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Welcome to the New Look X360A


Webb
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Wow! Finally! Do you know that feeling where you’ve had an awesome secret for ages that you really want to tell everyone, but you can’t? And then the relief and elation that comes from finally being able to tell everyone and show them something cool? That’s about where we are now.

 

Welcome to the new look X360A, which is part of our ever-changing plan to take over the world and put a group of hamsters in charge of the world’s nuclear missile stockpile – ambitious, but we believe in ourselves!

 

The new look X360A is part of an ongoing design process where we make everything that much more awesome for you – and us – and improve your overall user experience here.

 

You’ll have to excuse me for a minute, but I’m going to go into marketing mode for a bit and will explain what’s new and what the main aims and objectives were for the new setup...

There were 4 things that we wanted to address especially:

1. Accessibility

 

One of the biggest complaints we had from people navigating the old site was that with the way it was setup, getting around the site was a little trickier than they would have liked. Running our previews/reviews/interviews/ and other high quality unique content through the news channel has always been the way we’ve always done things, and admittedly, on fast moving days, they can be easily missed.

 

That’s why our new main page has had a major overhaul and content can now be easily accessed from the main central hub i.e the index page. Even better, we’ve segregated the content so you definitely can’t miss it now. Granted, the content will still run through the news channel, but it’ll be given its own dedicated area on the site now as well.

 

As you’ll see on the main page, we have sections for achievement lists, 360 news, reviews, previews, new screenshots, features and even a community channel (for competitions, site news, etc).Each of which have their own dedicated archive.

 

We’ve even added a couple of boxes on the main page so that you can get to some of the hot stuff super fast – including an “Upcoming Games Box” which lists games that are coming or are out a week either side of the day’s current date. The quick link boxes include: the 5 latest front page news comments and hot news. We still have plenty of space as well and are already working on quick links to a whole host of stuff for these spaces that will mean that most of your content is just a couple of clicks away. No matter where you are.

2. Functionality

 

Another one of the biggest complaints from you folks at home was the site’s functionality and aside from switching to a top navigation bar that will be accessible from every page of the site, we’ve also done some cool things on the overview pages to make everything that much more visceral and tangible, rather than just having a series of links.

 

Another important one from a content standpoint is a by-product of shifting to a horizontal navigation bar and that means the main content column is now wider, meaning we can embed better resolution screenshots, create better layouts in our reviews/previews and more importantly, embed better resolution and bigger videos – something I’m sure you will agree is a fantastic subtle change.

 

Oh, and the days of users rating games before their launch is now gone! The game now needs to be out before you can rate it. Huzzah!

3. More Aesthetically Pleasing

 

That’s posh marketing jargon for “making the site sexier” – yes, a website can be sexy! A big part of that was making a centrepiece that we and you could be proud of. Something that made you say, “wow, that’s frickin’ cool!” Let us introduce you to our new NXE-inspired flashbox, with automatically rotating blades, a pulsing X360A icon and changeable backgrounds depending on the content channel. This is something that was incredibly challenging for us to get the way we wanted, but I think you’ll agree that it’s bloody awesome

 

We also made a series of very subtle changes as well and one of the most important ones from my standpoint is changing the body text font to a font that is a lot more visible, and readable. Simple, but a truly powerful move if you ask us.

 

Of course, the site now has a new banner as well and everything, which I’m sure you will agree is a lot cleaner. The overview pages now show (or will do) game images (see Mass Effect 2) as a header, as well as an improved layout and achievement tiles shown there as a segue to the achievement list.

4. Individual Achievement Pages

 

Individual achievement pages was one of main aims from our standpoint, because not only can users now rate the achievements on how awesome they think they are – not on how hard, but how cool you think the achievement is – but with creating individual achievement pages, we’ve also allowed you to comment on them. This means a few things:

 

• Instead of having to traipse through the forum for a tip on a specific achievement or if the guide doesn’t answer the question you were looking for, you now have a perfect place to go as your second, or even first, port of call.

 

• It can also be a great place to offer alternate strategies for achievements. If you’ve found a stunning strategy that you think beats anything the guide has to offer, then here is the place to drop your hint for fellow forumites or general gamers that wonder here off Google, etc.

 

• It can even be used to find a boosting partner, but we recommend you keep that on the forums.

 

5. Bringing Back The Leaderboards:

 

Perhaps our biggest aim was to get these back up and running. It involved an incredible amount of effort to clean up the code and get these working again, and get them working better than ever. The original problems resulted as a stem of Microsoft failing to differentiate in their feeds between games of the same name (Sonic the Hedgehog retail vs. arcade) and multi-regional games. Thankfully we’ve ripped it apart, started again and made it more awesome than it ever was. As a result we’ve cleared the leaderboards and will start again. Check out the forums in the coming days for instructions on how to sign up for the official community leaderboard.

