Well this was a blast from the past.

A friend of mine informed me that 2Advanced Studios recently released version 6 of their companies website, about 5 years after the release of version 5 to substantial fanfare in the design community. The online campaign was particularly memorable in that version 4 slowly broke down and disintegrated visually and functionally in the two weeks prior to the rumored launch of the new site. No word as to whether or not they did something similar with this version. It’s been a while since I’ve given it any thought.

Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. It took me a little while to dig the older versions out of the archive, and granted, version 4 is clearly showing it’s age, but both it and version 5 strove to create their own interpretation of design rather then conform to what is quickly becoming the modern standard of layout. It’s almost as if they took it directly from a template!

I shouldn’t be too harsh. The visuals are top-notch as always, and the work that they do still carries that signature look and feel of one of the top agencies in the game. Interesting that they’re still using Flash as well. For all of the reports of it’s imminent demise, there really isn’t a better platform for handling motion graphics on the web. But the streamlining of their interface combined with the fact that I’m seeing far fewer visually intense websites these days makes me nostalgic for a simpler time.