You butchered this site and the reviews

I can barely navigate this site, its counter intuitive, I'm having to just stare at a page to find something, following 3-4 links just to get reviews, your upcoming games are packed full of japanese games that don't even have screen shots.

But here's the main problem i'm having, I want back now. When a user posted a review, they would give how many hours the game was and a bottom line. That succinct information was extremely valuable to me. And now its gone, flushed down the toilet with almost everything that i liked about this place. Did you make this for iphone users? I'm sure its "cool bro" to love this new layout and i'm going to get flamed. But when are you going to fix this horrible hack job? or did you guys get hacked?

if so, sorry, i'll wait until its fixed thanks

@derp_meowslurp:

I just want to ask why their is this gigantic ribbon at the top of the screen that bobs up and down when i scroll? Did you design that for elderly people who can't see? Why is it taking up 12% of my screen? Why is the side bar taking up another 24% of my screen? With a website as busy as this, i'm surprised you have any traffic.

@derp_meowslurp:

Seems like a lot of it are fixes for things that weren't broken. Like, yeah, the old site was fine and actually functional but we need to change it to look newer and slicker like every other crappy website out there.

I hate it when functionality is sacrificed in the name of aesthetics. I don't care what the website looks like; if it's buggy and unresponsive, I don't want it. I sort of see these modern UEFI BIOSes the same way. They've got fancy graphics, when all I need out of a BIOS is an easy-to-read menu that allows me to change settings. The fancy graphics just get in the way. I'm not against change, but again, when it reduces functionality, it's no good.

@rarson:

I agree, these trendy derps probably high fived all around the office and breathed heavily out of their mouth thinking how awesome it looked on their HD 2450x3042 4000 inch monitors with their 3d head gear. yet i've only got a 52" monitor and can barely see anything because its so large and busy. Not to mention half of everything seems not to even work right.

What's the point of upgrading to a crappy format that doesn't even work? I hope they didn't actually pay someone for this.

I just want to know when they are going to fix this place? Can someone come down from Mt. Olympus and at least lie to me and tell me everything will be okay?

when are we getting how many hours it took to beat a game back on the reviews? How do you not include that? How hard is that to add? 15 minutes and that could be on all the forms?

oh i forgot to add, i can't comment on any of the articles.

Is there something i'm missing here, or did i get put in timeout?

@derp_meowslurp:

Actually, I'm using a 2560x1440 monitor and even on that, the site doesn't look any better. All the extra space is just wasted. I have to zoom stuff in to read it anyway, so I always zoom to fit the screen, and it looks the same as any other 16:9 monitor.

What bugs me, aside from all the bugs (har har), is the fact that the actual layout, being form over function, wastes a bunch of space. Gotta clutter both sides of any article with a bunch of crap to try to get people to click on, right? The bonus is that with every article being crammed into column width of what seems like only 30 characters, you don't have to write as much to make them appear bigger! (I'm seriously getting sick of the "news articles" that are nothing more than summaries of articles that someone else wrote that are so brief they don't even accurately convey the content of the original articles.)

IGN started branching out into non-gaming stuff and you'd see links to other articles all over the place that had nothing to do with games. It basically started looking like every other piece of shit website that loves to condense nonsense into top-10 lists spread across individual pages designed to get more clicks. I stopped frequenting IGN a while ago. I guess I should be happy that Gamespot isn't that bad. I do enjoy some of their videos as well. Danny is very entertaining.

I hear ya, man. I keep checking back here every couple of weeks hoping that they bring back the old format but sadly I think it's gone forever. It's a real shame. Gamespot was the best gaming site on the internet and they ruined it.

Agree with you all ... alas no one at the "new look" GameSpot seems to be listening.

Alas the tablet and social / media fans seem to have had their day (or way) with GameSpot.

@derp_meowslurp: So having to cut through the report to try and find the actual meat of the issue you have let's see if I can better define your concerns.

