Why did I buy it?

For the Breedz, the weather, and the games. I got all of those things and a touch more when I bought petz 5.

What are the breedz like?

I didn't adopt all of the new breedz... but have looked over them in the adoption center. Below are my thoughts on each one. Which may be different from someone else's. So please take it with a grain of salt.

Also, I noticed that all of the puppies and kittens of the new breedz have voices like the old ones. But the ones I adopted all developed new voices and sounds when they grew up. So maybe thats true of all of the new breedz.

Scottish Fold
I didn't adopt one, but I have played with them in the adoption center. They are very cute! The petz site really didn't do them justice. I could see them having their own fan sites. I would love to see what color mutations they might have. Seems very sweet.

Honey Bear
I didn't adopt one of these either. My first thought was 'THATS A BIG KITTY'. It has to be the largest of all of the catz breedz. Even persians. I like the cheeks and the chest patch. The body overall seems pretty hefty. I mean, robust. I mean... well I mean they look overweight. I like the honeybear, but it might be too much cat for me. :) They seem gentle.

Japanese Bobtail
I adopted two of these. A boy and a girl. And I love them. The spots are pretty, the hood is is striking and I adore the body shape. The personality leans towards b&w shorthairs but not as growly. In fact the personality seems to have been mixed together with other petz and something different. They definitely have different voices when they are adults. I like it. Kinda temperamental, but extremely playful.

Desert Lynx
Didn't adopt, but they look cool. Nice body shape. And they bark. Not like a dog... but every once in a while, they make a barking sound amongst all of the kitten mews. I like it. I might actually adopt one soon.

Egyptian Mau
I like them as much as the Japanese Bobtails. They are beautiful. And elegant. Personality is based on the russian blue. I mean it gets obvious that they are. There are different meows thrown in, but you can tell. In my opinion, they are prettier than the russian blue, so I don't mind that much. I adopted two of them. They are a bit stubborn and very playful. *Hugs Them*

Pug
I like the black ones. They are spooky-looking. That 'its so ugly is cute phrase' comes to mind. But in my opinion, its more like 'its so eerie, it's cool'. If something like this crawled out from under my bed on Halloween night, I would have been plastered to the ceiling in terror. So I adopted one. As a puppy, I noticed that it's tongue has stray pixels. I hate that in hexed breeds. I really didn't like seeing it in a official breed. But its not a terrible burden to bear. He does look odd. Skinny legs, almost no chest. Weird looking all over at every angle. And the voice is snarfy and deeper than you would think for its size. Alien dogs. Unique really.

Golden Retriever
In the adoption center, they look really... bizarre as puppies. More like corgies than anything else. The legs are really skinny compared to the rest of the body. They seem like nice dogz, and I'm guessing they'll grow up to look more like goldens. I just can't tell at this stage.

Papillon
Oh, I think these cuties are great! Not my favorite breed or size, but they have a very unique look. The face ruff is pretty, but I like the markings even better. There seem to be two different color combinations for the face: red & orange and black & red. Very nice. I didn't adopt... but I might.

German Shepherd
I like this breed the best of all of the dogz. It looks a lot like a german shepherd, all the way down to its slanted back. This is an awesome breed. It has the most intelligent expression of all of them. They come in two different shades: tan and gold. I adopted a tan one. She is an adult now. I love her deep, yet subdued voice. But I have to say there is one terrible flaw in the breed. Its the ears, they are constantly rotating around the dogz head. I really hope that the petz team fixes this problem with a patch or a replacement breed file. I just don't like it at all.

Jack Russell Terrier
I like the real life breed. The petz one could grow on me. I didn't adopt one. But they seem to be nice. I think there is a little flaw in their cheeks. They are suppose to be orange, but ocidentally, they flash white. They have some variation related to the markings on their backs and tails. For some, its just the tails that have color. For others, its the tail and part of the lower back.

Where are the petz profiles?

Ahhh... they are there but hidden! When you take a petz out, click on the symbol next to their name. All of the petz profile information appears there. That includes family history and how well they do in certain games.

What's the weather like?

Its random, but I really love it. Sometimes it rains... or even snows. Its pretty cool. It is not constant from scene to scene. So if you see it raining outside the living room window, that doesn't mean that it will be raining in the backyard. But the fact that it rains, **shiver** thats really cool.

What is day and night like?

There are three settings: Constant night, random, and real time. I keep mine set to random. I like this feature. Its something new to look at and enjoy. I don't think that the petz themselves really notice. But its their world... why should they be surprised if its night outside?

What are the games like?

