To be honest, this would still have been an amazing stand-alone video game. If the movie didn't exist, this would have been the coolest ambitious PS2 hack-and-slash. I found myself wishing it would never end.

There are so many small details about this game that makes it so much more impressive than it has any right to be. It was the studio's second PS2 game, and only three years before becoming defunct. The game is Devil May Cry in Castlevania. It's bad-ass.

And the hat mechanic is awesome!

Nothing like this had ever been done before, and—to my knowledge—has ever been done since.

While the controls feel a bit weird at first (like, PS1 007 weird), you start understanding that they're literally perfect for this game after a while.

At the end of the day, they didn't have to do this. They did not have to do this. But they did. They went above and beyond.

And when you're done? You can play an alternate version of it as a different character. Genius.

To be fair, the only way this game wouldn't have been disappointing is if it was the greatest game of all time. Alas, "greatest game of all time" it is not.

I do wish they had a segment that was an actual light cycle battle. Although the light cycle segments that do exist are really cool and pretty awesome set pieces.

And I actually wish the story was more separate from Tron: Legacy, without Quorra or Flynn being characters. Sort of acting like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. I was actually hoping it would follow Tron after the events of Legacy.

The controls can feel clunky or unresponsive at times, and that sucks, but when the freerunning doesn't send you flying off in the wrong direction, and the combat doesn't get you killed by throwing your disc towards nothing, it can be really satisfying. Especially when coupled with the cool-ass Tron: Legacy visuals.

I know that it's primarily directed towards children, but this is laughable at times.

The level design is annoying. Dialogue and cutscenes are unbearably slow, and unskippable. The controls are slow and clunky, and sometimes even unresponsive, with the gameplay almost constantly working against you. You spend most of the game picking up hundreds of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, and Harry tells you the flavor of each bean he picks up, and it gets annoying after three. There are big gaps in the story that wouldn't make sense to anyone if they haven't read the book or watched the movie that honestly didn't bother me because I just wanted it to end.

I played this game all the time as a kid (ALL THE TIME), and I can still see why, but this is not good. Fuck this game.

Now this is how you make a game.

It's immediately more polished than the first one, with an opening FMV cinematic instead of just a collection of in-game rendered clips.

It's immediately bigger, with you getting to walk around the Burrow and Diagon Alley as well, instead of just Hogwarts.

The attention to detail within levels is great. You know, just stuff lying around, not really there for a purpose. The rubber duck in Mr. Weasley’s barn; Dedalus Diggle hanging out in the Leaky Cauldron; the constantly increasing amount of spiders you can spot running from the castle, and then returning after defeating the basilisk. It makes the game feel more full of life.

The controls are smooth and quick, and the gameplay compliments the controls very well, and despite not being able to control the camera this time around, they actually do a pretty good job of scripting the camera in certain sections. The only part of it that feels more slow and clunky is the flying, which was the best part of the first game, so that's kind of fucked up.

As a kid, I always thought it was weird how Harry basically starts off from scratch again with spells, but they actually pull it off pretty well, with you already knowing flipendo, and getting lumos very early, before Hogwarts,

Harry doesn't shout out the name of every single bean he picks up, so just there is a point. And there are no potions classes.

And the music; OH, THE MUSIC! Jeremy Soule composed a great score for the first game, but this one is magical. It's my second favorite video game soundtrack of all time. It's the aspect of the game that I remember the most from my childhood. And the accompanying sound effects when you run across different surfaces. I used to just listen to this score on loop in math class. The title theme is absolutely legendary! And the night theme! And the day theme! And the stealth themes! And the Diagon Alley theme! And do I even have to mention the basilisk fight theme? GOD DAMN!

I always loved how the games followed the films in more ways than one, even accidentally.

The two first films have the same director and thus the same style, and most of the kids don't really have any obvious changes in between them, neither do the two games. It's the third one when everything becomes different. New director, new style. The game has brand new graphics. It feels like the beginning of a new era.

It no longer just feels like a kids game that some team threw together on the backside of a month (until the end maybe), but it feels like an actual game that they spent some actual time on. It doesn't feel like I'm playing a straight-up kids game.

