Polygon.com is live. What do you guys think?

So far it seems ok but it really shines when used on a tablet. Incredibally slick design and hopefully the content will match that in the months to come

So.. I guess we're taking video games seriously now?

@CaLe said:

I learned a new word within 5 minutes of reading their content, so they've got that going for them.

So does a dictionary but it's not something I read for leisure

@Jost1: You're missing out, cacophonous is one of my favourite words of all time.

@Deusx said:

Just saying, design isn't art. It's not subjective, it isn't asking what your "style" is. It's bad or good and that's it.

Design can be incredibly subjective, I love fractal shapes, should a piece I design be based around fractals then people are fully able to love, hate or not care about it.

Function however is not subjective, if using the fractal pattern I deliver all the information and catch the eye of those looking at it and draw it to the intended place then it's functionally exactly what I want and doing what intended, people may still hate the design though. as a designer I would really hope you realise the difference between the two and how people can love/hate design layouts completely disregarding functionality. Form and function, this is something taught in week 1 of a basic graphic design course.

It looks very good. I'll be checking it out regularly.

so are they sponsored by instagram then?

Very good site design.

@SargeGulp said:

So.. I guess we're taking video games seriously now?

this is probably the one or one of several things where polygon is going to shine. the features from the verge are incredible and i love to see polygon do stuff like that. they take a very documentary-style approach to their features, with greatly produced video and lenghty lengthy text. and that's where polygon does not want to be the standard "oh it's another video game website" website, they want to do something bigger and move the medium in a more serious direction and shine some light on things. at least i hope that they'll do that.

I really don't like that kind of layout and I won't bother to read the articles.

I am liking the design, their articles looks more like they belong in a magazine and not on a screen... The huge images are slightly annoying, and the frame for the text is too narrow in my opinion.

It also needs a black version that's easier on the eyes - all that white burns! D:

Other than that I liked the articles I read.

I'm really liking it! =D

I don't like it

I'll say this, the site design is really slick and looks very mature. The enormous pictures ruin that sense though for two different reasons. 1. The images chosen to be displayed in that way are not of the correct resolution for a 1080p monitor which means that they get muddy and end up looking, well, pretty ugly. 2. They pull your attention away from the review at hand, which is the opposite of what they are supposed to do. The review should be focused on the text, and pack in images secondary. If they instead decided to keep the images locked in the space where the text is held, it would end up looking far better.

Since we're all basing it off of the MoH review, I think it was well written and to the point, no pandering or unnecessary details. The number score with a cap of 20 bothers me though.

I know nothing about the quality of the content or writers so I don't really care. The design looks like they took the Verge and just made everything bigger and I don't like it. The Verge has the same idea except that I can actually read more than one paragraph without having to scroll.

Seems a bit messy, is this the site that's supposed to cure cancer and wipe my arse for me?

Why is everybody so excited for this website? I see threads everywhere and people were like "man, it's still not live yet! I can't wait!!"

What's the deal with that?

Probably just repeating what's been said, but I strongly disagree with whoever is the art designer for the site. When I first opened it all I saw was white and squares. Except for the tiny polygon logo I don't think there's a single piece of art other than pictures on the site. It feels extremely clinical.

Then I went to check out some articles and the review. Now this is purely taste ofc, but when I click on a story or whatever on a news site I want the majority (or as much as possible) of the content I'm looking for in that story to be presented to me straight away. No clicking or scrolling or whatever needed. When I click on the MOH review, I'm looking for a review, not a big picture. If I wanted to check MOH screenshots I'd go do that, not look for a review. There are articles on that site that only show a single line of the article text when I open them, do they really think I'm gonna do anything other than just scroll past the big ass picture straight away at that point ?

It's the exact same problem I had with the GT redesign, and I don't visit that site anymore. Having what people are looking for presented to them right up front is a key feature for any website if you ask me.

The design is pretty ugly and confusing, but I'm hoping this is a product of me being on my work computer and a 4:3 monitor. But what the fuck is this shit?

And speaking of forums, we're happy to welcome the support of GEICO, who will be sponsoring them. It was important to the team at GEICO to be involved with the site and not simply have its name atop the forums; to that end, you can expect to see a real-life human being from GEICO participating in the forums and in our community. His name is Andrew, he's an actual gamer, and was responsible for this bit of Ocean Marketing-related Reddit success late last year. It's thanks to the support of companies like GEICO that we're able to bring you Polygon, and we hope you'll join us in welcoming Andrew to the community.

They're having an insurance company sponsor their forums. And a rep from the insurance company is going to be on the forums talking about games all the while representing his insurance company. Where have I seen this before?

I'm sure the site is okay for the most part, like their writing for The Verge has been (albeit the less Brian Crecente and Arthur Geis appear, the better), but I find their advertising really off-putting.

The iPad version is fantastic, just like reading a magazine.

