New details on Potter's motion-controlled spellcasting

EA's recreation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will boast a new gesture-based spellcasting system that lets you perform magic with motions on PS3 and Wii. While the 360 version will remain stuck with conventional analog sticks, the PS3 and Wii versions will be more interesting.

Executive producer, Harvey Elliott, explained to GameSpot: "Instead of pressing buttons to fire off specific spells, we use each console's unique controls.

"So if you want to use 'depulso' to push an object away from you, you press the right analog stick forward on the 360 and PS2, you push the Sixaxis controller away from you on the PS3, and, of course, you flick your 'wand' away from you on the Wii," Elliott revealed.

Other features to use motion gestures include igniting objects, for which you must "slide the Sixaxis or Wii Remote from side to side as though you were lighting a match."

The game will also be packed with humorous mini-games and scenarios, "such as turning a courtyard into a swamp or pouring potions into a tannoy system," Elliott explains.

And if you're a hawk for accuracy, you'll have no problems because EA is going all out to make sure the game is exactly like the film and books.

"We followed the movie storyline very closely, supported by the fiction from the books as you explore locations or narrative threads that we don't visit in the films," said Elliott.

Looking forward to its July release, Potter fans? Sure you are.

May 3, 2007