• "Site navigation is counter intuitive. Examples: Reviews and upcoming games" - Is this everything? If not can you include additional examples.
• "Games missing assets like screen shots." - Which games in particular are you looking at?
• "User reviews lack features that I thought were amazing and I would like to request that you add them back." - You mentioned hours the game was and a bottom line, was there anything else?
• "I can't comment on any of the articles." Which articles? I'll check to see if there's an issue with your permissions.

In the future I'd like to remind everyone that we do have a Community Code of Conduct that we expect users to follow when posting in the comments and in the forums. I understand that this is a frustrating issue, but that does not grant carte blanche.

With respect, the new site sucks. I'm sure that's not your fault but you should get used to seeing people point out this very obvious reality: the old site was fantastic, the new site is useless.

You want to fix this? Here's how you do it:

BRING BACK THE OLD SITE

If the code was too antiquated to maintain, then rebuild the old site on top of newer, maintainable code. Bring back the old methods of organizing reviews, the search filters, etc. That's how you fix this mess. If you're not willing to do that then get used to being screwed. This new thing that you call a site isn't ever going to be anywhere near as popular as the old one was ... because it sucks.

And remember, the fact that it sucks isn't my fault nor is it the fault of anyone else on this forum that's brought it to your attention. We didn't make it suck. We're just pointing it out! So there's no reason to punish us for trying to help you suck less.

@Zakule: I'm sorry, but bringing back the old site is simply NOT an option. And again, I'll reemphasize that being upset does not offer a pass to violate the sites Code of Conduct.

Fair enough ... but it's unfortunate that bringing back the old site "isn't an option", and I put that in quotes because it obviously is an option, it's just not one that the people in your organization responsible for making those decisions wish to pursue, even though they very much should be doing just that.

Let's play the analogy game! A few years ago, Steven Sinofsky, who was at the time employed by Microsoft and heading development of Windows 8, decided not to include the option for a classic-style Start Menu in Windows 8. When Windows 8 was released to the public, customers (and potential customers) complained, and complained, and complained some more, and yet Microsoft kept saying that the old Start Menu wasn't coming back ... and then some time passed ... and guess what happened? They've decided that it IS coming back, lol. Now, in retrospect, what would you say was the wiser course of action for Microsoft?

A) Wait to lose millions in revenue then bring back the Start Menu everyone was asking for.

B) Bring back the Start Menu everyone was asking for before losing millions in revenue.

And hey, whatever happened to that Steven Sinofsky guy anyway? ;)

Good luck with the new site!

When users say "The old site" to be frank, it's too vague.
For example, when users say "the old site" how far back are they talking? We've been around for 18 years so that's quite a bit of time and space to be working in.

Incidentally, just because the new site isn't going to be coming back, doesn't mean we can't / won't cherry-pick some features that did well and reimplement them at a later point in time (for example, emblems).

If you have fond memories of past features that didn't quite make it to the new platform, be specific. Let's see if we can bring some of those back for you. It's not that we don't want to give you what you want, but rather we need you to, again, be specific in regards to what features are missing that you feel we need to bring back.

Let's go back to your analogy game. In your example, the start button was one aspect of Windows 8 that didn't make it. People gave their feedback (and probably also complained a lot) and then that feature came back, not the entire OS.

This, the constructive community feedback for features, telling us that we missed something along the way that you'd like us to add back, that is something we ARE willing to listen to and to try to make happen.

@DigitalDame

I retract the above ... YOU are listening, here and on other threads, and asking specific questions which is progress from this user's perspective. As you have said waiting for issues raised to be fixed is frustrating. It is good that you have responded here and elsewhere as before it felt like lots of users venting about the same issues in numerous threads but nothing changing and/or few if any from GameSpot staff adding their voice or providing updates.

When I talk about the "old GameSpot" I mean the day before the revamped version was released. Not sure what other users may mean. As I said elsewhere, change is inevitable, being over 50, one eventually gets used to it though I will continue to hold out against tablets until the PC is extinct :-) and my decision not to embrace social media is my own.

You have courteously raised "stacks" to a sticky status which is great especially given all the "noise" about them since inception. Hopefully people will give additional ideas about features required to make stacks better but I still prefer the "old" tabular My Collection for simplicity of use.

