Pet Vet: Animal Attraction

Games aimed at families and children are often either too educational to be interesting or too game-like to teach anything, but Animal Hospital: Pet Vet 3D gets the mix just right.

You start as a new vet with a small-town clinic. People bring their sick pets in, and you have to make a diagnosis with whatever instruments you can afford. Each instrument (stethoscope, microscope, etc.) can be used, but not every item will be helpful.

After determining the illness, you prescribe treatment. If it's an outpatient procedure, you bill the pet's owner and they both head home. Some illnesses, however, require the animal to stay in your clinic overnight. Overnight stays have their own problems associated with them as you have to feed the animal, show it affection, clean it, treat it and not forget that you need to sleep sometime as well. Push too hard and your vet will fall asleep at work, which won't go over well with your patients. You definitely need good time-management skills.

You also must work within a budget. The money you earn can be used to improve your clinic by buying better instruments for more accurate test results, better food and toys for the animals and research books so you can treat a wider variety of pets.

Eventually you can upgrade your clinic so that you can work with animals other than dogs and cats. Rabbits, pigs and horses will eventually become patients if you have the right equipment and have continued your education to learn how to treat them. You can even hire a staff.

The game looks wonderful. The realistic graphics are great because it really puts the spotlight on the stars of this game: the cute animals you are trying to help.

-- John Breeden II

Animal Hospital: Pet Vet 3D Everyone; PC Windows XP ($30) Viva-Media