Category: Video Games

10 Movies Like Harry Potter to Watch If You Love Magical Adventures

As one of the most popular and influential franchises of all time, the Harry Potter movies are something that viewers of all ages have come to love. For some, however, it’s more than just a book-to-movie series; it’s a personality. Determining one’s Hogwarts house has become almost synonymous with horoscopes, Meyers-Briggs, and enneagrams when it comes to identifying oneself. Finding a saga with a similar cultural impact is difficult to impossible to find. The curious, magical wonder of the whole story is something that has drawn audiences far and wide to its appeal, inspiring dreamers to wish they could exist in the Wizarding world just to experience it.

Factors such as these are what makes it so challenging to find movies that are even close to being like Harry Potter, but they’re out there. While the Potter series reigns supreme, some of the movies on this list do a great job of worldbuilding, making them worthy additions to the magically synonymous universe. Without further ado, here are the movies like Harry Potter worth watching if you need more magic in your life.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010)

While it wouldn’t necessarily be considered a good film in all regards, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun movie for young people looking for a silly adventure tale. Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is one of three apprentices to the famous wizard, Merlin but is forced to search for Merlin’s true successor over hundreds of years. Considering there was much less time to build the story world for this movie, the lore is still interesting enough to keep a viewer involved especially if one enjoys watching Nicolas Cage do what he does (in this case: corny yet entertaining acting).

Read our review of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice or dive into our list of the best Nicolas Cage movies.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

One of the more enjoyable instances on this list, that would be considered a kids movie, is Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The film was also adapted from a popular young adult book series, though not as universally loved as Harry Potter. The story follows a young boy named Percy (Logan Lerman) discovers that he is a descendant of a Greek God when he is accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt, sending him on a journey of self-discovery against some classic mythical adversaries. While the movie is definitely made for kids to young adults, the lore is utilized in a surprisingly clever and enjoyable manner that modernizes Greek mythology in a fun way. There is also a second film called Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, but the movie adaptations end there.

Read our review of The Lightning Thief or dive into updates on the upcoming Percy Jackson series.

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

One of the best and most entertaining movies on this list is Howl’s Moving Castle: a wonderfully magical and original animated story from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki that establishes a whole new universe of lovable, complex characters and creatures. When young, timid Sophie is cursed by a witch to be an old woman, she stumbles upon a stubborn, reckless young wizard named Howl who indifferently takes her in as a housekeeper in his walking, enchanted castle. While the themes and imagery can be a bit more disturbing and adult at times, the multiple subplots and established canon are enough to entice almost any viewer to this wondrous tale.

See our list of the best Studio Ghibli movies for more like this.

Seventh Son (2014)

In what some could deem as a wholly unnecessary and convoluted story of random, magical happenings, Seventh Son still retains some enjoyable details that make it worth discovering. When the evil witch queen Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) escapes from the prison that Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) put her in, he must recruit another apprentice–a seventh son of a seventh son–to fulfill a prophecy and destroy her once and for all. Though the story is a bit unorganized and the plot perforated with gaps, the characters and creatures are original enough to keep one’s attention.

Read our review of Seventh Son.

Doctor Strange (2016)

A film that is probably the furthest from Harry Potter thematically on this list, Doctor Strange treads into Marvel territory that turns a magical universe into a superhero’s tale. When an ingenious neurosurgeon named Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) gets in a life-altering car accident, he seeks out the mystic arts to heal himself but discovers much more about himself and the universe as a whole. The fundamentals of the magic in this movie are fairly different, yet also expand the imagined possibilities of what magic could do in such a universe.

Read our review of Doctor Strange.

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Based on the children’s book series of the same name, The Spiderwick Chronicles fulfills its goal to entertain its target audience: children. When the Grace family moves into the Spiderwick Estate previously owned by Professor Arthur Spiderwick, they discover that their great relative may not have been as crazy as he seemed after they encounter fantastical creatures in the forest nearby. While the characters in the movie don’t exactly wield magic like Hogwarts students, the concept of an interconnected, magical world is ever-present albeit a bit less entertaining.

Read our review of The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Matilda (1996)

If the character Harry Potter was the most relatable and interesting part of the movie series to a viewer, then Matilda is likely to be a charming and enjoyable movie to watch. An extremely intelligent and gifted young girl, Matilda (Mara Wilson) must navigate her terrible, rude family and her ruthlessly cruel headmistress. Though the magic does not match the sheer scale of the Harry Potter series, Matilda uses her powers in mischievous yet helpful ways that border vengeful, as does Harry throughout the movie series.

Fantastic Beasts Series (2016-2022)

The closest thing in relation to the real thing is the Fantastic Beasts movie series: a prequel series that focuses on Harry Potter characters deep in the existing canon. Though the first movie focuses almost entirely on the famous Hufflepuff wizard, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his obsession with the magical creatures of the wizarding world, there is still plenty of Hogwarts magic and history to be had. With younger renditions of wizards like Dumbledore, the notorious Grindelwald, and other family names bound to be recognized.

