I've been slowly working my way through the mammoth stack of games on my desk and had a chance to play around with The Movies over the weekend. I haven't played it nearly enough to write my full review yet, but certainly enough to know that it's a great game. It was really delightful to watch the efforts of my fledgling studio: A black and white silent "film" that lasted all of 30 seconds and showed a woman trying to live a huge barbell.

What's cool about this game is that it so seamlessly slips between strategy simulator and a simplified machinima maker. I haven't yet gotten to my studio to the point where it can create full-length color feature films with sound and special effects, but that's coming. The genius of The Movies is that the payout isn't just doing well in the game, it's being allowed to create increasingly intricate movies as your studio succeeds.

To Sims fans the game will be very familiar. You won't have to micro-manage your workers (you hire everyone from directors and stars to the janitor by plucking people hanging out in lines at the studio's doors and dropping them in the appropriate building), but you will have to keep them happy. You do this but sprucing up the studio and giving stars the occasional make-over. The happier the cast and staff the better your movies.

Creating a film can be as automated or hands-on as you would like it to be. By plopping down writers in one of the genre rooms (like comedy or action) they will automatically create a generic film based on what sort of sets you own and cast you have.

I haven't moved far enough through the game to do more hands on development, but my understanding is that I will eventually be able to write my own story by putting together pre-created scenes.

Once the script is written you just choose the director and cast and the get to work. You can actually watch the film being created from a God's eye view or slip into the shoes of any of the people involved and see it through their eyes. It's very neat. Once the film is done, you can hop over to the screening room and actually watch, a very cool experience the first few times.

The fact that The Movies also offers the ability to upload your films to their site so others can watch it will very likely make this game a smashing success.

I hope they come out with some very cool Sims-esque expansion packs. There is so much potential here.

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