Part Ibiza Uncovered, part The Sims, Beach Life is the latest "reality game" to hit our PCs courtesy of Ian Livingstone of Fighting Fantasy fame. Beach Life is basically a god sim... more
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Beach Life
PartIbiza Uncovered, partThe Sims,Beach Lifeis the latest "reality game" to hit our PCs ... more
courtesy of Ian Livingstone of Fighting Fantasy fame. Beach Life is basically a god sim which lets you create the holiday resort of your dreams, whether that's a re...
beachside home or office Fully self contained with top quality kitchen solid maple bamboo and HDF flooring no carpet Most apartments have large balconies facing Pacific Ocean Warm in winter and cool in summer with super quite air conditioner and concrete structure Secured with automatic gates intercom burglar alarms thick fire doors double glazed windows and lockable garagesBoasting a superb location you are only 11km to city 15km to The Pier QEII Leisure Centre Little Bottle Lake Forest Park and Travis Nature Heritage Park and many fine restaurants 300m to the nearest golf course 3 more golf courses within 15km These apartments are great for people like golf fishing catching crabs picking mussels surfing swimming trekking bird watching and feedingThey are also ideal for business travellers Free unlimited direct dial local calls cheap long distance calls and own unique telephone number Broadband and dial up Internet fax copying and printing services available Long term corporate and seasonal discounts availableCome to experience the difference and enjoy these superior apartments and top quality appliances bedding and furnishing
A review by merv83 on Beach Life (PC) June 10th, 2003
Author's product rating:
Gameplay/Playability
Graphics
Sound
Value for Money
Longevity
Advantages:
Excellent game, realistic
Disadvantages:
Too addictive
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Why is it that a game better than any other of its type is fairly unknown?
It may be to do with the fact that it is quite hard to get hold of, or that people do not realise how good this game really is. I came across it by accident, and at present, cannot really put it down. This game is known as "Beach Life".
I was searching for a game I had played a few years ago known as "Holiday Island". This game is great, but also hard to get hold of. On my search I cam across "Beach Life" as it said how you could build your own holiday island. I love games like this. These include; "The Sims", "Theme Hospital", "Theme Park", "Rollercoaster Tycoon", "The Settlers" and the list just goes on. I decided to purchase "Beach Life" over the internet and as a result knew little about it until I received it.
>>>> Packaging <<<<
It is a fairly modern game by Eidos and comes in a DVD style case with a woman in her bikini on the front with the title, on a sky blue background. The box gives the impression that it is a top quality game, and I certainly think it is.
>>>> Idea <<<<
The idea of the game is to build your own holiday island and you achieve more by going through the scenarios which is the main part of the game. You can also create your own level without any objectives which is known as sandbox mode. However, you can only choose from an island which you have unlocked by going through the scenarios. You need to make money and keep your guests happy, bringing in as many guests as you can, and the scenarios ask you to do different things. These include; to make a certain amount of money by a certain time, make people think your island is safe, attractive and you even have to get the totty level up. On one of the scenarios, I have even had to get men and women together by serving up horny drinks so that they will have a roll around on the beach, will let you work out what they are up too!
>>>> Game Play <<<<
Once you get into the game, it is pretty easy to play. However, this does not mean you will have completed it in a couple of hours, as many of the scenarios have taken me up to 8 attempts, and they do get harder as you progress further on. I think this is how a game should be, making it more enjoyable, although I do get frustrated when I have not got as much money coming in as I need to build more etc.
Everything is required in the game making it feel more realistic, You need builders, a power plant, cleaners, security guards, mechanics, lifeguards which are all useful in maintaining your own holiday island. Other items are available such as a general store, toilets, bars, snack bars, clubs, restaurants, cafes, and beach equipment for leisure such as pedaloes and jet ski higher. Many of these have been taken into account to help build your island. You can also place scenery, and lights, as it does get dark. You can place fountains and benches, along with paths and grass. The weather can change from boiling hot sunshine to wet rain with thunder and lightning. Different islands vary in size.
Guests usually come to your island by a ferry and in the title bar down the bottom of your screen you can see when the next one is due, along with a rating of your resort up to 5 star. You also can see how much power is needed and how much is generated on your island. There are also areas where you can click to build things such as your staffing levels, etc. You can zoom in and out of your island, and control the speed of time going by.
