storyLines

I bought this game from GameTraders at Castle Towers. The Price was excellent, $69.95 when EB Games cost $79.95.

Quite an average game, a nice big place to venture through and explore, but it seriously lacks story content. This Harry Potter game brings back the flying minigame and introduces the first ever potions mini-game.

Potions is probably the most worthwile part of the game, as flying is quite boring, flying continuously in a path through rings, with no variation. The story is terrible, made up of mostly cinematics, with all major plot points being unplayable.

Another big part of the Harry Potter franchise which has returned is duelling. You get to use many of the spells you read about in the books or have seen in the movies…IT IS FUN! You have the opportunity to become champion dueller of Hogwarts, and it truly is the funnest part of the game. Some parts are quite pathetic though, such as killing an opponent with a stunning spell or being continually bombarded by a glitch so that you are killed.

Quite a reasonable game, but with more content, I would feel better about how I spent my Money. Something that I can’t get over is the untapped potential. They made a large area to play in, but an ill-defined storyboard destroyed the game’s greatness. Everything was in a smaller area than it should have been, meaning a player only had to go into the far-off corners of the map to get Xbox 360 Achievements.

The story was short; I finished the game in less than a day, which is quite sad when you have played all it’s predecessors. I would not recommend this game, unless you were borrowing it from a friend.

Games can be an excellent diversion and  problem solving exercise. But can valuable skills or knowledge be developed with game play?

Here are a couple of games which will test your problem solving skills. Have a go at one or both and then add your thoughts via the comment function on this post.

In Ayiti: The Cost of Life you have to try to help the Guinards, a family of five living in poverty stricken rural Haiti. There are decisions to be made about work, education, health and other issues which will determine their quality of life. It is pretty tough to keep this family alive for a year or two. Try to help solve the problem of how to survive. You can find out where in the world Haiti is, and what the real life problems are for Haitians like the Guinards.

After Ayiti it may seem like a breeze to manage a river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy. You get a chance to try this in Catchment Detox. You can learn on the job in this one – you get 100 turns, each representing a year, to try out your plans - and you can investige the issues through video, audio and text based information. 

 Give one or both of these a go and report back. Good luck!

Mrs Thomson