Next up is Urban Legends, for whom they tell us:

"A Spooky Nightime Sim set around a Wooded Lake Complete with Forest Trails, Abandoned Asylum, Cemetery, Haunted House, Corn Fields & a Bog. Find 'Nessie', UFO's, Bigfoot and more! Limited Time for Halloween Only! "

Huh. That sounds like a lot of things.

There's an additional note on the notecard, handed out on arrival:

**Be Sure to Have your Sound Effects Volume Turned Up and Distance Setting to at least 520**

Yeah, that's not going to happen. But hey, if your comp can handle it, maybe there's more in the skies overhead.



Ghost dog. Fun.



Well, now. Okay, let's not get too close to that.



Okay, so...I find this really interesting. I've seen this build in two other haunts before, but this one...they actually treated it like an abandoned mental asylum. So no wandering patients, no ghosts, just dust-bedecked cobwebs wreathing every opening. Graffiti on the walls. And occasional odd touches, like this chair in an otherwise nearly empty room, and a TV. On.



On the next floor, this oddly archaic set-up, also...on...but the rest of the place is mostly still, silent...unoccupied...But the shadows are active.



This place is big. I mean, it's sim-size. I'm not even covering a quarter of it. And it's less a haunt than a year-round photographic sim, with eerie touches for the season. This is in the upper floor of a doorless cabin by the lake, and I really raised the gamma to make out what was hanging from the rafters. But when I walked in...all I could see what the gleam of red eyes in the dark.

Very effective.



That is a big pumpkin.

All in all, this one's worth going to, especially if you want some unnerving photo ops. There's more--a motel and a parking garage, at least, a crashed plane in a swamp, a vast cornfield...maybe more still. Go explore. Go look. Go see.

Happy Halloween.

The perpetual question arises--have I been to The Moors before? And the honest answer is, I just don't know.

Their blurb is fairly typical:

"Haunted Moors, something wicked this way comes. Haunted House Oct. 25-31st Dance on 30th and 31st /*Windlight Sky: "[TOR] HORROR - Asian red" Water: "Glassy "RegionOverride*/"

Right. Okay. Let's go see.



Okay, I like the lighting.



And I like the pumpkins.



Sat down and died. It's been a long day.



The floating ghost chairs are neat.



And that skeleton is neat.



I...didn't hate this one. The sounds are good and creepy, there are lots of places for photographs, the Windlight settings are awesome...just avoid the spider in the attic and you'll be fine!

I've been meaning to get to this one for a while. Ironwood Hills is an RP sim, based around the concept of a mostly abandoned township where the spirits outnumber the living. It's very well done.

When I arrived, I was told this by the wee ghost holding the HUD:

"[16:14] Ghostly Greeter: Welcome to Ironwood Hills. During October we are offering free self-guided tours. Just wear the tablet and follow the instructions. It gets dark out there, so be sure to wear the flashlight, then enter the church to start your adventure. If you lose your tablet just ask me for another one. Enjoy!"

Thank you, I intend to do just that!



Pretty little church. The coffin lying on the altar is an odd touch.



I remember this place. I don't remember the floating cargo container, though...



Since when was the Asylum this close to town? There have been changes.

And then...I crashed. And today, when I tried to log in this morning, I spent an hour trying to access the grid at all. Worse, when I went to the sim to finish the game, I could barely move. Thankfully, even with frozen-treacle lag, the HUD is still responsive, but I never found the woman at the theatre, only Mr. Woods.

I left for a bit, went to return, and crashed. Three times in all, so that's when it hit me: I am not going to finish this haunt. Or achieve any of the goals. This makes me sad, but I still wanted to cover it, because there's still one more day for those with robust computers. The HUD is free.

So this next one's in Serenity Lake, and their blurb is kind of hyperbolic:

"Halloween! Vampires, Witches, Zombies, ghosts, haunted house, Spider room Dance Club, Insane asylum,greedy game,Ouija, tarot,
vampire crypt,Ghost ship,bloodlines.
Beware & be welcome...Mature only!"

Yeah. The "bloodlines" bit worries me, because while the game's gotten a lot better, they're named "spampires" for a reason...but I've been protected for years, so I know I'm safe.

Let's go.



Burned pirate ship, check.



I don't think this is the haunt, I think it's just a dance club.