Time moves on in 15 mins of their time, and this can be speeded up on controls 1, 2 and 3, so if not much was happening between 4.00 a.m. and 7.a.m. on the game, you can speed up time. The workers you employ on the island have shifts which you can alter, and when you place a building, you need to wait for the builders to build it up. Mechanics are needed as building can become poorly maintained and even dangerous. You can close the beaches if sharks are coming by using the lifeguard tower. You can place bins, but you still need cleaners to empty them, sweep up the rubbish which has not been placed in a bin, and to clean the toilets. Security guards can impose fines on the holiday makers, and you can increase the strength of drinks sold at a particular place.
One of my favourite parts is clicking onto a guest. It tells you their needs, and a bit about them such as how drunk they are and how sunburnt they have got, (the sunburnt ones are the really orange ones, but they can buy suntan lotion form the general store). However, I like reading their thoughts, if they need the toilet, they will say, and are not necessarily polite about it. They can have some real horny thoughts too. I find it really funny watching the different characters dance away on the dancefloor, this is worth watching itself! I have not mentioned everything, but hope I have given an insight into how you play the game. I think it all works very well.
As usual you can save, reset and load the game from where you left. The graphics are excellent, but if you do zoom in the closest it can be a bit blocky, but it is usually not needed, as you need to keep your eye out for everything.
>>>> Camera and MP3 player <<<<
There is a feature which is on the title bar where you can take a photograph of your island. I have not used this yet, but the idea is that you can take a picture of your guests and island which you can e-mail to your friends and post on the beach life website. I have not used this yet, as it gets a five star from me without it.
Also on the title bar is a built in MP3 player, with some great banging tunes. You can skip any of these using the MP3 player if it is giving you a headache, but I usually let the songs play, as they develop into different types of songs to go with the time of day. I am happy with listening to their guests and the building work going on etc.
>>>> Price <<<<
As I have said, this game is quite hard to come by and is not that cheap. Tesco.com do not have it in stock, but the RRP is £24.99. You can buy a copy from the amazon marketplace (www.amazon.co.uk) for roughly between £15 - £20 plus £1.99 p&p, which I think is very good value for such a great game. I do enjoy games like this, and this is my all time favourite at present.
>>>> Other Details <<<<
I only have a PC which came with windows 98, and was bought that year, as a result I do not have much space on my PC. I had to uninstall a few things in order to install this game as it needs at least:
950MB of free hard disk space 4X CD ROM Drive Windows 98/2000/XP PII 450MHZ or equivalent DirectX 8.1 Compatible Graphics Card DirectX 8.1 Compatible Sound Card Keyboard/Mouse
>>>> Merv’s Final Thought <<<<
This game is excellent and seems to take everything into account for you to build your own party island. If you like the games where you build things yourself, you will love this game. It deserves a massive 110% from me!
Advantages: Fun, atmospheric and relaxing Disadvantages: Not enough scenarios
...fun game so I chose Beach Life from Eidos Interactive. Similar to all of the management games you start with an allotted amount of money and build, but with this game you develop a series of holiday islands and try to keep the regularly incoming guests happy so that the money flows and they don’t leave grumbling. It says on some sites that there are 14 levels, but there are 12 levels that have been built up to varying degrees and you have to ... ...bars, fishing trips, pedalo hire, beach furniture, theme clubs, windsurfing hire, party boats, beach barbeques and bars and extra accommodation blocks. You choose which you want to build but that is often dictated by the moans of visitors and how much cash you have coming in. To do well in the game and stop visitors complaining you have to build the essentials like lifeguard towers, cleaning shacks, mechanics huts, representative’s chalet and ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: light entertainment, original theme Disadvantages: limited gameplay, easy to complete, not much variety
Beach life is the brand new game by Eidos Interactive (developed by Deep Red), and it came out to buy in the UK September 2002. Eidos don’t have a lot of experience in the simulation category, and I’d say this definitely shows in “Beach Life”.
The Idea:
The box says “Think Fun, Sun, Sand and Sex and you’ve captured what Beach Life is all about.” It’s basically a simulation where you build your own ... ...little people want to go there. The idea sounds great to me, and should appeal to anyone who enjoys other tycoon or simulation games, as you have to control staff and staff happiness, the people and their needs, and also keep an eye on finance and accounting. The islands are fairly small, so you have to strategically place your buildings, and work out how to keep everything ticking over smoothly.
