game where you could swap between characters as the game progressed. I'll assume that the only difference between Maniac Mansion/DotT will be that they were great and the Potter games...well...will suck for sute :(

Um...

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

"the first chance to play as friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, along with Harry Potter, switching between characters and utilising their key attributes and skills to resolve challenges."

So, uh, what are Ron's special skills again? ;)

Re:Um...

[culain]

He's an excellent goalkeeper, or whatever they call it in HP. Or does that not happen till a later book? And he provides comic relief?

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[account_deleted]

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What's a mystery?

[Inoshiro]

Why they haven't just put out a Harry Potter RPG. You could either set it a few hundred years before hand, in the rich for story telling era of the original wizards, or set it around the time of everyone's parents.

You could choose your character's stats, or have them randomly generated.. going through, exploring the school and surrounding area, and moving on. You could spend the time there learning magic and fighting mythical monsters, enjoying it all the way. It'd be like KOTOR, but for Happy Potter.

I

Re:What's a mystery?

[Gothic_Walrus]

If you're really looking for a Potter RPG, try the Game Boy Color (not Advance) Sorcerer's Stone / Chamber of Secrets games.

They're relatively simple RPGs, but they are RPGs. Leveling up, item collecting, fighting battles against random rats...it's all there.

I know that's not quite what you want, but it's your best option as of now.

I already own it.

[Inoshiro]

And yes, it's not what I want. As I said, a true RPG where you make your story. You name your character and guide him/her/it through the adventures possible only in the world where wizards and witches hide from muggles. No such game like this exists, but I know every Potter fan wishes it did.

Re:What's a mystery?

[culain]

Don't expect someone like EA to make a game like the one you just described, even though it sounds a few orders of magnitude more interesting than the ... adequate... movie to game translations that have ocurred so far. We can but dream.

Satan!

[DAldredge]

HP is satanic! Everyone know it!!!