Full Review

8 December 2005 - Movies is the latest twist of the addictive Sims genre, but is it just more of the same? We play God (or is that Steven Spielberg) for the week to find out.

To make it clear from the beginning, if you like the usual Sims based games then you’ll love this. If however you find electronic dolls houses dull as dishwater then before you read on any further we can say this won’t be for you. Now we’ve got that out of the way, to the game.

The game is based around you running your own Hollywood studio. With one hand you have the power to make a characters dreams of becoming a movie star into reality and with the other shatter them into a million pieces by making them a builder or maintenance worker - well someone’s got to build the stage school before the actual stars can be born.

It is very easy to get into the game as there is a lot of direction as to what to build first and where to place people once they’ve been hired, finished stage school and need moving up to being in their first movie.

Don’t expect to produce a blockbuster movie the first time round, as with real life, the characters need to gain experience from every movie they do, so over time you’ll be able to select and choose which actors/actress are best for each different type of movie you’ll make.

Even the mood of a character can have a knock-on effect to the movie, so you could have a real diva on your hands if an actor/actress feels they don’t have a big enough trailer or isn’t being paid enough for their blossoming talent.

Even though I’m sure you’ll be embarrassed with the first few movies that you’ll produce, I certainly was, you’ll be surprised to see that the money still comes rolling in, which you’ll soon need if you want to expand, keep paying the wages and hopefully make better movies just like all the other Sims games you’ve probably played.

Once you get the idea of the game and have a few movies under your belt and the bucks (if some what small to start with) start rolling in, you’ll soon be engrossed in building more and more facilities for your staff in order to keep them happy, hiring characters to research the latest technology and special effects to help improve your movies and staying tuned to the local news in order to tailor your next choice of movie to meet the desire of the watching public.

VERDICT
As with other sim games such as The Sims, SimCity and RollerCoaster Tycoon, Movies follows the Sims format to a tee and like the others will have you hanging on that extra hour in the hope you can raise enough cash to build a bigger sound stage or afford a better script writer.

Admittedly this doesn't break any new ground, and overall it does come across as The Sims gone to the movies. What ever way you want to see it, the game is still highly addictive and will no cause plenty of late nights, but as with any sim game what's new!