The Movies: Stunts & Effects [PC]

Download and Buy The Movies: Stunts & Effects at Yahoo! Games on Demand.

Six months or so have passed since Lionhead's last big PC release, The Movies, and already it's time for its first expansion pack. Stunts and Effects adds stuntmen (and women) to The Movies' existing framework of film-making and studio management, and bulks out the game's content with a pile of new sets, costumes, special effects, and a few interface tweaks. Sadly, the flaws that held The Movies back from greatness go unfixed, but Stunts and Effects will not disappoint those that enjoyed the original more for its creative potential than its gameplay.

Stunt scenes are handled in much the same way as the rest of the movie-making process. Wannabe stunt performers appear at your studio just like potential actors, writers, or builders. They're rated on their stunt-performing proficiency -- which will improve with practice -- and their overall health. At casting, you assign stunt performers to stars (making sure, of course, that your stunt double looks vaguely like the actor they're imitating) and the rest is out of your hands.

Stunts don't necessarily succeed, though. In fact, you'll be lucky to get a 50 percent success rate at the beginning. Failed stunts have a negative effect on the movie's quality, and quite possibly a negative effect on the unhappy stuntman's state of health, requiring a recovery period in a hospital. Successful ones will boost the flick's appeal, and improve your stuntman's performance in future escapades.

Accompanying this new stunt mechanic are new awards, training facilities, and scriptwriting options. Except for the slightly clunky way you create stunt scripts, you'd think all these bells and whistles had been in the game from day one: once you've got over the initial novelty, they're integrated extremely tightly into the game's interface and flow. This isn't one of those expansion packs that feels like a collection of bolted-on afterthoughts.

Leaving the stunts alone for the time being, the next big change introduced in Stunts and Effects is the option to use a free camera when filming. Previously, you were limited to pre-determined camera angles and tracks, but now there's the option to take control of your movie's photography yourself. If you're the type to get really involved in the nuts and bolts of the movie creation process, this'll revolutionize your productions. Of course, it won't have any effect on the overall quality of your releases as the game sees them, but you --and anyone else you show the movie to -- will surely be impressed.