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Lego the Game

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Post  technology tester Mon May 31, 2010 4:45 am

You can tell someone cares about their games when they get excited about a small detail. "Check this out," Jonathan Smith, the head of production at TT Games, said, showing off one of the 140 playable characters in Lego Harry Potter. It was a dog, and his ears moved up and down when he jumped. Smith was inordinately proud of the detail, and showed some more of the character's very dog-like animations. "Fang is the best," he gushed.

Fang is, of course, Hagrid's dog. The world of Lego and Harry Potter work very well together, and since we already know this story and these scenes, the developers are free to pervert our preconceptions. The sense of discovery and humor soaks the game, and each scene is filled with multiple nods to the films.

This is a real sequel

This may be the first game of Traveller's Tales from the world of Harry Potter, but it's a step up from the team's previous Lego games. The title simply looks better, with sharp graphics and an attractive depth of field effect. A new physics engine allows the characters to push Lego bricks around as they move, and the characters interact with the world via a number of selectable spells that Harry and his friends learn as they go through their years at Hogwarts.

You'll also be able to fly around some of the areas on brooms, and the game locks you into a sort of pseudo-2D plane to make the magical items easy to control so you can collect bricks and get to where you're going without the movements being confusing for younger players. Lego Harry Potter also allows you to move away from your co-op partner, and the screen is split dynamically so you can always tell where you are in relation to the other player, allowing you to both explore. There is a potion system which lets you mix ingredients, and the result will impact the world in different ways. An early attempt at potion brewing ends with an explosion. "They haven't learned that yet," Smith says.

You are safe

"The world of Lego is safe by its nature," Smith tells us, as we see our first Dementor. "So it's impossible for anything to be scary." Characters can fall apart and you can fail at certain tasks, but everything in the game is designed to keep you engaged and having fun. In an early level we smash up Gringotts Wizarding Bank to find hidden objects, and he notes that adults play this scene and become nervous. The idea of bringing that level of chaos to what should be an ordered place makes them uncomfortable. "Children, of course, have no issue with it," he says with a grin.
"In the Lego world, they are there to let you have fun," he says about the characters in the bank.

The game even shows us things that are talked about in the books and movies, but never seen, such as Slytherin's common room. Hogwarts itself is a massive, immersive environment, and different areas will be unlocked as you gain new powers. Smith tells us that the game gives you direction so you won't get lost trying to figure out where to go next. The painted portraits around the castle move, and in some cases you can interact with them.

The important thing is that eventually, Fang plays dead. He can chase his own tail. These things may not impact the gameplay, but all the little details that fill the game and the world it exists in shows the level of commitment there is to the idea of fun. These two properties work well together, and our thirty-minute demo has us very excited for the final product.
Lego Harry Potter is coming to the PC on May 3, 2010 and to the Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PSP, and PS3 on June 29, 2010.

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technology tester

Posts : 92
Join date : 2010-04-29

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