The first part to the LEGO series, Harry Potter: Years 1-4, was launched across all platforms last year. It covered all the main goings on from the first four movies and books and was packed full of magical gameplay and potion making. The second installment to the series covers the action from the last three episodes and features much of the same mystical challenges against lots of creatures and other wizards including Lord Voldemort.

Suitable for all ages, this game focuses on solving puzzles, exploring and colleting, much like other LEGO themed games, except this series also integrates casting spells, more of which can be unlocked as the player progresses. A wide range of magic is available to the characters, even a choice of which spell to use is given to each wizard. Be careful though because if a spell isn’t quite mastered, you could find yourself cast into a frog.

The trailer, which can be viewed below, shows some memorable reenactments of some of the action in the movies, including the three main characters, Harry, Hermione and Ron flying over the Thames as well as a few comical twists like the moment Dumbledore was whisked away by the Phoenix being a little out of sync shall we say. Check it out for yourself below.

What do you think of the trailer? Are you looking forward to the game?

More About: Harry Potter, Travellers Tales, Warner Bros. Interactive

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This is also the same with the latest Harry Potter movie, as it has grossed $168.6 million in its first weekend, beating the previous holder of the record of $158.4 set by Batman: The Dark Knight. OK, so we know that talking about movies is off-topic, but is it really? Harry Potter is the best selling movie franchise ever, and although Call of Duty is still a long way off Mario, a few more titles like Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 could change all that.

MCV has been talking to GAME UK and said that pre-orders are significantly higher than the previous CoD game Black Ops pre-orders. The game is all set to break the UK record, so we have no reason to believe that this will not be the case in the US. The fan base is huge for Call of Duty, and is getting larger all the time.

Modern Warfare 3 has its work cut out, as Black Ops made $360 million on its first day of release in the US. That was more than four times Avatar made on its first day; so we expect MW3 to do the same to the latest Harry Potter movie. We do not have a final figure of total Call of Duty franchise game sales, but as of November 2009 it was at 55 million.

However, we know that Modern Warfare 2 sold 20 million copies and over 20 million for Black Ops. If we are to suggest the Modern Warfare 3 will sell more, then we are looking at total franchise sales of more than 115 million. That is still a long way behind Mario, which has amassed sales of 262 million. However, that franchise has now seen over 200 games.

We can never see Call of Duty ever having that many versions, but does it really need it? As sales keep increasing for the popular FPS we could see that by 2017 CoD could become the biggest game franchise ever – that’s if the game will still be about by then?

More About: Activision, call of duty, Harry Potter, infinity ward, Modern Warfare 3

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Judging by some of the reviews that have been surfacing online over the past few days, it looks like the answer to that question is unfortunately yes. For example, Joe Sinicki from blastmagazine.com says that although the developer has obviously made an effort to tune and tweak the mechanics of the last game, they still don’t work and can unfortunately be pretty frustrating.

According to Joe, the ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’ game has a short, dull campaign (will take the average gamer around 3-5 hours to complete), bad voiceovers and can be incredibly repetitive. Joe does however say that it is good fun to test out and experiment with new spells. Meanwhile Kristine Steimer from IGN gave it an overall score of 5.5/10.

Kristine says that it really doesn’t matter which Harry Potter character you are cast as, as most of the levels play out the same. She also states that although the level design is unfortunately lacking, the shooting is entertaining. Alex from thesixthaxis.com is another reviewer that wasn’t too impressed with the ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’ game.

In fact, Alex goes as far as describing it as one of the oddest games of this year. The only positive thing pointed out by this reviewer is the fact that there is some tactics required when using magic. Alex says that while the game is sound enough on a technical level, it’s far from magical as a Harry Potter game.

Kyle Hilliard from the gamechronicles.com website on the other hand gave the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 game an overall rating of 6.4 out of 10. As Kyle notes, the second part literally picks up where the previous game and film left off, with Harry and friends setting out to find the last remaining Horcruxes of Voldemort.

What sets the Deathly Hallows Part 2 game apart from the previous title is the pacing, which keeps the game moving along and ensures that it remains interesting. However, it also means that the game is pretty short. One of the highlights of the game in Kyle’s opinion is the music, which is taken straight from the Harry Potter movies.

You can read more of the reviews by visiting the links provided. Have you played the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 game yet?

More About: Electronic Arts, Harry Potter

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According to an article by Matthew Reynolds over at digitalspy.co.uk, the game – which is developed by Bright Light Studios – will be released in July alongside the much-anticipated movie, and will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC and Nintendo DS.

The game’s confirmed playable characters include Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Seamus, Neville, Professor Flitwick and Harry Potter himself. Voldemort will also be making an appearance as an unlockable playable character in multiplayer, which can be done by collecting specific in-game tokens.

The PlayStation 3 version of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 game has been confirmed to support the PlayStation Move controller, while the Nintendo DS version will provide multiplayer for up to 4 gamers. You can view the announcement trailer over at digitalspy.co.uk.

Will you be buying the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 video game?

More About: Harry Potter, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Wii

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Strange thing is, that the leaked copy only seems to be the first 36-minutes of the film, uncovering questions that the leak could be due to Warner Bros. studios themselves who are trying to drum up anticipation for the film, TorrentFreak reports.

Warner Bros. have responded to the leak, and say that it was not intentional because it “constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property,” they told Wired.

We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available. Also, we are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law.”

This is not the first time a Harry Potter leak has gone under the microscope, as a prerelease copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was also leaked online before it hit retail stores aswell.

Have you seen the 36-minute teaser yet? Will it entice you to go and see it at the cinema?

Source: PC World

More About: Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, warner bros

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