Sony PlayStation Home Presents: Mount Olympus
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
The Home Community Volunteers (HCV’s or Guides) are now providing tours of a new personal space that has an ancient Greek mythical theme. This estate will soon be available for purchase. When I went on a tour there recently, my initial reaction to this new space, summed up by my first words, was “Oh! Wow!”
However, I left about a half hour later with very mixed feelings about this estate. There were a lot of good points about this space and yet I felt like something was missing, and I was a little disappointed.
As you arrive, you are shown a spectacular view of the sky. Ahead of you there are layers of moving white clouds with various mountain peaks showing through them. Walk across the wide veranda and down the steps ahead of you, you can see more of the blue sky and a group of clouds made golden by the hidden sun. Then, when you walk to the edge, you see how vastly high you are above the world and yet, still a part of it somehow. It’s an incredible sensation.
On the left side you will see a golden chariot (available to Mansion owners only) in a small pillared area, with a similar ruin on the opposite side. When you turn around, the gray stone temple stands before you, and it is quite splendid. Walking back up the steps and through the large open doorway you arrived at a magnificent columned hall. There are five pale blue-gray marble columns there on either side, trimmed and capped in gold. There are another eight gold-trimmed pillars against the walls.
The use of gold there is subtle and very well done. It adds to the feeling of grandeur, without being gaudy. The area appears to be lighted by eight soapstone fire bowls and a large skylight above you. The floor is tiled in dark gray marble and just ahead of you is a large, but shallow wading pool fed by a Cupid fountain. This pool has medium blue water that reflects in a muted, natural way.
Past the fountain, you will see a large red and gold throne ahead of you on a platform. Walk up two sets of stairs of six and then three steps and you will arrive at the dais. There you may take a seat on the throne and perhaps feel like a god or goddess yourself at that moment. As there is only one throne there, indeed only one place to sit at all, I’m sure this is the temple of Zeus, father of gods and men in Greek mythology.
While splendid, this space seems very cold because of all the marble, but perhaps this is how the temple of a god should be.
On either side of the platform you can walk through an opening to a garden-like setting. There, you will find many more columns and a few bush hedges with brilliant red flowers, all around a stone-covered area. This courtyard is open to the sky high above and surrounded by tiled walkways on all four sides. It would make a lovely area to place benches for sitting and relaxing. There are two small open stands there, made of plain gray stone that I believe must be empty planter boxes. I wish they were filled and over-flowing with bright flowers.
This area offers four places for picture frames or other wall items, two on each of the front and back facing walls. There are also several fire bowls here set into large niches. The side walls each have three tall and narrow windows with a slim view of the sky.
This Home estate will be offered for $4.99 and has the latest feature in personal spaces of bestowing a gift to your guests. In this case, it is a hand-held glowing lightning bolt. Yes, it is indeed, awesomesauce. A furniture pack will be offered for sale that will include an active-item canopied bed, a backless Greek style couch, a small chair and a small black marble topped table. All of these items continue the subtle and welcomed use of gold trim.
However, the space does not lend itself to the idea of a home that would even have a bedroom, in my own opinion. There are many other Greek items for sale presently in the original furniture store on Home. The large Greek statues very would go well there, as well as a lot of the smaller items that are included. Many of these items, if not all, are offered in the first of the100 item sale packs. A male and female Greek outfit are included with this bundle. There are also clothing items that will match this space, available in the costume shop, from simple Greek outfits for male or female to full costumes of the gods, such as Zeus, Ares and Athena.
Sony did so much right in their newest offering and yet I felt there should be more there, somehow. It is a rather small space with not a lot of decorating possibilities, for one thing. With such a strong theme, anything not Greek just won’t fit in there. Fortunately, Home offers a lot of these items. Just the fact that someone is bringing out a space with a new theme, something really different from the Home “norm” is amazing to me, and I’m very grateful for it.
- New theme
- Reward for friends
- Excellent use of gold trim
- Incredible sky
- Small
- Bed doesn't suit location
- Feels like something is missing
February 11th, 2012 by Kassadee Marie | 7 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
IF I could think up a good story so this place could be used as the set, I would buy it. But, other than that, it is sort of a one-trick pony. Not a place to decorate and live in. And not as versatile as some of the other new spaces. (Other than a toga party, what kind of entertaining could you do here?). But maybe I can come up with a script about Apollo and Venus (that’s if Apolo Ono and Venus Williams are available for cameo shots).
The strength of this place lies in its surrealism; it’s the sort of space you see in a half-remembered dream, or in some sort of amazing journey. If you recall some of the stunning visuals from “The Fountain” (which is a horribly underappreciated movie), it has that sort of effect.
Personal opinion? It’s not a space to be taken literally, or to host some crazy Bacchanalia. It’s simply an interactive work of art. It’s even less functional than the Gothic Manor or Creek Falls, and yet it hits something ethereal.
The best way I can explain it is visually. Just watch this link — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbFWStEZYxw — from 3:35 to 6:20. *That’s* the sort of emotional response Mt. Olympus produces. At least for me. Just something very otherworldly.
I agree the the space is beautifully wrought and I loved the sky and feeling of being in the clouds a lot. But that being said I won’t be buying this one, mostly because it is too cavernous and cold, not my style, and the Dream Yacht and Loot Space Station kind of set the bar higher for me when I think about what a space has to offer.
Now if they build a castle? I will come.
Good review Kassadee.
Nice point of view article Kass, Thanks.
Myself, Apon arriving at Mt. Olympus. I took my rightful place on the throne, I sat there whilst playing “Orphans Of Doom/ The Awakening” music from Conan, The Barbarian Soundtrack. I sat there enthralled overlooking my impluvium (Water basin for you mortals) I donned my sandles and headed out back to my peristylium to catch MY morning light. Ah, My old trusty War Chariot. The Gold is appropriate is it not? Then, Like many prayers.. A flood of worshippers “Knocked” to bathe in the glory of Mount Olympus. I will reward them all with Mt. Olympus Bolts!
Jers
Kassadee’s view that Mt. Olympus is “missing something” is, in my opinion, right on the money. The space is brilliantly rendered, artistically impeccable, and with some of the best cloud effects I’ve seen in Home. But while the high ceilings convey a cavernous sense of space, the actual amount of floor space with which to work is I’d say about average for a Home estate. And given the highly stylized nature of the estate, it makes decoration a bit of a challenge. This is one of those estates which, ironically, would probably work better with very few furniture items, carefully placed for emphasis.
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you; half the fun of virtual reality is stretching the imagination, and I’d rather see Home skew fantastical rather than mundane. But, like Kassadee, I can’t shake the feeling that Mt. Olympus is missing something — and I think I know what that something is.
This is a space that really, really needs diurnal controls.
It doesn’t need a mini-game. It needs the ability to control the weather. I want to stand atop that precipice and have the ability to command the weather. That would fit perfectly with the deific theme of the space, as well as the lightning-bolt gift it’s equipped with.
Would this extra feature necessitate a higher retail price? Absolutely. Instead of five dollars, it’d probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of seven dollars or more. But it would give Mt. Olympus that certain special something which made it worth returning to over a long span of time.
As it presently stands, Mt. Olympus is a beautiful work of art. But, like the Gothic Manor before it, it just feels…static. And while that would have worked great in Home two years ago, I’d rather pay a premium for a space which has a bit more interactivity built into it.
Change of weather. Nailed it. Rain, Lightning, Sun, Snow! and of course sound that goes with each.
It is a good place to rear a “Norseling”…