Originally Posted by flamingdog

Hooray for Hollywood! Something-something-something Hollywood! Peter Molyneux’s showbiz simulator has, after a typically movie-esque development cycle of some three hype-filled years, finally arrived. But is it a golden globe, or a golden shower?

The Movies is, undeniably, one of the most ambitious games ever attempted. It’s a movie-studio simulation in every sense of the word – you run the business, you manage the star stable, you light the green lights, and you direct the movies. It’s a truly unique title that promises a great deal, yet just comes shy of being a ‘Go Picture’.

On the surface, you’ll find a polished and novel approach to the well-worn tycoon template that does a decent job of avoiding the genre’s pitfalls. It sports a streamlined drag-and-drop interface that does away with most of the graphs, charts and tables that are inimical to the genre. Need an actor for your epic? Click on a hapless wannabe queuing at your stage school, drop him in the ‘actor’ room, and bingo, another star is born.

The golden age of celluloid permeates the game’s presentation, and it does a great job of evoking that magical Hollywood feeling. And it feels dense, covering 80 years of cinema. There’s a sense that innovations are happening all around you, and new technology and toys are constantly becoming available.

One of those toys – and the real meat of the game – is the Advanced Movie Maker portion. Looking like a Fisher-Price version of Adobe Premiere, it provides you with dozens of pre-packaged scenes, and leaves you to construct a story, jigsaw puzzle-style. You can mix things up in the post-production suite, and add some voice-over, music or subtitles. Finished movies can be uploaded to the game’s website, providing virtual credits that can be exchanged for fresh game content.

But the tools ultimately feel limiting rather than liberating. Scenes rarely dovetail neatly together, and there are only a few variations on each eventuality. Worse, there’s a couple of irritating bugs, and there’s no undo function, so think before you snip. Still, perseverance will pay off, and there are some genuinely inspiring and entertaining films to be seen on the site.

The tycoon portion feels similarly limited. The Hollywood nuts-and-bolts - the pitch meetings, the green-lighting, the wheeler-dealing – all seem to go on behind the scenes. Instead, the game focuses on picking out decorations for your studio lot, and managing your star’s moods, like a Hollywood remake of The Sims. This puts you, the so-called studio head, in the position of planting trees, positioning benches, dispatching janitors, and dropping sozzled stars into rehab when it all gets a bit much.

Ultimately, The Movies is a game of two completely separate halves, and neither feels as fully realised as it should. That’s not to say it’s a bad game. But, in the best traditions of Hollywood, after so much hype, it’s hard not to feel disappointed. You’re left dreaming of what might have been, rather than enjoying what is.

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