The Movies Preview [Archive]

Knightshade Dragon

10-19-2005, 01:58 PM

Console Gold (http://www.consolegold.com) has tossed up their preview of Lionhead's upcoming title, The Movies (http://consolegold.com/GameInfo/game/3130.html). Overall, the preview is pretty positive, check it out:

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like movies - old people, young people, anywhere in between. I also know that we have all sat back and said “Hey, that ending sucked…it felt tacked on. Thanks Spielberg.” or “Uwe Boll is the absolute worst Director ever. He should be eaten alive, slowly, by a plague of flaming angry locusts. Why must he ruin all of my favorite game franchises?” The people at Lionhead Studios have obviously thought that once or twice, and they are doing something about it.
You can check the rest of the preview right here (http://www.consolegold.com/Articles/articles.php?artID=109). Look for a full review before the game ships on November 8th.

Rakael

10-19-2005, 02:21 PM

So you don't actually direct the movie? Thats kinda lame.

BleedTheFreak

10-19-2005, 02:38 PM

So you don't actually direct the movie? Thats kinda lame.

Yes you can. You just don't have to, but you have complete control over all the aspects of a scene, from the set design, costumes to the level of aggression and emotions the actors use.

Rakael

10-19-2005, 02:43 PM

Oh, cool. It sounded like one hell of a game other than the lack of directorial control.

Evil Avatar

10-19-2005, 02:54 PM

Yes you can. You just don't have to, but you have complete control over all the aspects of a scene, from the set design, costumes to the level of aggression and emotions the actors use.

But, you can't control the actions of the actors, which defeats the purpose.

Knightshade Dragon

10-19-2005, 03:12 PM

But, you can't control the actions of the actors, which defeats the purpose.

You can to a limited degree, but no you can't jam a hand up their ass and work em like Lambchop. :)

Murtaug

10-19-2005, 03:17 PM

But, you can't control the actions of the actors, which defeats the purpose.

Good directors, at least those in my opinion, are the ones that let the actors control their actions and bring the the character to the table on their own accord. Obviously to some degree a director has to step in and say: "Hey, this guy wouldn't do that." But if you read a lot of pre-shooting scripts for movies, there is a huge void there that an actor has to fill in.

Granted, it would be nice to have control like that as far a game goes.. but I have a feeling it would be difficult to do without becoming more of a pain in the ass then anything.

Xerxes

10-19-2005, 03:30 PM

I rather ram my hand up Charlie Horse ass. Boy did he crack my up as a kid.
:rolleyes:

ezzkmo

10-19-2005, 03:45 PM

some people..staaarted singing it not knowing what it was...

BleedTheFreak

10-19-2005, 03:50 PM

But, you can't control the actions of the actors, which defeats the purpose.

I'm not sure if it "defeats the purpose", what you propose may be outside the scope of the game, but I think what they have done should be very entertaining, to say the least. I'm not even sure I would WANT that level of control, your getting into Master of Orion III territory with that crap.

saneman

10-19-2005, 03:53 PM

I really want to love this game. I want to take it to my screen class and show it to everyone there and say "this is cool, get this". I'm just now trying to introduce them to Machinima (and thus, gather up some examples which aren't just comedy). Plus I want to replace The Sims 2 as my too-crap-to-draw storyboard tool.

But what Evil said. How much you can control the actors is going to pretty much directly influence how much fun I'm going to have spitting "movies" out of this thing. (Ignoring that the non-sandbox mode sounds pretty fun anyway)

Still looking forward to it though. Will be interested to see how their online support turns out.

Hizawky

10-19-2005, 04:09 PM

So no interactive sex scenes? Indigo Prophecy wins again...

Mason

10-19-2005, 04:27 PM

There's ever been a question about Indigo Prophecy winning, regardless of the circumstances?

The lack of lip sync is the worst flaw. The concept is great, but no one will really bother sinking too much time into it as a machinima tool with that sort of limitation. Hopefully it'll work as a weird combination of The Sims and Dungeon Keeper, but its creative potential just isn't close to what most people had hoped for.

omnithrope

10-19-2005, 04:51 PM

After B&W1, Fable, and B&W2, (especially B&W2), I've vowed never, ever to give any more of my money to Lionhead ever again.

Zurik

10-19-2005, 05:14 PM

This is Lionhead we're talking about, I can't believe anyone thinks it will be beyond medicore. So you can't really control the actors? That means you'll be limited to what the A.I. can do, so you're gonna hit limitations around every corner. I'll be really surprised if its more than SimMovies. Than again I could be wrong, this could be the one game that Lionhead actually puts all of their creativity in and gives you some open-ended gameplay for a change.

Private Johnson

10-19-2005, 05:15 PM

The lack of lip sync is the worst flaw. The concept is great, but no one will really bother sinking too much time into it as a machinima tool with that sort of limitation.