The opening FMV is absolutely epic. Real time was spent on the storytelling aspect of the game, and it makes it so much more rewarding to play. There's an actual style, and an atmosphere, and an aesthetic to it that feels genuine and unique. It feels like if the Chamber of Secrets game just grew up.

No quidditch this time around, though, which is a bummer.

There are less gaps in the narrative now. Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were almost laughable when it came to that, but these guys actually try to capture the story told as closely as possible. I know it's just because I've read the book and watched the film, but scenes towards the end actually managed to give me chills. I do feel like there was a lot of stuff cut from this game because of deadlines, which sucks, but that's life, and they made it work anyways.

And they even go beyond that. With the previous games, the game might veer off a bit to tell the story in a way that fits the game, but this game adds segments and story beats that aren't even in the book or the film.

Even if their creativeness in its storytelling, and video game making in general, just kinda dies down towards the end (because of deadlines, I'm guessing).

Plus, the game is just better now because you have Ron and Hermione with you for most of the game, and you can even switch to their characters. You even have them with you into the spell challenges, which is more than cool. However, because they follow you this time around, you can't really rely on following them to places, so you kind of have to figure out which doors you're supposed to enter yourself. But not only do you get to play as the three characters, you also get different specific abilities with each character, like Ron being able to see hidden doors, and Harry being able to jump (cool ability, bruv). But it doesn't stop there; the different characters also have character-specific spells. That's really cool.

Also, I adore the character models and animations.

They reuse a lot of music from previous games, which is actually kind of a positive because Chamber of Secrets has my second favorite video game soundtrack of all time. But it's also sort of a bummer because the original music that is here is really good. I especially love the more melancholic and not super happy tone of some of it. And the more mysterious and majestic, and less fun and adventurous, music.

I will say that the pause menu is frustratingly slow. And I don't like how voice lines are interrupted when you pause, and they don't continue when you unpause. And only being able to equip two spells at a time is a nuisance.

And the last act is way, way too short.

But I love this game. It's a good ol' time.

People still don't love this? Are you, maybe, uh, not a cool person? THIS is how you make a game.

I've always found that the games that really speak to me are the games that never lose traction or pacing. That never drags, and never goes too fast, and just constantly leaves you with new things to think about and do, and is constantly not only switching up enemies and locations, or weapons, but the actual gameplay.

And that's Resident Evil 6, baby! It's fucking awesome! And my favorite game in the franchise.

I've never played a game where, I've gone to bed after playing, just longing for the next day so I can play more. Sure, I've been excited enough to think about other games while going to bed, but not actually been gleeful and jittery thinking about going to bed and sleeping and waking up and eating breakfast and turning on the TV so I can play more of the game. The experience just warmed my heart.

No lie. After Leon's campaign, and I started Chris', I legitimately smiled and felt such joy to the point where I almost started crying because of how much I was loving it. It was so fucking cool.

THIS is how you utilize cinema storytelling in video games. I absolutely love the way they've taken filmmaking techniques and philosophies, and have actually successfully translated it, and made it work in a video game format, and even enhanced it sometimes.

I've never seen a cold open be utilized in a game before. Not actually. I've seen video games open in the middle of stories before throwing you back to the beginning, but not an actual legitimate cold open, before the title screen. Before the main menu. That's so insanely cool.

And the story ACTUALLY UNFOLDS as you play! It doesn't just get told to you with each checkpoint. You play, and you figure out this bit, and then you come back later with that previous bit, and you get a second bit, and you now have two bits that fit together to form a bigger bit. And it's like that for the entire game! It's magic before your very eyes!

The structure just pumps me with cocaine. Or another fun drug of your choosing. It's like any other insanely awesome game, but it's four games. And I legitimately can't pick out one that I like more than another. All four are just so special, and actually unique. Even if one does one thing worse than the rest, it turns around and does another thing better than the rest.

Just when you think you've started a bad section, it throws you in some 720 loop that flips your whole world and you come right back down to the same conclusion as you had before: masterpiece.

Absolute, unequivocal, masterpiece.

The best game ever made. Literally.

Good night.

What is this? Crouching Simulator?

Favorite chapter was definitely the fourth Claire episode.

Natalia is the cutest fictional character ever created. RE2 Sherry Birkin, eat your heart out. RE6 Sherry Birkin, you're still in.