Friday, November 18, 2005
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It's show time and you're running the show. You get to call the shots running a Hollywood studio, picking which films to make and what stars to hire. You select scripts, directors, sets and actors before shooting the action (or horror!). You'll manage the money, egos, tears, tantrums and triumphs that make life in Hollywood a real-life drama. Launch your career during different eras in the film industry's 100-or-so year history. But you'll have to be wary of the social norms of the time to be sure your film is a hit. If a female start shows too much ankle in the 1920s, you may offend your audience. Too many mistakes and your studio goes bust. This is The Movies! Read on for my review of the insane game...
The Movies: PC
Buy it here
So you want to be a big time producer; you want to step in the shoes of the Weinstein brothers and many others before them? Well now you can in Activision and Lionhead Studios PC game ‘The Movies’.
The game takes you back to the ‘20s when filmmaking was a new hot commodity (and up through present day). Similar to the Sims games, you must build your very own movie studio from scratch and beat out the competition. My studio was Bloody-Disgusting Pictures, what a surprise right? As much as the game sounds simple, it’s quite complex and you only have one shot at doing it right- if you mess up say bye bye to your studio.
As complex as the game is, the features are designed in such a way that it’s easy to manage and very easy to play. I highly recommend the tutorial or you’re going to be in a heap on trouble. In the middle of the screen is your studio, which can be easily caroused through with the click of a button. On the left is your entire staff, whom can be easily moved from one to place to another. You have the director and actors you hire, script writers, extras, janitors, repairmen, and many more. At the top is the timeline, where you get entered in for awards, which you actually attend the ceremony for! Win an award and get a prize- my prize was my actors can drink all they want and not become alcoholics.
At times your actors get out of control, so you need to get them an assistant or a publicist. You can drag and drop them into bars, trailers or anywhere else that’ll make them happier. You can even give them a pay raise, but beware, if other stars find out you’re going to have to pay them more too.
What I love about this game is that you tell the script writers what to write, I of course had them pounding out horror films. You can also have them write romance, sci-fi, action and comedy. But this game gets even better as you can write your very own scripts! You pick the genre, you dress the actors, you cast the stars, you pick your scenes (from a huge list) and then you have it written. Have an overflow of scripts? Then sell em for some extra cash! But here’s the best part of ALL, you can watch your movies after they’ve been shot!! Seriously!
So make sure that you build some incredible sets for your staff to shoot on, and then make sure you bring in some reporters to write about your film- the more people know, the more money you make.
The point I’m trying to make is that this game is intricate and there are tons of incredible things for you to do. Anyone who has ever dreamed of working in Hollywood, or IS working in Hollywood will love this game. The only downside is that you’ll look at your watch and wonder where the time went; I killed a good eight hours in my first sitting.
The Movies is now available everywhere in both standard and Premiere editions.
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