What lack of lip-synch? Check the most recent trailer (official movie #10 on Gamespot) - Gundertaker Part 1 which shows the lip-synch in action: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/movies/index.html.

Mason

10-19-2005, 05:55 PM

What lack of lip-synch? Check the most recent trailer (official movie #10 on Gamespot) - Gundertaker Part 1 which shows the lip-synch in action: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/movies/index.html.

Weird, the recent promo video for The Movies in stores is entirely without lip synch. I'd heard conflicting things about whether they were including it, but thought that the immediate pre-release media lacking lip synch pretty much settled the question.

I'll take your word on it, and I really hope it is in the final game, but I won't exactly be preordering until some reviews give it a better run-through. This preview was barely coherent, sadly.

Murtaug

10-19-2005, 06:08 PM

Is the Xbox/PS2 version of this releasing side by side with the PC version?

Knightsaber

10-19-2005, 06:52 PM

Is the Xbox/PS2 version of this releasing side by side with the PC version?

It's PC only so far.

I haven't looked forward to a game this much since....thinking....thinking....ever.

Maybe my PS2 and FFX. Maybe.

Evil Avatar

10-19-2005, 06:58 PM

My point is that without having some kind of control over the actors you can't do Machinima at all, other posters are right that it is just SimMovies and right now The Sims 2 comes with a lot of camera and acting tools that you could use to create little movies.

It just seems like there isn't any point to the game if you can't make your own Machinima and if you are just limited to setting up the sets and costumes and then watching what the actor characters do.

Knightsaber

10-19-2005, 07:03 PM

Which to me sounds like the Sims with at least somewhat of a point. Woo hoo!

Good enough.

nonchalance

10-19-2005, 07:22 PM

nonchalance

10-19-2005, 07:36 PM

There's a video preview on Control Freaks (http://www.control-freaks.tv/), which is a crappy Aussie games TV show. As an aside, they broke the news about the Revolution controller this week.

That said, the video preview may be interesting. Can't watch it at work.

GoblinToe

10-19-2005, 07:42 PM

It all sounds good. But I keep reminding myself this is Lionhead. Lots of great ideas from those guys, but they rarely make it to the shelves bug free or quite as they had intended.

Black & White 1 and 2. Fable. All great ideas, but poorly implented.

I'll wait for reviews from trusted gamer sites before considering this title.

Deadend

10-20-2005, 01:09 AM

It could be good, but I have noticed too that Lionhead spends too much time focusing on pointless details when they miss the main part of a game.

Intriclte AI and villagers in B&W... yet all you do is build buildings or rush towns. All that complex and awesome crap... that has almost no effect on the overly simple core-game.

Mason

10-20-2005, 02:48 AM

True, they're a little myopic in their implementations. Like, boasting in Fable. It's a fairly sizable feature with pretty little payoff. Most players will mess with it once or twice and move on, since money is easy to obtain and failing quests for pissy reasons isn't fun.

Lionhead has a weird, accretive view of game design. No need to work out a really solid core mechanic when you can just keep adding clever features on top of a shaky foundation, with no regard to the overall relevance of the feature. It's pretty much a flop of a philosophy. Like in B&W, the creature, god powers, town building, morality system, and narrative were all very loosly coupled, with few solid metaphors for how they interrelate. It shifted from situation to situation, and you ended up with a game that was only fun to play in sandbox mode.

I get nervous when I hear about all of the gameplay involving detox clinics, actor stress levels, etc. And fundamentally, the dichotomy between a creation and simulation environment could be a sticky point. You know, like if the NPC critic algorithm doesn't like any of the movies you make, thus hurting your cash flow and potential for future creativity. I like what I've heard about how the game handles this duality, but still, seems ripe for the traditional Lionhead issues.

Private Johnson

10-20-2005, 03:24 AM

It just seems like there isn't any point to the game if you can't make your own Machinima and if you are just limited to setting up the sets and costumes and then watching what the actor characters do.

Machinima.com has a recent write up on The Movies here, with a few details about the movie making process: http://www.machinima.com/article.php?article=441 (thread: http://www.machinima.com/PHPBB/viewtopic.php?t=4868)

johnperkins21

10-20-2005, 03:11 PM

It just seems like there isn't any point to the game if you can't make your own Machinima and if you are just limited to setting up the sets and costumes and then watching what the actor characters do.

I think that you have the wrong idea here. There may not be any point to using the game as your one and only Machinima creation tool. To say that there isn't any point to the game is outlandish. The game is about running a movie studio, the Machinima tools they give you are secondary to that purpose.

This is not The Machinima Creation Tool Game. It's The Movies, or more accurately Sim Movies. I did not think that Sim Golf was the best golf game out there, but it did let me play the courses I built. The actual golf playing was just a cool little feature of the game, not the entire point of it. Same thing applies here.