July 27, 2005

Here Come the Animals

Topics Presents Animals (**** out of four) is a collection of four programs containing facts, photos, information and games about—you guessed it – animals. The collection also includes a 20 by 30 inch foldout map, Africa’s Natural Realms from National Geographic. The programs are designed for children and adults and include varying levels and types of information about animals from Southern Africa and also those from throughout the world; there’s a separate program on fishes, reptiles and amphibians and one that contains games that feature animals.

Animals of the World is designed especially for children and features six categories of animals (mammals, fishes, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles). Just click on any category and then the animal you want to see, and you’ll see photographs, descriptions and animal sounds featuring the animal you’ve chosen. There are also games for children to play while learning some interesting facts about animals. The program also includes six animal screen savers.

The Ultimate Field Guide for Larger Southern African Mammals is a reference resource for information and identification of more than 100 regional species. The program features three keys to mammal identification: research by Animal Tracks, Animal Silhouette, or Animal Dung. Click on the included list of more than 100 animals to find detailed information on that animal. The information is extensive and includes items such as Behavior and Habits, Reproduction, Diet, Visible Male/Female Differences, and more. There are photos throughout and a wide variety of animals in each category. A map of Southern Africa displays area where each animal is found.

The program also includes excellent search capabilities for finding animals, and there’s a reference list for finding additional information about animals. Four screen savers and a printable quick-reference page are also included.

Fishes, Reptiles, and Amphibians includes written information, colorful photos and videos and diagrams illustrating hundreds of species in these three categories of animal life. Click on the category you want to see and then on the specific species to find the information you want and then print the information, save it to the clipboard or just view it on screen.

The illustrations are extensive, the photographs are outstanding and the information in the program is excellent. Written descriptions include links to other related information, and a click brings your directly to that information.

GeoSafari contains 16 games that can be played by one to four players or a team. Games include Whales, Micro Mysteries, Horse Roundup, Animal Art Gallery, Animal Eye D, Weird Words of Animals, Name That Bird Call, Dog Show, Hall of Fame, Reptiles, and several others.

Each game contains questions that are displayed on screen and spoken; choose the correct answer, and a photo or video (some with animal sounds) and information about that animal is displayed on screen. The games include interesting facts about all types of animals and beautiful color photos and videos of the animals included in that game.

The program also includes six animal screen savers and is personalized with hundreds of names that are spoken each time you choose a game and the like. The programs keeps your scores for answering questions and contains a printable certificate for completing games. There’s a printable glossary of photos and animals facts for each game, options for time to answer questions and several other options to personalize the games.

Psychonauts (****) is a somewhat wacky third person mystery adventure. Psychonauts are psychically trained and PSI capable secret operatives that seek out psychic problems and straighten them out or stomp them out. The game is played out both in the real world and in the minds of the various characters you, as Raz, come in contact with. Raz is a Psychonaut in training and as such he is able to jump into the minds of the various characters, there to do battle with all the resident psychic demons.

Initially you’ll have to endure Raz’s basic training schooled by sadistic psychic coach Oleander. To accomplish part of his training, Raz is projected into the minds of the other trainees. And what a mess some of the minds are, veritable battlefields where the forces of astral projection, telekinesis, levitation and clairvoyance abound all seeking to help you and/or destroy you. Here Raz learns all the techniques needed to survive and succeed. As his training improves, he’ll rise in rank and gain new, special powers such as focusing a powerful PSI blast and confuscation. Eventually he’ll rise to the rank of full Psychonaut.

However, as Raz’s training progresses, a calamity occurs in the camp with trainees being abducted for their brains. Only Raz is left and he must forge ahead using his new found powers to solve the mystery and save the trainees, sometimes in the real world and sometimes in the minds of would be enemies.

Graphics are a colorful potpourri of not quite real world images, lush scenes and a mix of Mad Max meets Escape from New York. The game does tend to grow on you as you guide Raz around, control his actions, pickup useful items, solve mysteries, some with more than one solution, crack codes, keep his astral projection from being blown up and more. Raz can interact with a host of items such as tightropes, trapezes, ladders, poles, walls and others. Since the game is non-linear, Raz (you) will be able to take various paths to completing missions and such. A 30 page printed manual is included to help you keep Raz going.

Installation takes awhile with the five CD-ROMs provided and the program occupies nearly four GB of hard drive space. The game is rated T (TEEN) for cartoon violence, crude humor and language generally tongue in cheek and mostly for fun.