Home’s Shrinking Beaches
by Terra_Cide, HSM Editor
It’s Friday night. Date night. The kiddo is all a-bed, sleeping off his first week back at school from his winter holidays. It’s time for some grownup fun.
Norse and I, having just attended the HOMEInformer meeting, discuss where we ought to go. It’s my turn to choose the space. Now, the trick to this is we tend to choose the spaces that have music playing so that we can dance – SingStar, Konami, Ratchet and Clank, and the like. It’s decided tonight that we go to Red Bull Beach; after all, they just revamped the space, adding more gaming aspects to the Flugtag mini-game. Yes, granted, it is a known space for those who like to ride a female avatar’s virtual leg like a dog, but what the heck, we figure, might as well give it a shot. Being known as the scariest woman in Home does have its perks, and having a lower than average rate of being accosted by male avatars with more hormones than brains is one of them. We both enjoy going to the beach in real life, and besides, HSM did have its six month anniversary party there.
So we don appropriate apparel and load up the space, with me following Norse.
I remember fondly when Red Bull came out. Irem had yet to introduce the Seaside of Memories to North America, and the community was itching for a beach – any beach – that they could enjoy. LOOT has just introduced their bikini collection – the first ones in North America – and soon Home was filled with female avatars in string bikinis. Having a beach to use them at was icing on the cake.
Was Red Bull Beach perfect upon its debut? Hardly. There was the ubiquitous lag, male avatars harassing the female avatars who chose to wear bikinis, visual glitches that would show people’s avatars as being under the floor at the tiki huts (though on the TV screen of the user in question, it appeared their avatar was on the same level as everyone else’s), lighting and shading that felt unnatural, and to everyone’s (but the glitchers’) disappointment, we weren’t able to go into the water. But it was a place to dance and have beach parties, and at that time, North America Home had no other public space like it.
This iteration of Red Bull Beach however, was a garden of Eden compared to this revamp.
When I loaded into the space, the first thing I heard was an air horn. After diving for the remote to make sure that this surprising addition didn’t wake my son, it was just a split second realization to connect the sound with the flugtag game. Alright, I thought, so they’re trying to add a more authentic flugtag feel to the space by sounding the horn whenever something’s launched; no big deal. I do the necessary jog around to where the tiki huts stand and the music plays.
Boy was I wrong, and that was only the beginning of what was going to be a visit full of disappointments.
By the time I get to where Norse is waiting for me on the other side of the space, that air horn has sounded off more than a few times and even at low volume is starting to annoy me. Turns out it doesn’t sound when a random craft is launched; it sounds whenever a player’s craft is launched – which is quite often. No worries, I tell myself, soon I’ll be over by the jukebox and the music playing there can drown out its raucous bleating.
That is to say, where it used to play.
Once I arrive at the huts, the first change I see are lights strung up around the rafters of the huts. Nice touch, I think, then I spy something missing. The jukebox – where did it go?
The chat bubble that has formed above Norse’s head confirms it – they’ve taken the music out and it’s nowhere to be found. Turns out it’s been moved to the Air Race, another of Red Bull’s spaces that saw a revamp this week.
Color me greatly disappointed, since the whole intent of our trip here was to ultimately dance and have a good time, I was ready to write the whole space off in that one moment. But instead of cutting our losses, we decide to give it a chance and check out what else is new to the space.
We see there’s a new video playing. It has cars in it. We like cars, both Norse and I – and I mean really like them – and given Red Bull does have their own various motorsport teams, we decide to check it out.
Now with the previous video, one didn’t have to get too close to it before you started hearing it. With this one, I was walking closer and closer, turning my volume up as loud as I dared – especially with that silly air horn going off – until my avatar was practically touching nose to screen and I still had no discernible increase in volume. Norse – being five hours behind me and not having to worry about a sleeping child getting woke up – maxed out his volume and had the same result. It was like watching a silent film with a whole bunch of mumbling going on in the background, punctuated with the screech of an air horn going off. Not the most pleasant aural experience in my life; the sterility of the Hub is more preferable, in fact. Hell, even my chorus of neighborhood cats fighting out in the street at 2AM in the summer is more preferable.
