Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Videogame and Movie Release

EA will be timing the shipping of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince videogame to coincide with the movie’s new summer 2009 release date. The movie’s original release date has been pushed from November 21 of this holiday season.

Like the other Harry Potter games, Half-Blood Prince videogame is based on the movie not the book. As both an expansion of the story and a reduction of events down to the more action oriented bits, it should give yet another perspective on the story of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Here’s a description of gameplay features from EA’s website.

In the game of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, players will return to Hogwarts to help Harry survive a fraught sixth year. They will also have a chance to engage in exciting wizard duels, mix and brew magical ingredients in Potions class and take to the air to lead the Gryffindor Quidditch team to victory. Players may even get sidetracked by Ron’s romantic entanglements as they journey towards a dramatic climax and discover the identity of the Half-Blood Prince.

Bungie and Rare Announcing New Games Next Week?

Ever since Bungie flew away from Microsoft’s nest, fans have been wondering just what the studio is up to these days. Well, they may soon get their answer since rumor now has it that they’ll be announcing their latest game next week. This news comes from an industry insider that got in touch with Gamer.tm to drop this juicy bit of info. Unfortunately, that person couldn’t confirm just what sort of game it would be (i.e. “Halo 4″ or not); only that the unveiling would take place at an event in Europe this following week. That same source also revealed that Rare is apparently announcing their next game at around the same time.

So to recap: next week, two big studios, two big game announcements. Unless maybe the two companies have joined forces to make Perfect Dark: Secret Agent Master Chief? I would so buy that.

Doom 4 Announced

In news that shouldn’t be all that surprising, id software has announced that they have begun production of the next installment in the Doom series. And…that’s really all that we know right now. However, id has also announced that they’re now looking to hire some new people for the project: