• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

GamesRadar relaunch layout URL leaked?

Somewhere in the designers offices theres a big white board that reads:

Style >>>>>>>> AD space >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>content


Actually the content pages themselves are ok, quite easy to read, its just the front pages that are more style than substance.
 
I don't think it's a leak so much as a controlled unveiling since the writers told all their friends when it went live over the weekend.

Looks OK to me so far.
 
AFAIK, it's not supposed to be a successor to Daily Radar but more like the official website of Future Publishing, home of OXM, PSM, PC Gamer. Apparently, they're taking a different approach to games coverage -- at least in the design and presentation department -- but I think at the end of the day, it'll really just boil down to a bunch of dudes (most of whom I know) going to the same events everybody else goes to and writing about videogames. That and hustling to get exclusives.

I've also heard that they're targeting a more "casual" gaming audience, a fact that's evident in their design and art direction. My only question is, does that casual audience really exist here on the intarweb? Once in a while, I'll see AOL (via AIM) cover games... yesterday was Princess Peach as one of their marquee games. In that sense, Princess Peach was getting true mainstream pimpage to folks who may never ever cross paths with a site like Gamespot or 1UP. Will Gamesradar eventually have the same reach as massive, nebulous and diluted as an AOL audience? We'll see I guess.

My hunch is that they'll drop the "casual" stuff and go back to competing with the Big Three on more predictable terms after 8-12 months.

The official launch is 3/1 still, right ferricide?
 
Che, AOL's videogame coverage is provided by GameSpot. That Peach review was GameSpot's review.
 
chespace said:
I've also heard that they're targeting a more "casual" gaming audience, a fact that's evident in their design and art direction. My only question is, does that casual audience really exist here on the intarweb?
No.
 
GDJustin said:
Che, AOL's videogame coverage is provided by GameSpot. That Peach review was GameSpot's review.

That's a pretty sweet deal for Greg and his boys then.

That kind of backs up my point too. The casual gamer who hits up web destinations really isn't a casual gamer at all and sites shouldn't have to "dumb down" to cater to this myth. I mean, even Middle America Online uses Gamespot for content.
 
JonathanEx said:
Well, it's about time! The layout of the site now matches the quality of the site! :P

kerry1hx.gif


Somebody now needs to pull the flush on this site.
 
I don't think it was a leak. I have a subscription to OXM and seem to recall them publishing the beta link in the magazine.

As a former Daily Radar guy, I wish them well with Games Radar. There are some good and smart people over there who will probably do very well, no matter how they choose to approach games.
 
chespace said:
That's a pretty sweet deal for Greg and his boys then.

That kind of backs up my point too. The casual gamer who hits up web destinations really isn't a casual gamer at all and sites shouldn't have to "dumb down" to cater to this myth. I mean, even Middle America Online uses Gamespot for content.

Even knowing that Gamespot is viewable on AOL to a more casual audience, they don't change their content at all. That's not all that smart considering how different much of that audience is. A random parent buying a game for themselves or their kids, no one writes to those people.
 
Good lord that design is atrocious. I love how the scrollbox of recent content (which is already a poor design) is given less space on the page then some visual elements that are nothing more than, well, visual elements.

Almost every single element of the site feels like it was done because it was cool, not because it actually works well. This feels like a site that should have come out a number of years ago, not today, when people should know better than to make crap like this.
 
I thought that, gradually, the plan was for this to take on GameSpot, IGN, etc. not just promote the magazines?
 
Why must it battle with my scrollwheel?

Well, it's clean and easy to navigate but for the sake of all things good, I hope the thumbnail screenshots that turn into slightly bigger thumbnails with Monty Python captions die.
 
LiquidMamba said:
What ever happened to simple, eye pleasing layouts?
They died when jackasses with a flair for the dramatic and over-animated started using Macromedia Flash. You rarely see tasteful use of it. GamesRadar's use? Fucking useless. Same goes for 1Ups "game finder" which is clunky as all get out.
 
the US site is here.

what was linked to by boutrosinit is the british version of the site. so check this one out. same design, but different, home-grown content.

the site is hardly done. i would say things about giving it a chance, but in 2006, i don't really expect anyone to bear with us or be sympathetic, especially this crowd. =) but i will say that it will get better as it goes...
 
Like the fact that one the main index, all content is above the fold (well, there really is NO fold on the main index). But then again, the entire site looks like it was designed by rogue Mountain Dew marketing artists.
 
GDJustin said:
Che, AOL's videogame coverage is provided by GameSpot. That Peach review was GameSpot's review.

In the UK, it's provided by Kikizo and GameSpot. A little known fact for you there about how GameSpot and Kikizo work together... ;-)
 
Um, what? If this is ANYTHING like Dailyradar, I really miss Dailyradar's setup. It was tasty. :(
 
The site supposedly launched today. Has anyone been able to load it up? Doesn't work for me.
 
chespace said:
The site supposedly launched today. Has anyone been able to load it up? Doesn't work for me.

It was up until two hours ago, a bit slow, but up and running (ehr, walking). Now it's: "Failure of server APACHE bridge: No backend server available for connection: timed out after 10 seconds".
Hold on: the "leaked" url is still "partially" working.
 
Top Bottom