When it's time to let the cameras roll, you can settle into your directors chair and make the movie exactly how you want it to be, bringing in a soundtrack from iTunes or GarageBand, and sharing it to YouTube when you're done. The Superstar Edition also includes the Stunts & Effects expansion pack, which adds new sets and effects to spice up. If you haven't played The Movies or want to try this strategy video game, download it now for free! Published in 2005 by Activision Publishing, Inc., The Movies (aka 电影) is still a popular managerial title amongst retrogamers, with a whopping 4.5/5 rating.
- The Movies Superstar Edition Mac Download Full
- The Movies Premiere Edition
- The Movies Superstar Edition Mac Download Free
Do You Know, I really can't remember the last time any game has so captivated my time, my imagination and my enthusiasm as much as The Movies. I think about it when should be working. I think about it on the - train on the way home. I think about it while staring into space on the lav. I think about it when I should be conversing with my wife over dinner. I'm even thinking -about it now. I'm doing a lot of thinking is what I'm saying.
Why? Because it's the kind of game that lets you unleash your creative side in ways other than just-finding cool new methods for killing people.
The Movies is about making films. You start by creating a studio lot, filling it with a vast number of sets, hiring and firing your actors, directors, crew and studio staff, then putting them to work on film after film, hoping to release blockbuster after blockbuster, ultimately with the twin aims of making shitloads of cash and reaping armfuls of awards. Power, money and fame. It's the very fabric of life.
Just Shoot Me
There are three methods for making films. The simplest is to set a team of one to five screenwriters at work on the genre of your choice, wait for them to craft a generic (yet often surreally funny) era-specific script, then cast your stars and director, hire your crew and send them off to film it. You can watch as they go through each scene, or go back to running the studio. Then, once shooting is complete, you release the flick and wait for the reviews and money to pour in. Bl The challenges here are many. First, to make sure you choose genres that will appeal to the audience of the time ('real world' news stories flick by at the top of the screen or on the radio to give you hints as to the kinds of pictures the public are queuing to watch). Second, to make sure you choose the right mix of cast and crew - some are more suited to certain genres or have plentiful personal problems that need dealing with. And third, to keep the environment they work within in tip-top condition.
The second method for making a film is to get rather more hands-on with the production stage. You're still faced with the same managerial problems as before, but instead of just letting the crew get on with it you can access each scene as it's being shot and influence the performance via a set of scene-specific sliders. Change a leading character's walk across a graveyard from nervous to sexy if you think it will work better for the overall scene.
It's slightly more involving and gives you a certain sense of control over the proceedings, but in essence it's just a taster for The Movies' main course - the advanced movie-making tools.
And... Action!
Build a custom scriptwriting office and you're basically given free reign to create anything your imagination can conjure up. Scenes are chosen from a huge store of options, from simple establishing shots, to intricate conversations between characters, to action-packed fight scenes.
The magic comes in the order you place them, the flexibility to customise each scene by adding actors, props, backdrops, extras and the aforementioned action sliders to further personalise the performances..
Add to that the post-production options for editing scenes, adding sound effects and even recording your own dialogue and having the actors lip-synch to your words. Lionhead is keen to stress that the moviemaking tools are more than just a simple sub-game within the larger managerial sim, but instead are pretty much the very core of The Movies, with the rest of the game playing second fiddle instead.
Thing is, it's right. The tools are incredibly complex and full of subtle touches. You may be working with stock scenes, but they're so varied, so many and the tools so flexible that you'll barely notice.
What's My Motivation?
With all the fun of film-making, it's easy to forget that there's actually a very well crafted god/management game surrounding things here too. Mixing elements of Black & White] (either first or second, take your pick), The Sims and any Tycoon game in the past century (except Golf Resort Tycoon - that gave shit a bad name), then ladling giant spoonfuls of the old Lionhead attention to detail over everything, The Movies ends up being far, far more than the sum of its parts.
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Stars are the key to success, yet all have individual personalities that need tending to, lest you end up with raging alcoholics, morbidly obese food addicts, tantrums on every corner and rival studios nosing around waving their chequebooks.
To help, you're given rehab facilities, makeover depts and cosmetic surgery offices, plus you can hire personal assistants or manipulate the paparazzi to capture their off-moments and spread your stars' fame.
Or you can put them to work. There's something immensely satisfying about going to all the effort of scripting your film, laying out the scenes, the sets, the costumes and the actors, honing the performances right down to the most intricate of details, then turning it over to your little computer people and actually watching them go through the process of shooting each scene.
Calling Paul Ross
Then there's the online game. Well, I say game. It's more of a film-making community, where budding moguls get to upload their cinematic output for judgement by other players. The system rewards effort with online credits being awarded for each film released, credits used to purchase exclusive sets, props, costumes and other in-game items. You're also ranked against your rivals, with regular festival competitions offering extra rewards to keep things spicy. Users can post reviews, comments, suggestions, the lot.
Usually, when a game attempts to create a community around it the insular gaming crowd usually shrugs its pallid shoulders and just disappears back into its hole, letting only the dedicated mod-makers bother to make an effort. But the atmosphere around The Movies is such that it encourages interaction. The films themselves are so simple to distribute (ironically at odds with the real world) that you actually get a sense of nervous anticipation when you upload something -much, I would expect in the same way as Peter Jackson did once the final reels of The Lord of the Rings were sent off. It's done. Shooting is over. Post-production and editing is finished. There's nothing more you can do to it Your blood, sweat and tears are out there now, being watched, judged and, hopefully applauded by the general public. Waiting for the first reviews to arrive in The Movies is as much a trial on the ticker as it is in the theatre (I've experienced both and know whereof I speak). Not bad for a computer game.
The Movies Premiere Edition
I really can't praise The Movies highly enough. There's precious little to fault here -maybe there could be a touch more interaction within each scene, maybe the editing tools could offer a touch more freedom in terms of cutting and splicing: maybe, maybe, maybe...
However, it's all just minor and generally undeserved nit-picking at a game that's lived up to all of its promise, provided the ZONE office with more hours of sustained hilarity and entertainment than anything else released this year, and is quite simply unmissable if you're even remotely interested in PC gaming.
The Movies, not only our game of the month, quite possibly our game of the year. It really is every bit as good as we could have hoped for and every bit as good as the hype would have suggested. Time to grant Molyneux a peerage, ma'am.
The Movies Superstar Edition Mac Download Free
Good news for budding directors! Version 1.2 of The Movies: Superstar Edition is out now, and the patched version fixes the crash that had been occurring on Macs with 2GB VRAM Graphics cards. It also improves the shadow effects on Intel HD3000 cards running in OS X Lion.
If you own a digital version of The Movies: Superstar Edition, simply open the application and follow the prompt to automatically update your copy. Mac App Store users will need to visit the Mac App Store, click on the “Updates” tab, and download the patch. If you own a DVD copy of the game or require further support, contact support@feralinteractive.com.
If you don’t yet own a copy of The Movies: Superstar Edition, tell your chauffeur to drive over to the minisite, and find out why this game is the part the Mac was born to play.