Hogwarts Legacy (February 10th, 2023) - Mod warning in OP

The Crypto Guy

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Jun 26, 2017
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Those are some pretty substantial negatives?
Not really.

He said the opening to the story was a bit slow with the paintings but then it gets good and engaging.

Frame rate issues usually get fixed with updates.

Recycled enemies is common in open world type games.
 

Osprey

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Feb 18, 2005
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The reviews are kind of bizarre. The story is uninteresting, there a bunch of technical issues, and the quests/enemies are mostly recycled throughout a bloated run time. That IGN review has to be the most lukewarm "9" I've ever read.

It sounds best for Harry Potter fans who would enjoy a guided tour throughout the world, which is cool, but not worth $70 to me.
That's the impression that I'm getting, too. As a game, it sounds good, but not great. As an experience for fans who have been itching to live this fantasy for over 20 years, though, it does sound pretty great.
 
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Gardner McKay

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The reviews are kind of bizarre. The story is uninteresting, there a bunch of technical issues, and the quests/enemies are mostly recycled throughout a bloated run time. That IGN review has to be the most lukewarm "9" I've ever read.

It sounds best for Harry Potter fans who would enjoy a guided tour throughout the world, which is cool, but not worth $70 to me.
You can speak to the story of a game you haven't played or experienced yourself? Especially when it has widely received incredible praise by people who have played spent a significant amount of time in the game? That is kind of bizarre.

If anything, based off prior IGN impressions/videos of the game, I think the 9/10 from IGN is indicative of how good of a game this is as they clearly wanted to give it a 0/10 based off external factors that have nothing to do with the game itself.
 
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Hammettf2b

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You can speak to the story of a game you haven't played or experienced yourself? Especially when it has widely received incredible praise by people who have played spent a significant amount of time in the game? That is kind of bizarre.

If anything, based off prior IGN impressions of the game, I think the 9/10 from IGN is indicative of how good of a game this is as they clearly wanted to give it a 0/10 based off external factors that have nothing to do with the game itself.
Some reviews are giving the story some low scores...

"But outside Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, the game doesn’t have nearly so much personality. The story, which revolves around a goblin uprising, is thin and uninteresting, and interrogates nothing about the Dark Arts or the sources of conflict between wizard-kind and other magical denizens."

"Hogwarts Legacy starts to feel like countless open-world games of the past decade once you’ve been playing it for more than 15 hours. However, you get to ride a Hippogriff. It’s those magical moments and the setting that rescue it from mediocrity, but only if the Wizarding World still has you under its spell."

 
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Mikeaveli

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I always got "generic open world game, but this time with Harry Potter" vibes from this game and that was enough for me to pick it up with the launch discount on Green Man Gaming. Sounds like I'll be getting exactly what I was expecting
 

Static

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You can speak to the story of a game you haven't played or experienced yourself? Especially when it has widely received incredible praise by people who have played spent a significant amount of time in the game? That is kind of bizarre.

If anything, based off prior IGN impressions/videos of the game, I think the 9/10 from IGN is indicative of how good of a game this is as they clearly wanted to give it a 0/10 based off external factors that have nothing to do with the game itself.
If I could speak to the story myself then that's what I would have said. I referenced the reviews, the IGN one specifically, which list critical flaws (to me) that aren't reflected in the final score, which I think is weird.

And I get the complete opposite vibe of the one you insinuate. It comes off as someone who loves Harry Potter defending a Harry Potter skinned generic open world game. The thing is, many people want that, and that's cool, but the reviews are wonky for people like me who are looking more for than that.
 

Gardner McKay

RIP, Jimmy.
Jun 27, 2007
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Some reviews are giving the story some low scores...

"But outside Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, the game doesn’t have nearly so much personality. The story, which revolves around a goblin uprising, is thin and uninteresting, and interrogates nothing about the Dark Arts or the sources of conflict between wizard-kind and other magical denizens."

"Hogwarts Legacy starts to feel like countless open-world games of the past decade once you’ve been playing it for more than 15 hours. However, you get to ride a Hippogriff. It’s those magical moments and the setting that rescue it from mediocrity, but only if the Wizarding World still has you under its spell."

A few. Most reviews on Metacritic are overwhelmingly positive. We will see. I'm happy that there haven't been any widely reported performance issues on PS5 (at least not that I have seen). That was one of my big concerns.

If I could speak to the story myself then that's what I would have said. I referenced the reviews, the IGN one specifically, which list critical flaws (to me) that aren't reflected in the final score, which I think is weird.
Well you just said it. It is a critical flaw to you. May not have been to IGN. :)
 

Mikeaveli

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If I could speak to the story myself then that's what I would have said. I referenced the reviews, the IGN one specifically, which list critical flaws (to me) that aren't reflected in the final score, which I think is weird.

And I get the complete opposite vibe of the one you insinuate. It comes off as someone who loves Harry Potter defending a Harry Potter skinned generic open world game. The thing is, many people want that, and that's cool, but the reviews are wonky for people like me who are looking more for than that.
People can call out a game's flaws and still also think it's a great game. For example Fallout: New Vegas has many game breaking bugs and is unfinished content-wise yet I still consider it the greatest video game I've ever played.
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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I always got "generic open world game, but this time with Harry Potter" vibes from this game and that was enough for me to pick it up with the launch discount on Green Man Gaming. Sounds like I'll be getting exactly what I was expecting
This game just had to land the experience while not getting in its own way. For someone who doesn't like Star Wars for example, Fallen Order is probably a cheap rip-off of Soulsbourne gameplay, with some aspects of Uncharted. For those who really like Star Wars and wanted a game where you felt like a Jedi with a cool story set in that universe, it landed for most. That's the main thing when you are working with valuable IPs outside the gaming world. Hopefully, they land like Fallen Order, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man, and don't end up a cheap cash grab or not being what the audience wanted like Avengers.

The game doesn't sound perfect and I'm waiting for the Digital Foundry video to get more into what these PC issues might be before I make any sort of purchase. It's unlikely to be a genre-defining open world like RDR2, Breath of the Wild, or Skyrim, but to be successful it doesn't need to be. It just needed to have solid gameplay loop, a story that works within the Harry Potter universe and make the gamer feel like they are in a universe they've dreamed about for years. In some ways that is a gift that makes it an easier game to make and in other ways a curse in that you are creating something based on something people have firm ideas on how it should look/feel based on countless of hours reading the books and watching the movies. I think I read the first 3 Harry Potter books as a kid, and have seen the movies. I'll probably check this out at somepoint, but I'm glad people who are passionate about Harry Potter seem to have finally got a game that allows them to explore this world. Just like I loved Guardians of the Galaxy and Fallen Order as they accomplished that with IPs I'm more passionate about. Similarly, although we know almost nothing except a reveal trailer, I'm very excited about what MachineGames (I really like the Wolfenstein re-boot games) can do with Indiana Jones.
 

93LEAFS

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Nov 7, 2009
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If I could speak to the story myself then that's what I would have said. I referenced the reviews, the IGN one specifically, which list critical flaws (to me) that aren't reflected in the final score, which I think is weird.

And I get the complete opposite vibe of the one you insinuate. It comes off as someone who loves Harry Potter defending a Harry Potter skinned generic open world game. The thing is, many people want that, and that's cool, but the reviews are wonky for people like me who are looking more for than that.
Just wait for people you know to play it and give feedback. From what you are saying, it sounds like a wait for sale game for you, which is fine. Unless you get serious FOMO, no real reason to rush in. I'm probably in the same boat, I'll put it on my Steam Wishlist and wait for a big sale. Hopefully whatever PC issues are fixed by then. Only games I really rush out to buy at launch are games that seem to be getting well received and are from studios I have a decent amount of trust in. I think the only games in recent years I've bought at full price within their launch window are RDR2, Fallen Order, Last of Us part 2, Horizon: Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Pretty much everything else I'll wait on. This year I'll probably jump at Spider-Man 2, Hades 2 (in early access), Tears of the Kingdom, and Jedi: Survivor at launch. Outside of those, I'll just catch-up on my backlog or whatever is on Gamepass that intrigues me.
 

Dubi Doo

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Aug 27, 2008
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I'm just blown away by how many people seemingly never step foot into Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Wal Mart, Hot Topic, GameStop, Box Lunch, Target, Universal Studios, movie theaters or any other outlet selling Happy Potter merchandise. Surely they're boycotting those too, right?
Who cares? People boycott shit all the time. I couldn't careless to boycott anything, and I could equally careless who does boycott something.
 

Hammettf2b

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Jul 9, 2012
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So California
This game just had to land the experience while not getting in its own way. For someone who doesn't like Star Wars for example, Fallen Order is probably a cheap rip-off of Soulsbourne gameplay, with some aspects of Uncharted. For those who really like Star Wars and wanted a game where you felt like a Jedi with a cool story set in that universe, it landed for most. That's the main thing when you are working with valuable IPs outside the gaming world. Hopefully, they land like Fallen Order, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man, and don't end up a cheap cash grab or not being what the audience wanted like Avengers.

The game doesn't sound perfect and I'm waiting for the Digital Foundry video to get more into what these PC issues might be before I make any sort of purchase. It's unlikely to be a genre-defining open world like RDR2, Breath of the Wild, or Skyrim, but to be successful it doesn't need to be. It just needed to have solid gameplay loop, a story that works within the Harry Potter universe and make the gamer feel like they are in a universe they've dreamed about for years. In some ways that is a gift that makes it an easier game to make and in other ways a curse in that you are creating something based on something people have firm ideas on how it should look/feel based on countless of hours reading the books and watching the movies. I think I read the first 3 Harry Potter books as a kid, and have seen the movies. I'll probably check this out at somepoint, but I'm glad people who are passionate about Harry Potter seem to have finally got a game that allows them to explore this world. Just like I loved Guardians of the Galaxy and Fallen Order as they accomplished that with IPs I'm more passionate about. Similarly, although we know almost nothing except a reveal trailer, I'm very excited about what MachineGames (I really like the Wolfenstein re-boot games) can do with Indiana Jones.
Just an fyi, DF didn't get a code from WB so a review from them may take longer than expected.
 
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93LEAFS

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Just an fyi, DF didn't get a code from WB so a review from them may take longer than expected.
Annoying but somewhat expected. Was hoping otherwise as it seems they did actually give out PC codes this time to certain outlets. This game looks fun, but it's not something I'll have Fomo on if I just wait for it to show up on a Steam sale in a couple of months. And, if I did, I could always just grab the PS5 version, but I'd prefer to run it on PC if it doesn't have crippling issues. Until then I got a backlog I want to put a dent into.
 

Hammettf2b

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Jul 9, 2012
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Annoying but somewhat expected. Was hoping otherwise as it seems they did actually give out PC codes this time to certain outlets. This game looks fun, but it's not something I'll have Fomo on if I just wait for it to show up on a Steam sale in a couple of months. And, if I did, I could always just grab the PS5 version, but I'd prefer to run it on PC if it doesn't have crippling issues. Until then I got a backlog I want to put a dent into.
fyi...
 
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Static

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People can call out a game's flaws and still also think it's a great game. For example Fallout: New Vegas has many game breaking bugs and is unfinished content-wise yet I still consider it the greatest video game I've ever played.
Sure they can, those just seem like incredibly glaring flaws to look past. I think what I mean is, if you're a Harry Potter fan already stuff like that will be easier to gloss over. For everyone else it will probably be tougher to overcome.
 

aleshemsky83

Registered User
Apr 8, 2008
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Who cares? People boycott shit all the time. I couldn't careless to boycott anything, and I could equally careless who does boycott something.
I think whats glaring about this is that videogame journalists, and high ranking ones at that, are openly advocating and shaming people who do NOT boycott. Top game journalists are literally calling out reviewers and journalists who cover the game period.





Theres now even a search engine to look if streamers have streamed the game.

Its hard to link too many things without having the post take the entire page, but those two run both Vice and Axios gaming sites.

I shouldn't single out the big sites only, because ive seen much smaller reviewers and journalists bang the boycott drum. I'm not surprised tbh, i kind of predicted this would happen.
 

The Merchant

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So Shelby from the popular YouTube channel Girlfriend Reviews was streaming HL while simultaneously raising money for The Trevor Project (awesome idea) and was bullied off the platform to the point of tears. Was it transphobes that did it? No, it was the virtue signaling douchebags spewing nothing but vitriol all day today against anything and everything Hogwarts Legacy. Those idiots are doing more harm than good.
 

John Price

Gang Gang
Sep 19, 2008
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Let us plebes know how the early access goes. I won't be joining in until Friday.

Guessing this game has no MP.
 

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