Hogwarts Legacy - WB makes a full AAA RPG for Harry Potter

Apparently that’s February 6th at 7am ET. So definitely in advance – by a day for anyone who does the 72-hour early deluxe version, and 4 days for the regular edition.

The pull on this one is simply the exploration. I hope the devs have made it easy to sneak around and just encounter cool stuff, easter eggs, etc.

Agreed, and Hogwarts itself is an interesting enough world to not even bother with the outside, it reminds me of Richie Rich’s mansion in the comics, it was so big you could always write a new “wing” and have it be completely novel and funky.

So what House do folks want to be sorted into for their first character?

I’m thinking Ravenclaw, right? Isn’t that the smart and creative ones? Or maybe Gryffindor, since this is a video game, not real life, so maybe you actually do want to be brave, daring and chivalrous?

Apparently you can import your house/wand/etc from the official HP site, so Slytherin for me!

I never noticed HP was from Slytherin!

Now it all makes sense.

When I first heard about this game, I was pretty neutral about it. Then as I heard more and more I started developing a bit of an interest, to the point where I thought I would probably get it, no questions asked.

But for some inexplicable reason, the final trailers have somewhat dampened my interest. And I can’t quite say why. I’m trying to figure myself out, even after 65 years! I’m no super HP fan so I don’t have any philosophical quibbles with killing people or how the game implements the universe. And I feel like I can hold an opinion on Rowling’s views and evaluate the game in a separate mental box. So it’s just… I’m not sure. Something about the game makes me wanna hold back and see reviews and gameplay from actual people as opposed to scripted gameplay demos and trailers.

So I’m looking forward to the game release and the flood of information that will bring, but I’m not completely on board yet.

Me too, pretty much. I’m intrigued, but I want to see what a bigger set of players feels about it. Particularly, I’m interested in how much exploration/physical world building there is around Hogwarts itself. I’m hoping it’s more than a Potemkin village.

I got to the same place. I’ve only looked at a few of these previews to see if I’d want to pull the trigger but there is clearly a bias from them that they are Harry Potter fans. I’m looking for honest opinions before I decide to pay full price.

I’m Harry-curious also but waiting on reviews.

If it gets 9’s, I’ll know what to do. If it gets 7’s, I’ll know what not to do. If it gets 8’s, well, I’ll have a decision to make. I suspect it’ll be 8’s.

Has WB shown any PC gameplay at all? That’s what worries me, the quality of hte port. The rest of the game has me sold, likely on the first sale I see for it.

self plug that for those still waiting I’ll be playing it at launch with plenty of bias’d gameplay on stream ;)

I can’t guarantee I’ll watch you unless I know what house you’re choosing!

I took the test years ago and was firmly in Slytherin to my surprise but apparently nobody else who knew me.

Sharkonis the Slytherine

Yeah, Harkonis is a total Sytherin name, obv.

Same here. I have no issue being in Slytherin as it’s the house of the greatest wizard in English history. Merlin!

The wait-and-see on this is probably going to be a longer wait-and-see than you’d normally wade through, because this game is the Implicit Bias Game of the Decade, I’d imagine.

Even without Rowling’s idiot, buffoonish cruelty, you’d have Potter superfans over-scoring the game, while non-fan reviewers too eager to be “objective” (god I hate that word in reviews) might be dialing it down.

But then add in the IP creator, and you’ve got a whole bunch of new ingredients to stir into the mix. I mean, imagine the task for reviewers on this game – give it a good review and you’re going to get attacked from one group. Give it a bad review, and here comes a different outraged faction. I can imagine a reviewer bias to giving the game a 6.7 rating just to try to plant a score in the low-middle zone and then hoping to deflect any uproar.

So yeah. I think we’re gonna be waiting on reviews (which, the embargo lifts in the morning), and then reviews of the reviews, and then backlash against that, and then counter backlash from that.

It just drives home what any reviewer or critic worth their salt has always said: don’t read the score, read the review. The arguments for why the game is good or bad are more significant than any rating per se. I do agree though that there will be some tea-leaf reading to be endured.

There are some leaked videos floating around from people who got early physical copies. Looks pretty darn good at first glance.