The Video Game Critic

Hey Dave.

Love the enhancements and always appreciate your effort to improve VGC for the community. Just wanted to provide a few thoughts to chew on regarding the site:

o Menu font size in Forums is different than in main website - CSS conflict?
o GameWise no longer lists you as a link (might want to remove them)
o 'Articles' menu requires scrolling to see full contents (maybe use a mega-menu?)
o Larger font size for Latest Review titles looks great - maybe increase the font size for the menu headers as well for consistency?
o For FP reviews displaying review exerts, maybe have the text top aligned to the image
o Really no need for the big 'Mobile Edition' text link - you have the icon already hyperlinked - maybe just stick in a <br> and then add the 'Recommended for portable devices" text.
o The new "Hot Topics" title row seems to have an extra <br> in there - it is not aligned with the "Latest Reviews" title row (might be that I am using an ad-blocker).
o Maybe increase section 'Title' font size to be bigger than content that is included below it
o Maybe setting the page top border to 'zero' for forums to be more consistent with main site content

Keep up the great work Dave - your efforts are sincerely appreciated.

Terry

Marriott Guy,
Thank you so much for taking the time to put together this list. I agree the site needs a number of cosmetic adjustments. The other day I added some spacing on the main page because I thought things were looking too cluttered. I'll try to incorporate some of your suggestions over the next few weeks.

And to everyone else I would also encourage similar feedback - even for the smallest details. If something bothers you, or you think it should look better, don't hesitate to speak up. I want the site to look good!

I was looking how I present reviews when I post two or three at a time. By putting them all on a single line the screenshots are really small. It looks like the single-review posts (which contain the first part of the review text) are more important.

Maybe i need to display all reviews like the single posts, stacking them up when I post multiple ones at a time. What do you think?

VideoGameCritic wrote:I was looking how I present reviews when I post two or three at a time. By putting them all on a single line the screenshots are really small. It looks like the single-review posts (which contain the first part of the review text) are more important.

Maybe i need to display all reviews like the single posts, stacking them up when I post multiple ones at a time. What do you think?

I like all of the screenshots being on one horizontal plane. And you'll see less content on the screen at one time if you do each review on its own line. At the same time, I see your point too. Is there a way to make the screenshots smaller for the single post instead? Fortunately, the single posts usually are for big games on the newer systems, so it doesn't look so bad that those reviews are featured in a big screenshot. The issue you mentioned is more noticeable when it's for a single older game, like the CD-i Tennis review.

VideoGameCritic wrote: Maybe i need to display all reviews like the single posts, stacking them up when I post multiple ones at a time. What do you think?

I like this idea. Currently the single reviews do tend toward modern games, but this site does not elevate modern games over retro games, so why should the visuals do that?

Every game is worthy of its own review, so why not its own line on the main page? It should also get its own line in 'Review Feedback', and its own tweet.

Terry's comment about the Articles is also interesting. These are really buried. Could it be in a right side pane, maybe in place of "Coming Attractions" or "News"? The news is often a recent article, and coming attractions I think are better handled by you making a thread in "Now Playing" to alert the community a review on that game is coming, as games otherwise linger in coming attractions for a very long time.

Consider having your videogamecritic@gmail.com contact right on the launch page too, instead of via home/feedback