Nothing was met with a louder collective groan at this years E3 than the debut of You're in the Movies, the 360-exclusive party game that would see you and your couchmates flailing around like maniacs to star in a variety of made-up movie trailers. The whole thing just stunk of awkward. And we're not talking that good Ricky Gervais kind of awkward, It's more like that "you're elderly grandmother just blurted out something racist on the bus" kind of awkward.

But E3 was a long time ago, and 2008 was a good year for getting us used to the idea of games that made us look like asses. WiiMusic, SingStar, even Knots all had us acting in ways that we'd never want to be seen acting in public. So now that it's on the shelves, and we're all in a party game mood, was You're in the Movies a summer blockbuster or a box office flop?

At it's heart, You're in the Movies isn't really about the movies at all. The making of movies only serves as an excuse to get you and your friends involved in a series of mini-games that make use of the Xbox Live Vision Camera. Considering the total lack of titles that support the Vision Camera, that's a good thing. Since it's debut in 2006 only four titles have taken advantage of the cameras interactive features. Dozens more offer face mapping and video support, but as far as interactive features go I'd have to lose my thumb to count them all on one hand.

Minigames range from carnival fare like throwing balls to swatting wasps and dodging weapons. Running seems to be a common theme, and occasionally you'll even get a minigame that tests your noodle. All in all it's a pretty good selection of games, and in the end it all serves a purpose. The video captured while you performing minigames is stitched into the "script" for the film you've chosen, and each game ends with a screening of the movie your video clips have made. Yes, the movies themselves are lame to the point of cringe-worthy, but it's still a fun watch if only to see the silliness you've created.

Unfortunately a game is only as good as the hardware it's developed for, and the Xbox Live Vision camera isn't the best piece of hardware around. The quality of the video you've seen in trailers looks like it was shot on the holodeck compared to the quality you're going to get in your living room. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that the "Cut-Out Studio," a quick setup mode that take a picture of your play area so that it knows what's background and what's not just doesn't seem to work. Sure it'll generally chop out the majority of what's in the background, but nothing is more irritating that missing wasps because the game can't see your arms or watching your movie with a giant chunk of the wall behind you floating around your head. It seems as though they knew people were going to have problems; on boot-up you're greeted to a five-minute "how to set up your living room" video. Despite following all the rules seen and messing with various lighting setups, I could never get the video to record right. Besides, games like this are intended to appeal to a casual audience. Most casual people aren't going to want to go through the ordeal seen here;

It seems silly to nitpick a title whose main premise is already flawed, but I'm going to do it anyway. Even had the camera worked flawlessly there would still have been room for improvement. When playing with less than four people, the missing members of your script are always played by stock footage from the disc. Allowing someone to play multiple roles or having scripts tailored to specific numbers of players would have been an easy remedy to a relatively frustrating situation. Alternatively, online play would have allowed you to make up a foursome of real people that aren't in your living room. Sure there are scumbags out there that might want to show their dingle, but that's what family settings and abuse complaints are for. The game was clearly tailored to the four player experience, but it was done at the cost of quality single player options.

Other complaints are pretty minor. Between rounds you need to grab the controller and press A, which could have easily been substituted with a motion command like you see in a lot of PS3 Eye games. It would have been nice to see more mini-games that included more than one player. I'm fat and it's physically demanding. All relatively minor complaints.

There's a lot of good in the package as well. You're provided with a huge assortment of genres and scripts to pick from. There are a great deal of editing options in the Director Mode if you're ever in the mood to mess around. You can email yourself the movies and share them on YouTube without any real difficulty. But as you can see in the video above, the good doesn't outweigh the bad. My legs are cut off. My arm clips out. You can see parts of my wall. And yes, this is the most successful movie in terms of camera co-operation that I made.

You're in the Movies was an unpleasant concept that turned into a fun mini-game collection that was ruined by uncooperative hardware. That's a rollercoaster if I've ever seen one. Had the Xbox Live Vision Camera been a more reliable piece of hardware, it would be easy to recommend this to anyone who likes to make an ass out of themselves with their friends. As it stands though? It's just too easy to notice it's flaws when you should be having fun.

You're in the Movies is available exclusively for the Xbox 360. It includes the Xbox Live Vision Camera and has an MSRP of $69.99.

Comments (2)

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, December 03, 2008

I don't think there's ever been a game released that I am less interested in... I'm glad I wasn't the one to review it

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written by work and travel, December 25, 2008

Is there any information about this subject in other languages?

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