Video : Dad Life

This video has nothing to do with Video Games — but if you are a dad (or know one) … then this video is worth 2.5 minutes of your day:

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

June 24, 2010 Tags: Jason Buffington Posted in: Lifestyle No Comments

Yes, there is a Video Game belt-loop for Cub Scouts

Cub Scout Video Games belt loop If you are reading my gaming blog, then you know that I am a Gamer and a Dad (hence XboxDad.com). What you may not know is that I am also an active Cubmaster for one of my son’s Cub Scout Pack and an Assistant Scoutmaster for my other son’s Boy Scout Troop, and I was a scout growing up in the 70’s when game consoles just started.

Over the past few weeks, I have been watching several folks over-react with disbelief or other hysterics, with perhaps the most alarming being folks saying “My Eagle award has lost credibility.” Frankly, if you measure a lifetime accomplishment as significant as Eagle Scout at the end of what was hopefully a rich scouting career, based on what 2nd and 3rd graders are learning 20-years later – then you may have missed the point. (am sure this will illicit some interesting blog feedback)

New Belt Loop

Yes, there is a new belt loop to encourage cub scouts (1st – 4th grade) to learn more about video gaming. Notice, that it is recognized for “learning” – it is considered an Academic belt loop, not a sports belt loop. So, the emphasis isn’t about playing a video game, compared with going outside for any other game or activity.

There were 13 new loops added in 2010:

Disability Awareness Jason and his cubs

Credit: MeritBadge.org for the list and supporting info

For the Video Game belt loop, here are the learning objectives:

Explain why it is important to have a rating system for video games. Check your video games to be sure they are right for your age.
With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule.
Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher.

Yes, the 3rd requirement is to play a new game (that is the carrot for the boy). Take a look at the other two:

Learn the Rating System

Cub Scout age boys (7-11) should be playing games rated E and E-10+. This is a great way to facilitate an understanding why T and M games shouldn’t be played by cub scouts, unless it is with the agreement of a responsible adult. Sure, there are T games that are suitable for kids, such as the LEGO series (many of which are listed our XboxDad.com site).

But boys this age should not be playing Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Left 4 Dead, or any other M game.

Play games within a Responsible Schedule

This creates an opportunity to talk about balance. Sure Johnny, you can play video games – after your homework is done, your room is clean, and in balance with other activities. Am I saying that parents have never had this conversation before? Of course not. But if your young scout is excited about a little extra bling on their scout uniform because they love video games – they are going to have to learn a little about what games are appropriate and how to integrate gaming into the rest of their schedule (instead of sitting down for 3-5 hours every day after school).

In the future, if we see a requirement for Eagle Scout in 2020 to earn Prestige rank on Call of Duty 7 or finish Halo 5 on Legendary, then the BSA may have a problem. What is more likely is that future Eagle Scouts may launch awareness campaigns at elementary schools or cub scout packs on time management or game-appropriateness to local area youth and their parents, with this belt loop as the carrot for sitting through their event.

The Big Picture for Cub Scouting

Having had two sons go through today’s cub scout program, I have found that most of the activities for cub scouts are around a few principles:

Have Fun (this is why the boys’ join)
Learn and model good character
Get exposed to a wide variety of topics, to better learn what interests you
Create new opportunities for families to interact, whether it be building a bird house or playing a video game – instead of the boys watching one TV and parents doing something else, and wondering where the weekend went.

The Video Game belt loop (and its related activity pin) fit these criteria. So, there you have it – a Cubmaster-Gamer-Dad’s view of what is another good and timely addition to a program that is celebrating 100 years of growing boys.

