As anyone played the PC Computer game "The Movies", if so is it any good? by the way I hated the "Sims!"

It is more like Theme Park than Sims, with a set objective to reach before each "Awards" time. I am hooked on it at the moment, and have made 3 six minute movies now (along with a load of random 30 second shorts).

I'm getting it for Christmas, even though ordinarily I don't get PC games any more since I got Xbox, due to problems running practically anything under Windows XP.

Originally posted by Rich
I'm getting it for Christmas, even though ordinarily I don't get PC games any more since I got Xbox, due to problems running practically anything under Windows XP.

I tend not to buy them because they all require a £200 graphics card to be playable these days.

Originally posted by nick2
I tend not to buy them because they all require a £200 graphics card to be playable these days.

Apparently The Movies has quite low spec requirements for a modern game, or so someone on another board I used to post at told me.

Thats interesting. I bought "The Sims 2" and it would just keep crashing. I managed to get my money back. Could I suffer the same problems with "The Movies". My PC is a Pentium 4, 2.8ghz, 256k (whatever you call it) and i'm not sure of the graphics card. It is a laptop and not a stand alone.

Originally posted by nick2
I tend not to buy them because they all require a £200 graphics card to be playable these days.

Hmm..well I run Half Life 2, Fear, City of Heroes, The Movies, Doom 3, Sims 2, and a lot more on my £65 graphics card from a year and a half ago, and that's running at 3/4 spec for most of the games, and 1/2 for the rest...so there's still life in this old beast yet before I will need to upgrade.

Originally posted by wayne72
Thats interesting. I bought "The Sims 2" and it would just keep crashing. I managed to get my money back. Could I suffer the same problems with "The Movies". My PC is a Pentium 4, 2.8ghz, 256k (whatever you call it) and i'm not sure of the graphics card. It is a laptop and not a stand alone.

Your lappy sounds like it's plenty powerful enough to run the game, but do check the spec requirements on the back of the box before buying, some shops can be a bit funny with you when returning games just cos they don't work on your PC... Because PC games are so easily copy-able what's to stop you just copying the game, taking the original back claiming it to be faulty, and keeping the copy? Not that I'm suggesting you personally would do that, it's just known to happen sometimes.

Got this game for Xmas, it's not as good as I hoped, hence why i'm surfing :hihi:

Originally posted by wayne72
Got this game for Xmas, it's not as good as I hoped, hence why i'm surfing :hihi:

Same for me as well :thumbsup:

Its lacking something, I cant quite put my finger on it and I wasnt prepared to spend ages creating 'movies' as well so that kinda spoiled it for me.

Well its taken some perceverence but i'm now getting in to this game. Having a laugh now I can construct my movies and edit in sound effesct etc.

MMMMmmmm its getting better still, can't work our how to get new workers though, i'm having to move maintenace guys in to the acting sect.

Any ideas?

Get those films getting better ratings, then win awards - you will find more people flocking to you as your reputation increases....but it is bloody hard!!!

Glad you are getting into the game - I'm loving making silly movies then dubbing/subtitling them

I've published a few to the Net, but for some reason I can't find them on The Movies site. Am I doing somthing wrong, or do they take a while to show?

Not sure, I've not tried publishing any online yet.

Originally posted by Beakerzoid
Get those films getting better ratings, then win awards - you will find more people flocking to you as your reputation increases....but it is bloody hard!!!

Glad you are getting into the game - I'm loving making silly movies then dubbing/subtitling them

Does dubbing and subtitling add to the films score?

Not that I've noticed...it is purely for your own amusement.

Factors that do affect it are:-

Skill of director for the genre
Skill of actors for the genre
Skill of extras and crew
Skill of writers
Quality of film stock (research into the techniques to improve)
Originality of sets and maintenance of them (don't use the same set every film - and a handy tip is to get a workman to repair the set before choosing to shoot the film)

There are other factors to consider, such as the attitude of the cast (are they getting bored in the film? ) and the costumes used.

My best score so far was a 3.5 star film (which I was pleased with), and on that year I managed to get 3 awards in the ceremony. The following year of game saw a few new actors join me, and a decent line of people wanting odd jobs (although I had to sack one of my top stars as he was throwing tantrums a lot, annoying the other actors, and kept hitting the bottle no matter how long he was in rehab!)