And then there’s the video itself. I’m sure it’s about something really cool – a least I think it is. If I squint and cross my eyes a bit, maybe the image will pop out at me, like in those old Magic Eye posters. Honestly, I haven’t seen video that pixelated since 2002. We’re not living in a 56k world anymore.
The transplanted jukebox
And yet, we persevered. We continued the circle around to where the flugtag mini-game – and source of my new nemesis, the air horn – resided. The game layout was quite different – there were more crafts to look at, which made it interesting. Having the opportunity to customize your craft was also a nice added touch, but the controls with which to do so felt as if very little thought was put into them. In fact, once you figured out how to piece together your craft the way you wanted it and was ready to launch it, the button input required to do so made little sense at all. It’s as if the only game the programmer ever played was Dance Dance Revolution and decided to mix that with a healthy dose of “derp” to produce this end result. And of course, there’s the air horn.
We both give the mini-game a couple of plays, and Norse’s comment post-game sums up our mutual opinion: “No.”
We walk on back to where you spawn. We attempt to discuss our impressions of the space, but at this point, I’ve just had enough of that wretched air horn and I say to Norse, “That air horn makes me want to kill kittens.”
Cue a record-time wardrobe change and it’s off to SingStar, where we can finally dance.
Don't make me do this...
As we dance the night away, we talk about the disappointing revamp of the Red Bull Beach. Sure, the game has been expanded, yes, the lag has certainly diminished, the lighting has improved, but at what cost? And whose idea was it to add the air horn and have it at such an annoying volume? Look, I’m all for adding realistic sounds in a themed space, but if you truly don’t get just how aggravating hearing that sound, over and over, then let me come to your house with a few air horns at midnight and I’ll demonstrate for you. Yes, I could mute my TV, but then that completely defeats any and all other aural experiences there, too.
It is a sobering thought that since Irem’s Seaside of memories has left, we now have more beach-themed public spaces to choose from, but less about them to enjoy. Red Bull Beach’s shortcomings have already been discussed at length here already. The new to North America Diesel Island space is just a storefront posing as a public space; you either stand about or buy things. Not the most subtle of messages, that. And let’s face it, Diesel’s offerings for Home fashions are a bit outdated; their tanktop was one of the very first tops I bought in Home, and that’s going on three years ago. Nothing has been updated in that store.
And don’t even get me started on Granzella’s South Sea Island Retreat; once I got a full set of matching earrings, I gave up trying to go to that space altogether, as it freezes my system a good 95% of the time – the other 5% of the time it’s lagging horribly. This is a shame, because I love the piano sonata playing at the shack, the views, and really just everything about the space.
It’s little wonder Irem’s Seaside of Memories is still considered to be the yardstick which all other beach public spaces that come to Home are measured. No, it didn’t have a place where you could dance and listen to music, no it didn’t have a “true” mini-game, but it did have a well spread out space – both above and below the water – with treasures to find; you didn’t feel crowded anywhere, it didn’t make your console crash everytime you went there, and it had an aurally and visually appealing atmosphere about it that just felt right. And it made you want to come back for more.
Disappointed.
In its original incarnation, the Red Bull Beach met a lot of the criteria that the community agrees makes for a great public space: you had an area where people could listen to music, dance and socialize, it’s large enough to give everyone a sense of personal space, you have funny and re-watchable multimedia playing in the background that could be seen and heard, the scenery was nice, and it had a catchy, simple mini-game. No, you couldn’t go into the water unless you knew the glitch, but we had Irem for that (and Seaside never lagged or froze for me, ever). Was it really necessary that only one of the Red Bull spaces have the jukebox? Why couldn’t both the Beach and the Air Race have it? All the Beach needed was the odd update to the game to hold people’s interest. To say that this revamp is a disappointment would be an egregious understatement; this “facelift” is almost as bad as Mickey Rourke’s.
