eulogize_my_baked_goods

I've subscribed to the podcast feed and am intrigued to see where they take things. TBH though I've found the launch somewhat lacking in energy and personality... which was a bit of a surprise, given who these guys are and where they've come from. I'm hoping they manage to make this their own. Time will tell. IMO the name doesn't help. Nextlander? Really?! If you need to spend a bunch of time telling your audience that it doesn't sound that bad if you say it enough (see pod no. 000), then your name... it ain't very good! In general I'm more intrigued to see what happens with the 'new' GB. The current podcast line-up is great (best it's been in years?) and the prospect of what they are trying to do with involving more outside contributors, etc, has me excited to see what they have in store. The most fascinating conclusion would be if the Nextlander guys ended up doing work for GB in the future as contractors!

Credit where credit is due - the updated video page is good. It provides the information you need as a viewer in a clear, unfussy manner and embeds these pages better within the rest of the site (ie, the player pages are no longer islands without links to the wiki any longer). Keep up the good work.

For me I think the key issue is that I now _only_ view content if it is very new (ie, currently featured in the homepage hero banner or high up on the latest videos page, which TBH has basically become my substitute homepage until the site gets fixed/redesigned). I don't watch any old content any longer - which is something I did all the time with the old site - because it has become so increadably onerous to do so. The net effect has been that I use/visit the site a lot less frequently now.

For one thing not having links back to the wiki from the video pages is an unforgivable oversight IMO. A regular usage scenario for me with the old site was that I'd watch a new/recent video featuring a specific game and then view the game page within the wiki to see what other content/information there was related to it. I'd then use that as a springboard to either watch other videos or access other parts of the site (ie, other wiki pages or the game forums). I just don't understand how this came to be so broken within the new design. GB _is_ a gaming centred website. The games _are_ the core subject, even though the videos are the sites primary content. As things currently stand the video pages, wiki, and forums may as well be on separate domains for the lack of interconnectivity they possess, they've become so disparate from each other.

And search or homepage quick links to 'shows' are not the answer here - for my money search is now fundamentally broken on GB and may as well not exist at all, while the shows definition still feels like a half-baked idea with undue emphasis being placed upon it.

It's not just you. Due to the layout it's all to easy to inadvertently mouse outside the nav on the way to the sub menu (particularly when moving directly to the links on the left hand side). It's things like this that make the site feel rather unpolished at the moment.

Edit: also (at least in Firefox - not sure about other browsers) there is a pixel space between the main nav buttons and the subnav, meaning the submenu can close if you don't catch it just right. Not good.

This.

'Shows' is just not how I view most content on the site and that has resulted in my experience of using it since the refresh (especially the home page) extremely frustrating.

Now, I could see a version of the new system being cool if the watchlist became a fully fledged custom playlist allowing you to pick-and-play from a bunch of different content, not just shows. Think custom user created channels. It would be even cooler if this was then combined with the wiki so that sections/pages had linked auto-compiled channels associated with them, allowing you to view a channel based on a wiki subject you were interested in. Kind of like GB infinite but subject specific.

There is potential in what they are trying to do but it definitely needs a second pass to really become something interesting.

Honestly I'm surprised at how unpolished this new site feels, particularly when it had literally only just entered beta. I'm guessing we are not in the land of web beta's (ie, developed iteratively over years and finally go live long after they should have done) but rather that of game beta's (ie, test for all of five minutes, more as a marketing exercise and to just check the servers don't collapse under weight).

However given that the 'go' button has been pushed I do hope that the issues with the design are listened to and not just taken as whataboutism. There are bits of good ideas here but they feel very much underdeveloped in their current state.

@indieslaw: After all that time working on AAA projects for Valve he must have contacts all over the place. His comments do lead me to think that he's looking to focus on more personal work, but what that ends up turning into is anyone's guess at this point. I'll be interesting to see what 'retirement' for Marc Laidlaw actually looks like.

Article on Gamasutra

Various sources are reporting an email exchange between Marc Laidlaw and a HL fan where he publicly announces his retirement from Valve. I'd just like to say that I think this obviously has nothing to do with the ongoing development (or not) of HL3 - Marc himself carefully dodges that question, rightly so - but that it is a shame to see someone so intimately connected with one of my favourite games leave the industry. Still, 18 years is one hell of a tenure so I think the man is more than due a change of scenery. Bon voyage Marc, I wish you all the best in your new life as a guy people DON'T pester for HL3 info!

LiS has been one of the real surprises of this year. IMO Ep5 really stuck the landing, something I think that is backed up by seeing just how closely tied the final percentages ended up being. I will be very interested to see where they take a sequel, be it a literal follow-up or in spirit only, although I do agree that a new cast and location all seem like sound choices (even though I'll be sad to see the back of Arcadia Bay). Also, given the meta-themes of the first series I'm intrigued to see where they take the story. The circular nature of the choices/events that play out in this game has been one of its real joys, but that would be quite difficult to pull off a second time around.

Well at least we now know where all the money went...