The website is currently still be tweaked, but here’s a link to it on my server. I’ll update it when it’s 100% complete.

You can visit the website in it’s current form here.

I’m posting from my phone right now. Why? Because I downloaded a WordPress app for my Android phone. What a crazy world we live in.

On another note I think I have all the site bugs squashed. (damn you IE)

Random Picture!

I’ve finally managed to get around to finishing up the website for the most part, still a few things to tweak here and there. I’ve been super busy with work lately as I’m developing a website for McMaster University/Apple Inc. If you want to take a peak at the progress, you can do so here. I just have to finish up a few things with it and I’ll be good to go.

Hopefully, because I’m relatively close to finishing both websites, I’ll have more time to do some work for my portfolio outside of web design. I’ve been wanting to get back into After Effects, and I’m thinking I’ll start something this coming week. Why this coming week? Because I finally got the damn CS5 Master Collection. Sure my bank account is crying, but it’ll be worth it. Right? Right?

I’m also going to try to keep my Flickr page up to date, which will probably be easier now as my phone has a 5-megapixel camera and I can upload directly to Flickr from there. So keep tuned to that if you’re interested….in stalking my life? I really didn’t know what to say there.

Other than that, hopefully I’ll be blogging more.

View the Website

… erase my memories of Bioshock 2? Don’t get me wrong, Bioshock 2 isn’t a terrible game by any means, however it y holds no light to its predecessor. Instead we’re left with a pale imitation that is full of repetition and and bad pacing.

I should state that the original Bioshock is among my favourite games of all time. From the art direction to the engrossing characters, I truly see the game as a work of art. That said, I went into Bioshock 2 with a mixture of expectations. One, I hoped the game would live up to the original. On the other hand however, I knew it could not.  Either way, I blasted through the game in eight hours but simply left with a feeling of “meh.”

Sadly the majority of those eight hours were spent finding Little Sisters and escorting them around so that they collect EVE for me to use (EVE is the material that allows you to use plasmids, a weapon system in the game akin to magic, though based on genetics). Needless to say, finding three sisters per area (5 areas?), defeating their guardian, following them to two corpses, defending them while they extract EVE from the corpses, and returning them to their safe-point is a bit repetitive and time consuming. If I had not done this, I can see the game lasting  maybe 5 hours?

Another issue I had with the game was the overall story. The game does the obvious/cleverly utilizes a story that is the polar opposite of the original. Instead of fighting out against Andrew Ryan, a man who champions the individual, you fight against Dr. Sophia Lamb who champions the collective-whole. The main problem with Bioshock 2 is that you only really get into the meat of the story about 80% into the game. The rest is a slow buildup that unfortunately left me not caring for what happened that much.

The game also suffered from what I’ll call the “George Lucas Effect.” One of the great things about the original Star Wars trilogy is that it hinted at things that happened in the past, which left you to imagine what happened beforehand, thus sucking you into the Star Wars Universe. The “George Lucas Effect” came into existence in the new trilogy (Episodes I – III). In these movies George Lucas decides to spoon-feed you information that relates to the original film trilogy. While this is done with good intention, as in to provide answers, it destroys the fundamental magic of the original trilogy. Sometimes too much information can be damaging, which is something Bioshock 2 suffers for.

Overall, as a first-person shooter, the game is better than a lot of other things on the market. It’s just no Bioshock.

I had a chance to play around with an iPad at work for about an hour the other day. Honestly, I just don’t get it…yet.

My main issue was that half of the aps I tried were simply aggregating news from websites and presenting them in a somewhat dumbed down fashion. There was no difference between most of the applications and the websites that they pulled the news feed from, other than the fact that the website was BETTER. Sure Plants vs. Zombies HD was fun, but it wasn’t different than the PC counterpart.

While I don’t understand the iPad in it’s current form, or any tablet PC to be honest, I do see them becoming immensely popular as time goes on. However, I believe this will take incredible innovation to keep them in the market.

One of my main concerns with the iPad itself is how it seems to cater itself to the “casual” audience. I.e. People who just browse YouTube, etc. I’m not necessarily concerned with the people who do just that, as tablet PC’s are somewhat perfect for that kind of use. I am concerned however that this is a market that is indeed CASUAL and the iPad markets itself with it’s casual ap store as it’s main draw. In time these users will leave or grow bored of the iPad, just as they have with the seemingly casual Nintendo Wii. While the iPhone is a great place for aps, Apple will have to step up the game to draw users to the iPad as more tablet competition is released in the coming months.

THIS IS A TEST!

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