Digital Leisure’s New Saloon
by Burbie52, HSM team writer
I was looking through the new things that arrived at the stores this week. There is a lot of new content available lately, but of late I have been getting quite picky about where I spend my PlayStation dollars.
There were the new wedding dresses for the Granzella chapel — finally, long skirts! But the thing that really caught my eye was the new Old West Saloon by Digital Leisure, so I bought it.
I wasn’t disappointed, I must say. Not only do you get the space itself with three very nice built-in games, you also get a cowboy/girl outfit, a sackcloth for a male loser gambler to wear and a nice furniture pack to fill the space with or use elsewhere as you choose.
When you arrive at your new space for the first time you are inundated with new rewards. That is the furniture and clothing loading for you. The space itself is quite large, though no too much so, and though it has quite a bit of built in furniture it also leaves you a lot of space to add your own touches. It has a built-in kitchen area, four bedrooms upstairs and a storage room and the Gambling Hall gaming room on the first level with a built in bar with stools. There are built-in sofas and wanted poster decorations scattered about as well as a player piano that plays a silly little western style song to add atmosphere to the space.
The kitchen is a hoot! It contains pots, pans and dishes and they haven’t skimped on the details in any areas of the space either, down to the potato peelings in the pan and on the floor, to the raw meat on the chopping block or the spices hanging from the ceiling. The old wood-burning stove is authentic looking as well. They put a lot of time and thought into this space.
One thing I particularly like is the ability to place things on the flat surfaces that are built in. Many times in the past there have been 
spaces that had a barrier; in fact, there are even some furniture pieces you can buy in Home that don’t allow you to place things on them. You can add things here on the bar or the kitchen counters as well as the built in dressers in the upstairs bedrooms. But there is one draw back: you can’t sit on the beds at all.
The cowboy and girl outfits are overexaggerated a bit, the hats and clothing items look larger than life, but they are fun costumes meant to be a bit silly and that makes it all right, I think. I still wish they would allow us to keep our own hair when using a hat, but I guess until they figure that out we will have to be content with what we have.
Darts and Liars Dice room
The games in this space are very nice. There is a darts game that is much easier to play and manipulate than the previous ones created for Home. You can actually see your friends throw the darts when they use the game, which adds to the authenticity. Liar’s Dice is a game I played a bit in Red Dead Redemption and enjoyed. It has a bit of a variation here I don’t understand because once you pick a particular number on the dice — say you go for three fours — you are not allowed to make the dice number three or two for any number lower than the four, even if you say something like five twos, which is a bit weird.
The blackjack game is the same one as the Casino has: you start with five-hundred chips and bet the same as there.
There are two games off of the front room Liars Dice and darts, and blackjack is hidden in the storage room off a long hallway that runs behind the bar. It is like how I imagine a real backroom gambler’s spot might have been in the 1890’s. The feel of the entire space harkens back to those times from the chandeliers to the hardwood floors and player piano.
Great furniture pack
The furniture pack is generous as well. It contains a piano replica of the one in the space, a replica of the standing stuffed bear, an oil lamp light that works, wooden table and chair, a stack of cards and chips ornament, a cow skull wall hanging, a “WANTED” poster picture frame that you can put pictures of your friends in (I think that is hysterical), and last but not least…what saloon would be complete without a spitoon?
The only thing I wish they had added to the pack is a pitcher of beer with mugs to put on the bar or a whiskey bottle and glasses. Add that and a dance hall girl or saloon singer outfit and it would be complete. We can only hope they will add to the things made available for the space as time goes on.
I must say that this space is a fantastic effort by Digital Leisure; I’ll wager its great functionality and the uniqueness of the whole concept is going to be a massive hit, and with the reasonable price tag and all of the free added content, we can only hope they continue down this road.
- Three great games to play with friends.
- Large well laid out space.
- Fun costumes and furniture included.
- Not too much burned in furniture.
- Unique concept.
- Can't sit on beds.
March 15th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 6 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
Good review! Thanks for the tour last night, Burbie. It looks like a really fun spot for a party. I love it that there are three built in games. And with all the built in furniture you could add three more games and still have a nicely furnished space. I would add a pool table, a checkers or chess game and another dart board.
I wish they could turn this into a clubhouse skin. It looks like an excellent social spot for a group of friends.
A clubhouse with built in games… awesome idea!
I don’t own it but I visited it. A Con is that when I went there the owner could not see me.
I’ve read about this glitch on the forum also.
It is a beautiful space. I liked the player piano.
The dart game is fun from the one time I played it.
As to purchase, I’m up in the air due to the price and I want to see what happens (or has happened since this morning) to the invisible person glitch.
Very nicely written Burbie. I purchased this space and totally agree with you, this is a wonderfully made space. Great extras, can’t wait to use my HUGE bear in some of my other spaces…lol! I absolutely LOVE the over-sized boots! What a hoot to wear, they are almost as big as my avi! Great space Digital Liesure.
The saloon is the first apartment that I’ve purchased in a while. At $7, it’s a much better deal than many other spaces for all the reasons you mentioned. It was a fun place to decorate as well (currently a work in progress).
One criticism is the single spawn point. I needed a little creativity to get larger items through the bedroom doorways.
Thanks for the great review.