This year is another great year for Gamers. So I thought I would share with you my list of titles I am looking forward too on both the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Hitman Absolution

Released date: TBA
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

There were many rumours of the next Hitman title set to be released last year but none of which were official. For five years we had to put up with false information from unofficial websites. We’d tried desperately seeking information on Google but no matter how much digging we did you were only lucky enough to find a forum on a thread of fans discussing about whether or not there would be another Hitman. It seemed that Hitman was over for good. Until…

All of sudden late 2011 Eidos released information to IGN and other major gaming websites that they were currently in the middle of developing the next Hitman. From there on we new the information could only be official.

You only have to check the latest gameplay videos of the game to see that it is clear it is one the biggest hypes of 2012 if not the biggest. And from what I’ve seen so far its looking pretty amazing.

There isn’t a release date yet but I can tell you for sure that it is set to be released some time this 2012.

Preorder Hitman Absolution from Amazon

Mass Effect 3

Released date: 09 March 2012
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

In my opinion I think Mass Effect titles are the greatest RPGes (Role Play Game) ever made. I didn’t think twice about preordering this game.

If you need to think twice about buying ME3 then I suggest you download the demo.

Preorder Mass Effect 3 from Amazon

Sniper Elite V2

Released date: 04 May 2012
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

Yes you read it right! The next sequel of Sniper Elite is set to be released this year on 4th May. It has been many years since the first Sniper Elite on Playstation 2 and we all thought it may of been the very last. There isn’t that much information on Sniper Elite V2 yet but from what I’ve read on IGN its looking very promising. But hey, its not like they haven’t had enough time to develop this game. Its been 7 years!

For me, this is a refreshing title on three levels; Not only that it is a sniper based game, most importantly its a game set in World War 2. The gaming market nowadays is more focused in games set in modern or future warfare. Which is a real shame. I believe there will always be a market for World War 1/2 based games because graphics, physics and game play are improving on consoles every year. And thirdly, after the hugely disappointment of Sniper Ghost Warrior, fans of the sniper genre would finally have a decent sniper game, and a decent World War 2 game for that matter.

Preorder Sniper Elite V2 from Amazon

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Released date: 25 May 2012
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

Another exiting Tom Clancy title set for release this year. I thought Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1/2 were okay but from what I’ve seen this next title does look even better, a lot better in fact.

Preorder Ghost Recon: Future Soldier from Amazon

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Patriots

Released date: TBA
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

The Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six games have always been great so when I heard there is another Rainbow Six set for release sometime this year I was pretty damn excited about it.

Preorder Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Patriots from Amazon

DiRT Showdown

Released date: 25 May 2012
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

For me, Codemasters Colin Mcrae Dirt games have always been the best racing games out there. Showdown looks very impressive graphically but I’m yet to see if destruction and mayhem will be my type of racing game. I guess I’m going to have to wait for more info on the gameplay.

This game is only an expansion pack from Dirt 3. So this is to keep us fans happy until the release of Dirt 4.

Preorder DiRT Showdown from Amazon

Far Cry 3

Released date: 07 September 2012
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

Far Cry 2 was amazing for its time, the graphics, huge open-world detailed environment, physics. All made Far Cry 2 a success. Though the gameplay did need a little improvement in areas, it wasn’t as stealthy as I had hoped but nevertheless it was still great.

Far Cry 3 however is looking pretty amazing from the gameplay footage I’ve seen on IGN. So very much looking forward to the release date.

Preorder Far Cry 3 from Amazon

Grand Theft Auto 5

Released date: TBA
Platform: Xbox360/PS3/PC

No, that image is not a photo, that is a captured screenshot of the game. Yes I know. Ridiculous!

There have been rumours of the release date in November of this year but still no official release date as of yet. Rockstar are keeping information about GTA5 pretty close to their chests.

I guess we all just gotta sit tight until they announce a release date.

Read about GTA5 possible release date

Welcome to the new AC Portfolio! I am very happy with this design. I shall try this time to resist the temptation to re design it.

Please post a comment on your thoughts about the new site. Your criticism would be much appreciated.

Couple of months back my friend and I signed up on a free dating site and after a couple of months later we felt the whole experience was a complete waste of time. We both agreed on that dating sites cannot compete with meeting new people in the right social environment such as a bar.

