The Gaming Daily News Update

Ventus · Jul 26, 2008

I'll try to put up one or two pieces of news each day about any kind of videogaming. I'm about to post some now

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on Wii Hands on- 26th Jul 2008

Last year, I reviewed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I brought home one of the copies for my wife -- a Hogwarts devotee -- but she would have none of it. She'd only explore the open-world school of witchcraft and wizardry on the Wii. I tried to tell her that the PS3/360 game was the same game as the Wii, but she'd hear none of it. She wanted to wave the Wiimote like a wand. Once we got her version, the game would become the first videogame she ever beat.

After playing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I can tell you that my wife -- and any other Potter fan for that matter-- is going to lose her mind this November.

The demo on the Comic-Con show floor gives gamers a few options to try out. You can take an easy potions course or an advanced potions course, play a Seeker mini-game, or face off in a wand duel. Now, don't panic; the segments of the today's demo will just be integrated into the story mode. Half-Blood Prince is going to stick with the gigantic, living Hogwarts that you wander around to get missions. The game's even adding changing times of day so it won't perpetually be noon outside and different student moods to accompany those times -- i.e. a kid who is super-energized in the morning might be rundown by the evening.

Anyway, back to the new stuff.

Wands at the ready.The potions class is going to crop up in the game when you need to whip up an elixir for a mission or when you're chilling with the Potions Club. You'll enter the mode and be staring from a first-person perspective at a cauldron and a table full of vials, beakers and more. Next to all of your equipment will be the potions book. Rather than read the text, icons from the pages will rise into the air and you'll need to either grab the corresponding object or pull off a motion. When I started my pot, a fire icon rose up and I had to shake the Wiimote and nunchuk to generate a blaze beneath the cauldron. As the fire grew, the liquid in the container changed colors. When the fire reached the desired temperature, the Wiimote rumbled and I had to stop shaking. I didn't stop on my first try, and the pot got too hot. Smoke spouted from the fluid, and I had to wave the nunchuk from side to side to clear the haze.

The icons kept coming, and I had to use the Wiimote to select the vial needed. I'd click A to pick the container up, move it into position with the controller, and then turn my wrist to pour the fluid into the pot. In the beginning, I was spilling crap all over the place, but I eventually got the system down. After adding the ingredients, the game grades your performance and you're left to take the concoction into the world.

The Seeker mini-game is a simplified look at Quidditch. When you begin, you'll be watching Harry on his broom and need to point your Wiimote where you want to fly. See, the forward momentum is on rails so you don't have to worry about turning; you just have to worry about getting Harry into the right section of the screen to get through these floating stars that are kind of like racing game checkpoints. If you start missing the stars, your speed will begin to drop and the color of the checkpoints will go from green to yellow to red before you fail out. It probably sounds pretty simple, but this is a Quidditch match, mate! When I took Harry through the paces, I had to deal with trying to get the Seeker back to the center of the screen after some intense speed sequences and worry about the jerks from Slytherin ramming into me and knocking me off course.

You'll probably want to chase down these punks after you're off of your broom, but anyone who played last year's Potter game will tell you that fighting with your wand sucked. You'd plant your feet, sit there, and hurl attacks at your opponent until one of you collapsed.

Lame.

Oh, it's so on.Thankfully, those complaints have been addressed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Not only will you be able to move while you cast spells, but you can also tap the A button for quick dodge. When I raised my wand to go up against Draco Malfoy on the famed dueling platform, I got a crash course in a few of the spells available to me. Pushing the Wiimote down and then raising it up cast the Stupefy spell, lifting both the nunchuk and Wiimote into the air called for Wingardium Leviosa, and slashing both controllers in a diagonal line cast a protective spell. Expelliarmus and Petrificus Totalus were also part of my Potter arsenal, but my bout came down to me running from side to side while firing off energy orbs.

It was great!

During the duel, Potter and Malfoy had five crests apiece that acted as life bars. When all the crests were gone, the round was called. Each match was the best two out of three rounds.

I was a big fan of Order of the Phoenix, and what I saw of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince really has me excited to get my hands on the final version. It sounds like EA's kept all the things that were great about the first game, the company's refining the shortcomings, and the visual bar appeared to have been raised today -- the Quidditch course looked bright and detailed and the dueling room was spot-on. EA's even putting an emphasis on realistic body motion and more accurate facial representations this time around.

Get your wands ready.
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Source- IGN.com: Games, Cheats, Movies and More

This game sounds cool. I loved Order of the Pheonix on the wii and I can't wait until November. Harry Potter Madness and my birthday in the same month is awesome!

Ventus · Jul 27, 2008

Okami sequel unlikely- 27th July 2008

When Okami was released back in 2006 for the PS2, it received stellar reviews. Unfortunately, in spite of the positive feedback, not too many people purchased the game. Once Okami launched on the Wii however, people began to hope that there could be at least one more sequel down the line, as the game was given new legs. Still, the ruinous situation with PS2 sales continued with the Wii version. For this reason, it is probably not too surprising that Capcom's Corporate Officer/VP of Strategic Planning & Business Development, Christian Svensson, is doubtful of an Okami sequel. "I think we need a lot more people buying the current version before we seriously consider a sequel." The one striking detail about this quote is that a new game wasn't fully denied. One would expect that when Clover Studios dissolved, there would be a 100% assurance that Amaterasu would be taking a very long rest. Based on the quote though, the fact remains that more Okami in the future is highly improbable.
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Source N4G.com : Okami sequel unlikely

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