E3 2005: Level Up
Welcome to Hogwarts... Year Four
Product: Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire
Company: 16
Date: 05/28/2005
Avaliable On:

In anticipation of the new Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as well as the movie of Harry's fourth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, EA made sure to show off the latest game in their Harry Potter game line. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire follows Harry, Ron, Hermione and other familiar characters as they attend the Quidditch World Cup, find out more about Harry's past, partake in the Triwizard Tournament and take on everything from dragons to the Deatheaters (He Who Must Not Be Named's personal army of dark wizards) and even Lord Voldemort himself. Goblet of Fire also sports an all new spell-casting system as well as a co-op mode that lets you and a friend control Harry, Ron and Hermione to combine magic and produce more powerful spells.

When the young wizards return to school, they find that the events of this year will be some what unusual (yes, moreso than the rest of Harry's tenure at Hogwarts). After several hundred years of being discontinued, the Triwizard Tournament has be restarted, and this year's hosting school is none other than Hogwarts. Each of the three hosting schools put forth their top student, and those students go through a series of trials all leading up to obtaining the Goblet of Fire at the center of a maze in the last task. But something's wrong. Instead of three students being chosen -- a fourth name has been drawn, and of course it's Harry's. So now, not only does Harry have to deal with his typical problems of classes, miscast spells and his secret crush, but he must face three grueling tasks that makes Quidditch look like the magic teacup rides at Disneyland.

The three tasks include battling a fire-breathing dragon, swimming to the depths of the Hogwart's Lake, and navigating a deep and dense hedge forest with enemies lurking around every corner.

Like I said above, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire uses a new spell-casting system lets you "feel" the magic. With each flick and twitch of the wand, your controller will vibrate slightly. This, plus the ability to combine and mix spells makes the Harry Potter experience feel that much more authentic and fun.

You can experience the turning point of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series on all of the major current generation consoles: Xbox, PS2, GameCube, GBA, PSP and the DS. This fourth story falls at the center of the seven Harry Potter books. That means the events that happen in Goblet of Fire will have long-lasting repercussions, not everyone will survive the Triwizard Tournament, and old evils will rise again.

J.R. Nip aka Chris Meyer

GameVortex PSIllustrated TeamPS2