To add a footnote of even further disappointment, the following day, when we came back to take pictures for this review, I was frozen out of that space three times, and on that final time, Norse also got frozen out of that space. Sad to say, this will be another space I’ll not be visiting.
- The lighting/shading seems to have been fixed
- Flutag game has been expanded
- Air horn more annoying than fangirls at a Justin Beiber concert
- Why the hell did the music have to go?!
- Videos playing on the screens are of poor resolution and poorer sound volume
- That %^#$*@& air horn
- Player input into the flutag game has a "no rhyme or reason" feel to it - very counterintuitive
- THAT FARKING AIR HORN!!! KILL IT!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
January 8th, 2012 by Terra_Cide | 10 comments
Terra _Cide is the former Community Manager for Lockwood Publishing and Editor Emeritus for HomeStation Magazine.
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So… BEEEEEEEEEP!..I am guessing…BEEEEEEEEEP!…. you ….BEEEEEEEEEP!… didn’t care…..BEEEEEEP!… for the re…..BEEEEEEP!… vamp.
If all they did was focus on revamping the gameplay for the flugtag, then it would have been great. What enhances my dislike for this space now is that I really liked it back before the revamp, and instead of making it better (which everyone hopes will happen to a favorite hangout spot), they made it feel like they don’t want you spending any considerable amount of time there. And that air horn has to go, or at the very least, have its volume lowered.
I hadn’t had a chance to fully check out the updated Red Bull space, just for a few minutes to see the updated game because I thought that is all that really got changed. It was late at night so I had the volume of my TV turned down and so I didn’t notice the airhorn, but I can totally see how that would be annoying -- don’t make Terra kill kittens, please! Wow, they removed the jukebox? IDK why they would do that, only to move it to the air race space (which I still have to see). I do remember the 6 month anniversary party at Red Bull beach, but without any music, where would the fun be in that? Sounds like I haven’t missed out on much by not checking out the updates to this space. TY for the write up.
Just say NO to obnoxiously loud air horns lol
My pop would have said about the mousse desert he recently had,
“They should have left that mousse in the woods!”
for me the most annoying thing is that:
since the updade this space is instable, lags, deconections and freeze!
i just wanna remember to the devs than an UPDATE is supposed to IMPROVE the space and not the contrary…
(if granzella beach & showcase devs can read this…)
Heading there now to check out the revamp….I really enjoyed my time there previously…even won two flugtag awards and two cans of Red Bull…One for my Avatar to hold and to decorate my space with…Verdict TBA
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Devs should be required to spend a full eight-hour day listening to repetitive sound effects in their games and spaces. No breaks, no escape, no turning the sound down, just eight straight hours listening to what they’ve made.
I know there are memory limits and such, but there are also very elegant ways to use sound effects without driving people nuts.
The same applies for music tracks. As soon as I hit Red Bull Illume, the volume on my TV gets muted. I’ve heard the song. I don’t like it, and it’s way too loud. Maybe I’m just too old.
Otherwise, I really have no issue with the revamp. It’s worked perfectly for me on multiple visits. Crowding may have caused some of that lag, as word was slow to get out that the space had been updated.
What was most peculiar was in the *way* I was froze out. The first and third time, it was as I was taking a picture. Press the square button and then froze. The second time I froze, I didn’t take a picture, nor was my camera even out, but I had just arrived to the spot where I had froze the first time.
The Air Race additions are nice like the take off sequence although I have no Idea what’s being said…It sounds like a garbled Radio transmission of some sort…But it’s fun:)
Shame. I was quite happy when I heard it was getting some new touches put in place mainly because I’ve not seen any reason to re-visit it since ohhh, when was it launched?
Anyways, thanks for the heads-up Terra.