Become a British Isles Explorer - Is it worth exploring? (Become a British Isles Explorer)

Member Name: Jazzy09

Product:	Become a British Isles Explorer
Date:	27/05/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun for the family

Disadvantages: Out of date

Version: PC
Genre: Kids & Family
Released: 2000
Developed by: Avanquest Software

I remember using this piece of software to find the way to my grans house when I was younger and always ended up nowhere near where I should of been because I couldn't read the maps properly.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are quite unique with excellent animated screens and 3D effects which make the software much more attractive to look at. The colours are not great but the land colours are.

MAPS
The maps themselves are quite detailed and include quite a lot of data about each area within the UK. You could actually see the terrain although compared to Google Earth it is not that great but in its time this was a useful piece of software especially for finding days out.

SOUND QUALITY
The sound effects are quite distinctive and will stay in your head forever! The sounds tend to be generated when the animations start appearing. Overall the sound quality is just what id expect from a PC.

EASY TO USE?
This piece of software is very easy to use and great for your kids to use especially if there are starting to learn Geography at school. I would have full confidence in saying that they would probably be able to navigate around the UK better than you would.

It does actually say on the box that it is linked to the key stages 1-2 of the national curriculum. This is normally done through the message boxes that appear with useful information.

FEATURES
After using the maps you and the kids can take quizzes and play games which enable you to develop your map reading skills. I found this section very enjoyable and great to compete against your friends or family.

COMPATABILITY
It is compatible with Windows 98+ and will work perfectly although Windows Vista may have some issues installing.

PRICE
I paid £1 at a car boot for this software and was well worth a try. After doing a bit of research you can buy it from Amazon for an inflated price of £10 considering you can get Google Earth for free these days.

DOWNSIDES
It does have downsides as I mentioned previously it is out of date and Google Earth will do the job for any searches. Also after using this I found that some information which I thought was crucial was especially if the kids are to use this as an educational tool.

CONCLUSION
Overall I would fully recommend this software for your children and will enable them to relive places that they have visited in the past, for example Castles and any national parks.

The games and quizzes on how to read maps are quite fun but in my honest opinion I would avoid and use Google Earth. There are better mapping software titles out there.

MY RATING 3/5

Summary: This is great for the kids especially for enhancing their Geography skills