Review of PaleoQuest

By Gemma Cleanslate

 The evil Dr Talpa is on the move again to destroy the grid and Magellan Linden needs our help. That is the billing for the new inworld game called "Paleoquest." I enjoyed the Magellan quest a few years ago,  the Linden Realms, the Cornfield, earlier inworld games that I still visit occasionally so was quite interested in trying this one. 

The entrance is at the Portal Park 1 where I ran into a few friends immediately as I landed. Kiera Linden was coming to try it and Marianne McCann and Uccie Poultry, both of whom were there yesterday already. The entrance path, lined with prehistoric ferns and other lush foliage leads to a tall golden entrance where my window donned a hud I and teleported to the visitor center. As I approached I was graced with the voice of Magellan welcoming me with a thank you for coming. There is a background video to bring you up to date on why you are here and a tutorial video for help, and an information card to pick up. And then, you climb the stairs to catch the monorail that circles the entire region with stops at the each quest location. If I waited to write this until I did the whole sim you might never hear from me again! 

Be prepared! There is danger everywhere you go from the volcanoes, falls off the mountain, holes in the rope bridges, and from above the flying dinosaur who is protecting her nests in one of which sits the prize. Any one of the obstacles can kill you! Along the way I collected dinosaur eggs that were added to my hud. None of this is easy and I died and resurrected six times and lost all my eggs !!! 
 
I am sitting at the resurrection platform now to tell you my story.  I thought it would be better if I told you all this now so you can begin your quest if you like! So many dangers and I have so much to do!!! if you see me along the way say hello! I was going to stop there but after I sat for a while I went to bring back the prize and made it. I entered the pyramid, made my way through the dangers and returned the prize to the rightful owner !! I have no eggs but can go back for more later. 

Now I am off to the monorail to get to the second quest which I understand involves toxic water and other goodies .  All these collections involve prizes and Lindens at the payout stations at the visitor center so it is not just for nothing! Read the notecard . 

 I will let you know if I ever complete the game or perhaps if some part of it is so interesting I need to tell you more. Beware! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Portal%20Park%201/136/136/23

Gemma Cleanslate

Prehistorica: The Dawn Kingdoms

By Xymbers Slade

While wandering about the other day, I managed to spot someone in a tiny velociraptor avatar that looked incredibly well done. I got a landmark from them and immediately headed over to a place known as "Prehistorica, The Dawn Kingdoms."

I'm glad I did. I haven't been impressed by what goes on in SL in a long long long time, which is why I haven't written much for the Newser. However, here at The Dawn Kingdoms, I can honestly say I'm impressed by what I have found. You begin in front of the store, where there are tons of avatars to choose from, both sculpt and mesh. All of the classic favorites, from the triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, Pteranadon, and the ankylosaurus (my personal favorite) are available at about $2000L each. I did not look at the sculpts, but I only assume they're cheaper and are earlier versions of the meshes.

Behind you there's a portal to a few prehistoric-themed areas (jungle, beach, pond and some petrasaur cliffs, which I did not go exploring to on account of heavy lag). It might be slower on older machines because there's a LOT of stuff to load (it was very laggy for me, but it can't be avoided with the amount of detail that's down there, plus I have my settings on high, which adds to the problem). Deciding to splurge on myself I picked up an Ankylosaur and a Tyrannosaur.

Both avs I picked up come with three separate folders, and you -have- to put the folders on in order or there will be errors (according to the notecard)... you can't just throw everything into one folder and put it on all at once. The AO that comes with the avatar is very detailed and colorful, and best of all it seems to be -intuitive-, meaning that for those of us who never bother reading the notecard (such as myself) it's easy to figure out. There are about 16 different default skins, with room for four more custom, and 20 eye colors/four claw/four tooth skins. There are about 24 different gestures (six sounds, six combat, six poses, six "life" gestures, such as eating and drinking).

The "Extras" folder they come with adds some decorations (like a watering hole or some eggs) though I don't know why the folder would include some "gift vendors" scripted to ask you for permission to your $L account. That's my only bone to pick with the whole thing.

I'm giving the place five Dragon Hoards out of five without hesitation (even in the face of the "gift vendors", even though the T-Rex sounds make me think of the old movie "Jurassic Park" (what would I know, we don't know what they sounded like, after all). The avatars are well done for the price, the animation is great and they're cheaper than some of the other meshes I have seen. Having an intuitive HUD really helps.

The Dawn Kingdoms can be found at Fort Nowhere (130,127,1101).

Xymbers Slade

(For Becky Shamen's article on Prehistoria, Click Here)