And how goes the gamers from the UK for the week past July 17? Chart Track's been busy as a bee, and it appears all you Harry Potter fans were, too. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS, mobiles) from Electronic Arts is still "leviosa-ing" at the top of the charts with Activision's Transformers: The Game rolling out at second.

And those who haven't got their minds locked on either movie-based games are still bench-pressing those neurons with More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima from Nintendo, with fellow Nintendo brain-twister Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree close in tow. Fifth spot is Wii Play's playground, with the Nintendo title still frolicking in the top ten, Wiimote in hand. Activision's Shrek The Third lumbers over to number six, while Take-Two's The Darkness lurks on number seven.

Nintendo's Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training brainstorms to eight spot, while simmering in at number nine is 505 Games' Cooking Mama. And re-entering the charts is Electronic Arts' Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 with a straight cut into the all-platforms' upper ten, giving the golfing title a shot for the birdie.

1. Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (Electronic Arts)
2. Transformers: The Game (Activision)
3. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
4. Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (Nintendo)
5. Wii Play (Nintendo)
6. Shrek The Third (Activision)
7. The Darkness (Take-Two Interactive)
8. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
9. Cooking Mama (505 Games)
10. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Electronic Arts)

 

Looking back to Chart Track's statistics for the first week of July, Electronic Arts' Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, DS, Wii, PC, mobile) stays on top of the all-platforms charts for the second week in a row, while UK gamers flex their nerve cells with Nintendo's More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima which sticks to a solid second.

Activision's Shrek The Third still keeps to the third spot the week ending July 7, though Take-Two's The Darkness dips two spaces to fourth. Keeping close to another fellow horror game, Capcom's Resident Evil 4 haunts at fifth place, while happily tailing behind with a Wiimote is Wii Play from Nintendo - still strong in the charts after re-entering the top ten.

Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas still relies on lucky number seven to stay up the charts, with Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 2 slowly revving down from sixth to eighth. Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End slips to ninth place from eighth (giving new meaning to nine pieces of eight, we reckon), while Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training from Nintendo re-enters the charts and continues to twist noggins at closing number 10.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: (Electronic Arts)
2. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
3. Shrek the Third (Activision)
4. The Darkness (Starbeeze)
5. Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
6. Wii Play (Nintendo)
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)
8. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Eurocom Entertainment)
10. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)

 

It's already been a week since our last Chart Track update and given the short lapse, a lot has changed. New to the list ending June 30 is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, whose multi-platform launch last week sees it performing a "Wingardium Leviosa" to UK's number one post.

Following closely along is The Darkness (PS3, Xbox 360), whose similarly timed launch schedule puts it at second place. Shrek the Third takes third, while Forza Motorsport 2 has moved down to sixth. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS) has dropped to 12th, after being replaced by More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima at fifth place, while Spider-Man 3 has gone down to the 11th spot.

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: (EA UK)
2. The Darkness (Starbeeze)
3. Shrek the Third (Vicarious Visions)
4. Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
5. More Brain Training From Dr. Kawashima (Nintendo)
6. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)
7. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal)
8. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Eurocom Entertainment)
9. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (7 Studios)
10. Wii Play (Nintendo)

 

An official announcement made available recently called out news that the game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has shipped across North America and should also be available in Europe by June 28. The game developed under the watchful eyes of Electronic Arts is now available on almost every current platform imaginable.

Boasting a non-linear gameplay feature, the title will allow players to explore the innards of Hogwarts Academy and uses an intuitive spell-casting gesture system that should please gamers on the Nintendo Wii. The game will boast the authenticity of the movie, from locales to characters, so we won't spill the story details until everyone's comfortable with the motion picture release.

Otherwise, the EA UK-developed game is rated E 10+ for Everyone (10+) and should be available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for a suggested retail price of US$ 59.99, the Nintendo Wii for US$ 49.99, the PlayStation 2 and PSP for US$ 39.99, and the Nintendo DS, GBA, PC and Mac for US$ 29.99. Another ported version for your game-capable mobile phone is also slated for release, although no price has been named as of press time.

Open the doors to Hogwarts once again; you'd surely want to revisit the place before you watch the fifth Harry Potter movie and read the last book, right? Regardless, Electronic Arts' Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix is here to give you an interactive refresher course in the form of a video game. Especially since it's available across all major console and handheld platforms, there isn't any reason for you to miss out.

In line with the game, EA has launched a new website for the fans. Stroll around the campus to view screenshots and videos. You've probably even seen some of those media content before here on QJ. There's also a section where you can read up on the specific features of each platform version of the game (PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, NDS, GBA, and PC).

