Hogwarts Legacy (2023)

[spider-neil]

I guess the Rowling boycott didn't last long.

[bradnoyes]

I am admittedly pleasantly surprised by the reviews. A bit unpleasantly unsurprised by the reports of technical issues and an underwhelming story, but I'm interested in picking this up once it has received a few rounds of patches.

[Batman90]

Originally Posted by Vincanws

The box art says "Internet required". I'm assuming this is just for downloading the patches? I can't imagine this game requires you be always online.

Every game says that on that back of their box. Yes it’s mainly for downloading stuff if need be.

[tcripe]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

I guess the Rowling boycott didn't last long.

Glad to see the boycott didn't have any effect on the reviews.

[RageATL]

https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwart...er-ps5-xbox-pc

IGN scored it a 9 Amazing: In almost every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play.

Verdict

In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours. It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.

Concerning J.K. Rowling

The elephant in the room with Hogwarts Legacy is Harry Potter’s creator, J.K. Rowling, whose comments about transgender people in recent years have left a sour taste in the mouths of many current and former Potter fans, both at IGN and in the world at large. This has driven some to call for a boycott of the Wizarding World altogether – including Hogwarts Legacy, though Rowling was not directly involved and there are good reasons (both in-game and out) to believe the developers at Avalanche don’t necessarily share her views. Regardless, IGN has always and will continue to champion human rights causes and support people speaking with their wallets in whatever manner they choose.

As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question. So just as in virtually all cases, we’re choosing to expose and address the views of the franchise creator separately from our consideration of the work of the hundreds of game developers and evaluate Hogwarts Legacy as it stands, leaving behind-the-scenes context to be considered in addition to that evaluation, rather than in place of it, so that it can be weighted according to your own values.

[RageATL]

All currently published reviews:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/play...critic-reviews

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by spider-neil

I guess the Rowling boycott didn't last long.

This game will only sell 19,999,975 copies instead of 20 million.

[cricepng]

Originally Posted by RageATL

https://www.ign.com/articles/hogwart...er-ps5-xbox-pc

[Show spoiler]

IGN scored it a 9 Amazing: In almost every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play.

Verdict

In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours. It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.

Concerning J.K. Rowling

The elephant in the room with Hogwarts Legacy is Harry Potter’s creator, J.K. Rowling, whose comments about transgender people in recent years have left a sour taste in the mouths of many current and former Potter fans, both at IGN and in the world at large. This has driven some to call for a boycott of the Wizarding World altogether – including Hogwarts Legacy, though Rowling was not directly involved and there are good reasons (both in-game and out) to believe the developers at Avalanche don’t necessarily share her views. Regardless, IGN has always and will continue to champion human rights causes and support people speaking with their wallets in whatever manner they choose.

As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question. So just as in virtually all cases, we’re choosing to expose and address the views of the franchise creator separately from our consideration of the work of the hundreds of game developers and evaluate Hogwarts Legacy as it stands, leaving behind-the-scenes context to be considered in addition to that evaluation, rather than in place of it, so that it can be weighted according to your own values.

If their job is to answer the question about whether the game is fun, then why with this virtue signaling paragraph about not agreeing with her views? Just write about the game and leave the dumb sociopolitical comments out of it.

[tcripe]

The boycott is so stupid. It dosent matter to J.K. if you buy the game or not. She already has F U money. lmao

[RageATL]

Originally Posted by tcripe

The boycott is so stupid. It dosent matter to J.K. if you buy the game or not. She already has F U money. lmao

Agreed. While her comments are pretty disappointing, I'm sure she's already been paid so a boycott does nothing but hurt the developer if even that since not sure how many folks will actually do so.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Art is made by imperfect people, some more reprehensible than others. While it's perfectly okay to stand up and say you won't support something due to someone's views, you should maybe take a look inside and think about how many other things you consume made by people who are probably similar. For example: who do you think made the device you're reading this on? Do you think your favorite movie didn't have a single terrible person work on it? Where do you get your food? Who gathered your fruit?

The boycott for Hogwarts Legacy is grandstanding at best, and horribly naive at worst. Frankly, the game is doing a shit ton for trans representation. You have a confirmed trans character in it, the first in the franchise. You can fully customize your character and make them trans too if you so choose.

As mentioned before, it's also really NOT going to affect Rowlings bottom line either way. A purchase of her game also doesn't mean you actually agree with her. I pay taxes, it doesn't mean I agree with everything the government does.

[ShellOilJunior]

Great to see this game scoring well in reviews! I'll get to it after I finish Fire Emblem Engage.

[cricepng]

Finished the download last night. Just 3-1/2 hours until it is playable.

Now that reviews are coming out, I'm seeing a lot more anti-Rowling rhetoric on Twitter now. It's like the so-called boycotters feel an even renewed need to be vocal now that people are saying the game is good.

[Zivouhr]

HogLeg PS5 releases on the 10th of February, so still some time before it's available to play for most.
Good to hear the game is solidly made and not a broken mess from the sound of it, as with some other publishers/developers.

Is the day 1 update 55 GB? That's what I heard it might be if true. I've played many games just from the disc without updates, and never had an issue with my game saves after the updates.

[Vincanws]

Originally Posted by Batman90

Every game says that on that back of their box. Yes it’s mainly for downloading stuff if need be.

Thanks, I assumed. A rumour was going around that it was always online. And I don't have any boxed game that says it on the front.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Vincanws

The box art says "Internet required". I'm assuming this is just for downloading the patches? I can't imagine this game requires you be always online.

Devs response is No need but it is recommended for patches.

[bradnoyes]

At this point Nintendo is the only developer I would trust to release a game that doesn’t require a day one patch to function properly. Though the recent Pokemon release shows that even they aren’t immune to janky releases (even if they were only the publisher on that one).

[Derb]

Speaking of patches I didn’t get the big one on PS5 yet. I know Xbox players got a 50GB one.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by bradnoyes

At this point Nintendo is the only developer I would trust to release a game that doesn’t require a day one patch to function properly. Though the recent Pokemon release shows that even they aren’t immune to janky releases (even if they were only the publisher on that one).

PlayStation Studio’s is another one that is decent with Day 1 releases.

2 hours to go before I can play Hogwarts. Am kinda hoping it is an SDR game. I’m burning hours into my LG C1 like it’s nothing. Well over 5,000 hours in 18 months.

[Derb]

Quality = 4Kish @ 30
Balanced = 4Kish @ 40
Performance = 1600pish @ 60
HFR = 1200pish @ 100