Maddening PC Games
Read more articles on Computer Games and Let Me Share With You.March 9, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
March 9, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
484 Views
Perhaps you have a child who has these mind-boggling games, or perhaps you have some of your own-but really, how enjoyable do you find them? They frustrate me to no end. How they can come up with ratings for some of these is a puzzle; perhaps kids find them easier due to the fact they simply don’t think as much as adults…
My daughter has a collection of such games from the time that she was 2, and I am actively trying to sell some, but so far have had only two takers. Since most are pretty timeless and the technology still supports them, I can only guess that they just are not “new” enough for today’s sophisticated kids. In any event, today my daughter pulled out some of her Harry Potter editions. Since I’ve never been that good with getting through a quidditch match, I thought I’d watch to see if I could learn anything; it was even more difficult than I remembered.
I think you have to have the manual dexterity of a surgeon to handle all of the “Alahamora’s” and “Flippendo’s” needed to get from point A to point B in any decent amount of time. Even though the different CD’s have pretty much the same type of challenges, the player really doesn’t know what’s expected in terms of direction. Falling or failing a task means a return to the beginning of each section, and that is most annoying. To make things even worse, I haven’t seen any way to jump over a section to get to one that’s more user friendly for the user! If you can’t use your arrow keys and mouse the way you should, you could be stuck in the first challenge forever, and so much for your $30 investment.
Another thing that is bothersome is that the graphics and special effects are beautiful and intriguing, but the computer game setting is even more implausible than the story already is. Harry is given tasks by teachers and older students where he must navigate a castle that has countless rooms all by himself (just where are the other thousand students?) while fighting off all sorts of terrible beings. Furthermore, he can only do so by jumping over bottomless pits and climbing untold obstacles that would bring fear to the staunchest Marine.
Just watching it wears me out. I have read all of the books two or three times each, have seen the earlier movies many times and the newest one twice. I would say that I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and will be genuinely sorry to see the series end. But the computer games are another matter altogether. They’re in the same category as the electronic book of spells and board games-which are to say, disappointing. Yet, they are classics and I probably will keep all of it for many years to come-it may take me that long to get past the opening challenge of each computer game…
Copyright © 2006
Terms & Conditions
