The Movies.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by DrSpike


I want to go back to this, since it was highlighted by ADG earlier. Who is excited by the obvious customisation possibilities? How much focus should that get over whatever gameplay is in the game?

Of course we'll have to see what the gameplay is like first, but I'm already suspicious that they are hiding lack of content by telling you excitedly how much pseudo-content there is.

We should listen to this guy.

[Blake]

Just to be the first to say it (I'm sure others who've read about the game had to thunk it!)...

I wonder if you can make pr0n.

Or should I say, how many days it'll be for the pr0n mod to come out...

edit: Side note. I only thought of this because of GTA: Vice City.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by DrSpike


We should listen to this guy.

Shortly we'll know.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DrSpike

I want to go back to this, since it was highlighted by ADG earlier. Who is excited by the obvious customisation possibilities? How much focus should that get over whatever gameplay is in the game?

Of course we'll have to see what the gameplay is like first, but I'm already suspicious that they are hiding lack of content by telling you excitedly how much pseudo-content there is.

We should listen to this guy.

My concern is ... sort of in that area. I've played two movie sims now, SimCinema and Hollywood Mogul, and the former was the more enjoyable game, albeit programmed in Hypercard or some equivalent (ancient mac visual-like language).

SimCinema didn't have any pictures, you didn't see your movie launch, and in essence was simply a bunch of lists of names associated with dollar amounts - not even traits. (You could make a romance with Arnold and Demi Moore and it would do just as well as a romance with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, if they had similar costs per film.)

Hollywood Mogul on the other hand seems a lot more complex - actors have traits associated with them, and you get to see your movie's credits roll.

However, it's really not playable, IMO, compared to SimCinema. SC had much more interesting yet simple issues to deal with; you basically picked a film genre, gave it a name, picked actors, sound and special effects types, all within the budget of "all the money you have made so far" (starting at $0 of course) plus an amount from the various studios you pitch it to (starting very small until you've made a name). Then you start production, and start advertising; production takes longer based on your sfx, and also has random chances of people getting sick and thus taking longer. Then you can release your movie or skip weeks waiting for better timings. All this time choosing how much each week (if any) to spend on advertising ... then it's released, and you watch how it does each week, and can advertise more if you want to give it more of a boost for the next week (but that usually fails - only succeeds on good movies that don't get enough initial publicity).

HM doesn't have nearly that gameplay, mostly because it's too complex early on, and then loses the complexity upon release - you basically just release it and then it's done.

So i'm definitely worried about The Movies ... hopefully it will have interesting gameplay and not focus too much on the Actors. We'll see

[DarkCloud]

I'd disagree with Hollywood Mogul's problems- its a thoroughly satisfying though difficult game- you can develop a star's potential and 'star rating' through scoring hits and coming out wiht good shows.

Have you noticed that the more hits a star is in, the more their 'cost' skyrockets?

The game is always challenging- each movie has different types of formulae that need to be achieved to be successful- different dollar/shooting locale ratios.

The thing to keep in mind with HM is that while it's deep in the areas of Screenplay/Type of movie/Type of talent a lot of things are just fluff- such as the 'shooting locale' choice. They're nice flavour, but you don't need to agonize over them.

It's a great game.

The movies is probably going to be too limited to be a good game like HM, in my opinion, since graphics by necessity limit the creativity of the player.

[snoopy369]

Play SimCinema though - and you'll see why I think HM is not as good. Its simplicity and depth make HM's excessive complexity seem wasteful ... and yet it's far more deep in terms of how you can affect the success of the movie, IMO, even with a much less complex set of options. I'll admit freely that I didn't play HM much - but from my first movie I could tell that there was only a few things I could really do that would affect the progress of my movie...

[Adagio]

I just got the game and spent most of yesterday playing it. So far it plays and feels as I've expected...well, almost
Making the pre-made movies is easy, the only problem so far is you can't see what roles are "expected" when casting, so often you'll end with gay movies by accident. Sure, such accidents can be fun, but after a while this just gets annoying. It's not always easy to see by the script if the movie ends with romance or someone dying

This problem got worse as I tried to write a script on my own. While writing the script, you can tell which actor plays which role. The problem is that it doesn't automaticly cast those actors who are busy making another movie (and while writing the script you can't see who's busy)
My script was simple: There was this guy giving a massage to a girl in the bathtub, then some other guy came in (her husband) and was suprised. The first guy and the girl decided to get rid of him, so they attacked him, and the first guy dragged him to the basement where they fought until the husband died. The girl came down, saw this, and killed the first guy... now because of the above miscasting the husband and wife was swapped. The husband also didn't wear the outfit I told him to, no, he spent the whole movie walking around in some gay outfit. And the wife changed clothes randomly during the movie

I guess I have to try a bit more before I know how to avoid these problems

[Adagio]

The tycoon part needs some changes IMHO. I don't like the "typical tycoon" rule that you can't make something great from the beginning. A movie rating is based on how things are now, and how things are at the end of the game, so you can only get a 1-star rating at the beginning of the game, even though it's the best movie ever made. Because of this it's impossible to make a real classic, old movies will always be beaten by new movies. I'd say the rating should go down over the years instead, and the rating should be based on the other movies that has been released

Also I hate the "whack a mole" "mini-game", where you have to search to area to find a certain person. The researcers leaves the research department when they're done, so I have to run around searching for them, so I can put them back to work
Also there's almost nobody who wants to get hired. There's nobody standing ready next to the different hiring buildings. The only people I can hire at the moment are wanna-be actors. I could take one of those to work in research or as a janitor if I want though, but at the moment they're too good to throw away


But all in all the game has the "one more turn movie" feeling. Or at least yesterday it had, and guess it'll have it for the next few weeks at least

[DrSpike]

You are forgoing Civ to play this game? Idiot.

[Skanky Burns]

Now now, lets not judge hastily. He may have two monitors and be playing this game inbetween Civ 4 turns for all we know.

[DrSpike]

If had two monitors he'd probably play the Sims on one.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by DrSpike
You are forgoing Civ to play this game? Idiot.

Only for now, while I'm testing the game

But soon I'll get back to Civing again

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Now now, lets not judge hastily. He may have two monitors and be playing this game inbetween Civ 4 turns for all we know.

Inbetween the turns? There is no time between the turns in Civ4, it's not like Civ3 where it takes 15 minutes between the turns

[Dis]

Originally posted by DrSpike
That's because you insist on playing games like the Sims.

I like the sims2. In fact, I just recently re-installed it. Though I'm not playing it because a little game called civ4 came out.

[Dis]

Originally posted by DrSpike
You are forgoing Civ to play this game? Idiot.

I agree. for once.