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If you like Sim games, I'm sure "The Movies" will appeal to you. With the included "Star Maker", you can create your own actors and actresses for import into the game. If you want to concentrate on simply making movies and not having the headaches of running the studio, you can play in "sandlot mode." Also, when you have really polished your skills, you can upload your movies to the game's website so you can share them with fans of the game from around the world. I would stronly encourage you to purchase the add-on pack, Stunts and Effects. It adds so much to the game. There are, I feel, a few drawbacks. The biggest one is that you have to be such a "micromanager", doing everyting from casting movies to landscaping your lot. I do wish there was a way to appoint a master groundskeeper or something that would take care of the mundane tasks of placing bushes, park benches, etc. Also, once your writers finish one script, they just kinda wander around the lot. It would be nice if you could type in a script list so that whey they finish one script they could start on another. If you think you're going to create the #1 studio within a matter of months, forget about it. The computer-generated studios get all the big stars and will win all of the awards probably up until the 1940s and then you'll get tossed a few bones. Also, when your stars start to demand an entourage, it seems like that's when the employment lines dry up, so you have to switch some of your other personnel over to be the flunkies for your stars, which can create a whole other set of problems. The best advice is to start slow -- I would not have any more than six stars to deal with, and even that's a handful. Also, just put up the buildings you need and be careful about landscaping and salaries. You can go into debt, but that means you can't build facilities, sets, etc. until you're back in the black. You might also try cutting down on the number of scenes in your movie. There are several advantages to this. First, your stars don't get as stressed, and more importantly, because it doesn't take as long to shoot, you can release it quicker to get the money rolling in. I usually have a couple of "quickie" scripts that are bringing in the bucks while I shoot my several scene epic. I really like being able to zoom in on a movie set and watch what's going on. Sometimes your stars or the director will sneak off for a wee nip if they're a little over stressed. You can also choose to just follow one of your stars or other employees around the lot while they work. All in all, it's a very entertaining and challenging game, but it is not something that you can master in a matter of minutes. UPDATE: This game will NOT run in Vista or Windows 7, not even in XP mode, so if you have a computer that runs a newer operating system, this game will not work.Read full review
This is a very in-depth game, which is good. It will take some time to really get the hang of it and figure out how to keep actors happy and make good movies. It does a good job of helping to make suggestions as to what needs to be done but don't expect too much automatic behavior. I have only played it a little while but it is pretty detailed. Making a good movie is another whole game in itself. Then you have to have the right amenities to keep the staff happy all while trying to make your studio lot attractive to other people for them to come by. I think finding new talent and employees is the hardest part. I haven't found a way yet to go and recruit them. You just have to wait. It will definitely take up time but it can get repetitive if you don't take the time to do the movies (which can also be repetitive). If micro-managed then the game becomes real good and detailed and allows for more doors to open.Read full review
Around middle 2007, I became interested in film as a serious branch of art for people to display their aptitude for emotion, people direction, writing, and decor and compositionary designing. Otherwise known as acting, directing, screenwriting, art directing, and shooting a movie. Since then, my enthusiasm has grown exponentially. Eventually, it would make sense that not only would someone have enthusiasm for viewing an art form, but making it as well. To partially quote the Bible, "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle", than to get a film project finished. Therefore, I searched for some easier way for someone without any connections to make some sort of movie. I found this in the game, "The Movies". I bought this game having played a friend's copy earlier and falling in love with the idea. I would say that this game gives you an unprecedented amount of control over your product, even providing you with camera moves and character moments you might not have thought about before. The negatives are nagging. There is no concrete way to ensure continuity in your script, unless you are serious enough to write it out on paper outside of the game. The biggest lack? At the start of a new project, you are provided with certain choices as per the genre of your movie. First of all, it is personally insulting to be required to restrict your movie to a certain genre. Unless, of course, you want to make a strictly genre movie, which I'm not interested in in the least bit. Second, the genre choices are as follows: romance, sci-fi, action, horror. Where is the drama? Drama is the ultimate movie genre from which all others derive. Preferably, a drama remains a drama whether it has action, science fiction or romance elements. Alas, "The Movies" is not concerned whether a psuedo-auteur has the options he wants. The title says it all. It's not called, "Film", "Plot", "Directing", or even "Drama". This is about "The Movies". Most of the time spent playing is in making a new project. Most of the actual focus of the game is on owning your own film studio. You are forced into banal chores such as assigning directors and actors to your assorted projects starting up. Making sure the facilities are up to date, and making decisions based on budgetry limitations. This is something I abhor, being of the theory that an artist should be able to work of his own accord, regardless of budget, time, or other things. Most directors don't mind small budgets anyway. Back to the game, it is boring dealing with the money and construction and people and bathrooms. Then again, you could treat that as an artistic vision in and of itself, if you are interested in that sort of thing. I am not. All in all, if you desperately want to test out your ineptness with coherent filmmaking (and everyone is inept for at least the first movie), this game is worth the buy even if you have to wade through boring capitalist financial gaming first before you can truly create. Go ahead, buy it.Read full review
So far, I've only played the demo. But I just bought the full version on Ebay. This is a great sim type game, especially if you like the idea of running a movie studio. Sometimes, it's gets too detailed, as you find yourself having to micro manage Stars moods and relationships with other Stars. But to my knowledge, there is no other game just like it, and it has a lot of replay-ability.
Great Game for all of those who dreamed about running thier own hollywood set. You can manipulate everything from what your stars where to what props end up on your movie set even import your own sound files to go along with your movie production. The game starts off fairly easy but then gradually increases in complexity as the actors begin to get more fussy the higher their star rating gets. You get to choose from a huge variety of buildings and sets as well as studio lot decorations. You compete against 5-6 different AI ( artifical Intelligence ) and have an oscar-like award ceromony at the end of each year where you can win bonuses. I would deff. recomend this game to people 13+ becuase it does get a bit complex, if you like the Sim-like games, then this is the one for you!
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