Double, double, toil and trouble Watch the cauldron boil and bubble By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes While some of you might recognize these lyrics from the opening of Act IV of Shakespeare's Macbeth, they also are sung in the new Harry Potter movie. Hence, what better way than to give a nice magical and eerie feel to the beginning of the game review for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I picked up this game right after seeing the movie in order to keep the mood going from all the potter goodness of the film. Did I achieve that: yes and no. Before I even get into the technical stuff of the game, let me give you this one major disclaimer. If you like Harry Potter, you will probably enjoy this game due to the fact that you can actually explore and interact with the virtual environments that you have grown to love so much. But if you have read the books and know every little detail of what happened when, this game will annoy the hell out of you. Let’s just say that EA definitely took their own version of artistic license when recreating Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban into video game form. There are many times in the game where you will go, “Huh, I don’t remember that happening that way?” “When did Malfoy drink a polyjuice potion to morph into Ron?” “When did dementors chase Harry through the train and Ron had to save him?” Now I understand that not all video games have to follow the movie/book that are based on to every distinct detail. But when you have such a strong following for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the entire Harry Potter series, this can be extremely frustrating to the die-hard fans. Come on, it’s like saying Yoda married Princess Leia… it just didn’t happen that way. Now, let’s get back to the more technical stuff of the game. (sorry for my little rant there) The graphics in the game are pretty impressive. A lot of detail was put into both the backgrounds of the game as well as the characters. There are a multitude of in-game movies that are well done including pretty dead-on voice acting. Quests are usually played by utilizing all three characters: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Switching between the three of them causes the screen to blur and can sometimes make your eyes twitch, but I found that to be really the only minor graphical flaw in the game. Gameplay is established through a series of quests that are set up for you on a day based status. By accessing an options screen you can see a checklist of all the tasks that you have to complete for the day. Tasks can range from such things as getting items for potions class, saving Neville Longbottom from a troll, or simply just going to class. Spells are obtained from quests and become equipped to the student who finds them. This can prove to be somewhat annoying when trying to track which person has which spell. All the quests had a classic puzzle feel. Although while I was playing them I seemed to feel that “I have done this before” feeling. (a.k.a. old school Zelda) While you are trying to solve the puzzles your teammates will scream at you hints to try to solve the puzzle. This can prove to be either helpful or annoying depending on how long it takes you to solve the puzzle due their limited amount of programmed phrases. There were some very fun aspects to the game though as well. For example, there are many characters that appear in the game that never appeared in the movie including Peeves. Another cool thing was that you get to do is actually ride Buckbeak and utilize him to help you finish your assigned tasks. We must also remember that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is essentially still a kid’s game. Hence, you can never die. If you die, the game automatically restarts from where you just died. The game can get hard in parts, but there really shouldn’t be anything that you can’t beat. All you have to do is figure out the answer to how do I beat the boss or how do I move this block to open the gate. Just from reading this review, I know you can tell that I might have a little bit of a bias towards the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban game. I have become a fan of the series and I was looking forward to this game tiding me over till the next book came out. I have to say I was greatly disappointed because it just annoyed me that the storyline diverted from the book. On the other hand, this game was still very fun and I liked exploring the environments I had read so much about. So overall, I would still recommend this game. 4 out of 5 Wingardiam Leviosa Spells