Coding In The Darkness

BT Better World Campaign Exhibition Bag

Today I happened to be scanning my Google Analytics account and noticed a big drop off for the BT Better World site.

Forgetting that i was still subscribed to the tracking data i decided to remove it when i realised that it had no fews on Tuesday, knowing that couldn’t be possible my fears had become reality, the URL btbetterworld.com had been redirected to the main BT CSR site.

Now of course many of the tools still exist on the BTPLC site and they are really, really useful for teaching young people vital and valuable communication skills, but after working on the previous site I was very sad to see it virtually die in the eyes of the web.

It always felt odd that the site was created off the BT main site and perhaps should of been built onto it in the first place although corporates have very strict rules when it comes to what sits on their webspace.

With much of my early web work hosted on the site and the hours I put into the web pages both my own and using the templates system, the newsletters from early HTML to the fancy Adobe designed masterpieces and even the beloved TalkDog mini site it’s a shame to see all that work now gone.

Even more so the special html pages i coded to make all of the Flash animations run in full screen on all browser types and sizes, they really should of kept that code.

It gave me a reason to look back and remember the good, fun times I spent on what i value as a major part in shaping the current person I am today, from what I learned and from the great people I met and worked with. Although I don’t miss waking up at 5AM to catch the first train to an exhibition up North!

So goodbye btbetterworld.com you’ll always have a found place in my heart.

My Thoughts On Reach

After the Wordpress iPhone app decided to lose my draft I’m begining again…

So as a Halo Fanatic what are my first thoughts on the Reach Beta.

Well so far amazing, the best Halo multiplayer experiences i have had. Halo 3 was obviously really fun and Halo Combat Evolved had some great moments with 3 or 4 friends on one console or the occasional time we got the Xbox’s networked for 4 vs 4. But Reach already seems like a big step above.

The new armour loadout system has been talked about alot and it moves Halo into a new direction without over powering the whole experience which is the key thing as i think Perks on COD Modern Warfare is what put me off the multiplayer.

Slayer, Team Slayer etc have been very fun on the two new maps, both classic Halo: Powerbase being the familiar outdoors style map, which although i think is quite small provides a perfect balance of action and the feel ofhaving lots of space.

Swordbase is one I am learning to love, very good for the objective based games but I feel it’s more prone to people hiding in random places to pick up easy kills.

Special mention as well for team swat which I have enjoyed although I haven’t been able to play the new skull collecting game as I think that is in free for all.

Invasion which came out on the 7th has been really good fun and I’ve enjoyed playing as both sides, it’s great to overcome the odds and the Covenant but’s it’s just as good to win one for the Spartans, the eventual loadout plan is a great touch and adds up to some great drama in the final two minutes.

Including an excellent airbourne, rocket double kill by me to stop the covenant extracting the core with 30 seconds to go. Although when I tried this in the next match using a Spartan laser it was perhaps as suggested by my buddy to “Audacious”.

So to summarise the Reach Beta just like the Halo 3 beta around 3 years ago has got me really excited about Reach, if it is indeed the last first person Halo game Bungie make I am sure it will be the best FPS in 2010, on 360, in this console generation and heck maybe alot more.

So I’ll leave you now with what I hope are decent working links to my Halo 3 and Halo Reach Beta service record, although I think you will need a Bungie.net account, but you should have one of these anyway

Halo 3 & Halo ODST

Halo Reach Beta