new harry potter is more of the same

As an avid fan of the Harry Potter books going back to their original late 1990's releases, I have always wanted to love the video game counterparts that have gotten more and more realistic and high-tech over the years. I played Order of the Phoenix on the Wii and like it alright but never felt sucked into it and was thoroughly confused by some of the motion controls for casting spells. Now, two years later, we've nearly reached the release date for the sixth movie Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (can't wait, the trailers are amazing) and the video game of course came out this week. Preliminary reviews don't pan it or anything but it sounds like it was tough to top the innovative and engaging open-world gameplay introduced in the previous title. As Harry fans know, Quidditch was banned in the 5th book but makes a comeback in the 6th and apparently the game pays homage to this with occasional Quidditch minigame-style levels. It sounds like superfans of the series will probably enjoy The Half-Blood Prince as much as they enjoyed Order of the Phoenix, but that other than a few new characters and of course an advanced plot, the game's mechanics haven't come that far.

New Harry Potter game does little to improve upon last one