So don’t feel disheartened if you don’t get anywhere on dating sites. Instead, you should see this as an opportunity. And I will explain why;

If young men spend most of their time socialising on these dating sites communicating through nothing but words this means fewer and fewer men would not learn how to communicate face-to-face vocally, therefore will find it increasingly difficult to gain the confidence to do so. Ever went to a bar and noticed that most of the men there are not speaking to any woman whatsoever? Yet, if he finds her photo through a dating site, he wouldn’t hesitate to send that woman a message.

So if you learn to communicate with women in person, you become one of the fewest men at the bar expressing oneself attractive qualities. Whereas the rest of the men who socialise on nothing but dating sites, all they’ll get better at is typing. People like that end up becoming great receptionists.

This is why dating websites do not work for the majority of young people. Its not possible for a young man to express some of the qualities that women find attractive; confidence, personality, charisma, sense of humor – simply through text and thats why its very difficult for a man to get a date. So it becomes a dilemma on how to get to the dating stage when the only tool you have to express those attractive qualities is TEXT. Women choose the men, and the only way a man can be chosen is through those qualities as well as physical appearance, these qualities can only be expressed through face-to-face contact. Women and men at the age of 35 years and older are more likely to meet in person through on line dating websites because they’ve already gained the confidence by socialising with many people in the past in their mid and early twenties. All comes down to life experiences, and some young people today are trying to achieve those same life experiences in their living room, using just their finger tips, sitting behind a screen. The more social interactive the internet advances the next generation of young-people may end up becoming isolated, social phobic morons tying to attract each other through images and nothing but TEXT. If the world carries on the way it is we might as well talk to a bloody image of a woman or a man on a magazine. Cos thats all it is, A bloody PAGE.

It made me laugh when I came across a few profiles on a dating site and I read this quote -“ I’m looking for a man with a good sense of humor so make me laugh”. I was tempted at that point to send her a knock knock joke to take the p***. Its like asking Michael McIntyre, “Right Mike, the only way you can achieve in making your audience laugh at your next gig is by letting your audience read to themselves your stand-up script”. Its just madness! Obviously, for him to achieve in making his audience laugh out load, his script has to be expressed vocally through his personality. Theoretically, thats what these women are asking men to do over these dating sites using nothing but text!

Single young people looking for a relationship on dating websites are not desperate, that’s a narrow way of looking at it, young people looking for relationships on line are doing what comes natural to them, its in human nature: Simply taking advantage of the easiest solution to achieve their objectives. Why go through the trouble of becoming a millionaire businessman/woman when you can just spend a pound on a lottery ticket in the hope to win millions. These dating websites are just taking advantage of just that, human nature: ‘Taking advantage of the easiest solution to achieve an objective’. And we all know, the easiest solution to achieve an objective 9 out of 10 times leads to disappointment.

Its funny how we’re so enthusiastic and motivated in interacting with each other through social websites. And yet (if we put our social efforts just as equally as we do on these social networking websites) when at clubs, pubs or bars, a single person would not be single for very long.

Social networking websites, like; Facebook and Myspace are ideal as a social base for those who you have already met in person. Men and Women in their teens or early/mid/late twenties using dating websites as a tool to meet the opposite sex in the hope of finding a relationship are falling victim of a system that is flawed on all levels. All these dating websites care about is gaining numbers, the more people sign up, the more money they gain, and all you become is another NUMBER. So don’t allow yourself to become a number, become a person.

Who is Mike Locke? Mike Locke is a senior Web UI/UX Designer from Yahoo living in Los Angeles with over 14 years web experience.

There have been a few courses I’ve spent fortunes on and have taught me nothing, and I mean nothing in every sense of the word.  It’s very rare to come across an experienced respectable senior web designer willing to provide their web design process to help other web designers, like myself,  seeking to learn more from a practical perspective to improve their skills and build websites at a professional level. To gain instant access to Mike Lockes members area of the training system page you simply pay using a preferred payment method of your choice via on line on a secure page, kind of like the same thing as paying for an item from an on line shop merchant, the cost of getting this life membership to his training page is a very reasonable 89 dollars, thats around 59 in british pounds. So what does this reasonable members fee to gain access to the training area consist of?

When logged in to the members area page from his website: you will have access to Mike’s very well illustrated tutorial videos and to a downloadable folder which contains the files of his RAM Truck design in which he goes through in stages on his videos on how he created it. The course is completely video orientated, there is none of that theory text book rubbish.

