Is there ANY way for GameSpot to bring the old layout back?

Let's just say GameSpot decided they wanted to make the website the way it was before this whole new layout, for any particular reason (say....negative feedback?). Would they even be able to do so if they wanted to, or is this a permanent change? In other words, is the old GameSpot gone forever? In some irretrievable, irreversible void that will forever be replaced by this new layout?

I, for one, hope to goodness the answer is no.

Tigerman950,

THANK YOU. I wholeheartedly agree. I have been a subscriber to this site since the day they merged C-Net's gaming section like 15 or so years ago to Gamespot. Since then, I have always been loyal, and biased for Gamespot.

But the new layout, to me, is so disorganized, so confused, so frustrating, I feel completely alienated and turned off by it now. I can't even figure out how to browse the list of new game reviews/scores by platform since my last visit anymore.

I get a sense that some moron up in the food chain is trying to make Gamespot something it isn't, in an attempt to cater to a larger audience. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE decision.

So long gamespot, I'd rather subscribe to IGN than this bungled up mess.

I’m a Gamespot user since the beginning. Last few years used the site for browsing older reviews from games I missed on different platforms. When I was young I was not able to buy all the games on the market, now I’m able to and the Gamespot and user reviews on this site were very helpful.

For example looking a list all the *genre x* games for *platform x* or all *genre y* games for *platform y* listed by score or date coming to the market.Another nice option was browsing the previews, not only newer games from big publishers, but also indi games and games I missed otherwise.

Gamespot also gives a suggestion about games the so called “games you may” like option and shows a list of games compared to the games selected. Also this is totally gone like all the options I mentioned before.

My problem is not the graphical design, I don’t like it, and it’s messy not clean (like a lot of new games compared to old games so this is maybe personal).The problem is that all the functionality what was making Gamespot a great gaming site for me is gone.Biggest problems with the new site for me:

No filter search option (select platform, date of review, genre etc)

Cannot find user reviews anymore

No “games you may like also” option anymore

No preview section anymore

Too difficult scroll through 200 pages without an option to go to page 43

The site for me feels like playing a demo of a game instead of the full game. For example if I want to see a list of RPG games coming out based on score since 2004 I get this top 10:

Burnout 3 for XBOX

World soccer for PS2

Mario Kart…..Is this a joke?

Reason for me to give this (possible negative) feedback is first of all that I cannot find much gaming sites better then this one. Also I hope someone with power to change some of the functionality read this post. What else can I do?

For years Gamespot was in my favorite list and I visit every day.Last month I delete the site from my favorite list because for me it becomes useless.Now I give it a try again and see nothing is changed.

I apologize for my bad English.

@jeandavid: I agree with you, I wish something could be done about this.

I totally agree. I have been visiting the site since late '97 and I am disappointed with many of the changes. I like you @jeandavid used to use this site because it had a vast collection of old games. I like you wasn't able to afford games when I was a child and like to play old games that I wasn't able to play when I was a kid and this site provided a great deal of information as well as user reviews of older games.

What I most dislike about this site is the fact that they removed .5 rating mechanism for rating games, You can only rate games, using 7,8, 9. or a 10. They said that the old way of rating games with .5 is outdated for 2013 (funny, IGN AND ALL the other games sites uses .5 or .1 rating system) but regardless if it is outdated then how are we supposed to rate older games prior to 2013 when the old rating system would not have been "outdated". So, that means we will have to use the 2013 rating systems for games that came out in the late 90's or early 2000's. Sigh..

I have been a loyal visitor for this site for over 15 years and it's a shame what they are doing to it's old visitors, it's like as if they don't even care.

Just fix the stacks issue that everybody has been complaining about in the forums and most people will be much happier.

supposedly, the stacks issue is being worked on. as for the topic, I don't think there is a way to bring it back. this new design is fine, it just needs to be refined. since bugs hold presidence over mostly everything else, it may be a while before some good aesthetic changes start to happen.

I agree that the old layout either needs to come back or be an option in the settings, new layout is useless when trying to browse for games and launch dates, its just a copy of IGN's style, and its poorly executed.

And yeah there are ways to bring it back while leaving the new one, Xfire did it to their site, when they added a new layout they made a mirror site for users that wanted to keep using the old layout, because old users would complain it was un-usable.

edit; just asked my brother if he could recomend me another site and he said he also only used gamespot, but now he took it off his speed dial and doesnt use it anymore, guess ill leave too, ign here i come >_> (even tou i hate you ign)

I believe that it was already stated in another thread that they are not bringing back the old site.

The new layout is pretty garbage....but if they did fix stacks then it would make it somewhat palatable, like I've been trying to use it for a couple months and I still have no idea where the **** my followed stack is...... >_> It'd be nice to have a revert option, but apparently that's just not in the cards.

Yeah, this site is about as bad as healthcare.gov. >_>

How they handle this situation will determine the ongoing success of forums and perhaps the site of a whole.

If they revert back to the old style or come up with one that is actually intuitive, they will salvage what little fan support remains as well as proven to have listened to the feedback

OR

They won't. This site will continue its downward trajectory and show that they won't listen to feedback (which is obviously overwhelming, perhaps unanimous, which is shown indirectly in the rate of forum posts lately and directly in all the "This new layout sucks" topics.

Continuing down this path isn't beneficial to anyone, so I'm personally quite puzzled. The site is nowhere near as popular as a few years ago and for the GS forums were by far the best out there and gave me a reason to visit the site multiple times a day. Now, I'm only here to try and get a decent forum back. I'm sure there may be hesitation because the design cost some money, but long-term is going to suffer insurmountably compared to the short-term.

they will improve this layout. though it will take a LOT of time. in the mean time, people can visit other sites, or take a break from this one and com back later. how much later is up to you.

If they fixed images for blogs, and made easier to find other blogs then the new site wouldn't bother me as much.
but I can't get the images in my blogs to center properly like they did on the old site.

BRING IT BACK.

This website is PATHETIC now.

they wont bring it back. too many bad bugs on the old site, and too much work has already gone into this one. they also claim there is was no way to fix the old site.

The new site is completely worthless. The only reason I keep coming back is to see if the morons responsible for the debacle finally swallow their pride and bring back the old, infinitely better website. And if they don't, I'll just laugh my ass off watching this once fantastic site crumble into internet irrelevance. Incompetence of this level inevitably implodes upon itself if left unchecked.

it probably wont go under, but it will be a while before they get this layout working properly.

I cannot see them going backwards. I realise that I am just going elsewhere for my gaming news. In balance Danny O'Dwyer is the best journalist on the site and he is the only reason I revisit it from time to time.

Sad demise.

I sincerely wish they do. And they should, for all the above reasons mentioned.

i think they screwed up a lot with the new site

I'm surprised that this thread hasn't been closed yet. it seems the same moderator usually closes any other threads like this.

I agree with most of the points posted here although admittedly I only really used the Gamespot site to view pc games by their release dates which it appears that this function is gone or has been changed to a point where it no longer makes any sense, I mean I've been looking at the PC game section for about 10 minutes now and I still don't know what the hell im looking at.

Can anyone point me to a website that organizes PC games by release dates in a similar manner as the old Gamespot site?

@space_jesus_2nd: I suggest you check out Raptr. You can't browse their site unless you register first but I highly recommend. Best alternative to the old Gamespot that I've come across. And what I hear, lot of folks from GS are also migrating there. Raptr lists all upcoming games by date with the option of filtering the system. They also allow you to keep track of your collection and filter your own library of games by platform and genres. You can also log in hours you've played each of your games. Those are, for me, the most important features that have been disabled in the new GS. I haven't checked out their communities of forums yet so I can't give my opinion on them.

And leon2365, what's your deal? In every anti-new-gs thread I've seen here, you go off like a broken record about "GS won't go back to the old layout", "too much time and effort has gone to the new layout for GS to back down now", "it will take a LOT of time and effort the get the new layout to work", "old site was too buggy", etcetc in EVERY thread. Are you a GS rep? If you are, GS is doing a lousy job handling their feedback. Sincerely, and I am not attempting to make a juvenile insult at you, but you sound like you are mentally handicapped.

You also keep repeating that the old site had major bugs that cannot be fixed. Care to name few? What was so overwhelmingly off in the old code that couldn't be fixed by professionals? Just curious because you sound like you know.

first off, no, im not mentally handicapped. second, im not a representative of gamespot either. third, me posting about that is the only consistency you will see around here on almost any level. fourth, the only bugs that I personally know of are the constant "bonk" errors (500 errors I think), and the constant double/triple posting. finally, fifth, gamespot themselves have on a few occasions stated that the old sites was "too buggy" and "had bugs that couldn't be fixed." moderators have also stated that gamespot supposedly considered all their options and all the different routes they could have taken, and decided that what we have now is the best route they could take. so for all we know, had they either stayed with the old site, or did something different from what you see know, we could have been even worse off than what we have here.

I'm a fan of people voicing their opinions and giving feedback, I mean this *is* the feedback forum :) I think the others get closed because they start turning into rants instead of constructive criticism.