by Jin Lovelace, HSM team writer & filmmaker

Halloween Commodity? Check!

Public and personal spaces, Halloween themed? Check!

An actual Halloween Funhouse in Home that gives a unique perspective much like the real-world theme parks? None whatsoever. Until now.

Recently announced was a Halloween tour, courtesy of a well-known and well-respected PlayStation Home user by the name of Conrad Max, who was ever so gracious enough to lend out his time (and decorative talent) to feature an immersive  experience that I believe is much needed. Aside from the Cutteridge Estate (which is clearly Lovecraftian-inspired), there are a few spaces on Home that are all Halloween, less spook.

I’m personally down for a psychological trip, and I would take paranormal activities over a gore-fest slaughterhouse any day; seeing as how Home is overrun with hundreds of machinima, featuring zombies, Ghostbusters and otherworldly creatures running rampant across the community, it’s seems pretty hard to translate the moody experience right into the MMO unless you have a creative mind to supply this realm to your audience.

For this, Conrad Max delivers — and then some.

Seeing that Conrad himself was a Home Community Volunteer (prior to that program being folded into the larger MVP initiative), he’s no stranger to providing tours for the users in the Home world. So upon his announcement of giving a Halloween tour, immediately I thought of “Funhouse” and decided to take part of the this adventure.

The three spaces that he laid out for his tour are the Zombie Headquarters, The Cutteridge Estate, and the Medical Facility. To be honest, I’ve been to the Zombie HQ before and wasn’t blown away by the aesthetics, while I personally own the Cutteridge Estate.

The Blueprint personal space, however, was entirely new to me and something that I was always curious about viewing — curiosity piqued by the opportunity to see how Conrad had interpreted it.

Upon entering the Zombie HQ I was first greeted with a screeching scream that nearly woke up my sleeping parakeets, following by a fiery pillar underneath my avatar. For sure, it give me a bit of a shock in the middle of the 11 o’clock  time frame.

Making my way to the main room was quite interesting. I was surrounded by a few coffins and a few bug-eyed creatures that were wandering around a shadowy area. Walking right into the said creatures, I thought they would either scatter about or I would simply walk through them, but instead these little buggers latched themselves onto me, followed by my constant shouts of “Oh CRAP,” which was also riddled with a few laughs as Conrad explained over the mic the details of the space — while dressed as a zombie.

The Cutteridge Estate has, and always will, continue to be the spookiest abode ever released into Home. Never mind the reasons why — Conrad amped up the scare factor by providing a tour of the space with some pictures of Edgar Allan Poe, amongst a few other pictures of known men and women. However, my eyes weren’t on them, as it was more on the green apparitions that kept following me throughout the space. The space was dressed normally with furniture to match the settings of the space, though I wasn’t expecting the estate to be drowned with anything special to heighten the mood. However, I was still being followed by a very pissed-off apparition that was hell-bent on annoying the living heck out of me, only to find out that was Clara as she was making sure that my stay there wasn’t welcome whatsoever.

The final touring spot was at the Medical facility, which was crafted by the host himself. Arriving at the scene, I was introduced to the lavish flora on a bright sunny day with birds chirping and a laughing Conrad on the mic; it wasn’t in an evening setting and already I was spooked.

As we entered the building he took me on a tour to first the washroom area, followed by some various spots in the Facility, along with a unique tale of how the one Doctor was pretty much handling his Patients with “care”.

Yes, that needed to be quoted, because seriously, I don’t wish to give anything away — but it was that creepy! Let’s put it to you this way: just don’t be spooked by the shackles on the Bed. trust me, you’ll know what I’m talking about once you get around it.

As impressive as this tour was, I had to peer into the mind of Conrad himself with a few inquiries of my own.

 

No, Conrad, I wish to thank you for having me there. It’s not like every day (or for every Halloween) that I get a chance to experience something as wicked as this tour. In fact, I implore that if you’re staying in and making PlayStation Home your place to spend Halloween, hit Conrad up and check out this awesome tour. Something like this doesn’t open itself up often in Home, and it’s very nice to see someone set their time out to contribute to a good cause.

Even if it meant scaring the hell out of you.

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