I Pac-Man

Check this out: ever want to be Pac-Man? No? Well, too bad, you are anyhow you lucky you!

A company called Intoint has made a version of it in Second Life (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) that’s way too much fun. They call it “Intoman”, of course, but hey it’s a promotional. Whenever the game ends you get flung to some random location around the island. It’s a pretty fun way to die, actually.

Starting up is easy. Go to the table with the backpack on it, buy one for 0L$, wear it, and click on it. Game starts.

Gameplay is pretty simple - run into the power-pellets and get ‘em all to go on to the next level. Get hit by a ghost three times or run out of time and it’s game over. For an extra challenge, try mouselook. It’s a lot harder somehow.

This is me on my fifth game. I finally made it to level 2 before that ghost got me. Dammit. I decided to take a break and let Hydra Shaftoe take a crack at it.

Watching is as much fun as playing. There’s a big seating area for the audience, so bring some friends.

It’s free. Go play it. Power pellets await. Go. Now. Stop reading. I said stop! Gah! (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33) GO! (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Intoint/63/134/33)

CITY OF ABADDON @ Merricks Landing 2

By Osprey Therian

City of Abaddon -file under cool builds : D

Menithos

Below is a quick writeup from the sim’s creators. Got a game you’d like to see here? IM Onder Skall today!

A wonderful sim that captivates the eye for the candy is a plenty here. This Roleplay sim has many hidden features and is set on a 3 level tier build, the owner and builder Dannon Robbiani has taken much care and dedication to detail this great sim. This opens to a dock area that channels through gates of theis medieval setting, a large market, and the second set of gates opens to a very detaild dragon statue and castle with many towers.

Beyond the castle is the warriors arena, one of the nicest around, across from the arena is also two grand builds, the cathedral and the ballroom which nothing compares. It has a very nicely set village for its residents and an entry to the underworld below, Incan temples, dark forests, foggy hills laiden with quicksand and a dark tower centered on water. in the market you can find a globe that will take you to the 3rd tier which is the Drakes Cove, lush forest crystal caves and a dragons lair, some resident prefer to reside here but even all the shops and home rentals are cheap for this kind of detail. The ballroom is a formal waltz ballroom so bring your tuxes and gowns for this prestigous place. dances start at 7pm nightly.

777 League Race Track

NOTE: This article and the images come to us via MenuBar Memorial. Let’s all give him fond words of encouragement here to get him to send in articles more often!

The wind whips violently through your hair, as you slam down on the ccelerator barreling your vehicle down the straightway. You white-knuckle your keyboard as you ease onto the brakes, shifting down to first gear, a little bit of the ol’ “heel-toe, heel-toe” and you expertly drift sideways through the tight hairpin turn, straighten out, and blast off into a screaming 4th gear sprint past the blurring rows of futuristic buildings and street signs.

20 Things To Do In Octoberville

by Onder Skall

This article was originally posted in the Second Life Herald.

Octoberville is back again over at PixelTrix; a full sim of kooky creepy Halloween goodness courtesy of visionary Cherub Spectre. There’s more to see and do than could possibly be covered in a single article, and you really have to see for yourself anyhow. So, instead of boring you all with a big epic about how marvelous the place is, I’ve boiled my photo essay down to 20 things that you can do. Go do them.

1. Ride the train.

Tim Hortons Grand Reopening

Yay for Canada! Here’s the SLurl.

Well ok, truth is I’m more of a Netizen than a Canadian. Yesterday I was on a conference call with Nick in Denmark, Bruce Joy in Australia, and me in Canada. Later I chatted briefly with someone in Germany until I got on another call with New York. When this kind of thing happens regularly you start to see yourself as a citizen of the world more than anything.

Having said that…

Are you from Ontario? Join the Ontario Metaverse group! It’s fun, it’s social, it’s spam-free! We might even do real-world meetup type things!

Octoberville Returns

Consider this your teaser. The sim isn’t built yet, but more is coming.

I have a feeling that fall and winter are going to be insane for gaming in SL the way things are shaping up. I have a backlog. Watch this space.

Games Park

by Onder Skall

For those of you who haven’t seen it I wanted to tell you all about my little home in Second Life, the Games Park (SLurl).

Here I have a whole bunch of games and some free T-shirts if you’re into Atari or Nintendo.

Here I have a bunch of artwork. The tree changes color when you touch it, and you might remember those panels from Brian Eno’s big display…

… and over here, a chill-out area. Those panels can be clicked for notecards about sites around SL and landmarks if you want to visit them.

This whole thing might go away actually, I’m not sure. Things I can’t reveal are really moving at the moment. Basically: catch it while you can!

Treasure Island

by Onder Skall

Sherpa Voyager posted another great writeup & pictorial, this one about “Treasure Island”. Click here to go to their incredible blog, or click here for a SLurl to just go there and take my word for it that the place looks pretty cool. Alternately you can click here for no reason at all. It’s a free country. Probably. Depending on where you are.

