Category: Reviews

Created with love in the spirit of West Texas honouring those that came before, those with us, and our future.

So reads the About Land dedication for Last Dove, a Homestead region designed by Erythro and Shannon Cardalines. And while there are many western-themed role-play regions, Last Dove is something special, as Shannon noted to me as we discussed it after Caitlyn and I had made our initial visit.

It was designed for a set for Erythro to make machinima he wants to show at film festivals in real life. We based the sim on the novel and screenplay of Lonesome Dove. The characters you see here are all bots that Ery scripted to work as his actors.

– Shannon Cardalines describing Last Dove.

For those unfamiliar with Lonesome Dove, it was the title book (although technically the third instalment of the story) of a series bearing the same name, written by Larry McMurtry. It started as a film script collaboration between McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, but after languishing in development hell for over a decade, McMurtry purchased the rights to the script and turned it into a novel, first published in 1985 and winning the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

The story did eventually reach the screen – albeit the television screen – in 1989 in a CBS 4-part mini-series starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover, Diane Lane and Anjelica Houston among a long list of notable actors. It is a particularly memorable story not so much because of its western setting, but because it is a tale that intertwines themes of old age, death, unrequited love, and friendship – something reflected in the dedication for the region.

As well as being the title of the novel and series, Lonesome Dove is also the name of the Texas town where the story begins. It is this town – the set of which still stands – that serves as the inspiration for Last Dove; and it is no exaggeration to say that the region marvellously captures the spirit of the location, with several of the notable buildings being reproduced along the dusty main street. The echo of The Stockman’s Hotel, for example can clearly be seen in Last Dove’s Dry Bean Saloon.

In addition to recreating the town, Ery has also scripted a number of characters from the book / series. These may vary between visits – there is a control board for the bots hidden away in one of the building. However, when visiting, you’re more than likely to come across the two principle characters, Captain Woodrow F. Call (played by Tommy Lee Jones in the CBS mini-series) and Captain Augustus “Gus” McCrae (played by Robert Duvall) – with the latter looking particularly reminiscent of has actor alter-ego!

Given Lonesome Dove is set against the backdrop of a cattle drive to Montana, other touches reflecting on the film include the bunkhouse and a small herd of Texas longhorn cattle, complete with a cowboy bivouac, suggesting the drive out on the trail. In addition, the great plains of Texas are represented by the region surround, which directly abuts the region on three sides, offers scrub grassland  that rolls gently off to the horizon and the hazy slopes of distant hills. This gives Last Dove a tremendous sense of depth, with the west side of the region separated from the surround by a span of water that perfectly echoes the Rio Grande, which features in both the story and the town (the set for Lonesome Dove is located near Del Rio, West Texas).

While inspired by Lonesome Dove, I have to admit that initially, the setting put me in mind of Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter. There was something about the plains rolling away to those haze-softened hills and the town on a shoreline that put me in mind of Eastwood’s ghostly Stranger (Death) on his pale horse, riding out of the shimmering haze to  mete out vengeance. So much so that, in looking across the plains of Last Dove, I wouldn’t have been surprised had a horseman slowly materialised riding towards the town! In this respect, I did feel a bit of a twit when Shannon explained the actual inspiration – I’d been looking at the Captain Call character with the name ringing bell, but unable to place where I’d come across it.

It’s important to state (again) that Last Dove isn’t intended as a role-play region per se. However, it is ideal for photography and for getting into the spirit of the old west, as I hope a couple of my pictures here suggest! Rezzing is also permitted for props – but please ensure you clean things up afterwards.

This is genuinely a superb setting, richly evocative of the story on which it is based. Its offer plenty of opportunity for horse-riding, easy exploration and – as noted – for photography. Absolutely not a setting to be missed. Those wishing to see more of the Lonesome Dove set as it looks in more recent times can do so via the Lonesome Dove Remember link, below.

SLurl and Links

• Last Dove (Droomeiland, rated Moderate)
• Lonesome Dove Remembered – Richard Morris
• Exploring Second life 2019

With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare and Alsatian Kidd for the region SLurl, and to Shanon for her time while visiting

In January 2019 we visited Endless, a Full region designed by SombreNyx and a place of untamed beauty suggestive of coastal fens and lowlands (see: Endless: lowland beauty in Second Life). Since that visit, the region has been extended – albeit it not on the ground. Instead, there is an element in the sky Endless Above – The Lost City, that is also captivating to the eye.