Overall I like them. Complete a game and you will win a toy. Sometimes the toy is new, sometimes its something that you already have. I will tell you one thing, you don't start off with all of the normal toys that you have in petz 4. You have to go out and 'earn' your perfume bottle. But I don't mind that. Most of the games are really easy.

Enchanted Castle
This is my favorite one. You have to play rock, paper, scissors against a knight. It doesn't require any participation on the petz part. But they still get credit for it in their profile. The animation of the knight is nice. He only waves one arm around and moves his head, but there is a glimmer of personality there.

Arabia
In this game, you have to mouse over the scarabs as they jump out of the pottery and scurry as quickly as they can out of the scene. Getting the mouse pointer over the scarab destroys it. Missing one ends the game. This is really easy to do. Especially if you have an active petz circling in front of the pots. Because colliding with a petz also destroys the scarab.

Asian Temple
Its an agility course and its rather nice. It not that hard to get your petz to do it either. Just a little bit of encouragement. Some petz are more challenging to train than others. Getting a petz to pose properly is harder. lol. It actually may be too easy as once you figure out where your petz are suppose to end up at, you don't have to worry about them doing the actual full trick. Just a hint.

Haunted Mansion
Its Simon Says. The directions say you have to pick up and drop your petz in the pattern that the squares indicate. I think its mildly hard as your petz tend to not like this and I can't always see a square when it lights up because I'm struggling with my petz. So thats challenging. I'm going to use a sleepy syndrome petz the next time I play. Maybe that will do the trick.

Wild West
This is the hardest game of tic-tac-toe ever. Not because tic-tac-toe is hard, but because you have to drop your pet in the square you want to mark. Most of the time, I miss the mark and either have to try again, or it marks another square. I think I've made as many as five 'drops' before it marked the wrong square. So that game is the hardest one. And of course, you end up with an unhappy pet. A sleepy syndrome pet, would probably work best. They never mind much about dropping.

What are the scenes like?

I think they are very much improved as far as looks go. The backgrounds are nicer to look at. Moving from scene to scene involves a fade-out effect. The fade-out effect also happens when it changes weather or daylight. I liked black and white tiles better in the kitchen, but you know... thats an opinion.

What about the bunnies and pigz?

They now appear as hosts in the backyard.

What about the toy closet?

All of the toys now go in the carrying case. So there isn't a toy closet anymore. You can build your own in the playscene editor - minus the toy closet. I think a lot of people are doing that.

What's different about the carrying case?

You can now change it and decorate it with new bitmaps. It can also be minimized it to a much smaller size. Most of the toys fit nicely inside. There are some bugz that prevent all of the toyz from going inside. Feathers, flowers and carrots and most annoyingly, the top of the red and white christmas present will not go inside the case. So be sure to put the lid back on before you put the present back in the case. Otherwise its pretty much stuck in the scene. Even the 'clean up area' option will not get rid of it.

What are the clothes like?

All of the clothes worn by the hosts are now available plus all of the old clothes. Cool.

What are the toys like?

There are many new toys. Nightlights, a very cool ghost box, a stuffed unicorn, scarecrow and many others. I don't know them all yet.

Can you take petz from petz 5 and put them in petz 4?

I've found that once a petz goes to Petz 5, it doesn't go back. All petz files that have been converted to Petz 5, cannot go back to Petz 3 or 4. So it will be a good idea for site owners to specify whether or not adoptable petz are for Petz 5. Also, before you bring your petz over, make sure that you have a back-up copy of all of them so you can still breed Petz for all three of the latest version of petz! :)

Can you time forward?

There is a warning in the instructions saying this will cause stuck pregnancies. But... it works just the same as it does in 3 & 4. Honest. **Cough** I wouldn't know how I would know such a thing.

So how do you like the new litters?

Do you have to ask? :) It's nice to have more than one kitten at a time. And its fun to see them all running around in a very cute little nursery. It is sad about the dad not being able to visit them until they grow up. I know Nermal, my male chinchilla persian, really seemed to like newborns. I have some cute pictures of him cuddling them in petz 3.

So how do you like Petz 5 overall?

I like it very much. It has more to do, more to achieve. Part of me feels that it might have been rushed for Christmas because it feels incomplete somehow. The bug with the german shepherd, the present box top, and the tic-tac-toe bother me. But otherwise, there are a lot of great ideas going on in Petz 5. I hope that it sells well. The petz team worked through a lot of difficulties and I think they did a good job of it. So I would give it 3 stars out of 5.

I know... I know... I'm going to turn into one of those old women... "I remember back in the days of Petz 4! We didn't have things like games and weather. If we wanted it to rain, we sprayed our monitors with a garden hose."