Read our review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Another movie based on a book of the same name, Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children arguably comes second in terms of story world only to the Harry Potter series. A misguided sould named Jacob (Asa Butterfield) follows his fathers’ mysterious path to discover Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children; a place where time has stopped, children are a bit more than peculiar, and deadly creatures are always lurking. Most certainly one of the most (if not the most) eerie and disturbing movies on this list, one could imagine this story simply as if Tim Burton were in charge of the Harry Potter series.

Read our review of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

Stardust (2007)

Though magic is not the main focus of this fun and charming movie, Stardust is riddled with great characters, imaginative tribulations, and endless adventure. Coming from a small village on the border of a magical land, Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) embarks on an adventure to retrieve a falling star for the woman he loves, but encounters much more than he bargained for. The endearing and diverse characters of this movie are most of what make it great, with the added bonus of an exciting and romantic fantasy story that will keep viewers coming back for another go.

Read our review of Stardust.

Valheim Devs Have No Current Plans to Release on PlayStation

Valheim developer Iron Gate Studios says that there are no currently no plans to bring the survival game over to other platforms outside of Xbox, including PlayStation.

In an episode of the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast, senior developer Jonathan Smårs said, “Currently, we’re only looking at the Xbox, but you never know.” Valheim is coming to early access preview on Xbox, and while Smårs wasn’t part of the conversations to bring the game over to that platform, publisher Coffee Stain worked with Microsoft to do so.

Valheim was a sleeper hit back in February 2021 when it entered Steam Early Access, even becoming one of the year’s best selling games on the PC storefront and sold over 5 million copies one month from release.

It was then announced for PC Game Pass in 2022, and then most recently for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, as well as Xbox Game Pass. While other console versions of Valheim aren’t in consideration right now, that doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of it coming to platforms like PlayStation, or even Nintendo Switch.

In IGN’s Valheim review, we said, “Valheim is already a paragon of the survival crafting genre, with excellent art and music highlighting a world that generates endless exciting stories from only a few simple ingredients.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

The Chaos Dwarfs are finally coming to Total War: Warhammer 3

Total War: Warhammer 3 is getting a new expansion on April 13th. The Forge Of The Chaos Dwarfs campaign pack adds, well, the Chaos Dwarfs, with three Legendary Lords – Astragoth Ironhand, Drazhoath the Ashen, and Zhatan the Black – and new campaign objectives and units to command. One of those units is a big, roaring daemon-machine-dinosaur hybrid.

Read more

Bleak Faith: Forsaken Devs Respond to Elden Ring Plagiarism Accusations

Bleak Faith: Forsaken developer Archangel Studios has issued an issue to IGN about allegations of stealing assets from games such as Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

Earlier this week, people noticed that the game utilized very similar animations for its characters and enemies from FromSoftware games and accused the Archangel Studios of reusing them.

“Since the start of development, Archangel Studios has always been transparent with their community about the use of Epic Marketplace assets. While only 10% of the game has been outsourced in this manner, it has helped speed up the development process immensely,” Archangel Studios explained in a statement to IGN.

It continued, “As a three-person studio, it was a vital resource to utilize throughout the four-year development. The assets in question were purchased from the Epic Marketplace in good faith and with the understanding that Epic went through the proper vetting and review process before listing them for sale.”

The studio also said that it had reached out to Epic Games about an investigation, to which it then responded, “Pursuant to the Marketplace Distribution Agreement, each Marketplace seller represents and warrants to Epic that they have appropriate rights to upload their content. As with any store that hosts third-party content, however, Epic is not in a position to independently verify such rights, and Epic makes no such guarantee to purchasers of the content.”

Archangel Studios noted that the assets that it had used for Bleak Faith have since been removed from the Unreal Engine marketplace. The development team has also removed all of these animations from Bleak Faith, stating that Epic’s answer wasn’t satisfactory and will work to replace the assets over the next few days.

“Some changes we included in the recent patches, and more are coming in the next few days,” the studio said. “Certainly this has been a huge lesson for us and hopefully other indie creators out there too that assets on these storefronts seemingly cannot be purchased in good faith.”

Bleak Faith: Forsaken is a Soulslike survival-horror action RPG that was released for PC on March 10.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And The Lost Demon

Is it magical?

The Umbra Witch is back this Friday, but not in the way you might expect. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a prequel to PlatinumGames’ hit high-octane action series, but this prequel stars the young witch long before she becomes Bayonetta.

Reviews dropped today and they’re pretty positive for the top-down action-adventure game. The gorgeous storybook graphics and the puzzles have received praise across the board, as have the music and atmosphere. But where do reviews diverge?

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Uncover an Insidious Plot in Environmental Thriller The Forest Cathedral, Out Now on Xbox

Hey Xbox Wire readers! I’m Yared from Whitethorn Games, and I’m here to share a little info about our latest release, The Forest Cathedral, which launched today on Xbox Series S|X!

