How does the new professional look for the site stack up compared to other sites?

And Here's VGCharts:

Some things I noticed are:

• It's much harder to tell what going on in the front page.
• The whole page is somewhat wider than the browser window.
• There is no clear place to focus your attention.
• The dark underground look seems uninviting.

stop complaining

please?

You're comparing a website that provides numbers and news to websites that create video games. It's totally different. Go to IGN, Gamespot, etc and you'll see they are just as hectic.

@loadedstatement

They're not that different. Besides a good site design is a good site design. Those sites have a lot of information on the front page but still they're layed out better.

But if you still want a comparison to Gaming News Sites. (IGN is very bady layed out)

• It's still much easier to tell whats going on in these pages
• The pages still fit in the browser window
• It's very clear where to focus on the the Gamespot page
• The 1up page still feels more inviting

I like this one better - http://www.brokenattitude.com =) Loosely inspired by http://www.blizzard.com
Of course, I hate light colors for websites, looks so 1998. Of the ones you posted, only Atari's looks okay, and thats only okay. Capcom's looks like a junior high school web design class project.

IGN is the worst, as it takes my laptop a good 30 seconds to load the homepage

Hear, hear!

I agree with the OP saying VGChartz seem less inviting.

I would like the option to change the color layout. Especially in the forum area since I spend plenty of time here.