Not so much on my 16:9 TV but quite impressive to have so much stuff on a launch site, the article about Sim City is pretty sweet, review layouts could use some work.

Justin McElroy pretty much sold me on it.

HALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

They work fast. My comment from last night about all the Halo crap on their site has been removed.

I think their long-form content is interesting - I'm currently digging my way through the Halo 4 piece linked in here, and enjoying it immensely - but I do not like the design approach. To put it succinctly... If I wanted content that looked like it was made for a Magazine, I'd pick up a magazine. The screen-covering images in reviews, the pull out quotes and pull out boxes (which aren't even used as pull out boxes are typically used, at least in the MoH review)... It'd all look very nice laid out in the glossy-printed pages of a magazine or perhaps on a tablet, but with browsing it on a PC it ends up feeling like it gets in the way of the content, like a priority of design was placed over the writing. It disrupts the flow of the text to the point that - despite liking what their writing - I don't want to have to trawl my way through the design to get at the good stuff. It's not a bad design per se, but personally it feels off putting when used for a website.
 
I'm only really basing this on looking at a handful of reviews and articles, but I can't imagine myself consistently visiting the site unless I'm linked to a particularly interesting piece.

There are obnoxiously large images everywhere.

Reminds me of Kotaku. That's not a good thing.

HAHAHA someone asked them on twitter about the ridiculously proportioned images and the reply was:

"You should try resizing your brwoser and see if you can find a look you like more"

Yes, clearly our design cannot be at fault. It is your monitor that is the problem here. Sorry.

Also their "ethics statement" just rubs me the wrong way entirely.

Let me have Arthur Gies express my views on Polygon.com:

The vibe I get from the website reminds me of the smug cloud episode of South Park.

I took one look at that Medal of Honor review, saw it was mostly huge images and made a mental note to avoid going to Polygon again anytime soon.

I really dig the site's look. It has a lot of style. I think the page size reviews kind of suck on my laptop but I haven't seen them on my desktop yet. I'm definitely curious to see how they do.

I only briefly glanced at it but it seemed like the site design is awful. I may just be old-fashioned, but I like websites to actually be useable.
 
Also, I thought this is where Justin McElroy went after leaving Joystiq. Am I wrong?

They need to resize the pictures because it feels like reading a children book.

I'm interested in reading some of the stories they put up. Couldn't care less about the reviews (Quick Looks tell me all I need to know about a game and whether or not I'm interested in it or not.)

As a whole the site just seems messy to me. I'd say I'll it out once in awhile, but honestly I'll probably just go there when Patrick links to an article in his Worth Reading section. I'll listen to the podcast though. Maybe once I get a better understanding of the people who run the site I'll enjoy it more.

I wonder how much the GB database 'helped' them fill in their revolutionary video game database...

I visit The Verge and SB nation quite a bit, and I apreciate they're trying to keep it in same design layout as the other sites, but the Images are just way too big on this one. Too much scrolling on my laptop.

@johnaze said:

I visit The Verge and SB nation quite a bit, and I apreciate they're trying to keep it in same design layout as the other sites, but the Images are just way too big on this one. Too much scrolling on my laptop.

Yeah I agree. On the reviews there are tons of images. Last night I was downloading something and the images were loading so slow that it was absurd with the huge white spaces on the screen. I appreciate the magazine like look with the image layouts but it could be toned down a bit.

It looks really good, design and layout wise. I just don't really need another video game website. I already feel like I visit too many at the moment.

I like the look and the layout. If anything attracts me, it's the great color scheme. I love GB, but colors beat BLACK any day. They have a cool variety of stories, so that's nice. I hate the 1-10 with .5s review scale. F that man.

Most importantly, forums. I can't wait to post my Top 5 of all time for the 50th time in a row. I'm seriously an addict to internet forums, so this isn't good.

@BoG: I like how they tried to justify the 1-10 with describing what each number means. http://www.polygon.com/pages/about-reviews

I like it overall but I do agree that some of the images are just too big to look at comfortably. I like the infinite scroll for the front page, I like the idea of revising review scores, and I really like how it resizes to the browser window. Play a video in a window and it will stay in full view and in place.

@bigsmoke77: What I find funny is how they word those descriptions similar to the way the GB staff have worded the descriptions for their ratings scale. In fact, there are a lot of things that remind me of GB. The forums are very similar, only far, far worse.

What a disaster. Form over function all the way, why are 3 huge boxes taking up almost half of my vertical space?

Edit: I don't think this site is perfect either.

The full page reviews are pretty cool though.

Love the design

I think the homepage is super disorienting and cluttered.

Its not very user friendly.

Not a fan of the "magazine" style articles/reviews with giant pictures and pop out quote text. Regular Verge does it too I think.

It's a big bag of mess.

Where's this revolutionary, life-changing, world-saving polygon.com I've heard so much about? All I see is a poorly laid-out, obnoxiously colored website that I'll never use.