Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup

          Demo downloaded from www.gamesdomain.com
                    and reviewed by Sue

When I played the first Harry Potter game, Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone, I had to play Quidditch at a few points to
help the storyline progress. For anyone who hasn't read the books,
Quidditch is a competitive sport between two teams and is played
on broomsticks. In the two HP games based on the books, you play
Harry Potter. Harry's role in quidditch is to catch the snitch, a
tiny golden ball with wings. Catching the snitch scores so many
points that it's more important than scoring goals. The person who
chases the snitch is called the seeker.  There are also beaters
who try to stop members of their team being knocked off their
broomsticks by two homicidal balls called bludgers.

Of course the other team is trying to stop your chasers scoring
goals (with a ball called the quaffle) and you from catching the
snitch. Harry's nemesis on the Slytherin team is Draco Malfoy and
he's the seeker for their team. Unfortunately he'll try as hard to
knock Harry off his broom as he does to catch the snitch.

The demo started off with a promotional video about creating
the game. I started to wonder if this was all I'd downloaded in
the 253 meg file but no, it continues into an actual demo of the
game.

The promo is very interesting though. It is introduced by two of
the main programmers, Jeff Gamon and Nick Channon. They explained
how the game starts at Hogwart's but if you win at that level, you
get the chance to take on international players. At that level,
you'll be up against some real professional players and the game
becomes more interesting and challenging. There are nine
international stadiums in which to compete and each team has its
own style and special moves. The designers described quidditch as
a combination of ice hockey, basketball and soccer with a touch of
snowboarding. Unlike the quidditch matches in the HP games, in
Quidditch World Cup you can try all the roles, not just seeker.
You can also play as Malfoy and the Slytherin team as well as
Harry's Gryfindor team.

The design of the game was also explained. Each figure is made
like a wire mesh of about 4000 polygons. This is what gives the
tremendous detail. Sound and music add atmosphere.

The trailer finished and the demo proper started. It covers one of
the quidditch challenges - passing the quaffle. Your three chasers
fly in a v-shape formation with a large ring between each pair.
The rings cycle from green to yellow, so there's always one of
each colour. You have to pass the quaffle through a green ring to
score points. If it is yellow, you'll incur a time penalty and if
you miss, the rings go red and you get a higher penalty.

Having been rubbish at the quidditch sequences in the first HP
game, I didn't hold out any hope for my skills with passing the
quaffle. I was amazed to find I was quite good at it. As I
continued playing, I was told I'd unlocked other parts of the
game, but of course this is the demo so I couldn't access them.

All in all good fun. I wouldn't buy the full game because a game
solely based round a sport, even quidditch, isn't my thing. It
would be too arcade-ish. And though I might be okay at passing the
quaffle, I am sure I'd be hopeless at a full quidditch game.  I'm
glad I tried the demo though.














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