I mean as I said before I really really dont respect any IGN reviews now. Years ago they were not so bad but now they are a joke of fluffing.
I have no doubt any Potter fan will love the game but I just dont know if its enough for me who is indifferent to Potter, I enjoy it but not mad about it.
Neither do, but I mean that tweet is your classic case of someone twisting someoneās opinion to mean something it doesnāt and running with it to suit your agenda.
Like, if you want to validate your viewpoint, just wait for Jim Sterlingās take on it, because theyāll do a great job at tearing it asunder, and is always a respectable voice in games journalism. No need to grasp at straws from the few negative points in the IGN piece.
I mean I love Jim Sterling and his reviews but they arent the best, I love his takes but I dont actually use his views to decide on games. He has been, quite often, blacklisted from early copies if I recall so who knows when he will get one up. That who black listing makes me respect no early review for fluffers and I wish there was a filter to remove them.
If Ars has not got an early copy then its shenanigans again at play, I do respect Ars reviews.
I donāt think theyāll be reviewing the game! Firmly in the boycott camp. Thereāll no doubt be a Jimquisition on it (it was teased in last weekās episode). I thought it might have been today to pre empt the launch, but then the live services started imploding, so probably next week. The cyber punk video remains one of my favourites theyāve ever done.
The Jimquisition is their best content. Iām sure their reviews are well done too, but I donāt often find myself agreeing with their opinion except when it comes to PokĆ©mon.
I know you disagree with it, and thatās fine, but the tweet isnāt twisting anything. All the points in highlights were genuinely made in the IGN review. All the tweet has done is strip off the subjective āI love Potterā layer to highlight the objective points made and how theyāre at odds with the conclusion.
Even if you ignore the tweet and look only at the review, the āVerdictā is damning in itself:
āIn nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG Iāve always wanted to play. [ā¦] Itās certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldnāt come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.ā
Thatās not a 9/10 conclusion, and never wouldāve passed muster in Edge, PC Zone, or Crash.
No, I agree, itās not a 9/10 review, but the statements as theyāre written in the tweet, theyāre just not true.
For instance, theyāve taken performance issues and the occasional bug thatās had no material impact on the gameplay or their enjoyment of the game to mean the game barely works (similarly was said for breath of the wild which scored 10/10 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest games ever). Itās blatant exaggeration of what the article actually says. Even if you just pull from the summary.
For instance, theyāve taken performance issues and the occasional bug thatās had no material impact on the gameplay or their enjoyment of the game
You may be glossing over slightly though. The article says on the performance issues:
That immersion can occasionally be broken by Legacyās dicey performance.
and on the bugs:
things like this do happen enough to be an irritation.
Which sounds a lot like a material impact.
Then again it seems normal to release games half-baked these days and fix them later. The lack of enemy variety and the main storyline (which the author basically slates as unoriginal and full of holes) feel like bigger issues that youād think would pull the review down.
To me it sounds like itās a great game for Harry Potter fans, even if not really a great game aside from that. And there are enough HP fans to sell it! So that should be fine.
I think Iām just taking
by its literal definition.
The fact it sounds like its not a 9/10 game but they gave it that anyway destroys any point listening to the review, it is the definition of a fluffer review.
(I have not read the IGN review, I never read that junk to be honest)
Two hours into the game, and Iām still on the character creation screen. Got surprised by a required last name box and donāt want to use my real one, so Iām stuck. Up until that point this was by far the fastest Iād ever breezed through a character creation tool.
If youāre still stuck 8hrs later, I vote for the name Lamora
Past it now!
Got sorted into Ravenclaw and went to sleep before confirming (has the fast resume thing on Xbox so the game state just saves and quickly resumes when I go back on later). Might just go with what it gave me so itās not another thing I have to decide on! 
I did sign up to that Harry Potter fan club thing afterwards, just to double check, and that also put me into Ravenclaw, so it must be destiny.
A good several hours into the game.
Only glitches Iāve noticed have been graphical related, usually with the lighting. Very rare though. Happened once at the start, twice in the castle. Just a flicker that quickly corrects itself. No other performance issues that Iāve noticed in fidelity mode.
It has cats. I stroke every cat I see.
It has quite a few more than two enemies lol, and Iām still pretty early into it. Iām enjoying the story quite a bit more than I was expecting to going by ACGās review (and IGNās though I donāt give them much weight for the reasons @l33t highlighted above).
The world is breathtaking to me. The puzzles and mini games are a bit shallow, but the combat is very fun, and I do enjoy the little mini game of learning a new spell. The classes are by far the best part for me, and I wish it dove into being more of a school simulator.
It feels like a completely fresh story but in a familiar setting. The cut scenes are wonderfully animated and voice acted. It sparks the same magic as watching the original movies growing up for me, only now Iām in that world and itās a game, so I can interact with it.
So far Iām loving it. It feels like a really well crafted labour of love to fans of the franchise. Kinda wish it had quidditch though.
Went with Ravenclaw in the end. Did the other quizzes on the wizarding world website and linked my account. My wand is holly wood with a Phoenix feather core. My patronus is apparently Pumba from the Lion King which Iām not too thrilled about, but that doesnāt carry over to the game thank goodness. Was hoping for a wolf or a dog or something that isnāt Pumba.
This might end up displacing Breath of the wild as my favourite game of all time if it keeps its magic all the way til the end.
Only thing I would have probably wanted from the game, as it has the perfect setting for it, is a shared online co op experience. To explore with my friends. And to be able to earn house points to compete against other players, but apparently if you play on PlayStation theyāre doing something like that anyway.
I live for it already.
Iām undecided though, is there any other game out in the wild that is similar in style and gameplay for me to consider?
Hmmm 
not that Iāve played personally as far as I can recall. Any open world exploration might scratch a similar itch. Depends what youāre looking for, but this feels like a pretty original game to me.
Breath of the wild is probably the closest thing Iāve played to this in terms of open world design, and the feeling I got from seeing the world for the first time and heading out into it. ACG compared it to RDR, but Iāve never played that so couldnāt say.
The new PokƩmon games have a similar school type concept, but this is in a whole other league.
Edit: if I cast my mind way back, I suppose I get some World of Warcraft vibes from this in terms of style.
I also went ravenclaw but feel like I should have gone slytherin when Iām walking about Hogwarts in my darks arts deluxe edition clothing. Ebony wand with Phoenix core.
Iām enjoying and is easily my favourite game in a long time. Scope to expand is large. Online duels. Quidditch. They could really milk out dlc and I would happily be milked if the dlc bits are as good as the base game.
Finding that 4 spell on the hot bar is too little. Would have been nice to have a modifier button to bring up second row of spells.
Early Access for PC got delayed for Hogwarts, so I didnt get on till 7:30, got stuck under the floor for a few minutes then managed to move forward.
My characters voice sounds robotic but hopefully its a bug and will be fixed soon other than that I love it.
You altered the voice pitch during customisation didnāt you?
Yeah then I changed it back but Its still a bit funky 
Waiting until Friday as renting, but the reviews have got me excited to play! Cleared my whole weekend to play