The Movies

Become a movie mogal and run a Hollywood studio with Lionhead's superb PC game.

Lionhead is clearly a visionary studio, but all too often the vision has been set so high, it's been hard for the games to match up to. Just look at the disappointing Black & White 2 for evidence of that. But in The Movies Lionhead Studios really has nailed things. Yes there are some problems with the game, but on the whole it's one of the best titles you'll play on PC at the moment and it's a strong candidate for game of the year.

Stars can relax in the VIP bar

Initial impressions are of a game similar to The Sims, you control little people living their lives, they babble in their own language and you have to keep them happy. But whereas The Sims is a homage to Beckettian drama, with nothing resoloved and nothing much happening, The Movies provides a purpose to the life of the little people that inhabit it.

The object of the game is to make money for your studio and along the way hopefully producing some entertaining movies and winning awards. That requires building a studio lot, with casting buildings, stage, school, production offices, labs, sets and amenities. You'll hire builders and janitors to look after it all and buildings to help create it. You'll decorate the lot to make it attractive with trees and ornaments to entice new staff and hire film crew to make the movies. And of course you'll need to create stars from the hopefuls that arrive at your door seeking employment in the movie world.

Two actors practising sci-fi on set

No matter what job you give hopefuls arriving at your studio, they will gain experience in their job and improve their ability to work for you. While the hopefuls arrive at the building where they wish to work, those lining up to become script writers can just as easily be made janitors if you like. The stage school allows you quite a bit of control of what you do with prospective stars as they can be rejected, cast as actors, extras or directors.

Most staff members seem happy enough to be worked as hard as you like. I tended to have my team of script writers on constant rotation, with all of them working at once I could bang out more scripts than I could film and I'd sell these surplus screenplays to rival studios. The only staff members that get picky are the actors and directors.

Yes you'll be baby sitting some real prima donnas in this game, they won't be happy unless they get as much money as you can afford, their own trailer, an sycophantic entourage and plenty of rest. And give them all you want and you'll still be dragging actors, and more especially directors, back from the bar in the middle of movie shoots.

Choosing scenes for your latest epic

This highlights one of the game's few weaknesses, there's a little too much micromanagement for my liking. But this is par for the course from this developer, you pretty much know when you pick up a Lionhead game you'll be managing things down to the fine details. It's not too bad, the janitors will pick up litter and fix the toilets, it's just that sometimes you'll have to prioritise for them and drag them over to something more deserving of their time - such as a vital movie set about to fall into disrepair.

But what of the movie making process. Well the movies go on a journey through the studio. First you get your writers to come up with a script - choosing from the action, romance, horror, sci-fi and comedy genres. When complete this is passed to the casting office. Here you place your chosen director, star(s), crew and extra(s) onto the movie project. They will then rehearse the project. After rehearsals are over you can pass the movie over to shoot, the cast and crew will then go off to the various sets and film the movie.

A film crew hard at work

Once shooting is over you can then release the movie, hopefully leading to critical and financial success. As the game develops, new buildings become available that mean you can fine tune this basic process further. A custom script office enables you to alter scripts written by your writers or create your own. Players have a lot of control here, being able to choose sets, specific scenes to be played out, costumes, props, lighting, filming angles etc.

The post production office enables you to take filmed scripts and make further changes. You're able to alter the titles, add your own music and sound effects, even dub your own dialogue with a microphone and have it lip-synced by the on-screen actors. You can split and remove scenes here too and if you find you need an extra scene, just take it back tot the script stage for some re-shoots.