Okay, that's...new...And by 'new' I mean, really really old and we've stopped seeing them: a single-prim, full-bright, animated fireplace. Huh.



Right, because all vampires self-harm. Give me a break.



Apparently this is a 'diabolic pentagram' sex bed.



Haunted mirror. And...that's about it. Couple copyright infringements I didn't snap pics of, because I'm just tired of them. I think we're done here.

I'm also labeling this one with the Adult tag--it's on Moderate land, but if there's one sex bed, there are likely others. Therefore, best warned--you may go and run into people...running into people. So to speak.

This is going to be another strange one. Their blurb explains why:

"Anime, Shops, Town, Slink Mens/Fem Mesh, Toxic Design, Adam, Goth, Signature, Teiko Moxie, Cafe, Kawaii, Mesh, Maitreya, Gacha, MM Board, Kemono, Milos, Mens Clothing, Womens, Kashiu Halloween, Haunted House, Dating, Evermore, Belleza, Wedding Area."

See the problem? "Haunted House" is in there, but...in what context?

But I'm running low on places, so...onward.



So...where is this supposed haunt? This area has some little seasonal decor pieces, but it's mostly just stores (Lolita dresses, Kemono outfits and mods, a selection of Japanese accessory shops) and the dating agency, so...?



Okay, found it, but I had to cam the entire sim to do so, there's no handy transport link. Here's a more direct way to get there.



I dealt with a fair amount of lag; I have the feeling the 'dating agency' part of this sim (Adult, just FYI) uses a lot of scripts.



Why is there a morgue next to the foyer? It's like, walk in the house, turn left, you have your choice of afternoon autopsy or a cup of tea in the kitchen. This is bad house design.



Hello, mysterious floating skeleton.



And there are carnival rides in the side yard.

All in all, it's not terrible. I'd say, if you have a beefy computer, or just want to go through and keep your settings relatively low, go wander. It's mostly prefab action, but good prefab action, so I can't complain. Nothing is obviously Adult on the haunt, it's just the sim's rating.

I'm not sure about this one. The actual title of the haunt is --------{---(@ L a L --------{---(@ . Ooookay. And their blurb is buzzword-laden and confusing:

"Grunge,hobo,stormy,rainy,rock,underground,metal,urban,halloween ,vampire,clan,Türkiye,Turkey,Spain,Korea,Japan,Russia, Italia,electronic,freestyle,Brazil,dark side,haunted house,free items,Turk,Türkish,TURKEY,TÜRKİYE,Türkler,hunt"

The only think that's leaping out at me? It's Turkish. That's all I have to go on?



Not impressed already. Hello, Evil Within game rip. Great.



Oh, and hey, Patient Alice game rip. Didn't see you at first, you must have rezzed in after. Is there anything original here?



Walked in, and was immediately attacked by giant spiders making groaning sounds. Cue aggrieved sigh.



Kitchen area is actually blessedly empty of body parts, bloodspatter and rotten food. I'm somewhat relieved.



That's not terrible.



The second floor was completely empty save for this room. I'm not going to bother with the attic. I'm done here.

I won't lie, Enchanted Fantasy's land bio makes it sound like a store:

"Cemetery Ghost Tombstone Crypt Skeleton Dead Trees Grass Flowers Grave Yard Haunted Castle Fog Mist Raven Rook Animated Demon Spider Witch Rat Bat Fairy Witches Dragon Ghoul Cauldron Web Thorns Pentacle Woods Haunted House Swamp Spell Poison Candle Gothi"

I guess. What the hell.



We open with giant roaming spiders. Not a great start for some.



Yup, it's a store. Or at least a lot of things SEEM to be for sale...



This is a huge door. I mean, look, I know I'm short, I get that, but this is a really, really tall door.



I just can't tell. Is it an actual haunt? Is it a store? Why?



This house was so destroyed the wood of the porch was ephemeral.

Oh, and it's for sale.



I've got no idea. All I know is, I'm out of here.

"Memories of Salem", especially when followed up by the blurb given below, gives me a brain cramp, but I'm really running out of places to go. Cue beleaguered sigh.

That blurb goes thusly:

"Welcome to our Abandoned Haunted Asylum Grounds! The witches have come to stay, and play! Halloween Mini Golf! Halloween, Haunted House, Haunted Asylum, Scary, Haunted, Ghost, Witch, Salem, Witches, Zombies. "

Yep. Another asylum. Somehow tied in with witch-hanging. Great.



