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Really awesome!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love this game! I bought it a few months ago. I think it's really cool! I play it with my friends every day!! We always make movies and dress the actors! I think that anybody who looks at this game on amazon should buy it right away!!!!!

Feels more Simcity than Sims

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing this game for about two weeks now, and it is very fun, if stres-inducing. You start the game fairly slowly, but soon your studio takes off and you have lots of things to worry about, and lots of movies to make. I feel while playing it that, while I'm having a blast, I'm probably missing a lot of customization that more expert players can take advantage of. The graphics are amazing. You can zoom in extremely close and still see fluid movement (granted I have a new computer, it's only a Dell and doesn't' have lude amounts of processing or anything). The stars are relatively easy to keep happy--just keep the most important's salaries high and give them a makeover every couple "years" so they can keep up with the day's fashion. The movies are short but sweet; it's cool that you can see the difference between when your stars/director/crew is prepared or not. I haven't won an award at the award show yet, but I don't really care. This is the kind of game you can get really obsessive about, or you can play it casually for twenty minutes at a time and think it's great.

Oh so close to being in the same company of Civilization 4

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I waited years for this game to be released. I first came upon it in a computer magazine. It wa sin development for at least 2 years. The previews looked fantastic. So much to do, but the greatest part of this game was going to be making movies, editing, and watching your possible masterpiece. Sadly, it was hyped as the most anticipated game but it didn't live up to the hype.
The graphics weren't bad. They sort of resembled the Sims2 graphics with almost the same language. Building the actual movie set and studio was a fresh and unique way to start the game. Hiring script writers (or you can write it yourself), actors, extras, and scientists were pretty good. Hiring janitors and construction workers was a very demanding task that quickly got frustrating. I can understand you have to build trailers, bathrooms, bars, and resturants but it was slightly taking away from the main part of this game---making movies. Being a realism freak and the fact that I love buisness sims, I thought I was not going to get any sleep when this game was released. I was going to make masterpieces. Alien movies, horror flicks, love story with a twist, oh I was waiting for the release date. I was shocked to see that you only get a small tidbit to make the movie. The scenes were short. Your movie was only a couple of minutes. This was a letdown. With todays computers as well as 2 years ago and the ability to buy large capacity hard drives for low prices, I thought Lionhead would of allowed players to make feature films possibly 30min-2hrs in length obviously that would take a huge amount of space but what Im saying is 3-5 minutes of a whole film is nothing. I had high hopes but it was somewhat of a letdown. Time seemed to go very fast (its not turn based).
I did have fun with the game but everytime Im making a movie, I get that dissapointed look when my movie, after months of shooting and getting the scenes right, is completed all 5 minutes of it. Sadly it's not enough to keep you playing. The expansion pack for this game (Stunts) does add some renewed excitement but it quickly vanishes since the length of the movies remained the same and its slightly buggy.

Room For Improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I recently reinstalled The Movies after several failed attempts to 'complete' the game - and thus my review is based on a mixture of the two experiences. Essentially the Movies mixes several games/genres - tycoon series, The Sims, and Sim City - to give you the opportunity to build, manage, and operate a movie studio from the ground up. There are two modes of play - sandbox and tycoon - but I'll focus on the latter. Here are the main features/areas of play in the Movies:

Time: The game follows a chronological scheme which starts you in the 1920s and the dawn of moviemaking - in part to allow you to get accustomed to the game. As time goes on, you'll be able to create more complicated movies. Time also plays a factor in determining what's cool - both in terms of what genres of movies are popular (if it at all) and what clothes/looks your stars will want to rock. This makes the game more dynamic but the time is a bit skewed - the films are annoyingly boring and simple in the beginning and extremely stressful in later times making it much harder to manage your stars.

Staff: You are responsible for hiring and managing all staff as needed. Obviously the main staff you'll be managing are the stars themselves - from what they wear to who they're friends with to their stress levels to their addictions to their annoyance with a lack of entourage/large trailer/big salary - you've got to micromanage them as a main task in the game. Along the way you're also responsible for keeping an eye out for and hiring researchers, writers, repair personnel, janitors and extras. One of the big flaws of the game is the lack of staff - particularly when you have to assign them as entourage members of your various stars.

Design: Your studio lot is relatively big - but NOT big enough to house every set the game makes available to you over time. Customization is limited to decorating the studio lot with ornaments, particularly around the trailers of your stars, and can get really tedious. You'll pretty much build every item the game gives you and its always fun to explore a new set.

Awards/Game Goals: In the Tycoon mode you'll attend an awards ceremony every 5 years to collect various awards from "Most Prolific Star" to "Best Employer" to "Best Directing" - but really the REAL awards are the ones you as a player collect. There are about 8-9 levels of excellence you can aim for and each level comes with a set of goals. Some of the goals are very task-specific such as producing your first four-star movie or building up a 5-star celebrity (very hard to do btw). Other goals are more generic and will generally be achieved just by playing the game such as releasing 20 movies or winning 40 awards. Each time you complete a set of goals you'll be given an unlockable reward such as a new set or a better scriptwriting facility. The toughest set of goals is probably the 2nd last as it has some very specific tasks.