The quality of his videos are sharp and clear and his speaks very clearly when going through the process on each video tutorial – I’ve watched other video tutorials in the past and I cant count how many times I’ve come across videos of some one speaking too quickly, has a poor quality on screen video recorder or speaks too slowly in a patronizing way. Mike Locke naturally comes across very well in all his video tutorials as if he was sitting with you in the room.

The training course is split into three simple Phases, Phase 1: Adobe Fireworks Training,  Phase 2: How To Design a Website and finally Phase 3: How To Code a Website in HTML/CSS and some interesting bonus videos which I will discuss in a bit. Phase 1 is all about learning the tools of Adobe Fireworks before reaching on to Phase 2 about Mike Locke’s design process with Adobe Fireworks CS5. I found the video tutorials under Phase 1 about Fireworks tools to be highly useful and important to learn when building web projects. You do not have to follow the videos in order, you can choose which ever video you wish to view in any of the three phases so this gives you a sense of freedom being able to pick and choose which ever video to watch. But I would strongly advise to watch each video tutorial in order, as they are designed to prepare you for the next step as you work towards from Phase one to three.

Phase 2 contains very important video tutorials to follow to learn how to build a website properly with all the right tools  in Adobe Fireworks. I found this phase had a dramatic improvement on my visual design skills with Fireworks CS5.

Phase 3 contains video tutorials on how to build a site by hand coding CSS and HTML. I had a pretty good understanding of CSS and HTML anyway but some of the coding techniques I learnt I found to be pretty useful when coding my websites.

The bonus videos contain some important web design advice but best of all they contain those all important video tutorials on how to integrate your designed project around WordPress framework. There are three parts on how to edit wordpress, one of which is one hour long – this really demonstrates how passionate and dedicated he is about teaching others to help improve their skills by providing such a detailed lengthly video. Mike does an excellent job of going through the process of editing wordpress by breaking up the learning process in stages. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress framework but it was only till I had followed Part 3 of wordpress editing video that my blog page looked a lot cleaner and better in general.

Mike Lockes training course does what it says on the tin or in his case does what it says on the page. If you’re a web designer looking to improve your skills visually and from a coding perspective. Then I highly recommend you pay a small fee to gain a lifetime access to Mike Lockes  video tutorials. Since following all of his videos I feel I have improved a hell of lot in web design.

If you’re not sure about becoming a member of Mike Lockes Training System you can always drop him an email on any doubts you may have.

http://mlwebco.com/website-design-training/ 

In 2006 I started a MCITP National Diploma course with Home Learning Direct,  a home learning college, called Macromedia MX. The course was a good starting out course on the basic areas on Macromedia Dreamweaver. However though, after the completion of the course, finding employment was pretty much impossible. The initials MCITP after your name stand for Microsoft Certified I.T Professional. It does not mean you are qualified as a web designer. Infact, its completely and utterly pointless to have the intials MCITP after your name. When looking for work in Web design, initials mean absolutely nothing to a potential employer. Well thats if you can even use the term ‘potential’ employer with intials like that after your name.

Despite the difficulties with finding employment after the course, it was a good starting out platform for learning how to use Dreamweaver. The course materials were well illustrated and easy to follow, didn’t beat around the bush, it always stuck to the point. I just think the course should of been more focused on the HTML areas of web design rather than just building a site entirely by the Design view of Dreamweaver.

The problem with the course materials only showing you how to design web pages from the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Design view of dreamweaver, was, you never dared to attempt to learn even the basics of HTML coding. Therefore you felt this area of designing pages in notepad was too out of your depth and because of that you never found the confidence to even attempt to hand-code a very basic web page. Only building websites entirely by WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) in dreamweaver. Had resulted, in the end, your skills becoming very, very limited.  When you hear about a latest trend in web design such as Jquery and CSS3, you just don’t have a clue on where to begin to learn. It was like learning for years on how to put an engine together but not having a clue on what each individual engine part is called or what roll it plays in the engine.
Learning even the basics of HTML will go a very long way because, today, the techniques and latest trends are only achievable from the knowledge of learning and understanding XHTML, PHP, CSS ect from a coding perspective.

Problem is with home learning courses:  There just isn’t any real learning structure, no putting you on the right career path to becoming a good web designer, its all very much the phrase (I like to use) still “lost in the magic forest” by the end of the course. So if you want my advice:  To learn how to create web pages.  First things first, learn how to hand-code websites in HTML with free tutorials such as W3C Schools. Even if you build a very basic website entirely by hand, you’re on the right track, believe me.

Read my article on Website Design Manager course with Skills Train