While you may know us from the many cozy, heartwarming titles we’ve published, such as Calico and Lake, The Forest Cathedral takes a slightly darker direction. The game, while still adhering to tranquil, low-stress gameplay, evokes a more unsettling, eerie feeling that approaches the realm of horror. Players will embark on a mysterious, atmospheric psychological thriller based on the real-world ecological disasters caused by the pesticide DDT, or as developer Brian Wilson more accurately describes the genre: an environmental thriller. The game is played from the point of view of environmental scientist Rachel Carson, though the real star of the show is the haunting setting itself.

computer

Methods of Research

The Forest Cathedral’s fully voiced, rich narrative is told through a combination of two gameplay styles. One is its first-person 3D exploration in which the player navigates Science Island, conducting research on its wildlife. Taking notes and utilizing a special scanner, the player investigates the remote island in search of answers to the mystery.

Along the way you can interact with computer terminals where The Forest Cathedral’s second gameplay style appears in the form of 2D platforming puzzles. On these terminals, the player controls a 2D character “Little Man,” traversing through the puzzles in order to operate mechanisms back in the 3D space. Both the 2D and 3D worlds interact with each other, unlocking new areas or progressing the story.

circuit board

Art Imitates Life

The Forest Cathedral’s story is a dramatic reimagining of real-world scientist Rachel Carson’s environmental science book, Silent Spring, which documented her discovery of the harmful effects of DDT. Developer Brian Wilson drew inspiration from the attempted silencing of Carson and her findings to build his own artistic interpretation of events.

As Wilson explains, “the story of Rachel Carson is a David vs. Goliath story.” Throughout the game, you’ll become immersed in situations that evoke a feeling of struggling against overwhelming resistance. In this way, Wilson emulates what he believes Carson must have felt as she battled to share what was ultimately life-saving information that giant chemical companies did not want the public to know. The Forest Cathedral imparts the same uncertainty, fear, and confinement, leaving the player anxious to discover how the malicious plot develops.

Wilderness

The environment players will explore in The Forest Cathedral is based on Cook Forest State Park’s own Forest Cathedral, located in western Pennsylvania – near where both Wilson and Carson grew up. The vibrantly rendered surroundings paired with the atmospheric soundtrack – including several original pieces composed by Wilson – create a peaceful yet eerie setting for the story to unfold. From the dramatic height of the towering indigenous trees to the tranquil lake that hugs the shores of the island, intrigue surrounds you as you comb the island and unravel its mysteries. Though locally inspired, the game’s themes of social consciousness and our duty to our environment apply globally.

Ease of Access

Whitethorn Games wants to ensure that as many players as possible get the chance to enjoy our titles, and The Forest Cathedral implements many accessibility features with that goal in mind. A few of the adjustable settings include:

  • Full keyboard and mouse or gamepad controller support
  • Input rebinding for most actions
  • High-contrast sans-serif text/subtitles and Open Dyslexic typeface options
  • Visual effects toggles
  • Frequent checkpoints
  • “Turn Off Spikes” toggle, removing platforming section hazards
  • “Float Mode” toggle, reducing platforming section fall speed
  • Even more options, all available from the settings menu at any time

With these settings, players can customize their experience to best suit their playstyle and ability at any point in their playthrough.

We hope that you enjoy unearthing the mysteries of Science Island in The Forest Cathedral, available now in the Xbox store!

characters

The Forest Cathedral
Xbox Live

The Forest Cathedral

Whitethorn Games, Inc.

☆☆☆☆☆
★★★★★

$14.99
Get it now

The Forest Cathedral is a first-person environmental thriller set on a remote island. Playing as scientist Rachel Carson, players will figure out why the island won’t let her leave. The game tells the reimagined story of the attempted silence of Rachel Carson leading up to her discoveries on the harmful pesticide known as DDT.

Slowly uncover the effects of DDT in this dramatic reimagining of the story of Rachel Carson. Use advanced environmental technology to solve 2D/3D connected puzzles.

Related:
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 13 to 17
Zombie Derby: Pixel Survival Now Available on Xbox
Defend the Rook: Play the Roguelike Board Game on March 16

Neil Druckmann Says Naughty Dog Has Chosen Its Next Game, but Doesn’t Confirm The Last of Us Part 3

Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann confirmed that the studio has chosen what its next game will be. However, he didn’t reveal whether it was The Last of Us Part 3 or a completely different IP.

On an episode of the Kinda Funny Spoilercast, Druckmann said, “I know the fans really want The Last Of Us Part 3, I hear about it all the time. All I can say is that we’re already into our next project, and the decision has already been made. I can’t say what it is, but that is the process we went through. There was a lot of consideration of different things, and we picked the thing we were the most excited for.”

He added, “At the end of every project we purposefully explore several different projects. Some of them might be a sequel, and then a bunch of new ideas. And then we feel like, ‘Where do our passions lie?’”

Druckmann also reiterated that the upcoming The Last of Us multiplayer game is Naughty Dog’s next release and that more information will be shared later this year.

It’s unlikely that Naughty Dog’s next project is related to Uncharted, as Druckman stated that the studio was moving on from that franchise. While he stopped short of confirming whether it was The Last of Us Part 3, back in 2021, Druckmann also said he had written a story outline for another The Last of Us game, but clarified that the studio wasn’t currently working on it.

For now, fans can look forward to the upcoming multiplayer game, as well as the upcoming PC release of The Last of Us Part 1, which is set to launch on March 28.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey