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Beautiful Earth 8
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If you are ready for another trip involving a variety of locations to be found dotted around our world, then BD Studio Games has a product that might help. Adding to its Beautiful Earth series, the company has released version 8 of the title. Following the pattern established in the earlier titles, this latest version is available in Collector's Edition forma with various bonus items that could appeal to the dedicated gamer with an assortment of Hidden Object challenges and mini game puzzles.
Covering the whole world, this trip invites you to visit 30 different locations which are spread out over a world map. There is no mention as to relevant information regarding the actual location until each one is selected in turn. Your chosen location will then presents you with a typical scene of an actual area within that area. While the location might be typical, some of its content could well be populated with some elements that seem out of place. Each location scene will feature a list of 18 items that you will need to find.
These required items can be found somewhere in the main scene or two smaller areas accessed through thumbnail images that are embedded within the main scene. Due to a restriction in available space, the 18 required items will be shown six at a time with early found entries being replaced by others as you make progress. Along with the list of required items you will also be provided with Hint (one item) and Super Hint (all available items) tools plus a magnifier for a closer look at the scene.
Each scene will also conceal somewhere within the three areas, three cats, a camera and an animal paw print. Each cat found will meow when found as a kind of thank you while the paw print will issue the cry of its animal type. Finding the camera will result in an image of the scene being capture and these can be viewed later when you access the game's shop facility.
After completing the Hidden Object aspect of a chosen location, you will be presented with a mini game puzzle. Beautiful Earth delivers access to a wide variety of puzzle types. You could be asked to find the differences between two similar images or complete scenes by replacing jigsaw type pieces. Other types of puzzles include a game of memory, mah-jong, forming nonogram mosaics and a game of Solitaire as possible examples.
Once you have completed the 30 different locations making up the main game, you can then access a further 10 locations as part of the Collector's Edition facility. These extra locations will be accompanied by ten more mini game puzzles plus 14 music tracks and 18 wallpaper images that can be used as you see fit.
I feel that the game's developers have missed an opportunity to enhance the product even further by not including more information, such as interesting titbits, of the locations visited. This could have added some sparkle to the game. After all playing is a form of education and gathering facts would be beneficial. Other than this I enjoyed playing this game.
I downloaded my copy of the title from Gamehouse.com where it is priced at $9.99. You could also download it from Big Fish Games priced at £7.65. The game requires a 2.0 GHz processor with 2048MB of RAM and 775MB of hard disk space running Windows 7 and later.
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