Category: Reviews

:Oxygen: is the name of a new Full region that has opened its doors to the public and makes for a superb visit for Second Life explorers, with plenty of opportunity for fun and photography.

Designed by Justice Vought and SixDigital, the region offers an engaging mix of beaches, rugged hills and a small town awaiting exploration, while those looking for a little romance or quite times will also find things to do, be it sitting quietly or catching a film at the beach-side drive-in. Those who enjoy thrills might also find things to do as well.

We’ve been working on this sim for the last couple of months and it’s finally finished and open to the public.

You will find lots of spots for your photography, a train station and quaint street, a lodge with board games as well as pool and shuffle board, surfing, bumper boats, a harbour, a watermill and small gallery, and a drive-in movie theatre as well as tons of places to chill and hang out. There are also some hidden surprises so be sure to explore.

– SixDigital, introducing Oxygen

There is no set landing point for the region, so I’ve simply followed the suggestion offered by Shawn Shakespeare and selected the little town’s railway station platform (given a familiar number of 9 3/4!) as a starting point for explorations. From here, it is possible to walk west along the single street of the little town, passing cosy little houses and boutique shops while the grassy hills fall away northwards to a surf-fronted beach.

The beach runs south-to-north along one side of the region, offering numerous places to sit and the chance to go surfing. However, do keep in mind the houses that book-end it to the north and south are private – so please avoid trespassing into them. A path from the beach runs past he drive-in and behind the gardens behind the northern house to where a busy little waterfront wharf and piers are laid out.

Above this, and reached via sets of wooden stairs and platforms is The Mystic, the region’s public mountain lodge. This offers cosy places to sit and relax, play board games, enjoy views out over the region, or explore onwards and downwards into the rugged gorge separates the lodge from the little town.

This is where the gallery referred to in SixDigital’s description of the region can be found, nestled in a slightly careworn watermill and displaying some of SixDigital’s photography. Outside of the lodge are bull riding, bungee jumping and a zip-line for thrill seekers, while an open-air deck provides a home for live music events, the grass before it a nature dance floor.

Finished a full sound scape and surrounded by high peaks, :oxygen: is a picturesque setting deserving of photography. It is easy on the eye and on the viewer. The official opening for the region will take place on Sunday, October 27th, when DJ Apple Xevion will be spinning the records between 12:00 noon and 14:00 SLT, and a prize pool of L$10,000 is on offer in a Halloween costume contest – just go along dressed in your favourite Halloween outfit for a chance to win a prize!

SLurl Details

:oxygen: (Bora Lota, rated Moderate)

For those who enjoy a touch of Halloween without things going overboard in terms of pumpkins, witches, ghosts and so on, then the Homestead region of Nostalgia Falls designed by Noisette Haller could be just the ticket for a visit in the next couple of weeks.

Caught under an orange sky that is suitably atmospheric for the time of year, the region offers some touches of Halloween throughout, but also offers other opportunities for enjoyment and photography.

Forming a rough L-shape, the lower arm running east-west and the vertical south-north and with a gentle westward curve, Nostalgia Falls is a region of roughly two parts. The southern arm of the island is defined by a railway line and little end-of-the-line country station, the tracks occupied by the familiar form of the DRD Arctic Express, this one pulling just the one carriage – which also forms the landing point.

To the east of the little station sit the ruins of houses, one of which appears to have suffered a gas explosion – a large propane tank is ablaze, as is the house. North of the station is a large plaza overlooking open water and a small wharf, a little coffee shop and a carousel offering distractions for visitors – or the opportunity to appreciate all the little touches within the space and along the waterfront.

The Halloween influences are subtle but apparent – cobwebs a-plenty can be found, while a ghostly mist swirls around the locomotive while pumpkins are a little in evidence. There is also a nice touch of humour here as well, in the form of an old lady selling cats in an echo of the “mad cat” old ladies of legend (do catch the Schrödinger’s Cat poster on the stall!).