Welp, there's the hanging reference.



Effective little set piece, but what does this have to do with Salem?



And what does this have to do with Salem?



One room, four visible characters, I count two blatant game rips (as the three Alices are all the same character from the same game). Please for the love of all gods, can we move on from game rips? It's so boring.



And out of nowhere, an animated gif from Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows. I mean, okay, I love the film, I've made no bones about how much I adore how, in the two hours of that sequel, the main witch character does absolutely everything wrong with a willful cluelessness that is adorable...but how does she fit into the asylum set? And how does any of this fit in with Salem?



This was the first time I realized that I'd actually been here before, when it was a radically different haunt. As I recall--and the reason I'm not going to link the earlier entry, but it's likely somewhen around 2015--I wasn't much impressed with the first version, and surprise, I'm not much impressed with this one. As an average, everyday, haunted-asylum-and-cemetery piece, it might work, but with the added weight of the "Memories of Salem" title, the entire thing tilts to one side then simply collapses into nothingness.

I only have one question, really: where's the mini golf? I didn't see anything like that. Was it somewhere else?

So, between one thing and another, if I continue doing two haunt entries a day, I'll need six more, plus this one, to finish out the month. And I already feel like I'm scraping the very bottom of the holiday barrel, here. It's kind of depressing. But I will soldier on, I just may drop to one haunt covered per day.



In other news...why? I mean, seriously, why? Does Flickr think I'm not a native English speaker? Because this would make sense if I were from France or Uruguay or the Congo. It makes no sense when I was born in the US, raised monolingually, and, for the most part (outside of a smattering of words here and there) remain monolingual? I don't understand.

In the meantime, we're doing PULSE's Hallows event! And...it's a strange one this year. From their notecard:

"You are an average office worker in the year 2037 living in the shining city of Neo-Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Recently plagued by nightmares and fits of insomnia, and a strange 'dry eye' syndrome, concerned higher ups have sent you to a Psychological Institute called Arkham. It is said they use experimental treatments to aid the afflicted. It is a busy center, or so they say. Even in the future, life is just as stressful...."

Just so everyone knows going in. There usually are disturbing images, disturbing bits of story, gore and the like in these events.



So, the game starts off by walking into the doctor's office, and sitting down for the exam. Next thing you know, you're...here, and nothing at all makes sense. And the game is on.



Why...why is there a goat? Why is the goat eating a fish??



WHY ARE THERE DEAD GOATS??



Every City Hall looks like this, right?



Why...why are you whispering? Why aren't you moving? What's going on?!?



And why is the doctor a hologram? She wasn't before...



There's still room for humor here and there. There are some puzzles, but solutions can be found, or in a pinch--the very first one, I had to use this option--you can join the in-world Pulse Games group and ask for help there. Nothing is impossible, just...arcane and mysterious.

The HUD to play--which is required--costs L$50, and lets you record both your game progress and keep track of where you stopped, if you have to restart. (By that I mean, it will remember game points, but if you port away and don't take a landmark back to where you were, you'll have to start from the beginning.)

But some caveats--Ivey, one of the game designers, usually throws the HUD free the last week, because she and her team really put their heart and soul into this. They want everyone who wants to, to go through. And there are tons of prizes to find, this year in the form of little fish. They are everywhere; I'm fairly sure I didn't find all of them, and I came home with 59 prizes! Everything from gowns to eyes to furnishings to tattoos. Mostly tilted female, but don't worry, guys, there are some male and unisex items, too.

But I won't lie, this one is...odd. I've gone through it one time all the way through, and ported back to start from scratch just to search for fish, and I'm probably going back at least once more, because I don't entirely get the story. When I say arcane, I meean arcane in the old sense--enigmatic, baffling, incomprehensible to mortal minds. I get the basics--I'm just lost on how exactly it lines up with why I, a lowly clerk, went to be examined in the first place.

But it is fun, spooky, eerie, rings changes on both cyberpunk and Lovecraftian themes, and challenging without being impossible. Do go if you have a couple hours to kill (assuming you want to find all the prizes). And leave no stone unturned--you'll want to explore everywhere you can get to. And I, at least, through a combination of climbing and leaping, was able to get to quite a lot...