Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair

Director's Chair is one of those games where the more you put into it, the more you will be rewarded. The game has four levels of play, from Novice to A-list director. At each new level, you gain privileges, talent, and most importantly, new movie footage. While the lower levels can be boring and a bit confusing, it is worthwhile to play through them to gain an understanding of how everything works. You will also figure out shortcuts and handy tricks that will make the advanced levels much more fun.

As the movie content goes, there is a lot of good footage of the actors, as well as a choice in the storyline of your film. I would have preferred a little more freedom with the plot, but the huge amount of available footage allows the director to make up for dull storylines by using varied and interesting shots.

Overall, Director's Chair is a beautifully made, high-content game. It is time consuming to learn and requires a lot of work, but is ultimately worth the effort.

(A note: Because of its visual complexity, slower computers may have trouble with this game. Even using a high-end computer, I had some trouble with bugs and the program freezing up.)