Movie Making - Of course this is a big part of the game, but only if you want it to be. The game lets you kind of run on autopilot by having scriptwriters create your scripts and simply releasing them, but you can also get in-depth into movie making by selecting the scenes, action, sets, costumes, effects and other post-production effects once the film is done. The filmmaking isn't extremely deep though - you basically choose a set, then choose a pre-mapped interaction for that scene, and alter it as you see fit according to some pre-set options (ex: an actor's expression can be changed from angry to sad to happy depending on what the scene calls for). Although its fun to make a (relatively) sensical movie, the game also lets you get away with jumbling a bunch of scenes together as well.

Overall this is a really fun, but quite challenging game, simply owing to the depth of play. Also be warned, it can be taxing on your computer, particularly if you have a weak graphics card. I liked that the game allows you to choose what you want to focus on to a degree, even within the tycoon mode. You can ignore some of the features it includes and take advantage of others that you're more interested in, which is nice. My advice is to do a practice run, maybe even in sandbox mode, and to look up some of the free online tips and guides out there - they really helped improve my gameplay this time around to the point where I'm on the last level of play before completing the game!

good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love this game when i first got it i wouldn't get off the computer i was rapidly making movies! then i got bored and left it alone for a month or two now im back in and having fun all over again like it's brand new ok now to the review first what i like about the game: I LOVE the sandbox mode pretty much because i can make a movie in a snap! then upload it to the internet and show it to my friends and family! i think i like sandbox mode best :) now why do i give it 4 stars? its because. oh wait ahem whats bad about the game: the lack of employees you can only hire employees if they appear on your studio lot you'd think a multi-million dollar studio would be able to find an extra -_- yes i did steal a joke from a review on youtube but i feel the same way and i dont really care for the "Story Mode" i thought the game was called "The Movies" not "Deal with whiney ungrateful stars" sorry for that overkill joke :D
and now im responding to other reviews: yes sometimes i to am frusterated with the fact that there is no free cam and that all the scenes are pre made but i think unless they made making your own scenes ULTRA ULTRA ULTRA simple i like the fact that the scenes are pre made well most of the time hehe but there is free cam in the expansion pack but the person that complained that there was no free cam well my point is that review was b4 the expansion pack was released. well that wraps it up but one last thing go to www . themoviesgame dot com and visit my studio: rhckids and enjoy my various movies :) goodbye

Incredible game with Endless fun and movie idea's.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Movies is a fun and interesting "Sim" game. If you have ever seen a movie and said "I can do that" but never had the money or actuall means to do so the I have news for you!! NOW YOU CAN !! this game is ahead of its time and I recomend that you buy the expansion pack also. Makes for great chase scenes and EXPLOSINS!

If you dont treat your actors right with big Trailers and everything they desire then they may begin a serious downward spiral. They will eat till they are fat or drink till they pass out or even QUIT! I like the fact that you can actually make your OWN "Sim" actor. This game is HOURS of fun!

I tried....really.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

You will WANT to like this game but I don't know about any of the rest of you I found a number of things very frustrating

1. The tutorial is a waste of time and you have to find out a lot stuff on your own and I don't have the patience. For instance you are given the ability to add sound to your movies and then no instruction on how to make them appropriate for the context of the film. You are given the ability to slice scenes together and given no test audience to find out how a particular combo will work. A lot of this is trial and error that is all I am going to say.

2. Lots of detail but details about the wrong things that I feel are unimportant. Do I really need to have my grade constantly bought down because the paths connecting my building don't all link up? Do I really need to know that my actor or actress is "off to squeeze one out?" I can always take comfort in the fact that my studio may produce crappy movies..but it has really clean restrooms.

3. I don't care that you're feeling bad and had to stop at the bar on your way to the set make the movie for god's sake!! This happens constantly even when you think your doing a good job of keeping your stars happy.

Overall-I'm not saying its necessarily a bad game because its not the radio dj's are hilarious and there is a lot of detail but its not something you can play casually and just have fun there are to many details that hold you back. If you REALLY want an in-depth game you can try this and maybe you can make some sense out of it. I'm just giving you my impression.

Great Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Despite what I've read in many other reviews for this item, I think The Movies is a great game. I don't really have any bugs or problems that really ruin the game, but yes there are a few very very minor things.

The game mode is awesome, and I'm not frusturated or having any trouble doing anything. If you're a frequent gamer, it's not hard to figure out the tools and even if you're not there are instructions with it. Yes, you have to unlock certain things, but that's the fun of the game. I'm not having any financial problems and I'm the number one studio and have the numebr one ranked star (this stuff changes pretty often though). It just takes some thinking and strategy.

Creating your own movies does take a while and is kind of annoying, so I don't really do that, and if you get the stunts expansion back everything is twenty times better (the moviemaking and the regular gameplay). If you like building games such as Sim Theme Park, SimCity, Roller Coaster Tycoon, you know, building games like that, you'll love The Movies. It's a really fun, entertaining game that keeps you busy for a while.

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