NEW SITE HAS ARRIVED! Thoughts?

I'm still super bummed that achievements didn't make it.

@likeassur: It's more convenient to have all latest site stuff (including the forums) on one page rather than clicking an additional thing, people are lazy and like all their stuff in one place (that's not a criticism, I'm one of those people)

The staff have said it's something they'll look into so I'm not moaning or anything, just trying to give some reasoning.

Like a few others mentioned, I liked having the forums on the front page. It was a good stream of gossipy news and it was a good way to get "shotgun blast" coverage, versus the staff's more focused coverage. It seems a little hard to parse through all the posts on the recent topics page, I think partially because there's a lot of screen space between the post titles and name of the poster.

That said, my opinion comes with the caveat that I've only been on the new site for 30 minutes give or take, so it's not really an experienced opinion, just an immediate reaction. I really like the design over all. Very slick.

Couldn't agree more. I think I almost prefer using the site on my iPhone.

@eidderf: You have to admit, not wanting to click a single button to get you where you want to go sounds ridiculously petty.

I don't like the lack of recent threads section, I did all of my forum browsing using that.

and is it just me or are the 404 pages trying too hard to be funny? No offense but it just comes off lame.

Site looks GREAT! Would love achievements back ASAP, and the ability to view the full site on mobile, but other than that, I'm diggin the freshness!

Not iPad friendly. It's impossible for me to watch a videos instantly. Takes about 10 minutes to open the QuickTime player, too.

I like the Johnny V loading icon. I dislike the fact that I get a blank page 90% of the time I click something.

I think it looks awesome and is generally prettier than before. It seems a few things are setup better as well.

But. No wall posts, friends feed is shit, cant see online friends, and what the fuck on the forum page.

Like, please just move all that shit to the right so the actual threadposts can be larger and easier to read. I really don't get this one.

Now that the site does not crash on me or does not take forever i have to say i don't care for it too much. Sure it simply will take some time to get use to it but i think the home page feel clustered and full of empty space at the same time. I miss the forums on the bottom and i don't care for the twitter feed at the bottom.

I know it hard to do these things so congrats on getting this thing up and in time lets hope we get some updates.

I remember Jeff talking about .beats being part of the site. Is this anywhere on the site?

Also the Konami Code did not work on the site. The more you know...

The site does look amazing, I really love the larger focus on community content on the front page. Cool!

It's pretty good overall. I think the four top tiles on the front page are too big with my 24" 1920*1080 screen, though. They take up the whole screen, which is crazy.

This new site really feels like a step backward. It feels stripped of nearly all it's previous functionality and replaced by "style"

I like it. Still getting used to it, but it looks really slick

Forums are crap. If you continue to neglect them, people will leave and the core community will die off. It's happened to many a site before.

It looks like somebody told Alexis to shit up the front as much as possible to disguise the fact that content has dropped way off.

It looks nice but I'm disappointed in the layout. I don't like the list of everything on the front page

I'm going to go ahead and admit it: I miss the old one.

After using it longer I have to say that this is a step back. I prefer the old site more than this one. Its a shame because I know how hard Dave and Alexis worked on the redesign but it's not very good.

Looking good. For some reason I'm unbanned too, so that's really cool.

Registered to say that this design is phenomenal. It is an incredible update in terms of current, modern web design. Scales beautifully to the point that a mobile site isn't necessary. Incredibly readable. Attractive banners. Great typography in general. I thought Polygon would be the only gaming site to hit these more modern web design trends for a long while, glad to see you guys are on top of things.

You also still manage to make subtle gradients and rounded corners work without looking so-5-years-ago.

I really wish there were some details on the creative process of this site design and the tools used.

kinda wish game achievements were kept at least, but otherwise looks lovely.

and i may prefer the white background? it's clean, like so many skyrim mods...

When does the old site go up on seaserpent?

I REALLY miss the "Favorite" forums being on bottom of the front page. I very rarely went into an actual forum page because most of the interesting posts popped up there. I would go to a gamepage's forums occasionally, but barley.

So, where are my achievements? Because if that's gone, then so am I.

They are gone for now:

http://jeffgerstmann.tumblr.com/post/42984356870/so-are-things-like-levels-and-quests-gone-from-the

I do find the left-hand alignment annoying. I don't like that there's a phat "This message was deleted" message when a message is deleted. It's kinda broken when using a mobile device, I still miss the forums on the home page, and all of the formating when quoting other users just looks... bad. I'm not sure if these are all style choices, but they're really bugging me.

@likeassur: Sure it's a very minor complaint in terms nothing is being lost and the same content is still there, but after getting used to having that instant access to it on the front page for so long I can see why people miss it.

It's like having an extra layer of wrapping on a chocolate bar after getting used to just one, the chocolate's the same but people resent the extra effort getting to it no matter how minor.

Well, it's kind of buggy, and it's ugly as sin. Hopefully it makes up for that in functionality. At least they didn't replace the Bomb Squad, they're what I really come to the site for. :-)

Yuck. But don't worry, I ain't going anywhere.

Its nice, when I dont get a 500 error EVERY TIME!

Other than the forum feed not being on the main page, it's great. I love the integration of the "top story" image with the rest of the page. Super clean.

@mrfluke

: It really feels great to know that just because we disagree, I'm an ignorant, generalizing, hyperbolic guy.

It's beeeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful, but damn, i miss the "Last forum posts" thing they got going in the previous design.

Hopefully with the redesign officially up, we will start to see more content on this site. It's seems like game reviews and general news have been lacking for months.

I think it looks nice but I would love to have the top / most recent forum topics again.

GiantFont.com

@mnzy: Ok, thanks. I hadn't heard about this redesign, so that really was a slap to the face from nowhere to me. Ah well, I guess I'll take a look when the next gen is out and see if it's back.

Anyone else having issues on mobile of the reply and quote buttons not showing up, and randomly not being able to make a post? It's on an iphone 5 using chrome, not safari.

As a lower middle class 29yo white male I must say I hate all change so the site gets a thumbs down.

Might get used to it but right now it feels very soulless & corporate.

CBS cares...

@tobbrobb said:

I think it looks awesome and is generally prettier than before. It seems a few things are setup better as well.

But. No wall posts, friends feed is shit, cant see online friends, and what the fuck on the forum page.

Like, please just move all that shit to the right so the actual threadposts can be larger and easier to read. I really don't get this one.

We need to serve an ad on the forums over there. It's usually much smaller, but when your screen is big it expands. We'll likely make a new template just for the forums so that the right side gets no larger than 300 pixels.

My thoughts exactly. I'm not really feeling the new forums at the moment. I wish everything was a bit more centered, it would be much easier (at least for me) to read.

Thanks. I've passed this on to Alexis. We mostly split the work these days. He does all the stuff you just mentioned as awesome, and I handle anything that involves a form. We'll likely do a video or something once things settle down.

Only criticism is that I wish there was an easy list of my follower's blogs that I can go through like I could in the old site.

Like others have said, I wish the forums still had a presence on the homepage. Other than that, it's fine.

Is the "coming up on giant bomb" time in pacific or whatever my local time is?

I can't stand this optimized phone crap! Is there any way to just view the regular site layout on my phone, because I can't find it?

I think the new site is pretty rad. The guys did a great job.