Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The only reason i bought this game was because im a HUGE harry potter fan... ive read all 7 book atleast 3 times and ahve seen every movie, and own all of them... i even own all but one of the main harry potter video games... that being said this game is not very good...

since i cannot post my full review which exceeded the ridiculously small character limit, ill shorten it up a bit.... the game is a rent, and only that if you are currently obsessed with harry potter and cant wait for the movie... the cut scenes are dumb and pointless, and you are unable to skip them... the potion making is fun, quidditch is pretty good, and the dueling is much better than before...

but there isnt much to collect, and wandering the castle seems much more of a chore than before, and the castle seems smaller on the inside, less rooms to go into, and too many doors that dont open... as well as places that are pointless and have nothing in them...

in short, the game is playable but anyone new to the story wouldn't get it, and those who know it would be appalled by the way its been butchered... so unless you REALLY need to play a Harry Potter game, steer clear...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets

Im not sure why i expected this game to be fun, one day i was really obsessed with the Harry Potter series and decided to order games 2-5. my first problem with the game was that my XBOX wouldn't play it for more than 5 minutes, and even then it was slow as hell... i figured the game was scratched, so after many cleaning and disc repair methods i decided it was unsalvageable, so i went back to gamestop to exchange it, and when i got back the same thing happened, so i decided to try it on my friends XBOX... worked perfectly fine... idk what was going on because thats the ONLY game tht had ever done tht to me... anyway, back to the review...

the graphics are quite impressive compare to others in the series, GOF im looking at you... the controls work fine, but i was quite annoyed when i had to wait for the animation of an offensive spell to end, before i could use a defensive spell... it led to many aggravating boss fights...

the camera is ridiculous... in parts of the game, when hugging a wall, it is damn near impossible to see past your character... as the camera rotates through the wall and you cannot see a damn thing... this happened in only one particular part of the game, but it aggravated me so much i almost quit playing the game altogether...

the story was based on ( and i use that term very loosely) the book of the same name... apparently, even with all the material from the book, the developers decided they needed a writer for this task, and they also felt the need to add some useless "story elements".. guess they were trying to make it their own... but i think i can speak for most of the HP fans out there when i say, just stick to the goddamn book...

the XBOX version of the game has a "bonus feature" where you can fly around the castle on a broom stick.... intrigued? well, i would be too if i hadn't already tested it out... its pointless... the only thing to do while on the broom is go through hoops to collect jelly beans.. which are used to buy wizard cards and other useless crap... you cant actually DO anything with the castle... you cant explore hidden areas, do special side quests.. its just there...

it was the first time you could explore the entire exterior of the hogwarts castle, ill give them that, but why arent there any students outside? and why cant i enter the castle through any of the doors other than the main one?

so the game was pretty, but other than that, not all too special, and yet another reason why i despise the EA name...

Fallout 3

I have played the original fallout, for a mere 15 minutes... i didn't enjoy it at all, i couldn't understand why i had to use AP to move, or fire a round at an enemy, as it sat there biting me... so i was a little discouraged from Fallout3... But after hearing nothing but high praise from those who played it, i decided i should have a go at it... and this is what i thought about fallout 3...

Firstly, i installed the game on my 360 in order to prevent any read disc errors, which before sending it in, my 360 was prone to doing...

Anyway, the game has gorgeous graphics and amazing physics... although it does get a little carried away with the head shots... i mean there is no way a mans spinal column would be forced out of his body by a 10mm pistol... but it does make the head shots worth watching, so i can see why they put it in...

The sound quality has never really meant anything to me, as long as it doesn't sound like something from the NES or SNES era im alright, so lets just skip tht...

