Comments on: Home For the Holidays

By: HearItWow

HearItWow — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:42:17 +0000

As a silly person who loves holiday tradition, I was very sad to see that Winter Wonderland didn’t come back this year. I like the new space, love the prizes and thought the quests were good overall, though I do have to question including a PvP shooter as one of the requirements. That’s a bit much for some users.

Overall, though, it was an excellent holiday event. Just bring my Wonderland back, if only so I can say hi to the elves and mix some cider for them.

By: Angie Sue

Angie Sue — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:12:13 +0000

I being new to the Whole Home experience was amazed at the whole winter theme :)…Call me a newbie..what have you …I loved it all…Except when it came to bootleggers… I abhor that game with a passion….Fishing I did not mind! especially with 3 plaques awarded for my troubles… I ended up quitting the quest after getting killed umpteen times with only two barrels to show for my troubles! T shirts I do not mind…free anything is good right?…and then there is cute lil Vincent or as I call him Bubbles because he is such a happy lil guy who loves to dance with me on the dance floor Who could not like him?….Now give me a shopping quest like bargain hunter or Window shopper AND I’M THERE JACK ! hahaha

By: Gideon

Gideon — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:06:20 +0000

VERY true. The less t-shirts the better. That is one area that Sony has really stepped up in: the types of rewards we get.

By: ted2112

ted2112 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:02:47 +0000

After the re-design I’m amazed Sony had much left in the tanks to throw resources at a temporary Holiday experience. They could of just dropped a Christmas Tree in the middle of the hub and called it a day. I don’t think it was as good as last year, but considering the big picture I’m happy that Sony still cared enough to drop this in our stocking!

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:30:30 +0000

And I like the unicorn, legs and all, he is meant to be whimsical like all unicorns are and he hops around like he is happy. Even had a unicorn stampede with the Grey Gamers the Friday after he came out and that was funny to watch, they even looked like they were dancing with us at the Hub.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:27:29 +0000

I do agree that another choice besides the Bootleggers would have been good for the first quests completion, I don’t really care for the game myself, though I am really glad it wasn’t Cogs that they chose or I would still be there trying to win, lol. I had a good friend help me get past the Bootleggers part, the hardest part being that there are those who have been playing that game since the beginning, unlike me and therefore I never stood a chance against them. That and not finding many open games with fewer players to give me a shot at it. Took a few days but I finally succeeded.
The rewards for this year were actually quite nice, I did finish all three quests eventually and ended up with 3 new companions for my troubles as well as quite a few new clothing items, some I like and some I don’t. The point is that they stepped it up a notch from previous Christmas offerings in my estimation, and at least we didn’t get t-shirts and a turkey hat wasn’t the last reward like last year!LOL

By: Gideon

Gideon — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:27:29 +0000

Great coverage of this year’s event Burbie!

While I do agree that it was great that they gave us a totally different space and the experience as a whole was pretty interesting… I have to disagree with the overall outlook of this season’s event.
I really didn’t care for the questing. I heard from some people that it was bugging pretty bad on them and if you quit the current quest you were on you have to start over. I was on the bootleggers portion when I had to star over because I accidentally quit the quest when futzing with the board. While I’m on that. What does Bootleggers have to do with the winter season. Seems like a pretty cheap way to “make” users play bootleggers. They could at least have made ONE of the bootleggers arenas winter themed where you have to get the “holiday gift” from the center to return it to your sleigh.. maybe have snowballs and snow blowers instead of guns and rifles… It just seemed disjointed and thrown together.

The Winter Hullabaloo itself seemed like an equal mess. The polygonal count of the whole thing seemed quite low, looking like a landscape from a PS2 game, not something that came out in the beginning of the 6th year of the PS3. This isn’t mentioning that the whole space seemed just thrown together. Personally, I didn’t feel like it delivered a cohesive experience.

That being said. I did enjoy it. The social building aspect of the questing was unique. Thanks for taking these pics Burbie, it’s good to see everything we could have won all together. I had no idea about the customizable Christmas tree! Very cool.

Was it fun? Yes… Was it on par with what was delivered in the past? I really don’t think it was.

Also… I hate that unicorn thing. What’s wrong with its legs!?!? LOL!