I have to admit I'm pretty excited about the Harry Potter book release this week.  Yeah, I know, so is half the Western world... but I really just lose myself in the books and love the world that J.K. Rowling has created.  Enough that I even went out of my way to buy two versions of the latest EA Harry Potter game -- Elise wanted to try the wand UI on the Wii, but if I was going to seriously play it there is no question that it would be the 360 version.

I admit I really want to like this game despite it being a relatively straighforward movie knockoff.  You get to wander around Hogwarts in a fairly non-linear fashion throughout the game and there are lots of rewards for just exploring and being immersed in the game world.  Of course it's all closely tied to the movie, which will never quite be the same as the version of the Potter-verse in my head... though I've now seen the movies enough times that as I re-read the series I can't help but put the movie characters back in.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that...