The controls, are very easy to become comfortable with... especially if you are already used to playing FPS games... the game does allow you to hot key your items, but since you can tap B and bring up your inventory at any point in the game, without being attacked, i saw no point in using the hot keys...

the storyline is interesting, but the main story only makes up about 1/10th of the game... probably less... but there are so many side quests and different places to explore and find, that the main quest isn't even necessary to have fun... just like oblivion, you can log hours upon hours just exploring the country side...

but unlike oblivion, you never encounter a load screen while exploring the wastes... which is something i particularly enjoyed... in Oblivion you would hit a loading screen every acre or so, in fallout, the only time i find load screens is when i go inside or outside a building or structure... this makes exploring much more enjoyable and worth while...

My only complaint about the game, the level cap is 20, when you hit level 20 you can no longer gain any more levels... i personally love making my chracter invincible by maxing out all of his skills, but by the end of the 20 levels, you can take on pretty much anyone so it doesnt really effect the gameplay much...

Fallout 3 is a Great game, and a must own for anyone who enjoys a good RPG, with great graphics, and hundreds of places to explore, the game is definitely worth the 60 bucks....

Kingdom Hearts Chains of Memories

Going into this game i figured i would be playing a Kingdom Hearts game that takes place in between KH1 and 2... while this is true, there are some BIG differences... The main and most important one being the game play...

Instead of the normal free roaming slash and smash game play the game uses an interesting card based fighting system... rather than being able to attack any enemy at any time, and heal yourself at any time (assuming you have enough mana or potions) you are forced to use a card that represents that action... and when you run out of cards ( because your cards are gone after you use them) you must replenish your deck by holding the X button while the recharge card is selected... the more times you run out of cards, the longer it takes to get them back.. It is EXTREMELY confusing at first, but after about an hour or so you begin to accept the new game play and it becomes second nature...

The camera is completely manual, which is very annoying because you have enough to worry about without first having to find your enemies... i dont remember if the original KH had an automatic camera but it seemed like it was at least partially computer controlled..

After spending a few months playing nothing but XBOX 360 on my HDTV anything less just looks terrible.. which may explain why the games visuals appear to be ugly... so basically, understand that it IS a PS2 game and will NOT support HD so if you have an SDTV you may want to play it there...

The controls are what we have come to expect from square, so despite the complex gameplay, it is relatively easy to control...

In conclusion, the game is innovative, but i would definitely recommend renting or borrowing the game before you buy it... its not for everyone as it forces you to be more strategic with you battles... its a fun game if you like strategy, but the learning curve is a little sharper than it should be... and with PS2 visuals, its not exactly GORGEOUS...

Banjo Kazooie NB

First off id like to say, by no means is this a bad game, it just could have used a little more refinement, like most games... anyway here goes...

the story is ridiculous and unimportant to the games progression, so im just gonna skip it... the character controls are very easy to use and behave just like you would expect.... but the vehicles control a little differently... idk maybe it was just me, but i could never seem to go at a slow constant rate... it was either GO or no go... full speed or no speed... full throttle or no throttle... you get the picture... that could have been adjusted to accelerate slowly based on engine size....

the building mechanic is as good or better than anyone could expect... but it still takes way longer than it should to build a comparable vehicle... it is fairly easy to obtain parts to make outrageously powerful vehicles... in fact one could obtain most of the boxes in the town without entering a single world...

the graphics are stunning... the art seems to fit the game perfectly... and other than a few minor hiccups the game runs perfectly smooth...

my main issue with this game is that none of the vehicle parts, or objects in the game for that matter, seem to have any weight to them... meaning, if you have one little piece protruding from your vehicle, and it manages to nick a wall or any other object in the game world, instead of ripping that one piece off, your entire vehicle spins out of control... it is very frustrating to navigate a small closed course, quickly, without hitting a single object...

oh and all the tasks seem to follow similar guidelines... your either racing, picking people or things up and bringing them places, or pushing certain things out or around certain places... there are few tasks that break those guidelines... this makes the game quite repetitive...

so other than some somewhat large flaws, the game is decently fun, and since its only 40 bucks, its a pretty good bargain...