The Graphics & Sound:
The graphics are about average ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Very entertaining, good fun Disadvantages: Graphics slightly dodgy, game can be slow
Beach Life is a brand new PC simulation game given to us by Eidos Now being a HUGE fan of simulation games (and possibly incredibly sad), I actually pre-ordered this from EB Game site (getting extra points into the bargain). So have had this game since it came out in September. There are two modes to this game, Sandbox and Scenario's. There are 14 scenarios and the idea is that you complete each one of these, as you complete each scenario, it then ... ...The basic idea in Beach Life is that you make a really cool resort, provide nice scenary, entertainment, security, shops, happy staff, happy customers and try to get as many people into your resort as you can. In the scenario mode you must complete certain targets, i.e. get 200 people into your resort, or get 75 people drunk at any one time. (This level was actually quite hard). I have completed only 7 levels at the moment, all except the drinking ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: HOURS of gameplay including 'sandbox mode' and scenarios Disadvantages: Very easy to lose a whole evening to this game..!
Beach Life (PC version) is your opportunity to create your idea of heaven on a beach!
The recommended minimum age is 12, but this is not simply a child's game, it can become surprisingly complex when you tackle all the ins and outs of the game.
Shop carefully for this product, there are some discrepancies in price, and online prices range from £4.99 to £12.99!
Created by Deep Red and Eidos Interactive, this game was first released in September ... ...game, so I cannot fault Beach Life in my experience for bugs etc.
The graphics are good, nothing hi-tech, but perfectly acceptable for the type of game Beach Life is.
Beach life is a strategy game where you are entirely in charge of the Island you create. If you play in 'sandbox' mode, you have free reign to choose the location, size and characteristics of your island. Should you choose to play one of the many scenarios, you will be faced with ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Sound track Disadvantages: You can't rotate the viewing angles
Beach life is a superb sims game, aimed at 'young people'. The aim of the game is to work through the levels, and varying difficulty, making sure that all your island clubbers are happy. Guest happiness comes in all forms, including site cleanliness, totty attractiveness, beer strength, nice restaurants, water rides, a safe beach... It covers everything! Every stage is challenged, and you have to achieve things like certain totty ratings, so many ... ...even upload on to the Beach Life Website - address below
www.beachlife.eidos.co.uk
Price is approx £20 (I bought it from Game), though will depend on membership schemes etc...
All in all, as a fan of the sims, attempted fan at hotel giant (can you work that one out), zoo tycoon, rollercoaster tycoon and all such similar games, I absolutely love Beach Life - thoroughly entertaining! ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Operating System: Windows 95 / 98 / 2000 / Me / XP
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Listed on Ciao since : 30/09/2002
Manufacturer's product description
Part Ibiza Uncovered, part The Sims, Beach Life is the latest "reality game" to hit our PCs courtesy of Ian Livingstone of Fighting Fantasy fame. Beach Life is basically a god sim which lets you create the holiday resort of your dreams, whether that's a resort full of beautiful people living "la vie de loca" or drunk Brits trying to grope the Reps, is up to you. There are two modes to play through: the campaign mode in which you work your way through a set of scenarios and the sandbox mode. The campaign has just the right balance between serving the needs of your guests and lining your pockets--you have to tackle anything from protecting your visitors from Shark attacks, spiking their beer so they get amorous on the beach or just providing them with the right balance of fun, food and respite. It's very pick up and play and you won't find yourself getting bogged down with too much detail. Yes the game is all about providing your guests with what they want, but as long as the beer is flowing, the nightlife swinging and there's a 24 hour burger joint to hand, you won't go far wrong. That's not to say that you can't refine your pleasure island into the most beautiful, high class establishment you can afford; it's just you will probably want to rack up the beer strength, employ a few security guards and then watch people stagger about the island throwing up in bins.Graphically the game looks fantastic particularly the weather effects. Up close though it's rather pixelated and looses some of the detail, but as with all god sims you will spend most of your time playing in the mid-isometric view so it's not a real problem. It's the sound where Beach Life really comes into its own. It comes with a built-in MP3 player which not only means you can skip between the cool ambient tracks that come with the game, but that you can also import your own tunes.Beach Life isn't really ground-breaking stuff and might not appeal to the god sim fanatics, but what it lacks in depth, it makes up for in tongue-in-cheek, stylish and above all fun gameplay. --Kristen Bowditch