May 7, 2010 Tags: Scouting Posted in: Lifestyle One Comment

Pokemon: Additional PokeWalker route for special Pikachu

Just in case you put aside the PokeWalker (pedometer) that came with your HeartGold or SoulSilver Pokemon game, you now have a new reason to get it back out.

pokewalker First and foremost, this is a really clever extension to the game. In the games, you can walk around with a Pokemon and it impacts their happiness or eventually causes eggs to hatch. So, now, you can download one of your pokemon into this pedometer and it gains as you walk. The more that you walk around the house or anywhere else (though probably not good to take to school), your Pokemon gets XP points. My sons now each routinely point out that they are ‘getting stronger for our next battle’ while they do errands, go to scouts, or just back and forth the back yard.

Along with growing your Pokemon, you can also find additional Pokemon (without paying for pokeballs) as well as items that transfer back to your DS game.

New PokeWalker Route ==> Special Pikachu

Now for the news (originally reported from Joystiq), a new path is available for your PokeWalker, available as a download from the Nintendo WFC called “Yellow Forest”. It is filled with Pikachu. And a few of them are special. If you walk enough steps, you can even find a Pikachu that knows Surf and Fly! The idea of giving kids a special gaming reward for being more physically active is too cool not to do!! Nice job, Nintendo!

This is only available for download until May 5, 2010.

To do this, simply boot up your HG or SS game and go to:

Receive Gift > Receive gift from Nintendo WFC

Upon success, it will be a package available from a deliveryman in any pokemart, which will provide a new route for the next time that you upload a Pokemon into your PokeWalker.

Technical note: Error connecting to Nintendo WFC 52000 or 52100

In searching the Internet for more information on downloading from the Nintendo WFC, I found several people complaining of Error 52000 and 52100, which all appear to be IP address or Firewall issues. The errors all state DHCP or other IP related issues, and I confess that I personally pulled out some of my own hair troubleshooting this, using the following resources:

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/wfc/en_na/ds/results.jsp?error_code=52100&system=DS&locale=en_US

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/wfc/en_na/ds/firewall.jsp

I even updated the firmware on my router, after opening up lots of ports (and then closing them again). As it turns out, Nintendo DS only supports WEP based authentication for wireless, while most newer routers default to WPA (which is more secure). Hey, Nintendo support folks, this information was NOT easy to find! Changing my wireless router to WEP solved my problem. Hopefully, this will help someone else too.

April 12, 2010 Tags: Pokemon Posted in: Games for Kids, News and Events No Comments

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Most recommendations on XboxDad are for the kids – but this one is for Dad.

Sure, super heroes start out for kids, but this game is truly about the Dark Knight. It takes you inside the dark world of Arkham Asylum, where all of Gotham’s worst are locked up. Of course, Joker has taken over, so all of them are unlocked – and you will get to meet almost all of your favorites before it is over. The graphics are great, the adventure keeps you engaged, and Batman has never looked better.

Critics agree, this is the best Batman (and potentially best single-player super hero) game ever.

Unfortunately, I have been absent from XboxDad for a while, as I have been writing a book, but I will be back at evangelizing my favorite games in March. But I wanted to get this out, because Batman for Windows is on sale this weekend.

On Sale in March 2010

Microsoft Games for Windows on Demand has Batman:AA for 75% off – for download. That works out to about $13 US between February 26 and March 1. Regularly $59.99 — $12.49 this weekend.

In fact, every weekend in March 2010, Games for Windows will have a different game on radical sale. Click here for more details.

I played it through on Xbox360, and bought it for PC so that I could play it again while I travel. PS> my two personal requirements for playing a game originally released on a console on your PC: 1) Must use the Xbox360/USB controller and 2) Achievement Points on Live. This one has them both.

By the way, the next Dad-friendly game for me to play through … Mass Effect 2.

February 26, 2010 Tags: SuperHeroes Posted in: Game Reviews, Games for Dads, News and Events No Comments

Cars : Race-O-Rama

If you liked the first Cars game from Disney and THQ, then you ought to really, really like this one. If you didn’t (but did like the movie), then you should still probably give this game a shot.

