"The Movies" by Lionhead...My Review
I've been asked several times if I've heard of the new game "The Movies" by Lionhead. The answer is yes, I own it and I've been playing it for a few weeks now. While it is a fun game to play, I'm very disappointed in its potential to create Machinima movies.
For those of you who don't own it yet, I'll briefly explain how the game works in terms of creating your own movies. There are dozens of precreated scenes in which you can place actors into. Within these scenes, there are pre-set camera angles. So without some sort of cheat code or mods, you cannot choose your own camera angles, or how your scene will look. For example, if you want someone to punch someone else, you will have 2 or 3 choices of 'punching scenes' to choose from and that's it. So basically, after a few months of people making movies with this game, we'll have all seen every precreated sequence there is, just with different actors in different stories.
There are also only so many sets at this point. I'm guessing around 40 or so. There is no way to create your own sets, either, so those will quickly get old as well. You can tinker with lighting and props, but that will only take us so far. There is a huge technical discussion of this game on Machinima.com. Here is the link if you're interested in the particulars. LINK You can also place these scenes together in any order, but that's almost as much customization as you get.
So my take at this point is don't by this game in hopes of it becoming the next best Machinima tool. There is talk that Lionhead might release some additions that will make customizing movies easier, and I'm sure there is a large crowd of modders out there working away to improve the limitations. But until then, I won't be using it to make any movies. The Sims remains the superior tool in my opinion.
For those of you who don't own it yet, I'll briefly explain how the game works in terms of creating your own movies. There are dozens of precreated scenes in which you can place actors into. Within these scenes, there are pre-set camera angles. So without some sort of cheat code or mods, you cannot choose your own camera angles, or how your scene will look. For example, if you want someone to punch someone else, you will have 2 or 3 choices of 'punching scenes' to choose from and that's it. So basically, after a few months of people making movies with this game, we'll have all seen every precreated sequence there is, just with different actors in different stories.
There are also only so many sets at this point. I'm guessing around 40 or so. There is no way to create your own sets, either, so those will quickly get old as well. You can tinker with lighting and props, but that will only take us so far. There is a huge technical discussion of this game on Machinima.com. Here is the link if you're interested in the particulars. LINK You can also place these scenes together in any order, but that's almost as much customization as you get.
So my take at this point is don't by this game in hopes of it becoming the next best Machinima tool. There is talk that Lionhead might release some additions that will make customizing movies easier, and I'm sure there is a large crowd of modders out there working away to improve the limitations. But until then, I won't be using it to make any movies. The Sims remains the superior tool in my opinion.
posted by April Hoffmann at 12:23 PM
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