What caught our attention though were the two coming soon sections of the site: "Mini-games" and "Wizarding Widgets." Wonder when those things will unlock themselves. Too bad Alohomora spells don't come cheap these days.

You can click the Read link below to head over to the site.

Here's a rare treat for those of us keeping tabs on the highly-anticipated multiplatform title, Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix - two videos that go deep behind the scenes of what goes around in the voice-acting part of the whole game development process. Harry Potter fans will definitely love these two tidbits, as you see the actual stars of the movie recording sound bites for their characters in the game.

The first video shows most of the celebrities gamely hacking away at their scripts, and it's an understatement that they sound pretty convincing, even when their entire audience is a microphone. The second gives viewers (and listeners) a peek at what they're doing to make sure Hogwarts itself is as lively and mysterious as it is in the book and film through the use of ambience noise and voices.

Must-watch videos, both of them. Enjoy!

The other video after the jump!

When Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was first announced, Electronic Arts maintained that it has gone to extreme lengths to recreate the locations from the movie in the game. EA even added that their developers worked closely with the movie team to construct a 3D virtual Hogwarts.

Well, we are all about to find out if it's all worth it especially with this offer from retail chain GameStop. According to the site's product page, fans can avail themselves of a free movie ticket provided that they purchase the Wii or the Nintendo DS version of the game from GameStop.

The bonus offer is applicable to any movie admissions provided that it will not exceed US$ 8.50. GameStop is currently offering the Wii version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for US$ 49.99 while the DS version costs US$ 29.99.

The offer will expire on August 13 and added details have been provided inside the game pack.


Buy: [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (DS)]
Buy: [Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Wii)]

You've seen how the sound effects of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were created. Now we've got another developer diary, this time focusing on the video game's setting, Hogwarts.

In the video, we discover that the video game's Hogwarts is heavily based on the movie version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. They also based their Hogwarts from the previous books and the movies. We see video game magic at work as the developers showed some parts of the huge castle and the areas in the game.

Anyway, don't let us spoil it all for you. Electronic Art's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (DS, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PC) is slated for release on June 25. In the meantime, check out the video.

A lot of times, audio is overlooked when people judge games. It often takes a back seat to graphics and gameplay when sites and magazines review a particular title, and we're not one to argue with the system. However, we will stress the value of sounds in a game and its ability to enchant us by setting the mood and giving us a more palpable feel of being inside the game itself.

Fortunately, EA's developers who are working on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix set for a major multi-platform release are not overlooking that. In fact, they've given special attention to the sound environment of the game to give players the best experience possible.

In this video, you'll see the process of SFX generation in a nutshell as well as other cool insights on how the game's aural presentation came together. Everything from idea conception to consistency with the film and book were talked about and that should help us all appreciate the effort that goes into sound engineering for video games. Enjoy!

From today up until May 18, we will be bringing you a three-part series of a video interview with the creators of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix video game. It's really interesting what the creative team has to say about this video game version of J.K. Rowling's ultimate ticket to stardom.

But more interesting than that is the fact that Producer Justin Manning and designer Chris Roberts have finally revealed what their team has been up to in the last eight months, working with Harry and his pals. So far, this is what they've accomplished:

• Built 70+ Hogwarts locations, Little Whinging, Grimmauld Place, and the Ministry of Magic from movie blueprints and set photographs
• Designed and implemented 60 missions (examples include finding a book on healing balms in the Library after a detention with Prof. Umbridge, and playing games such as exploding snap, gobstones, and wizarding chess).
• Created 90+ characters to meet and interact with. Over 9,600 lines of dialogue have been recorded and 22 actors from the movies are voicing their characters. The dialogue includes a mixture of lines from the book, the movie, and some new material written by a professional scriptwriter (which they've tried to ensure is in character).
• Made the game on eight platforms in 23 languages.

And then, they also made sure to take note of what the fans actually want to see in the game. Included in the list would be for us fans to see some of the characters we love from the fiction, for the video game version of Hogwarts to have the actual feel from the movie, ghosts and the ability to talk to portraits, even go to classes, and those elements that the film left out.

However, of course, it is understandable that the developers still weren't able to do everything they wanted to do for the game:

• Swapping between characters; there are selected points during the game when it will be possible to play as a different character (e.g. Sirius), but swapping to other characters seemed to detract from the essential plot of OotP which is Harry-focused and about Harry becoming a leader.
• More classroom games and taking your O.W.L.s; there are some classroom games but the devs haven't had time to do as many as they would have liked. On the handheld versions there will be some O.W.L.s revision but there won't be exams.

To find out more about the newly-revealed details for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, please apparate to Full Article. You will also find the video interview over there.