Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [PS3]

If Spider-Man 2 introduced the idea of a movie storyline merging with a sandbox environment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is looking to perfect it.

A product of EA, Order of the Phoenix is shaping up to be the videogame godsend Harry Potter fanatics have been waiting for. In short, if you've ever dreamt of wandering the Hogwarts halls and interacting with the teachers, ghosts and students, this is the game for you.

"This is totally immersive," said Keith Mutzman, a publicist for EA at Sony's Gamer's Day. "You're never taken out of the experience."

EA keeps you immersed doing away with any form of a HUD. When you're playing, it's just Harry and his crew on screen -- there's no meters, health bars or points -- and the visuals are breathtaking. When Harry, Ron and Hermione venture outside the school and crisscross between stone pillars of an ancient walkway, the visuals make for one of those double-take moments when the film and game seem to be merging. When a character is hurting in battle, he or she will drop to one knee and clutch the ground, and when Harry targets an enemy, there'll be the briefest of flashes on the bad guy. EA wants you to feel like you're in the movie, and so far, it seems to being doing a pretty good job -- the company borrowed Warner Brother's blueprints for the Hogwarts campus and recreated it hallway for hallway.

Heck, when you mark an task or student on you the Marauder's Map, the familiar ink footprints appear on screen to guide you to the objective.

Although the main story thread in the game follows the movie's (SPOILER: Harry's assembling Dumbledore's army to take on Voldemort), players can ignore the quest altogether and set off on the dozens of side missions around the school. There's broomstick flights to go on, gargoyles to talk to and top grades to get in a handful of classes.

Each time you successfully save a friend or repair a pot, Harry will be rewarded with discovery points that you can put toward making his spells stronger. There are about a dozen wand moves you'll need to get down to take Harry to the big time, and you'll be able to perform the enemy besting moves via the right analog stick or the Sixaxis controller. Although it was fun with the basic spells, when we had Harry tossing Slytherin punks around -- oh, expect students to treat you differently based on what school their in -- we found it more effective to stick with the stick.

Scheduled to be released on June 25, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix seems to have all the elements of a game that will knock the socks off Gryffindor fans. There's games of gobstones to play, conversations to have with Nearly Headless Nick, dementors to chase off and a trophy room to fill. Plus, who hasn't dreamed of hanging out in the Great Hall and watching the ceiling change?

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