I still would like to see user's reviews sorted by date in the default state rather than thumbs for reasons here: http://www.gamespot.com/forums/bug-reporting-feedback-1000006/sorting-user-reviews-31302316/?page=1#js-message-342438406 I do, as noted therein like that one can now sort reviews in different ways not possible before.

I do like the sound of cherry-picking "must have" features, either new or from the "old site". Again I would reiterate a desire to see the "old" GameSpot walk-throughs and guides accessible under a game title again. Obviously Google is your friend to find guides at other sites so links to external sites may not be required but it would be good to have the GameSpot in-house ones accessible either as webpages or (preferably) as PDFs.

I for one am hoping YOU continue to pass on users' views/comments/suggestions through to the decision making team.

hey hey hey everyone calm down, one of the Fallen has come to great me in the favela below the pearly gates. lets not run him off when he's here to see me.

• "Site navigation is counter intuitive. Examples: Reviews and upcoming games" - Is this everything? If not can you include additional examples.
• "Games missing assets like screen shots." - Which games in particular are you looking at?
• "User reviews lack features that I thought were amazing and I would like to request that you add them back." - You mentionedhours the game was and a bottom line, was there anything else?
• "I can't comment on any of the articles." Which articles? I'll check to see if there's an issue with your permissions.

1) Site Navigation is ridiculous. haha maybe b/c you stare at it for 20 hours a day you don't see the forest. I don't want to tell you how to run a game site, but how am i supposed to know all these games? I click on games, and i get just a list with a release date, maybe a tiny synopsis. A major lack of succinct information. Click on Reviews, you can see its organized like a trash can.

so when you find the game you're looking for it turns into total chaos. Lets use this as an example:

http://www.gamespot.com/wolfenstein-the-new-order/

The first thing you notice is some giant background. You're unsure if this is really wolfenstien. it takes you a minute to orient yourself, looking at all this chaos, you say, 'oh i'd like to look at the pc version, so you click PC in the banner and...HERP DERP start again. so click back, and you decide that the banner is useless and serves no purpose. Where is cover art? Where are the links? oh ok, there's a ribbon with Reviews, News, images, etc. ok but whats this, you ask yourself as you scroll down...who the BEEP is this camp chick gawking at me. the ribbon say wolfenstein, but its top 5 watch dogs, battlefield, herpity doo derp, and you realize ERMAGAWD this is the news. you double take the ribbon, b/c there appears to be two sections for news and ZERO sections for the actual information for the game.

I don't really think i need to explain the reviews. it's basically like forum postings. so some derp is all liek, "Oh her derr i thank dat game SUKKED. OMG the grapix where turrible iz this 2001?' so you go to his profile and discover he was born in 1998. Well then, kid, is there anything you'd like to tell me about the actual game? you know, salient info? b/c the reason why the old format worked was b/c people are stupid cows that can barely breath out of their mouth, so unless prompted to write something, they'll just use it as a diary to vent their rage cuz the grapix.

2) games missing graphics, yes they are, I love Japan. I really do. i don't need to see 500 of their games flooding the list on an English language only website. I know they put out 10 games a day, can you please provide a filter for this? Can you please give us a few more options to organize them if you don't want to do it? Your New Releases, Upcoming and Top games are a jumbled mess.

3) can I get an ETA on this? and please hurry up you've had months and i'm tired of reading diary entries from angsty teens.

4) im using Comodo Dragon browser, is there a website i should add to my list to allow comments, b/c i can't comment on any articles here.

Thanks

I want to give you an example of the reviews i have to trawl through looking for some interesting critique and info that helps me decide to buy.

http://www.gamespot.com/wolfenstein-the-new-order/user-reviews/2200-12590592/

so he rates it a 5 and i'll post the entirety here for you,

"

gameplay in this game is very satisfying shooting feels juicy etc but story in the other hand is most laughable thing i ever witnessed and insult to human intelligence.

this game can not even measure with return to castle wolfenstein and one from 2009.

this game is not for everybody i recommend it for those who just like to blew up things."

