The Movies

The Good
The Movies, is the latest from Lionhead Studios. The Game studio started by Peter Molyneux, the brains behind some of the most original games out there. From Dungeon Keeper to Fable, no one can deny the originality of these titles. The Movies may just be his best game yet.

In The Movies you run a studio, and it is your job to make it a success. Make the stars, build the studio and shoot the movies! It is really two games in one. A building/ management Sim not unlike Sim City. And a movie making game, this is were most of the fun of the games comes out.

In studio mode you keep buildings in good condition, make your stars happy. Manage your money, and improve your lot. You can fire and hire stars at your whim, demote and promote as you see fit, research film making. And even make bad movies look good due to a promotions office. During movie mode you make the movies! From writing the screenplays, to shooting, and editing the films all the elements of film making are at your fingertips.

You can win awards, that give certain benefits to your studio. Bad press of your stars can also hurt your company. Stars can and will develop problems, drinking, eating, and vanity can all effect them.

The films you make are rated on various things, such as star power, and quality of sets. Over using a star can hurt your rating, as can inexperienced cast and crew. Your films also compete with films from other studios, you can be the lead studio not by making the best films but simply the most.

The Graphics are excellent. Partially due to the fairly low requirements. The Game only needs 32 megs of video ram, and with that can run on high settings nice! Crisp and colorful the graphics make your studio come alive. The game also tends to be a system hog with 2.4 Gig needed for installation.

The Game offers a wide variety of music for your films. In addition music plays during the studio part of the game, and a DJ voice says goofy things based on what time period you are in. All the music is good. The actors themselves do not speak English. Instead the speak a sort of Sims gibberish. So your movies either will have subtitles or you can record your own voice and use it in the game.

The Bad
The game can drag at times. During the early days of film. Thankfully there is a sandbox mode that can be played at anytime. In which you can start at what every decade you wish, turn off actors misbehaving and have as much money as you want. This will ensure that the game lives on long after you finish the campaign. Why can’t you make trailers for your films?

The Bottom Line
The movies is quite possibly Peter Molyneux’s best game yet. With expansions on the way there is more movie fun to be had. Sim fans have to play this game!