The fourth chapter in the Potter series of games departs greatly from its predecessors.

User Rating: 3.3 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire XBOX
Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon. The book series is the best selling novel series of all time, the films broke world records and the video games have always allowed readers to dwell into Hogwarts. Well, not this time. For gamers who have played the spectacular HP games The Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban was not worthy of replay in most respects. Well, the Goblet of Fire is worse. The game right away doesn't feel right. The cut scenes are gone and we get comic book-ish cut scenes that well, just look like crap. The story telling is terrible for those who haven't seen the movie and just as bad for those who have. The graphics are nice step up from PoA, but they're also a step down. In the previous HP games, players could freely roam around Hogwarts. Well not anymore and that is the biggest 'wanted to throw your controller at the screen and return the game' disappoint of the game. No free roam. The game is divided into levels now instead of objectives. The concept of collecting Triwizard badges is awful as well. You WILL be backtracking and retracing your steps in every level trying to get every badge so that you can get to the next level and the puzzles can be a pain in the you know where. The spell system is an improvement. Instead of assigning spells to a button, the different types of spells are assigned and whatever spell is needed will be used and each character(Harry, Ron, and Hermione) that you play as all have the same set of spells. The concept of Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans as a currency remains in play but you can't buy things from Fred and Goerge's Store anymore. You spend the beans on cards that give you upgrades which in all honestly, the upgrades do not affect the gameplay whatsoever. I've played throug the enitre 5-6 hours the game had to offer without purchasing upgrades because, well, I didn't know I could because the game never clearly said so. All in all, this is all you need to know about this game. I've bought every HP game out there and beaten them all but this was the worst HP experience ever. Now, I know by the time anyone(If, anyone) reads this, the Order of the Phoenix will be out(it is, I've already bought it on Xbox 360!). But I just bought the GoF game today at Gamestop for $9.99 and I'm so glad I waited and didn't buy when it was $49.99. Potter fans, rent it if you must. Everyone else, don't bother.