Designed by Jackson Cruyff, this is a region-wide platform that offers, as the name might suggest, an ancient and lost city sitting within a forest. It’s a place that appears to be under investigation: the landing point is set within a camp on the south-west corner of the landscape. Others are to be found scattered around the landscape, inviting exploration.

The stone ruins give the impression of great age, in places suggestive of large halls with arched doorways while other offer a limited hint of what might have been homes, together with circular structures, all of which is overlooked by a large structure sitting on the landscape’s lone plateau. Is it a place of former rulers or a place of ancient worship? That’s for visitors to decide.

There’s no set path for exploration per se; while there are blazing torches sitting within and between the various ruins, they offer more suggestions of routes that might be followed rather than set paths. Thus, the best way to explore this setting is to simply follow your feet. Doing so will not only heighten a sense of discovery when seeking the ruins, but also lead you to the beaches to the south and north of the land, both of which offer places to sit and relax.

To be honest, Endless Above is the kind of place that doesn’t require that much description; it does so for itself. The simplicity of design and layout naturally encourages exploration, with repeated motifs among the ruins that offers a sense of continuity as you wander between them.

For those looking for a slightly different location for avatar photography, this is a setting that could be worth investigating; there’s a certain Lara Croft / Indiana Jones suggestion to it. Similarly those looking for a more unusual style of SL landscape to photograph might find Endless Above worth a visit, the setting lending itself well to most outdoor Windlight settings.

There’s apparently a teleport point connecting the ground level setting to Endless Above. It is described as being at a crossroads, but I confess that while we found a roads sign referencing the sky build, we completely failed to find a hint of any obvious teleport – but we could have easily missed it; therefore a direct SLurl is offered in this piece and one for Endless for those who have not visited that location.

Finished with an immersive soundscape, Endless Above offers something of a different setting to Endless below it, but both environments do complement one another and offers similar feelings of escaping civilisation and freedom of wandering that invites visitors to tarry and enjoy the surroundings as they explore.

SLurl Details

Haraiki Bay is rated Adult

• Endless Above – The Lost City (local windlight: AnaLutetia-studio)
• Endless
• Exploring Second Life 2019

We originally visited Dystopia // Carnage City (then called Dystopia // [flit ink] + aberrant) almost three years ago  – see A taste of Dystopia in Second Life – so a return visit seemed well overdue.

As the name suggests, this is something of a post-apocalyptic themed region that offers a group build – supported by a website – intended to offer some fairly free-form role-play for those interested, based around a back-story set in the 2030s and a time when global warming has passed beyond the tipping point.

A group build, the region is divided into a number of parcels – most open to the public, although be warned that there is a private parcel in the middle of the north side of the region – which run together and the overall build sprawls across them.

Given it is a post-apocalyptic design, it should comes as no surprise that the city that takes up most of the region is in a state of decrepitude: the roads are partially flooded  – the result of rising sea levels, perhaps – the buildings in a state of ruin, and nature is taking back control.

The city is roughly divided into three areas: Carnage City, which I’m using as the landing point here; the Boondock Slums and Happenstance, a wilder element of the region which – as the description states, offers a coastal forest and air crash site.

The Slums are perhaps the most inhabited aspect of the region: homes and places of commercial stacked one atop another, reached via ladders and steps or – for the keen eyed, a tunnel under the nearby hills. Aglow with neon signs and with pier for those seeking a little beach-side relief, it has the look and feel of life trying to pull itself together and thrive beyond the disaster that has overtaken the city.

Elements of the region offer echoes of past designs – such as the fun fair, aspects of which were present when we visited in 2016. Others are more unique to this build – but all offer a plenty of opportunities for photography and exploration.

I do confess to having some issues with performance when visiting – fps dropped to single digits until I disabled shadows. A little annoying, but not enough to prevent my appreciating the region during our wanderings.

All told, Dystopia // Carnage City remains an eye-catching visit that comes complete with the opportunity for light role-play among groups visiting the region, or for photography.

SLurl Details

• Dystopia // Carnage City (Excalibur Serendipity, rated: Adult)
• Exploring Second Life 2019