Not gonna lie, I let out a bit of a chortle when I first read this. Also, not a dude, hence the "dame" in my name.

pay attention to his other points too though now he has tickled you not that i visit those pages much and i find jess to be cute despite here unusual some might say gawky nature all the real estate on that page is taken up with videos that offer very little the stuff on the right is the stuff of substance but you have to scroll some distance to find it more detail on things like publisher and developer like an imdb would be appreciated

I tried editing the stacks a few weeks ago to add "Now Playing" Infamous: SS and it literally took 20 mins and it eventually timed out. I generally don't care about this type of thing so I just said whatever and moved on. If I were to make a suggestion or "make it like the old site" I would say the whole adding, editing, removing, etc of games played, in collection, following etc like the last iteration of GS before the move to this site circa 2012. I've read that that is unlikely to happen as the stacks are the way the site is going so ...yea. I've been around long enough to see every change. If you don't then it's cool. I'll still come by. I just won't use that feature. Not sure why other people are getting bent out of shape because of that.

As a side note, I really would like the ability to color my text to green like I have been since the very beginning.I feel naked without it. :/

I'm sorry but I'm having a really hard time understanding your suggestion because your post seems to be a bit... jumbled. If I'm reading you correctly you're trying to say that on "the page" you're not getting getting the experience that you would like to see. Can you elaborate on what it is exactly that you're looking for and which page you're referring to?

http://www.gamespot.com/wolfenstein-the-new-order/ these pages the same as every game page most of the videos are news stories which have little value to someone looking up a game and the developer and publisher info is hidden at the far bottom right that is of value i was requesting developer and publisher info to be expanded like a cast list on imdb looks like it has been modified a bit already it is alot better

http://www.gamespot.com/companies/machinegames/ i want information in these pages

http://www.gamespot.com/far-cry-3/ on developer info it has ubisoft montreal it is like having a collaboration between uwe boll quentin tarantino and Martin Scorsese and only putting uwe bolls name on it

http://www.gamespot.com/companies/machinegames/ i want information in these pages.

Can you be specific with what information it is you want to see?

history of the developer like you do with publisher. the publisher doesn't matter half as much as the developer although machinegames is not such a good example as they are new

http://www.giantbomb.com/fredrik-ljungdahl/3040-61019/credits/ your partner site does it. it needs more work but you click on machinegames it has this guy listed as a head honcho and you can see his history it doesn't have to delve into massive detail just the main guys

I agree on everything you said. Hated the new site ever since it first launched.

I sort of like the new design but I despise idiotic decisions that went along with it. Also, how gamespot staff clearly does not give a f... about bug fixes (ratings are STILL missing, and it's been over a month).

Ratings are essentially working but the way they're handled on the back-end means they aren't displayed on certain pages. LarkAnderson has already mentioned that the plan is to correct that after E3. In the meantime you'll just have to be patient. GS has a small dev team and they can only handle so many things at once as a result. Several bug fixes to other things have occurred within that month, so it's not like they're ignoring things.

I agree completely, its not just the developer stuff either, its pretty much everything squashed on the right side of the screen that needs to be front and center.

lets examine:

http://www.gamespot.com/murdered-soul-suspect/

The Where To Buy is fine where its at.

Underneath the Where to Buy - JUST LOOK AT THAT

You have a tiny little cover art with a tiny little release date and you can't even fit all the platforms onto your silly line. i mean c'mon. how many links do you want me to click? i clicked the link for the game. i don't want to click more links just to find out the platforms. Remember i completely ignored the giant ribbon of irrelevance at the top. it has no value and is confusing.

oh my. the "synopsis." really now; lets not get too wordy.

follow what? another link?

I can make out something that looks like a 6...maybe thats a score of some sort.

Rating the game is fine and looks nice where it is.

the dev, publisher, author, esrb rating, all need to be on the main page. the first thing you see under the hideous ribbon of dhoom.

the video review...i can somewhat understand that being at the top. that other video baffles me. im baffled. why is it taking up real estate there?

and then the news headlines, some of which have seemingly nothing to do with the game at all. maybe the author of that article mentions the game. and so it shows up there. all of that needs to go away under its tab...called news. or there should be maybe 3 relevant articles at the very, very bottom of the page. maybe.

The Videos should replace the News, the images are fine on the side bar. Also you should have some user reviews on the main page, maybe 3 of the top reviews, or two good reviews, two bad reviews. and a link to the reviews. so everything will be accessible from just the main page in some small measure.

conclusion: its confusing clicking on a game title to then go to a page that tells you almost nothing about the game in a coherent, easy to read, easy to understand format. When i click a game title, I am asking Gamespot a question. And that is, "what is this game about and why should I buy it."

if this is some snob elite club where i should be clued in on every title, then i didn't get the memo. Nothing I said was extreme or hard to understand. It's common sense. You, as a dev team, can debate the details, let's just agree that when you click on a game title it needs to be a succinct list of details front and center.

i just realized i still have no idea what Murdered Soul Suspect is about or what it is, and i eye-BEEPED the crap out of that front page for 15 minutes. Is it a shooter? RPG? Isometric? Hentai? Is this a movie? there's nothing there.

Again I will mention the following: If you have fond memories of past features that didn't quite make it to the new platform,be specific. Let's see if we can bring some of those back for you.It's not that we don't want to give you what you want, but rather we need you to, again, be specificin regards to what features are missing that you feel we need to bring back.

I suppose my biggest complaint would be the release dates on pre-2000 games. Are these dates going to be fixed anytime soon? Whenever I try to search for a new game by sorting by date, I have to swim through pages of games "released" in 2098, and such, until I can find current information. This might be addressed in other articles, but I know I have posted this before with no response, and I happened to be on this thread about technical issues anyways. Thanks.

@teske4444: Do you mind sharing a few examples of games that are cluttering your search results?

@DigitalDame:

Can you please tell me what url i need to allow in my 3rd party cookies exception in comodo dragon so i may comment on the news articles?

I've created an exception for gamespot.com, however i still can't use the comment box; and it says i need to sign in.

And where is the hours it took to complete game for the reviews? or the bottom line? lets get this going

@DigitalDame: Whenever I am searching for a new game, but can't remember the name, I try to search for the most recent searches with a word from the game. For example, if I search Hunter for the newest Monster Hunter game, a massive list will obviously come up. When I sort the games by most recent to look for a new/recent release, everything pre-2000 will show up as the most recent as in this search. I then have to find the page where it switches from 2099 (1999) and earlier to 2014. It makes it incredibly difficult to search for any new releases in series/new games without knowing exactly what you are looking for. Thanks for the response.

@derp_meowslurp: I'm going to ask a developer about your comodo dragon question, but as far as things like "bottom line" for user reviews, they're no longer there.

@DigitalDame: Thanks, its actually PrivDog from Comodo Dragon that's blocking certain 3rd party cookies and such. I'll expect a reply in about 6 months.

I'd also like to ask is there a way to search upcoming games based on their genre's? I'm only interested in RPG's; why can't gamespot let me view these? on the old site, searching by genre was borked, b/c you had to scroll through 20 pages of crap b/c the dates were all messed up.

The windows 8 analogy at #13 of this thread hit the nail on the head in my opinion. The developers should have taken a more linux based operating system approach.Take Ubuntu for example: the current release is far different from a 4-years-ago Ubuntu, but it is still the most popular linux-based OS. Why? Because that transition didn't happen overnight. The changes happened in small, easy to swallow pieces in parallel to all the popular features. Any bad changes were omitted in the next release.

Whereas Gamespot took the microsoft approach and gave us a windows 8. Now you are scurrying to bring back old popular features, which never should have left. All the while the gamespot members are expected to swallow a large buggy disorganised mess.

The bridge back seems to be burned though, so I should save my breath.

This is pathetic as hell. 2 months. That's how long it takes to fix a single bug.

Not only reviews, RATINGS still do not show up.

And the fact that DigitalDame, Gamespot staff, can't even make them get the message?

"we'll fix that after E3" Well, guess what, E3 was a few weeks ago. Not to mention this bug has been for a much longer time. Why can't you do a single thing correctly, gamespot?

no sir i don't like it