All right. I admit it. I'm a closet Harry Potter fan. I've got all the books. I've read them all multiple times. I saw both Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on their first days out at the cinema, and bought them the first day they came out on DVD. I read every interview I can get my hands on to do with the books and movies. I check Harry Potter websites daily for rumours about what is going to happen in the next book. I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the day it came out. In fact, probably the only thing I haven't gotten into, Harry Potter wise is the videogames.

Don't get me wrong, I've played them, but they just aren't targeted at my demographic of an 18-year-old male. When I have played them, however, I've wished for one thing and one thing only: Good Quidditch. The previous Harry Potter games have all been platforming titles mostly, which meant the Quidditch parts of the games have all been mini-games, which involved flying through hoops. EA must have noticed the fact that gamers out there were hankering for some Quidditch love, and they have delivered- Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup promises fully real time Quidditch matches in which you control any of your team-mates, including the Keeper, Seeker, Beaters and Chasers.

Now I can hear two different reactions from people reading this... a collective cheer from Harry Potter fans for finally getting what they have wanted, and a cry of confusion from people who don't read the books. Quidditch? Beaters? Seekers? What is this? Well, let me quickly go over the basics of the Wizarding world's favourite sport. First off, there are three types of balls. The first is the Quaffle, a big red ball that is picked up by one of the three Chasers on either team and has to be thrown through one of three huge rings high in the air (held up by poles) on either end of the field, which are protected by the Keeper of either team. One Quaffle through a hoop equals ten points for your team. Kind of simple so far, right? Well, this is all done while flying on Broomstick. After the Quaffle comes the bludgers. Black balls that the two Beaters on each team try to throw at the opposing team, Bludgers are essential in stopping Chasers from scoring points, Keepers from protecting goals, and most importantly, stopping the opposing Seeker from finding the last ball- the elusive Golden Snitch. The Golden Snitch is an enchanted and tiny golden ball with wings. Almost impossible to see as it flits around the field, it is the Seeker's job to stay in the game and search for the Golden Snitch and catch it, thus ending the game immediately and earning the team 150 points. That's Quidditch!

EA has been working hard on making this game work, and with good reason: it's hardly a simplistic sport to implement into videogame form. Rather than just cash in during the release of one of the two movies, EA has bided its time and is busy crafting a perfect replica (is that possible, considering it never really existed outside the heads of young children?) of Harry Potter's sport of choice. You start the single player portion of the game playing for one of the four houses of Hogwarts. If you're like me, and stay on the side of all things brave and good, you can pick Gryffindor, and with it, Harry as the Seeker! Ron is not in the team in the game, meaning it's obviously not set during book five. You can also pick Slytherin, and play as the despicable Malfoy, Harry's arch nemesis. Hufflepuff, the house whom seemingly no one important EVER joins, is also another team as is Ravenclaw. Here's hoping Cho Chang is playable- depending on what part of the series you're up to you're either gonna love or hate her (I'm of the latter, and want to send her broomstick flying into the ground when I pick up this game).

In an interesting twist, once you finish playing the Hogwarts matches, you can join the International ranks as one of the teams competing for the Quidditch World Cup. USA, Bulgaria with Victor Krum (Just friends with Hermione? Yeah right!), England, Japan, Germany, France, and my personal home team, Australia. Each team has their own uniform, characters, strengths, weaknesses, and even their own stadium. Obviously their strengths and weaknesses will work into the tactics of the team. You might be better to try and surge forth with Beaters before grabbing the Quaffle from a Chaser if you are in a slower team, whereas a faster team might do well to just rush the goals with the Quaffle continuously.

One thing that always bothered me about how Quidditch may be handled in videogame form was essentially it'd come down to a Golden Snitch hunt every single time. The Golden Snitch is required to complete the match, and it also gives the catching team 150 points. That is a lot of points, and most of the time a Snitch catch means success. EA have realised this, and made it so that when you are an international team trying to rise up the ladder, you must not only beat the other team, but depending on their ranking, you must beat them by a certain amount of points to advance. This means waiting to capture the Snitch until the time is right (though the other team won't be so nice as to wait for you to get it!)

Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup features a two player multiplayer mode, and also collectable Quidditch Cards that you gain from challenges, moves made during a game, and games won. Using Quidditch cards allows you to unlock special moves for players to give you that all-important advantage in trying to get the hailed Quidditch Cup. The game is scheduled for a Fall 2003 release, and is coming to PC, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance.