Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix PS2DVD

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=====================Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix=======================
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 
Game Type ........ : Fantasy Action Adventure  
Origin ........... : PAL       
Release Date ..... : Jun 25, 2007
Platform ......... : PS2   
Media  ........... : DVD  
Filename ......... : all-hpootp**
RARs ............. : Rar`s: 69x47.6MB, 1DVD: 3.18GB   
Developer......... : EA Games
Also on .......... : PC | PS3 | PSP | X360 | DS | GBA | WII | MAC 
Oficial Preview and Screens Presentet By GameSpot:
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/harrypott...abs;summary
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The video game version of Order of the Phoenix captures 
none of the magic in the Harry Potter books or films. 

The Good
Hogwarts is re-created in all its glory for you to explore   
Minigames are a pleasant diversion   
Voice acting and music are good.  

The Bad 
The game is little more than a virtual reality chore simulator   
Endless backtracking makes the game even more dull   
Cutscenes are glitchy and feel unfinished   
Nearly everything about the game is tedious   
Story is impossible to follow if you haven't read the book. 
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The Harry Potter series of books has captured both the minds of children and 
adults alike. The movies haven't disappointed either and are amongst the highest 
grossing films of all time. For some reason, the video games that have been 
released haven't been able to reach the same level of quality that the movies 
and books have achieved. The latest game, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 
continues that trend. There's a faithful re-creation of the Hogwarts campus to 
explore, but once you've seen the sights, there's not much else to do. Even the 
most diehard Potter fans will grow tired of seeing the grand staircase as they 
return from their umpteenth fetch quest. 

Order of the Phoenix follows the story of the book and the movie of the same name. 
After narrowly avoiding expulsion for using magic in front of a muggle, Harry finds 
that Hogwarts' new defense against the dark arts teacher seems to have it out for him. 
To make matters worse, Voldemort is threatening to rear his ugly mug again, and Harry 
fears that the school will be unable to defend itself. With the help of Ron and 
Hermione, Harry rallies the students together to form Dumbledore's Army in an effort 
to ready them for a fight against the dark lord. This all makes perfect sense if 
you've read the book, but the story's exceedingly difficult to follow if you haven't 
read it because vast segments are told via brief rendered video cutscenes and newspaper 
clippings. It's easy to understand how a three-hour movie might have to leave bits and 
pieces out, but it's puzzling that an eight-hour game can't tell even the most basic 
aspect of the story. 

Though the game's box says you'll get to play as Sirius Black and Dumbledore, you do 
so for less than five minutes, so you'll spend nearly the entire game controlling Harry. 
Ron and Hermione will be by your side the whole time offering hints on where to go or 
what to do next. You'll also encounter every recognizable character from the Harry Potter 
universe along your journey. The game starts off with a tutorial where you'll learn basic 
spells like wingardium leviosa (levitation), reparo (repair an object), accio (pull an 
object toward you), and depulso (push an object away) by helping people fix broken 
dishes, pack their suitcases, and move furniture--not exactly riveting stuff. On the 
PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation, 3, and Xbox 360, you cast spells by pressing a button 
to point your wand and moving the right analog stick in a specific pattern. Rotating 
the stick clockwise will cast reparo, pressing down twice will cast accio, and pushing 
forward twice will cast depulso. You can also use the keyboard and mouse on the PC and 
this works fine. On the Wii, you'll hold the remote vertically then tilt it forward to 
cast depulso. To perform wingardium leviosa, you'll raise both the Wii Remote and the 
Nunchuk to lift the object then move the controllers around to maneuver the object. 
This works surprisingly well, and it makes it feel as if you are actually casting 
spells, which goes a long way toward making the game more enjoyable. The PS3 does 
use the Sixaxis' motion controls, but tilting and twisting the controller as you 
hold it in your lap doesn't add much to the experience. 

Later in the game, you'll learn combat spells. These are cast in the same way as 
noncombat spells and mostly use the same patterns. But there will only be a few 
instances where you'll need to perform these combat spells because there's hardly 
any dueling in the game. This is probably a good thing because the combat isn't 
very good, and it's tough to tell if you're actually hitting someone. Even during 
the last fight, you just stand there casting the same spell over and over, waiting 
for a cutscene to signify the end of the battle. 

Once you've learned some basic spells, it's off to Hogwarts, which is faithfully 
re-created in a game for the first time. The Hogwarts campus is absolutely huge, 
which is both a blessing and a curse. Fans should really get a kick out of seeing 
the grand staircase in motion and candles floating above the tables in the great 
hall, as well as sneaking into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But traversing back and 
forth across such a large area quickly becomes tiresome. Once you find the proper 
passwords, you can use the passages behind paintings as shortcuts, but they don't 
cut that much time off the journey. Another problem is the in-game navigation system. 
You're given a map that lists all of the different areas on campus, as well as 
the location of each person you need to find. Once you've highlighted the person 
or place you're looking for, footprints will appear on the ground to lead the way. 
Unfortunately, the footprints are black, so they're difficult to see; they don't 
appear far enough in front of you, so you're constantly forced to stop to wait for 
them to appear; and the camera will often switch angles midstride, so you don't 
know which way you're facing. 

You've got a huge campus and healthy number of spells at your disposal, so you'll 
no doubt be doing all sorts of awesome things in incredible, mystical places, right? 
No. You spend most of the game running around trying to inform everyone as to the 
whereabouts of the room of requirement. You'll pick a character on the map, 
follow the footprints, and then tell people about the meeting place. In almost 
every single case, they'll have a reason for why they can't go. Of course, you've 
got to help them. This means you'll run all over Hogwarts collecting items, 
moving benches, fixing things, and helping people with their homework. This is 
how you spend the entire game. It's literally one fetch quest after another. 
Being able to pick the quest you want gives the illusion that you've got the 
freedom to do what you want, but the game is extremely linear in that there's 
only one way to accomplish any given objective. And sometimes you'll be performing 
the same exact task over again, such as when you're helping to disable the 
school's intercom by moving benches then pouring a potion into the speakers. 
You do this, not once, not twice, but five or six times; each time in a 
different room. 

Performing one menial task after another would be bad enough on its own, but 
other issues conspire to make it worse. The game does a decent job of showing 
you where people and places are, but once you've met with someone, you're quite 
often on your own when it comes to figuring out how to help him or her. For 
example, at one point in the game, you must help a kid find five talking gargoyles. 
Now, you've encountered several talking gargoyles to this point, but for some 
reason, you can't tell the kid this and you must find the gargoyles again. Not 
only are you doing something you've already done, but the map doesn't show you 
where these gargoyles are, so you're forced to scour the entire campus in an 
effort to locate them. 

When you're not playing the role of messenger boy, you'll spend much of your 
time cleaning up Hogwarts by putting statues, paintings, and urns back together. 
You can also search behind curtains for giant chess pieces, move blocks to 
find hidden plaques, light torches, and even sweep floors. These tasks are 
actually pleasant diversions for a short while, and you can unlock extras by 
performing them. But the tasks speak poorly for the game as a whole when 
sweeping the floor is a highlight. Another way to pass the time is to play 
chess, exploding snap, and gobstones. Gobstones (think marbles) and 
exploding snap (pick out matching pairs of cards) are simple but fun. 
Chess plays similar to Battle Chess and is actually quite engaging--if 
you've played chess before. The game will show you the moves that each 
piece can make, but there's no tutorial mode, which may leave many younger 
players clueless. 

Visually, Order of the Phoenix is all over the place. Many areas of Hogwarts, 
such as the grand staircase or great hall, look spectacular and are very detailed. 
However, many of the hallways look the same and are largely empty. Combat spells 
look really cool when you cast them, but there are so few duels that you'll 
rarely get to enjoy seeing the spells in action. At first glance, character 
models look just like their movie counterparts and are quite nice. But once 
you see them in motion, you'll notice that they all look kind of like zombies. 
Things are even worse in the cutscenes that utilize the in-game engine. 
Characters stare blankly off into the distance, they face the wrong way, 
their mouths often don't move when they talk, and they'll appear then 
disappear from view for no apparent reason. The PS3, 360, and PC versions 
look the best. Other than lower quality in-game cutscenes and some nasty 
aliasing, the PS2 and Wii versions hold their own, though the PS2's frame 
rate is pretty iffy at times. Having the actors from the films voice their 
characters in the game goes a long way toward immersing you in the experience, 
even with the shoddy cutscenes and script. The familiar musical score is here 
and suits the game perfectly, which kind of makes you wonder why it was used 
so little. 

It's hard to imagine that the video game version of Harry Potter and the 
Order of the Phoenix will appeal to anyone. Older fans of Harry Potter will 
enjoy exploring Hogwarts for a while, but they'll soon be bored to tears by 
the low level of difficulty and the tedious objectives. The younger set will 
also get a kick out of seeing the sights and will appreciate the forgiving 
difficulty, as well as the simplicity of the tasks at hand. But they'll quickly 
grow tired of using their favorite character to perform a seemingly endless 
parade of chores. If being the most famous wizard in the world were this boring, 
there wouldn't have been more than one book. 
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