the pink salon

 

v a p o r w a v e  is a cultural movement with a nostalgic eye towards music and aesthetic of the 1990s and 1980s, they love lounge and disco music, pink and green shades of colors, classical sculptures and retro gaming..and a lot more.  I absolutely dig this genre, is like something that got out of my mind and took life on its own. And so does the pink salon, which is a small hangout/club with an heavy vaporvibe. 

I absolutely dig the place, mostly because it's neat, simple, cosy and relaxing. Yeat it feels like a trip on a bad dose of LSD.

Their motto is sex, love, tentacles and music.  AAAnd a promise is a promise: the upperfloor lounge room is full of tentacles, as in furniture and photographies.  There's, anyway, an important detail that I need to add: nothing is pornographic, bad tastey or vulgar: vaporwave has an elegant vibe and this place follows the style perfectly.

Honestly worth a visit..and if you're a fan like me, you'll end up staying hours in there!

TAXI:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Palmetta/227/107/1527

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Paris 1900***

 

I love Paris, I've been there a million times and I'm so obsessed with it that I never grow tired of being there, even if I know a lot of it (it would be impossible to know everything.. you would need a lifetime.. and even more!). That, in real life.

As for Second Life,  I've searched for some nice reproduction and sadly they're all gone. There has never been any "official" sim, btw, apart from this one.

Paris 1900*** is a group of 5 regions in which the owners created their personal and quite complex reproduction of the city.

 

 

Paris 1900*** has a very detailed plant, with public transports (Metro and tramways, as well as horse carriages) and a lot of famous landmarks.

The spawn point is right below the Tour Eiffel, while L'Arc de Triomphe is just a few meters away. There's a lot of boutiques and hangout spaces in the whole city, which travels from the classical world-renowned buildings, to the modern City 2000, which is a very personal reinterpretation of a contemporary Paris. Sadly, this last part is not really looking like the real La Defence, infact...there's nothing even remotely similar, but I appreciate the effort.

  

The sim is a pleasant place, owned by french people and devoted to anyone loving the place and culture. There's a costant update of events and decorations, they also are very active when it comes to actual real life events and tragedies.

So far, a nice and relaxing place, even if it kinda seems stuck back in 2009 when meshes where only a dream on SL.

TAXI - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Les%20Champs%20Elysees/236/76/23

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Poteto in Tokyo

 

 One night in Tokyo... makes the grid go wilder!  I was having a stroll and decided to go for a "japan" search on the grid. I ended up seeing a place called "Poteto" and was like "what the..? I need to see it!" and here I am. I need to apologize, my laptop kinda got crazy and it took me hours to take semi-decent pics so I couldn't be

 bothered going back and re-take all of them when I noticed that the UI got caught up. Sorry for that.
Now onto more interesting things!

Poteto is a semi-futuristic urban city sim, placed in a virtually cute Tokyo neighborhood. There are small parks, houses, cafès, shops

 and even a railroad with a train. If you spend enough time in there you can also spot an old pink wolkswagen van, roaming around the streets.
Eveything here is quiet and relaxing, even if we're in the middle of a metropolitan city and there's a lot of buildings, skyscrapers, towering around.

 When you arrive you get teleported inside a subway station, there's even a map of the area with clickable waypoints, to ease your journey. 
Every angle is full of details and curiosities, there's even a merry go round, a disco-club and an hidden pool-club.
It is an overall funny place and an interesting collection of nice photography spots.

TAXI:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/POTETO%20Tokyo/75/97/3002

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The Hive

I've been a Resident Evil fan since when RE2 came out in the stores, ages ago and I've seen many places during these years that aimed to be Re sims but somehow failed: you usually went all hype at the sight of nice screenshots and presentation.. only to be teleported in a freebie-filled urban setting with those annoying automatic zoobies and DCS systems that lagged the hell out of every computer, even the NASA ones.

It's been a lot of time since when I last searched for "Resident Evil" in the places directory, until my curiosity got the best of me and I tried again. Luck is on my side and, should I say finally, someone created a VERY beautiful Re sim, even if it's movie-inspired (but hey, the first one wasn't *that* bad.. just a lil bit..) and not directly related to the games.

Fact is, The Hive is a perfect reconstruction of the house and underground facility from the first movie and it's so immersive that I actually got scared while I was wandering in there for the first time.. and I'm not the squishy type.

You start in an alley, just outside what they call "Spencer Mansion", in a town called Arklay..property of Umbrella Inc. (this is *so* comforting XDXD).  The entrance of the sim also gives space to a small gatcha machine (RE-themed, of course) and a few boxes with outfits from the creator's store TRB (here's the flickr page).

