My Dream Job: Babysitter (*** out of four)is a simulation game where you take on the role of a babysitter and have fun playing with infants, toddlers and young children while learning how to start a business as a babysitter. You’ll have many choices about what you do and how you take care of children in this colorful game.

You start by choosing how you look and what you wear: select from several hairstyles and colors, several clothing choices and more. Then you’ll need to go to the virtual library and read about babysitting and take a test to be sure you know the basics of running a babysitting business. You start with $700.00 in your account and must spend the money to buy food, baby furniture and other necessities so that you can enjoy your babysitting and make money at the same time.

There’s a wide selection of locations for you to explore: a grocery store where you buy food for yourself and the babies, the doctor’s office when children need to see a doctor, a park for playing and walking, and a full home and yard. You can move easily between locations and select what you want to do in each location, such as sit and relax in the living room, eat in the kitchen or dining room, go to the park, playground, walk outdoors and the like. When you go to the grocery store, you select items to buy, check them out, and see the total for what you have bought. You can also shop for clothing, furniture and more.

There’s also a computer available for you to send and receive messages, keep records and more. You can also use the computer to manage your finances, make shopping lists and keep information you need. You can return to the library at any time to find more information on what you need to do to become a better babysitter.

There are also many options for what you do when you’re babysitting: you can sing to the children, tickle, cuddle, hold, feed them, and much more. But you also need to take care of yourself too. A color status bar shows whether you are hungry or thirsty, need sleep, are stressed and at what level for each. You’ll need to balance your time and energy so that there’s time for yourself and time to take care of the children and also have fun with them too.

The 3D game is colorful and has plenty of activities to keep players busy for hours and learning and fun activities as well. Designed for babysitters age 8 and up.

Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy (****) is a graphically stunning first person mystery adventure game in which you take on the role of the daughter of Nostradamus in an effort to help her father solve a series of mysterious deaths that threaten the entire family of a famous royal blood line.

The game takes place during the Renaissance in 1566, and the setting is Provence, France. The deaths haunt the royal Medici family and seem to have been predicted by one of Nostradamus’s prophecies but he doesn’t recognize the prophecy as his and suspects a forgery. The Queen Mother Catherine de Medici comes to Nostradamus seeking his advice, but he has become too weak and frail to investigate the deaths and offers to send his son to look into the matter. Since his son is not available, Nostradamus sends his daughter disguised as the son to investigate.

It will be your job to guide Madeleine, his daughter, in the quest. You’ll first have to disguise her as the son by dressing her in appropriate clothes, having her don a wig and beard and then adding makeup to darken her complexion. During the point and click adventure you’ll need to interrogate many people, pick up many objects for use later and investigate your surroundings. Occasionally you’ll need to change back to Madeleine when appropriate to carry on the investigation. Highlighting the game are many puzzles and riddles to solve and recipes such as makeup and potions to prepare. Many of the puzzles are related to astrological signs, alchemy and ancient runes.

The story recreates the historical backgrounds and intrigues of this period in French history and provides a great deal of interest from that standpoint alone. The graphics are excellent, softly portray the various scenes in Provence and add much to the game’s enjoyment. Character animation is good, the dialogues are helpful and voice acting is well done. Exploring the 3-D environments is a breeze using a mouse. The music seems a bit modern for the tone of the game, with frequent use of an eerie female voice singing nameless tunes in the background. This did not distract from the overall experience, though, and at times fit very well.

This historical adventure game incorporating the prophesies of Nostradamus and the intrigues of the era is quite enjoyable and will appeal to many.

From Encore, Windows XP/Vista with Pentium III 800MHz+, 1.6GB free hard drive space, $29.99.