This blog entry should have ended four sentences ago. I need to eat lunch now.

Really, really cool build

by Onder Skall

Everybody in the world discovered Greenies yesterday, but if you haven’t, check out the epic pictorial over at CalebBooker.com.

Danger Zone

  

by Onder Skall

Rifkin Hasburg must be a saint, because if I were in his place, I’d have killed me by now. I’ve been stringing the poor guy along on this Danger Zone review for ages now. I’ve told him “oh yeah I’m going to get to that this week” or “oop sorry guess I’ll do it next week” for months. It’s a wonder he doesn’t have a “kill Onder Skall” group formed.

Alright, so lets (finally!) talk Danger Zone. It’s a winner-takes-all (minus the rake) bidding game for 2 - 8 players, and it’s really fun. The pictures above are from the first game we played with just four people, but we all hung out afterward and played a seven-player game that was even more fun.

Gameplay is easy to understand as soon as you’ve done it, but difficult to explain. There are five “rounds”, and during each round a cube is randomly drawn. After each cube is drawn you choose to “Stay” or “Run”. If you “Run”, you’re done for that round. If you “Stay”, another cube is drawn until the round ends.

With me so far? Good. Now here’s the trick: some of the cubes are good and give you “gems”. Whoever ends the game with the most wins the pot. Some of the cubes are BAD, however, and activate one of the traps. If the same trap comes up twice in a round everybody who stayed gets smashed/sliced/zapped/blasted/eaten, and loses all of the gems they got for that round. At that point the cubes all go back into the pool, the traps are reset, and the next round starts.

There are a few extra little things about how gems are divided up and how a pot of gems in the middle is handled, but that’s the general idea. If you’re still confused, don’t worry: as soon as you’ve played one round it all becomes crystal clear. The HUD is entirely optional and it really is as simple as mashing one of the two buttons on the table. The one feature people had the hardest time with was the point where, after they pay, they need to sit on the platform that has their name. Maybe the platforms need to blink or something.

Anyhow, huge huge fun. We got smashed by boulders, struck by lightning, slashed by spinning blades, blown up by dynamite, and eaten by sharks. Hillarious, fun animations and a deceptively simple interface with lots of strategy behind it makes this a game you’ll want to play over and over again. If you like Poker, you’ll love Danger Zone!

Second Lifers Give Renault F1 Thumbs Up

[This article was originally published in Metaversed.com by 57 Miles, who I hope doesn't kill me for copy/pasting it here but it's right up our alley. BTW, that Things To Do group is really active and really great, I definitely fully endorse it!]

Despite vehicle related experiences in the virtual world of Second Life leaving much to be desired, at best, Renault F1 went ahead and launched a Go-Kart track last week. The Things To Do group, which is free to join for anyone looking to have fun exploring Second Life with friends, donned crash helmets and leathers yesterday evening for an hour of race track mayhem.

Despite the odd, jerky movement of the karts, odd behavior of crashed vehicles and general clumsiness of the simulated go-karting experience, members of the Things To Do group that attended loved the whole experience. I think this goes someway to proving what Second Lifers instinctually know: It’s all about people. It was fun because of the company, and the shared experience of trying to control the karts and race against each other. Certainly bloggers Gillian and Veejay seemed to enjoy themselves as much as I. “57’s virtual driving license has been revoked for trashing and drunk driving” said Veejay, who was admittedly quite a bit better at it than I

Kazenojin Airfield

Seeker Gray comes to us courtesy of Second Seeker.

By Seeker Gray

Right inside the Gray Field tower we see the sign that describes the Kazenojin:

Kazenojin (”People of the Wind”) is devoted to the creation, maintenance, and the distribution of knowledge about airships and other flying machines in Second Life.

I paid a visit to the Kazenojin aeroport and, although it seemed deserted, maybe even abandoned, I enjoyed myself quite a lot, both just with examining the construction and also – yes, my dears, by flying!

Midgar

Originally published at New World Notes under the Onder’s Game series.

Arashi Baxter on Midgar’s mean streets
Onder Skall reviews some of the Grid’s most intriguing games

With the constant threat of fanfic lawsuits and DMCA takedown notices, it’s a wonder anybody dares show appreciation for anything anymore. Still, there are those among us who remember one of the best RPGs ever created, Final Fantasy VII (by Square Co Ltd), and dare to dream about it.

Onder’s Game - Dragon Quest, Quiz Time, Go Karts

by Onder Skall

The following originally appeared in my column over at New World Notes. Right now I have an article running over there about Midgar that just got Slashotted… so bully for NWN.

Onder Skall reviews some of the Grid’s most intriguing games

I’m often surprised at the amount of quality content in Second Life that I find tucked behind a corner or even inside a single prim. This week I’m going to focus on three very different games that, if you didn’t know they were there, you might have walked right by without ever noticing. Let’s take a look at some hidden gems.