Beyond the plaza, the north-south arm of the island is home to a little group of houses, all of which appear to be open to the public and are also lightly decorated for Halloween, but again without anything being too excessive. This is another place where there are a lot of little touches to be found, while the track passing before the houses offers the way to a little headland and a pumpkin patch where things do get a little more fanciful, with some of the pumpkins having reached quite extraordinary sizes!

The southern end of this track rises to the top of a little promontory that is home to a stables sitting with its back to the horseshoe of waterfalls that likely give the region its name. A paths and steps from here offer a way down to a meadow where the horses can roam – and which under a brighter sky offers a wonderful taste of autumn splendour.

For those who like more of a touch of Halloween, this can be found in the haunted house located in the south-east corner of the region, together with a little haunted ruin alongside. Here, and across the region can be found places for dancing for those so inclined while overhead – for those who look up, more of an air of mystery is await discovery as an off-shore Moon is at times given to impersonating some of the planets.

Given the mist, particles and other items around the landing point, some might find their viewer / systems struggling with the load  – something that can be exacerbated if there are several visitors to the region. However, the north end of the region and the middle-area meadow did, on our visits, tend to be kinder to our systems. Other than this, Nostalgia falls makes for a photogenic visit and is happy to be seen under a variety of windlight settings.

SLurl Details

• Nostalgia Falls (Isle of Navarre, rated Adult)
• Exploring Second Life 2019

Update, December 1st: ChatuChak has been replaced by RioSisco Studio Pictures – see for more.

We visited ChatuChak, a relatively new region design by Lotus Mastroianni and frecoi (aka Fred Hamilton) earlier in October, but it has taken me a while to get around to writing it up. Lotus and frecoi are responsible for developing a number of regions I’ve covered in these pages, and so while it has taken a while to write about it, ChatuChak had been a place I was keen to see, a desire somewhat increased because of the region’s subject matter.

Welcome somewhere in Thailand … Turn on the sound and your graphics , let yourself be in immersion with the nature and elements….Enjoy your visit <3.

– ChatuChak About Land description

I’ve never really spent much time in Thailand, but I love the Far East (notably Hong Kong and China), and have had a fascination with Indo-China / South-east Asia, which encompasses Thailand, together with Myanmar (Burma), peninsular Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, so was really keen to see what ChatuChak has to offer. And the truth is, it is a remarkably atmospheric region, well in keeping with the description, if a little reliant on some elements that perhaps lean towards a more Japanese style of environment (but which nevertheless fit well here).

The landing point sits on the west side of the region, within a small courtyard at the back of a riverside hamlet split by rail tracks that encircle the region. As it passes through the hamlet, the railway is the focus of a small market offering fresh garden produce, flowers, fish and – at one end and rather incongruously, good that might be considered more in keeping with the tourist industry.

This incongruity adds a level of authenticity to the market – the dresses, headsets, brightly-coloured bags and sun hats are exactly the kind of odd items that one can so often unexpectedly find in little off-the-beaten track villages and towns when exploring places like this in the east.

Down on the river banks below the village are all the signs that this is a place reliant on the river and the fertile soil of the area. Along the river banks are stone an wooden wharves where local fishermen bring their catches ashore for weighing, drying and filleting – and where local produce may well be packaged in preparation to be shipped out, going by the cases on one of the wharves. Behind one of the wharves, to the north, sits a rain forest through which paths wind, one of which slips through a narrow gorge to lead the way to a little beach.

On the south side of the river, the land has been cleared to form a series of terraces for growing crops and to provide space for cattle to graze. A path climbs the eastern  – and natural – steps here, allowing a little village of single-roomed houses to spring-up, a path climbing through them to the railway tracks beyond.

Rounded out by an immersive sound scape, ChatuChak offers a multitude of opportunities for photography as well as opportunities to explore. Those taking photos are welcome to submit them to the region’s Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• ChatuChak (Dfine Island, rated Adult)