As you may have noticed we are slowly redesigning the site (v7.0), its a bit cleaner and is now 1024 complaint. The right hand menus are also gone too. We are basing the site on a sheet of paper mainly with a lot of rough looking parts, there is now an image for the background at the top this is on a random loop of about 20 or so from games we have played and one or two we haven't. The new 'theme' is currently called PhoenixRIP but this may change as it sounds like we have died ;)




This is a full list of changes thus far: (more will be added once done)

• Left hand menu's are done.
  
• New top menu in place and done. (just need to sort out images in it)
  
• New mouse over banners on the games page. (BF2142 page has gone from grey to green)
  
• Gone are the drop down main site links and have been replaced with mouseover buttons.
  
• Darker red background with random bg images. (still finalising these)
  
• New spoiler effect: Is it fucking working???
  
• New look news layout with custom font header it should work on most modern browsers.
  
• New look page headers for all parts of the site with same font as the news.
  
• Most of the images are now PNG's as we can do more with them. (transparency & layering etc)
  
• Tag menu at the bottom of each page. (still to style)
  
• New Private Message post-it note image. (site members only)
  
• New Private Message SPLAT™ alert with sound effect! (site members only)
  
• FAQ, About, Media & Games pages all updated!
  
• New next & prev style on the bottom of news and forum page etc..
  
• New slight look to the 'quote' & 'code' BBCODE.
  
• Textarea's now have a paper effect bg & rounded corners with drop shadow (latter wont work with any version of IE)
  
• Focus outline for all Textarea's site wide. (not compatible with IE7 or below)
  
• Added a 'Register' banner for all none logged in users!
  
• New sketch/doodle 'games menu' at the top of the page for upcoming & played matches.
  
• Fixed short page issue in all browsers. (I hope!!)
  
• Fixed a load of bugs from the old theme and some new ones I missed the first time around!!
  
• Tested & working with IE7, IE8, FF2+ (best from FF3.5+), Chrome 3+, Safari 3+ & Opera 8+

Its been in progress for the last few weeks by myself and ROB who has been splendid with making most of the graphics and having his say on the overall design. If you notice any bugs please let us know in this forum post or post in the comments.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was released over the weekend and you can read a review of the game over on Eurogamer to find out more, but this is the main gist of it.




Also according to DICE, the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has the most players at the moment. PC players had initially arrived online in larger quantities than on either console, but that's no longer the case.

Following mysterious updates to the original game and various teases last week, Valve Software has now officially announced the existence of Portal 2 through Game Informer.




Few other details on the puzzle-shooter sequel were revealed, though Game Informer notes that it is "a stand-alone, full-price retail release" with "new gameplay mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists."

According to scans from the latest issue, in the details section of the mag's preview, Mac is clearly listed under the "platforms" section, alongside PC and X360. Should make airport lounge wait times a lot more enjoyable than they are at the moment.

Valve announced last week that Steam and some of their back catalogue is coming to the Apple format very soon.

Crytek has released the first official screenshots for its upcoming FPS Crysis 2, which uses the new CryENGINE 3. They look really, really good. In-fact they look fecking bloody fantastic!!




The game will be released for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 later this year. For a guess these shots are from the PC version, though ;)

Former chief executive of DICE and studio manager of DICE Canada, Fredrik Liliegren, has confirmed to Gaming Union that Battlefield 3 has been in development at the Swedish studio for the past three years.




Liliegren, who now runs Antic Entertainment, was confident the game - which he only discussed in relation to the PC platform - would make a big splash despite Modern Warfare stealing the multiplayer shooter limelight.




Battlefield 3 has yet to be officially announced, although EA exec John Pleasants confirmed its existence last year when he said, "that is a product that is looking very good".


Source: Eurogamer

We hope 2010 is a very good year for gaming and everything.




/bet it's more doom and gloom though....