Iremember reading the press announcement regarding Playboy: The Mansion. I
thought to myself “Why would anyone want to release a Playboy game?” Then I
thought “Wait a second, how in the world can the developer make a Playboy
game?” Well with Playboy: The Mansion you’ll get exactly what you expect from
Playboy; pictures of beautiful women. But, since this is a game there’s much
more to do than just looking at beautiful women.
The basic concept of the
game has you playing the role of Hugh Hefner. Hef has to run the Playboy
Empire and make sure the business that is Playboy succeeds. Of course a big
part of that success depends on pictures of beautiful women printed in Playboy
magazine. If you don’t have the best pictures of the best women then you run
the risk of hurting the Playboy enterprise.
In the game you play the
role of a younger Hef. You’ll start the game inside of the mansion where
playmates and guests are wandering throughout the mansion. The basic layout
of the game will remind most players of The Sims. You can interact with the
playmates and other guests within the game. Hef has six different drives that
keep Hef going and happy. Remember if Hef isn’t happy then the Playboy
enterprise can suffer. The six drives are Entertainment, Education, Leisure,
Casual Relationships, Professional relationships and Romantic relationships.
So it’s possible for Hef to build a romantic relationship with the playmates
in the game.
Obviously the women
inside of the magazine are what most people think when discussing Playboy.
There is a virtual photo shoot within the game that allows you to shoot the
models. You can pick the location of the photo shoot, such as pool side or
something inside the mansion. During the photo shoot you can change the
attire the models wear and add or remove accessories such as jewelry. As of
now you can take up to 24 pictures during the photo shoot.
The business simulation
in the game allows you to control and view different aspects of the Playboy
business. You can control the cost of the magazine and change the price if
you feel necessary. After changing the price you can then view the impact the
price cut had on sales of the magazine. The sales of the magazine are broken
down by demographics from entertainers to educators.
As of this moment the
game will be composed of 12 missions that must be completed to finish the
game. These missions will be for the Xbox and PC versions of the game. The
developer mentioned that the PS2 version will have an additional 3 bonus
missions. But don’t feel jealous Xbox owners because the game will have Xbox
Live support. The developers mentioned downloadable content and additional
content to be determined later. There will be a character creation mode
included in the game as well. You can create a playmate or create other
characters for the game. For playmates, there will be total of 50 actual
playmates represented in the game.
So far Playboy: The
Mansion appears to be an interesting choice for a Playboy game. The developer
mentioned that the game will have a Mature rating. They are working closing
with the ESRB to see just how far the Mature rating can be pushed. I will let
your imagination decide what that could mean. But at E3 2004 there actually
is a game underneath the Playboy name, it’s not just a bunch of pictures with
content that no one really notices. Look for the game later this year.