The mansion is just a few meters away from the entrance, with an enormous garden/park, filled with statues, alleys, even a cemetary and a fully automated shooting game. Once entered, there's only a few rooms directly copied from the movie and an hidden elevator that takes you to the underground secret train station that connects the upper floors to the real Hive. Everything is under the control of the Red Queen, the same AI that caused all the fuss in the movies.

 The Hive is eerie, filled with empty rooms left in the usual mess that follows a crisis: papers everywhere, half empty coffee mugs, upsidedown chairs and working computers and screens. Walking through these halls knowing noone is there anymore and not knowing what lies behind the next corner or door is... honestly scarier than actually seeing monsters.
For instance, monsters and zombies are usually impersonated by real avatars during rpg sessions ..so if you go there while noone is acting... there's a OMG TERRIFYING atmosphere.
I won't spoil the final rooms for you: just remember this is a game-like sim so you can't just "walk past the doors" but need to find codes and decypher enigmas (not many and honestly very easy as well..).
Also bear in mind that almost *all* of the surfaces in here aren't scripted.. ie you can't just camera zoom and sit on something to ease your trip!

Thanks for creating this place. I am *so* grateful that someone finally created a fully detailed, high res, well textured, impressively accurate  RE location!!!!!!

 TAXI:   http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pollux/124/135/1998

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Halloween 11th year Haunted Mansion and Rides

It's that time of the year again!!! Spooky faces everywhere and pumpkink candies are ready for the Halloween parties and hunts and Second Life becomes a fair of orange, blood, ghosts, candy corns and whatever suits your creepy tastes.
Now, there's a lot, and I really mean A LOT, of sims with spooky themes and they grow even more during these weeks, but some of them get so many reviews that others pass completely unobserved ... yet they deserve an honorable mention. So, this year I won't talk about famous and crowded places but the less known ones.
Starting with this tribute to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion (and yeah, they actually have been rewarded for that) which is quite old and "primmy", but is very detailed and has an impressive work behind it.
You arrive at a landing pad which gives acces to 4 different rides: the Haunted Mansion itself, the Asylum one, some sort of "OMG this is the most dangerous ride ever!!!" and finally a Zombie Massacre one.
I won't spoil the other rides, even if I've seen them all and they're quite enjoyable, so let's head to the Haunted Mansion right away!
The external part is a perfect reproduction of the original one: you even get to wait 70seconds before you can enter.. and it's all scripted in a way that you *must* respect the directions and timings. Just like the real ride, the first two rooms are just a presentation, then you jump onto the "cars" and let them guide you through the haunted palace.
Like I said, this is an old build and it's pretty evident: fact is, the colours, composition and audio tracks are so perfect and so deliciously trash that you will soon forget about meshes and such stupid matters... and just have fun.
This place is a milestone and I hope it'll never close.
Oh and don't forget to take the souvenir pic at the exit ;)  BUWHAAHAHAHHAHAHAAAHHHH!!

TAXI:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LandOurs/211/39/601

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"Silent Hill Roleplay and Exploration sim"

Please, please notice the brackets.
Everytime I see (or someone points me in the direction, like this time) a potential new Silent Hill sim I'm so excited I fall miserably into depression because as soon as I step inside there's everything BUT Silent Hill.

Let's make an urban scene, stick some arcane SH symbol
on the wall and the trick is done!

Aaaand so you would think that after years and years of tries, someone finally managed to build something decent.. and.. no. You're wrong.

When, a lot of years ago, Toluca Lake sim (RIP) got closed, a very big hole was left in my memory and those of all the nice people that used to live there. As time passed, the Silent Hill sim became in order: a beach, an adult sim for sex games, a residential area, another beach park.. and finally got back into the hands of someone that was apparently willing to bring it back to the original vibe.
So wrong.
I'll let piccies speak for me.

Evverybody knows the PIZZA RESTAURANT in Silent Hill. It's a key location.

Apparently, adding some gore-oriented bidimensional ghost should create the perfect silenthillish atmosphere.

Oh god I'm scared. No, seriously, I'm bloody scared: just imagine how long a math interview could be if you had to fill those up. Ah, school days.. lol

The infamous clown of silen.... wait. what?!?!?! *facepalms*

Copyright police!!! I think we have a trouble down here! Someone let RE:Apocashit zombies loose on the set!

So the last thing I had to do was lifting away the only REALLY silenthillish thing that this sim has: windlight preset. And here we come: the same, old, boring, noobie urban-apocalyptic premade city.

Where has fantasy gone? Where has the will to create something unique gone? If you're just aiming to make money and popularity out of some famous franchise, please refrain. I know that the 90% of SL is now made of stupid barbies with more silicone in their heads than stars in the sky, but the few normal peoples left will cringe at the sight of things like this.

TAXI -- http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Silent%20Hill/195/91/26

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