Cars Race O Rama took the better parts of the original game and made them so much better:

You are Lightning McQueen, with most of the other movie cast, racing around racetracks, offroading and lots of mini-games. What is not to love about that?

You can customize Lightning! In the first game, you could paint him. Now, you can paint him, swap tires, and have lots of upgrades to his hood, spoiler and bumper.

The Arcade two-player mode has a lot more races for you and a friend. And you are able to unlock a nearly infinite number of additional cars and paintjobs for you and your friend to race with.

The other racers have much better AI that is adaptive. So, while younger players can still play, experienced players will find the bad guys trying more aggressively to prevent you from winning.

So there is lots that is “better”. As a sequel, it is also notable what is “different”:

You aren’t limited to Radiator Springs. You will start out at a racetrack, go to Radiator Springs and then work your way through several other venues, including a modern city, an offroad area, etc. Think of it like Cars meets some of the better Hot Wheels titles.

You don’t have to drive around foreeevveerr to get from one place to another. The venues are much more compact to get from one event to another.

No ‘Find the PostCards’ or other unreasonably painful achievements. Instead, there are a range of activities in each venue. Winning (in the top 3) in all of the same activity across venues is an achievement. Beating each of the bosses is an achievement. And a few gimmes.

And there are some new activities that are notable:

I mentioned ‘bosses’, there are a few (though Chick Hicks is still the top dog to beat in the end). In each major venue that you visit, there will be a nemesis for you to work up to racing. The races themselves aren’t overly tough, but they will challenge the Cars fan.

One of the new activities is a mini-race, where you aren’t a power-packed car like Lightning, but Guido the tiny tire-carrying car. Those tiny cars have a very different driving dynamic that will challenge the heck out of you.

One of the other activities is a Photo-Op where you get the chance to be a photographer of Lightning after racing him to an undisclosed location. It is cute the first few times, but then starts to get a little lame. Maybe that is this games’ token flaw?

If you have a Cars-fan in your family, this is an easy way to get a lot of smiles from your little gamer (age 7-12). And I must admit, as the kid-at-heart gamer myself, I have clocked more than a few hours in it. It’s a fun little racer for those of us that don’t want the reality of Need for Speed or Forza.

Update – Cars:ROR does have one significant disappointment for the Xbox Live Achievement junkie. After scoring 900 of the 1000 achievement points available, the last achievement “Over Achiever” should be awarded, as it’s requirement is “unlock all of the other achievements”. Very dissappointingly, this is a ‘glitch’ and is well documented across the internet to be broken. The last achievement is not only worth 100 points, but also means that the game will not show as “complete” in your gamer history. I have personally hit the 900 and inquired to THQ who responded in January that “It is a known issue and they are working with the developer to resolve it.” It’s hard to explain a ’software bug’ or that ‘a patch is coming someday’ to a 9-year old, but then again, perhaps not many 9 year olds are achievement junkies (hence why THQ hasn’t prioritized an obvious flaw in the months since release). THQ has some other family games that I will be reviewing in the next several weeks, but this definitely counts as “Strike One” against the quality that THQ is committed to in their gaming. Will update this post if a satisfactory patch is released.

January 8, 2010 Tags: Cars Posted in: Game Reviews, Games for Dads No Comments

A Kingdom for Keflings on Xbox Live Arcade (and on-sale thru Jan.10)

This is a really clever game that has captured my family’s heart. In fact, I think that it is the only game that I have ever purchased twice. We have two Xbox 360’s and it allows my kids and I to collaborate. Kingdom for Keflings was one of the first Xbox Live games to use your personal Avatar in the game in a meaningful way. Before, there were games that showed your picture, but in KK your avatar is a giant among the little Kefling people (literally).

I must admit that when I first looked at it, it appeared to be a novelty. So, I sat down to try it and later realized that three-hours had blissfully gone by.

In this game, you (your avatar) are going to build a town with the help of the native Keflings. There are lots of raw materials around in the form of never ending forests and rocks and gems and sheep.

