Saturday 8th April: Warrington - The Pyramid.
Today the very first public outing for the upcoming expansion pack for Lionhead's 'The Movies' took place during the Warrington Film Festival.
The guys form Lionhead were on hand to show off their latest wares, which won't be seen agian publically now until E3 in May. What a warm welcome they gave us too.
I have to say the original game was well played by my kids when it came out, but the entertainment factor of this great piece of entertainment software just multiplied by an unknown factor!
The expansion pack combines the two previously muted packs into one. It's quite a bit more than just an expansion pack. This release will add the following features:
(1) The expected additional costumes, scenes, including city blocks, space ships, new backdrops, Mega Monster Godzilla type characters etc.
(2) The addition of blue screen and green screen lots which potentially mean the skies the limit.
(3) Stunt and Action sequences (these were fantastic)
(4) Free roaming camera (Much needed and well loved today).
(5) Updated interface and I believe Post Production changes in line with what the customers have told Lionhead they want to see.
(6) Particle and weather effects - starship engine bursts, driving rain, shattering glass, explosions seemingly with objects reacting under physics.
(7) Parallax scrolling scenery for chases and movement sequences - brilliant yet simple idea.
Probably the most exciting feature for most there today is something we take for granted in B3D, but wasn't in the original game. You can now move the camera during shooting a scene from position A to B. Also cameras can have zoom fx like B3d. My son Richard shot a car chase with action camera moves you'd find in a Hollywood movie - which were very, very easy to implement.
I loved the STUNTS and Action sequences, they bring sooooo much to the expanded game too. I watched as one of the play testers put a stunt girl through her paces - actually it was through a window.
Imagine the scene, a burning building, fire and smoke everywhere, cut to a close up of a fourth floor window something stirs - the stunt girl...lol with an explosion of flames throwing her through the shattering glass. Don't worry folks theres a stunt air bag with a large X on it in the street below, it's just one of the many new action and stunt sequences available in the game. Others were cars smashing into each other, rolling onto their roofs, exploding vehicles, car chases. We didn't have time to see it all... there is so much in this expanded game pack.
The expansion pack is not yet completed so more may be added and some features may not have been shown today, what was shown went down very very well received indeed. Good job really, with fans coming from as far flung as London, Eastbourne, Holland (yeah someone flew in especially for this), Northampton, and of course Warrington.
The bought us coffee and entertained us most of the day, Richard was able to make three movies whilst there, which I believe will be emailed to us over the next few days, if I can get the car chase online for you to view I will.
Overall I think I would give this expansion a 9/10 - a lot of work, and extras have been put into the making of movies.
For more on the game and an Internet Radio show about the game and the community, check out
http://www.lionhead.com/se/index.html
IPete2.
Today the very first public outing for the upcoming expansion pack for Lionhead's 'The Movies' took place during the Warrington Film Festival.
The guys form Lionhead were on hand to show off their latest wares, which won't be seen agian publically now until E3 in May. What a warm welcome they gave us too.
I have to say the original game was well played by my kids when it came out, but the entertainment factor of this great piece of entertainment software just multiplied by an unknown factor!
The expansion pack combines the two previously muted packs into one. It's quite a bit more than just an expansion pack. This release will add the following features:
(1) The expected additional costumes, scenes, including city blocks, space ships, new backdrops, Mega Monster Godzilla type characters etc.
(2) The addition of blue screen and green screen lots which potentially mean the skies the limit.
(3) Stunt and Action sequences (these were fantastic)
(4) Free roaming camera (Much needed and well loved today).
(5) Updated interface and I believe Post Production changes in line with what the customers have told Lionhead they want to see.
(6) Particle and weather effects - starship engine bursts, driving rain, shattering glass, explosions seemingly with objects reacting under physics.
(7) Parallax scrolling scenery for chases and movement sequences - brilliant yet simple idea.
Probably the most exciting feature for most there today is something we take for granted in B3D, but wasn't in the original game. You can now move the camera during shooting a scene from position A to B. Also cameras can have zoom fx like B3d. My son Richard shot a car chase with action camera moves you'd find in a Hollywood movie - which were very, very easy to implement.
I loved the STUNTS and Action sequences, they bring sooooo much to the expanded game too. I watched as one of the play testers put a stunt girl through her paces - actually it was through a window.
Imagine the scene, a burning building, fire and smoke everywhere, cut to a close up of a fourth floor window something stirs - the stunt girl...lol with an explosion of flames throwing her through the shattering glass. Don't worry folks theres a stunt air bag with a large X on it in the street below, it's just one of the many new action and stunt sequences available in the game. Others were cars smashing into each other, rolling onto their roofs, exploding vehicles, car chases. We didn't have time to see it all... there is so much in this expanded game pack.
The expansion pack is not yet completed so more may be added and some features may not have been shown today, what was shown went down very very well received indeed. Good job really, with fans coming from as far flung as London, Eastbourne, Holland (yeah someone flew in especially for this), Northampton, and of course Warrington.
The bought us coffee and entertained us most of the day, Richard was able to make three movies whilst there, which I believe will be emailed to us over the next few days, if I can get the car chase online for you to view I will.
Overall I think I would give this expansion a 9/10 - a lot of work, and extras have been put into the making of movies.
For more on the game and an Internet Radio show about the game and the community, check out
http://www.lionhead.com/se/index.html
IPete2.