Pottermore Review: Chamber of Secrets: Chapters 1-3

Just a few weeks ago, PotterMore.com launched
their second virtual interactive Harry Potter book,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,
partially. Only the first few chapters from the book
are currently available on PotterMore.

The Pottermore Insider explains this, saying the
length of the later HP books make it difficult to
launch the whole book on PotterMore at once.

The method they intend to try is to launch future PotterMore "books" in chunks,
perhaps 8-10 chapters a time, and limits the chances of PotterMore overloading
 from incoming web traffic, or other technical problems.

Now for the review:

PotterMore: Chamber of Secrets: Chapters 1-4

PotterMore's second "book" is filled with all new breathtaking digital artwork,
solid if not really interesting sound effects, and a fun but not addicting minigame.

There are much less pieces of original information from J.K. Rowling, which is a loss,
and not as much collectable items to hunt down and find in the backgrounds.

Also, it seems these early chapters need a little more fine-tuning.
The mini-game didn't even work at first, and many players, myself included,
reported not being able to zoom into the background, to look for hidden secrets.

I am slightly disappointed with these new chapters, and hope that
PotterMore will take notice of these issues and address them.

Overall Grade: C-

Deathly Hallows celebrates 5th birthday!

  This past Saturday, the seventh and final Harry Potter book,
  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
  celebrated its 5th year running.

  The book was released on July 21st, 2007 worldwide,
  and became a instant success.

  It has been widely considered by fans to be
  one of the best books in the series, and continues
  to be in demand in bookstores, libraries, and online.

 

It is great to see that the book still will continue
to reach many generations to come, and to be well remembered all around.

PotterMore launches Chamber of Secrets worldwide!

As promised, the PotterMore team has, at last,
launched the first few chapters of their next
interactive PotterMore book: Chamber of Secrets.

New hidden content and mini-games
have been announced to be included.

Fans now once again have a excellent reason to
return to PotterMore, and unlock more secrets
from within.

Look for a detailed review of the newly revealed content
from Chamber of Secrets sometime within the next week!

To go to PotterMore, you can simply use the direct link found below.
http://www.pottermore.com/

Fan Video of the Week: How Harry Potter Should Have Ended...

Contining our new "Fan Video of the Week" series, here is a perfect example
of what we feel is the ideal Harry Potter fan-produced video.

This, I feel, is clearly one of the best Harry Potter spoof I have ever seen.

"How Harry Potter Should Have Ended" reveals a new,
ridiculous interpretation of the final book/film in the Harry Potter series.

Its visual animation is impression, its voice actors perfectly silly but true to their roles,
and the wonderful scripting make this video one not just worth watching,
but quite possibly worth re-watching, for either the die-hard or casual Harry Potter fan.

Chamber of Secrets launched on Pottermore today, exclusively for Slytherin house members!

At last! As a reward for all active Slytherin house members, PotterMore staff have launched the next
HP "book" on PotterMore, Chamber of Secrets.

Just like the first "book" on PotterMore,
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone",
or just simply "Sorcerer's Stone", 
"Chamber of Secrets" will also become a
virtual world,  designed by HP author J.K. Rowling!

As a reward for winning the annual PotterMore "House Cup", PotterMore users who
have been sorted into Slytherin house before the end of the "House Cup" compitition
are now recieving early access to the first chapters of "Chamber of Secrets",
24 hours before the other houses!

All PotterMore users will be granted access to "Chamber of Secrets" sometime tomorrow.

Pottermore Insider hints at possible July release date for COS!

According to a recent post made by the
Pottermore Insider, the second Harry Potter book,
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets",
which is in the process of being re-created digitally
for Pottermore, may be launched in some form
sometime in the very near future.

In fact, it may, at the rate of these increasingly positive announcements,
become available to Pottermore users by the end of the month.

Here is the original announcement:

"Over the past few weeks on the Site Updates section of the Pottermore Insider,
we’ve been letting you know about our progress developing  
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Pottermore.

We’re excited to announce that the first chapters of  Chamber of Secrets
are coming very soon to Pottermore.

We will reveal more about this next week here on the Pottermore Insider,
as well as the Pottermore Gateway and the new Pottermore house noticeboards."

                                        Looks like, within the next few days, the Pottermore Insider may finally
                                        reveal the release date for the next virtual "book" in the HP series.

"Harry Potter: Wizard's Collection" widget added!

In preparation for the release of the new
"Harry Potter: Wizard's Collection"
Collector's Edition, which is to be released
later this year, you will find a countdown gadget
on our page, just below our "News Archives",
which will count down until the
"Wizard's Collection" hits stores this Fall.

Hopefully the collection itself will prove to be
worth the effort Warner Bros. makes to promote it.

"Harry Potter: Wizard's Collection"
enters stores on September 7th.