From forests come wooden logs

From hills come rock

And with those combinations and a set of blue prints, you can build your first buildings. Simply go to the local construction office and select the pieces that you want. It tells you the required number of raw materials and then builds the item for you. Lay the components out in a very easy footprint that the blueprint shows you on screen and can be done by my 5 year old – and it is a building.

But wait, there is more.

As you build each building, the blueprints for different and more complex buildings become available. Including the blueprints to build buildings that are workshops that make better pieces and make cooler buildings.

From logs come wood sheets

From rocks come slate

From sheep come wool

More buildings and more blue prints. And as things grow, more Keflings will come into your town to help work the resources and the shops.

From wood sheets comes fine wooden objects

From rock slate comes bricks

From wool comes linen

From crystals comes gems

More buildings and more blue prints. And as things grow, your Avatar becomes stronger and faster.

First you build a village

Your village becomes a town

Your town becomes a keep

Your keep becomes a castle

You and yours will spend more time than you can imagine happily constructing “just one more building”.

But wait, there is more.

Keflings screen 1

As I mentioned, this is a collaborative game across Xbox consoles. You can invite friends over or you can open the doors for strangers to come build with you. Hint, there are two multi-player achievements that require lots of extra helpers and encourages you to visit other Kefling Kingdoms.

Your avatar can go somewhere else, and other avatars will come to you. Don’t worry about the other avatars. An update to KK that came after the initial release ensures that foreign avatars can not do any harm while they are they are in your kingdom, such as breaking buildings.

This game plays well for all ages of younger gamers and parents alike. Younger gamers may need help with understanding the blueprints scheme, but there is very little reading after the initial setups. My 9-year old taught my 5-year old and they giggle while they build across the house. And to keep it fresh, NinjaBee (the developer) has released new map scenarios to vary the landscape.

Don’t Wait – it Costs Less

For the week of January 4 thru January 10, 2010 – A Kingdom for Keflings is 50% off at Xbox Live Arcade, at only 400 points. That is only $5 US !!

Click here to check out the Deal of the Week at Xbox.com.

January 5, 2010 Tags: Kingdom for Keflings, Xbox Arcade, Xbox Live Posted in: Game Reviews, Games for Kids No Comments

LEGO Rock Band

A big hat’s off and ‘thank you’ to the folks at LEGO and MTV/Harmonix for a great game in LEGO: Rock Band

For those that have read my blog before, you know that I am a fan of all of the Lego titles, including Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Battles. And I have been waiting for this game since it was first announced.

I have tried for a while to find a music game that was kid friendly.

We initially tried the regular RockBand, but found quickly that the kids were picking up more of the lyrics than we were comfortable with.

I tried a Contemporary Christian music game called Jam Band, from Cloud 9 Games. I really, really wanted to like that game. It was all the songs that my kids listen to on the radio, offered up to 6 players (which is key since I have 5 in my family), and used all of the standard USB connected instruments that I have for my Xbox 360. It plays on a Windows PC (no console versions), so I built a new PC in the family room just for it. But the interface is not near as easy to use as the console games and I found it very, very difficult to set up even in single-player. Which is exasperating as I am likely more Windows savvy than the average dad.

We have been pleased with Rock Band : Beatles, especially with the added 5th and 6th players as additional vocalists. It is a different music genre than what the kids otherwise listen to, though. I like listening to my sons sing “Yellow Submarine” or my daughter’s “I want to Hold Your Hand”, but am not ready to explain the secondary meanings of songs like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

.

LEGO: Rock Band plays like the other entries in the Rock Band family, with a drum set, two guitars (actually a guitar and a bass), and a vocalist.

Here are my top three reasons that every family that would like to play music together should look at this game

1) Super Easy Mode

My youngest aspiring gamer is 5. She wants to play alongside the rest of the family but does not yet have the skills.

New to L:RB is a Super Easy Mode for younger players, where they don’t have to pick the colors of the notes, just drum or strum.

- As a guitarist/bassist, she just has to strum at the proper time (without picking the notes).

- As a drummer, she can hit any drum pad, as long as it on the beat. This lets her build her skills and play along with her older siblings.

The Lego games have always done a great job and making games that were fun for a wide age group, but this feature is an absolute Home Run!

2) Building Stuff in LEGOs

All of the typical Rock Band ideas of customizing your character, buying new clothes and equipment, and even new vehicles have been beautifully rendered in Lego bricks. But now, we get a club house that is also customizable. For kids that love LEGO toys in general, this is an added bonus that keeps the fun factor for younger players.

3) And my biggest Hoo Rah – A family-friendly Music Selection

The entire library of songs that are purchasable and playable in Rock Band has already been filtered within LEGO: Rock Band. So, if you purchase music in RB/RB2, then those songs are playable in L:RB, if they are family friendly.

Interestingly, I bought a Cars album (late 70’s band, not the Disney game) in Rock Band and it turns out that 1 of the 10 tracks isn’t family friendly by L:RB’s standards. But the other 9 show up in L:RB as playable with my kids. Different parents will have lower or higher standards, but I really have to commend Harmonix, MTV Games, LEGO, Warner Brothers or whomever was part of this feature. This feature alone shows the effort that they made in meeting the family-friendly audiences’ needs. Interestingly, their purchasable song list even has kid-specific tracks that are discounted, such as 6 songs from SpongeBob.

At the risk of sounding like a fan-boy, there is one complaint that I want to make. LEGO: Rock Band only supports 4 players, instead of 6 players like the recently released Rock Band : Beatles. As a father of 3 kids (i.e. 5 players total), adding the 5th and 6th players for vocals would have made the game totally perfect for my family, and hopefully yours.

January 4, 2010 Tags: LEGO, Mom loves it too, Music Posted in: Game Reviews, Games for Kids 3 Comments

ChristianGamerDad.com is now XboxDad.com

With the start of 2010, we wanted to do a fresh start on this website.

“XboxDad” was a persona on Xbox.com that I used to contribute to. This site used to be ChristianGamerDad.com, but I wanted to be sure that everyone felt welcome to learn about family friendly gaming, even if you weren’t a Dad or shared the same faith.

If you want to take an active role in providing fun and safe gaming activities for your young one, then I hope that you find this site useful. Thanks for reading.

January 1, 2010 Posted in: News and Events, highlights No Comments

LEGO Battles for Nintendo DS

Lego_Battles_box As promised, I did get LEGO Battles for Fathers Day – so I wanted to share my enthusiasm for this game. My sons have both been into LEGO for a few years – and of course, I played with them when I was a kid.

We have collectively played through all 3 video game series (as well as a few older PC titles like Lego Chess):

LEGO Star Wars
LEGO Batman
LEGO Indiana Jones

LEGO and Travelers Tales have done a phenomenal job of taking licenses and building them (pun intended) into video games:

The Star Wars titles (particularly TCS:The Complete Saga) is still one of my favorite kids games, and one I was looking at the other day as I still have a few Xbox achievements to unlock in it. But all of the main scenes from all 6 movies are there, done in style and classic Lego humor.

The Batman game may be my ultimate favorite kids’ game – because the background is so universally accessible to kids, but it didnt follow a specific movie/show storyline. It just made great use of all of the characters and elements.

The Indy game was well done (blog coming soon) as a faithful rendition of the movies. But as my blog will complain about later – my 8 and 10 year olds got really uncomfortable in watching the first movie, so the others are off limits. The game is better appreciated if you know the movies, so I am taking off points because the original story isn’t really for kids – but the game should be.

And we’ve played quite a bit of Civilization:Revolution (Xbox360) and Age of Empires III (Nintendo DS) – so building small pixilated, armies is pretty standard stuff.

Put that all together, and how can you not want this latest installment to the LEGO gaming series – exclusively for Nintendo DS.

Yes, you can build your own armies – from many classic sets including LEGO Castles, LEGO Space, LEGO Pirate, plus many other pieces and parts. This is where the real charm comes in – no licensee to worry about, no story line to recreate, just fun with lego armies. All of these LEGO sets are of course also available in plastic form in stores, so once you pick your favorite in the game – the kiddos can go get some of the them to play with in the way that all lego’s should be played.

The game sets up with 3 different LEGO collections – Castles, Space, and Pirate.

In the game, it takes some cues from LEGO Batman in that you can play through a complete story as both the good guys and the bad guys (which becomes a little more relative, once you’ve played both sides). Lego_battles_r-0329-06

For Castle – you are both the king with knights and swordsman, or a wizard with a range of bad minion (dark ages style)

For Pirates – you are both the head pirate with different buccaneers, or the Governor of ?? with imperial troops (circa 1700’s)

For Space – you command several astronauts on a foreign planet, or the alien inhabitants

For each of the 6 storylines, you’ll have 3 acts which collectively give you 15 episodes to play per story – yes that’s 90 adventures in one little DS cartridge, not including free-play and multiplayer.

This is a real RTS (Real-Time Simulation), though on a kid-accessible and family-friendly scale – where you’ll eventually be building farms (for food), barracks (to make new people), and other battlements. The tasks are well-defined and you’ll wander the map, soon finding baddies to battle, coins (currency for buying other people), and even mini-kits and red-bricks (both elements from the earlier games to unlock new stuff).

It is admittedly addictive and is easy to pick up during airplane flights, when have an hour to kill between meetings, etc. Ahem, and the kids will enjoy it too.

As you progress through the three playsets, you’ll unlock new stories – and with them, the ability to unlock new characters – which you will want for Multiplayer.

Multiplayer

Just like my sons and I can do on the floor, picking your favorite lego people and building your bases – you can do the same thing wirelessly between DS’s. Yes, I know we still need to really play with our kids with tangible toys, but it isn’t easy to take that many pieces to a restaurant while you are waiting for the food to arrive. So, this is a great way to appreciate what you have unlocked.

Also, while some of the story-mode challenges have some twists, they are all pretty surmountable. Battling another person really mixes things up – especially when your King (castle) can call in a starship transport (space) to drop some Imperial riflemen (pirates) and a ninja or two into the battlefield. By mixing and matching, you can build your own exact army of favorites – without having to argue with your sons as to who gets the really cool knight with the silver armor. Ahem.

Bottom line

This is a very family-friendly and kid-accessible battle game, with all of the armies and strategy that you want your 7-12 year old to be thinking about, but in bright and fun (digital) plastic. The storylines are varied enough to keep you going for a good while, likely wanting to finish all 90 stories eventually, just unlock all of the people. And multiplayer across DS’s is cool enough to make me forgive them for not delivering this on a game console – though I still want my 1000 Xbox Achievement Points.

As always, thanks for reading.

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Available for Nintendo DS

July 8, 2009 Tags: LEGO, Nintendo DS Posted in: Game Reviews, Games for Dads, Games for Kids, highlights 4 Comments

Harry Potter : Order of the Phoenix

If you have read the series – this is a ‘must play’. At least for a little while…

Before I talk more about the game, I must confess that I was originally against the whole Harry Potter series for my kids. Check out my blog from last year on this called “I used to be prejudiced against witchcraft”

But since then, my oldest son and I have read the series together – and it has really strengthened his passion for reading and given us another connection point.

If you have similar discomfort on the book series, please read the earlier blog link above. And if you don’t disagree – read on. On to the game…

This particular Harry Potter game is based on the fifth book of the Harry Potter book series – the Order of the Phoenix.

(SPOILER ALERT – if you haven’t read the book, this review gives a few things away)

As with the book, the game starts out at 12 Grimwald Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. This is essentially a tutorial area where you’ll learn a few magic spells.

In this game, you’ll learn to interact with the environment using your magic wand to push, pull, levitate and repair items – with the use of the right-stick of your Xbox360 controller. These are fairly easy and will become second nature fairly early on.

And then it is off to Hogwarts.

Why you should play this game

At Hogwarts, you will get to explore every corner of the famed school – from Gryffindor’s rooms through all of the floors, the Room of Requirement, Hagrid’s hut, and many famous classrooms. You’ll get very familiar with the magic staircases, go through the library, discover many secret passages protected by paintings and passwords — and really get a sense of the great hall and its four household tables.

If you have enjoyed the books, this allows you to explore all of these locations. Even if you have watched the movies and have some visual references, this is the difference between reading a guide book (the movies) and exploring someplace yourself.

And to make things as authentic as possible, they enlisted most of the movie cast do to their own voices – so between the Xbox360’s great graphics, EA’s artwork, the intuitively interactive environment and the cast’s voiceovers – you will really feel like Harry Potter.

GamePlay

A big part of this game is doing minor quests while you recruit the 28 student members of ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ (DA). To do this, you will traverse most of the key areas and talk with quite a few folks

You’ll get to use your (right-stick) wand for not only push/pull manipulation-style magic, but also duels with your nemesis’ from the house of Slytherin. There are more duels and bad-guys towards the end of the story – and if you’ve read the book , you know know who I am talking about but should not be named.

HP-OotP duel

Dueling can be fun – versus Slyterthin students

You’ll also have the opportunity to do some classroom time, which are mini-games that fit very nicely within the overall story – and prepare you for the culmination of the main story.

To make things easier to navigate, you get the famed ‘Marauders’ Map’ which will allow you to locate the students that you need to interact with (just like the book) as well as every classroom and location.

Discovery Points, Side Quests & Extras

Another large aspect of this game, is discovery points. For every item that you interact with or room that you discover, you will continually get discovery points. As you accrue points, you will reach up up to 13 levels of discovery.

As you progress through the discovery levels, you get a few benefits:

Each discovery level is an Xbox achievement (cha-ching)
Your magic becomes stronger as you gain levels
Each level unlocks new ‘extras’ from the HP:OotP movie

The extras feel a lot like the additional features from a DVD – with interviews with the cast and production teams, scene photos from the movie, etc.

To enjoy these new extras, the game introduces a new ‘Room of Rewards’ hidden behind a painting and constantly monitored by Moaning Myrtle. As you complete side quests, additional trophies will be unlocked – and of course each comes with an Xbox achievement.

There are two ways to play this game

If you just want to experience a taste of being Harry Potter and explore Hogwarts, then you will likely spend 6-10 hours to wander around, you can gain around 300 Xbox Live achievement points and I would recommend renting this game for a fun long weekend – or a week’s long excursion when your favorite HP reading kid is out of school.

If you are an achievement point hound (like me) or just really love the book series (me too), you’ll devote a significantly greater amount of time to discover literally everything hidden throughout Hogwarts. To help you with that, the Marauders’ Map shows the percentage of every room that you have discovered. From drapes that reveal chess pieces to stone gargoyles that talk – everything is worth discovery points or contributes to side-quests. And of course, those equate to more discovery levels, which equal achievement points, which results in extras getting unlocked.

You’ll get very used to traversing the grand staircase as you explore

Go get it

This game is actually about two years old, so you may find it more easily at your local GameStop or an online retailer like Amazon, than at a retail store like Best Buy – but wherever you get it – if you like the books, play the game. Summer is a great time to dig up games that you haven’t previously discovered – and as a single-player, exploring adventure, your HP-reading youth will enjoy a long diversion.

And this will get you and your youth ready for the upcoming sixth movie this summer – coming to theatres in July 2009.

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