______________________

 

As I said previously, this is the start of a long process that could take years before we’re truly happy with what we have here, and more importantly, what you have here. In the coming weeks/months, we’ll be tweaking, adding new features on the fly, clipping on new boxes on the front page based on requests and generally trying to make the best site we can provide for you... and of course us! I personally find that’s one of our strong points, because we pretty much want the same features as you, because after all, we’re hardened gamers like yourselves.

 

We’ll still be tweaking and eliminating issues over the weekend, so if you spot any, let us know in the comments.

 

We hope that you enjoy the new look X360A and find everything to your liking. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, 2010 is going to be our most ambitious year to date, and we’re excited to bring all of you along for the ride.

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The whole site seems to be buggy, keeps on telling me,

#VBL-003 - Please send a message to RoutineX
on almost every link. The site seems to just have went up, so I'm sure it'll be fixed, but I thought it would be best to say something now then later.

 

Edit: I would like to add, on a whole it looks nice, but the bottom part seems a bit sloppy.

Edited by Zee
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I have PM'ed this to Webb

 

But thought I would post it

 

I have found a bug coding side.

 

I was adding Red Dead Redemption to my collection.

So I clicked: Add to collection

 

Got the following:

[b]Warning[/b]:  include(../x360a/addMyGames.php) [[url="http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/../function.include"]function.include[/url]]:  failed to open stream: No such  file or directory in [b]/home/xbox360a/public_html/addmyGames.php[/b]   on line [b]2[/b]

[b]Warning[/b]:  include() [[url="http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/../function.include"]function.include[/url]]:  Failed opening  '../x360a/addMyGames.php' for inclusion   (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in [b]/home/xbox360a/public_html/addmyGames.php[/b]   on line [b]2[/b]

 

 

I really like the new look :D

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I have the same problem as Zee:

Quote:

#VBL-003 - Please send a message to RoutineX

 

But i only get the message if after i have logd-in. If i don't login i have no problems navigating around/through the site, which looks really awesome :biglaugh.

Like the text says i send a message about it to RoutineX.

 

Problem seems to be solved!!

Edited by Finnisher
Problem fixed
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New bug spotted. I deleted ALL my achievements checklists from my profile, but they still appear in it as if I did nothing. However when I go to the game page, it clearly shows that I haven't enabled the checklist. Keep up the good work ;)

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Very nice look Webb, although I agree with Zee that the bottom looks a little bit sloppy.

 

I guess we're using this as a feedback thread then?

 

* On the Achievements page all the link work except Awardables which yields a blank page that says #GAW-001

 

* On any games list it lists the number of achievements/total score next to the name. Could you also possibly incorporate mentions of glitched achievements?

 

For example, list Cars Race-O-Rama something like:

 

Cars Race-O-Rama.............15 (14)............1000 (900)...........Click Here

 

* With the new resolution some of the images look bad now (stretched out). See here for an example.

 

* On the first page of the retail list for whatever reason Backyard Sports: Sandlot Sluggers is out of place and listed before the all the 0-9 and A games

 

* The homepage is far too long. Here's what it looks like:

 

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff285/x0dAk0k/homepage.jpg

 

Here's an idea of how I'd like it to look like:

 

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff285/x0dAk0k/newhomepage.jpg

 

As you can see I'm somewhat of a stickler about the boxes being aligned properly on the x and y axis, but all in all it really does make it look better. As for the Users box, I just thought it looks out of place where it is so it would do to put it next to the gamercard.

Edited by dakisbac
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I'm liking it, but I'm having lag issues severely (especially when trying to post). It also acts like my internet connection isn't working sometimes when I try to load just a normal forum...but these are just some of the problems I'm having, not sure if it's with anybody else.

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Hi,

 

I'm liking it, but I'm having lag issues severely (especially when trying to post). It also acts like my internet connection isn't working sometimes when I try to load just a normal forum...but these are just some of the problems I'm having, not sure if it's with anybody else.

 

I think that has something to do with the amount of members/guest on the forum at the moment

 

Currently Active Users: 1506 (436 members and 1070 guests)

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Hi,

 

 

 

I think that has something to do with the amount of members/guest on the forum at the moment

 

Currently Active Users: 1506 (436 members and 1070 guests)

 

Yes that would most certainly make sense, I'm sure it will be running better later tonight (if I decide to stay up like I normally do, passed 10 in the morning ;>_>).

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I hate to be a killjoy but I honestly preferred the old look. The new homepage is slow as shit (and I'm on a bleeding edge gaming PC at my friend's house at the moment so it's not that :p) and I feel that the old one was easier to navigate :( Oh well, I think I'll just change my bookmark to go straight to the forums and stick with Kotaku for actual news..

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