FMyCode.net

Design and CSS coding.

View it online here.

Panasonic TM-700 and Adobe Premiere CS4

I created this website for the McMaster Centre for Dance.

Photoshop, Illustrator, and various brushes. First attempt at a poster– I can’t get the rippy and worn look right, unfortunately.

If you like it, here’s a massive resolution version.

Excellent comic by Virtual Shackles.

In other Oil Disaster related news, this map will overlay the size of the disaster on your hometown, based on your IP address.

It’s really depressing to think how utterly screwed that area is. Hopefully today’s efforts to stop the leak doesn’t make it worse.

This is amazing; it makes me want to get my Lego from my parents’ house and build something that will never come close to how awesome this is.

Actually, nevermind… *sigh*

Via Eric

So you may have noticed that I have a store now. At the moment, I’m selling a girl’s and guy’s t-shirt with a high resolution version of the above lolz. I come up with ideas for gaming shirts from time to time, but I’ve never gone to the trouble of creating any of them.

THIS CHANGED YESTERDAY.

The store is still in it’s infant stages; you should expect more products soonish. If you have any comments, definitely send me a message by any of the channels on the right.

So, in an attempt to get you in the shopping mood, I suggest you listen to this:

On the surface, the racing plays just like a furry-free, cars-only Diddy Kong Racing: the tracks have multiple paths and shortcuts and are littered with power ups and traps. The 3-level powerup system is also borrowed from DKR: you hit an item box, and you’re given a random level 1 item. Hitting up to 2 more item boxes without using the item will increase it’s power.

Where ModNation’s racing differs from DKR is it’s depth. United Front games has packed in a complex racing game underneath the skin of a simple kart racer. There is a boost meter that is filled by getting air time or by attacking enemy cars. The boost meter can be used up on a temporary shield or in the titular action of forward propulsion. As I played, I slowly learned some of the advanced tactics, but tricks like double-jumping and the side swipe attack are still a mystery to me.

ModNation Racers is more than a racing game. It’s essentially the LittleBigPlanet of racing games, with fully customizable characters, karts, and levels. While the kart and character customization is purely cosmetic, the track creation is the strongest feature in the game.

The track creation tool is amazing in that it’s so simple to create a fully fleshed out track that’s ready to race on in a matter of minutes (no exaggeration). It’s the same feeling of glee you experienced in Spore when your masterpiece/intentional abomination was walking/barely able to hobble. In ModNation Racers, there is an auto-populate tool that will add all the props, traps and boosts necessary for a track. The player has the liberty of placing these entities themselves, but the auto-populate brush does an amazing job of it, most people will be satisfied with the results.

I wasn’t able to test out these features, but you should know they exist: campaign mode, online multiplayer, sharing tracks, sharing “mods” (avatars), sharing karts, and online leaderboards for track creation and race times.

ModNation Racers is the kind of game that will make memories for kids. While adult or teen players might tire of the track creation after creating a few ridiculous levels, kids will love every facet of the game, and best of all, they’ll have the time to invest in it. The creation tools, like LittleBigPlanet’s, are essentially digital Lego: they’re great ways to foster creativity in kids. Getting this game for a younger gamer also reveals an unexpected bonus: you’ll get to play something more substantial than the latest movie tie-in game.

This is big news for those of us who have specifically avoided the garish white Nintendo Wii because it totally clashed with the rest of our entertainment set up. After a Gamestop employee snapped a picture of a promo poster announcing the black Wii bundle a few days ago, Nintendo of America has finally dropped the bomb on us: They’re going to paint it, black.

The new Wii bundle will come with Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Wiimote with Motion Plus attachment and a nunchuck, at the same $199 price point as always. Although not specifically mentioned in the press release, we’ve heard through the grape vine that Canada may be getting a similarly toned bundle May 23rd.

Via Tiny Cartridge

My last game save on Wind Waker was in 2006, but I played the bulk of it the Spring & Summer of it’s release in 2003. Between the time that I was fully immersed in that archipelagic world, and when I went to the disc channel on my Wii to play it this weekend, I’ve:

• Completed 4 years of University
• Moved out of my parents’ house and in with my fiancée
• Abandoned organized religion
• Created the entirety of my portfolio
• Got engaged
• Moved to Ashley and my 2nd apartment
• Watched my cats give birth (The first birth I’ve ever seen)
• Went to the states for the first time that I can remember
• Started shaving and slowly became perma-scruffy
• And made some amazing friends

It’s surreal to think about the progression of time and how much things change.

Jumping back into the Wind Waker and Metroid Prime conjured up so many memories. The feel of my parent’s basement rug, the effort I had to put into convincing my brother we could play Wind Waker co-op with me using my GBA, the long night gaming sessions that had me backtracking through Tallon IV and checking my map at every room, and the experience of each game themselves.

It’s not that I wish for a return to these times, but it’s an amazing experience to lose yourself in what is essentially a disc-based time capsule. For a gamer like myself, my years were defined by the games I consumed, and so my memories become more efficiently locked to these articles more than they could to any photograph or home video. It’s a first person memory; when you replay a game and memories come flooding back, you’re actively reliving a piece of your personal history.

I’m rambling but I really encourage anyone out there to pick up a game that meant a lot to them when they were younger.