Just like the FP quick review, only free.
A bit of personal experience comes into this, and so please don't feel offended or such:
Likes:
-The banner is quite nice, and to the point. Great blend of relevant images, and sweet design.
-Repeated colour scheme: always good for consistency in a forum. People will tend to remember forums with a consistency, and so when they think of green and black/gray, they will think of FCG.
-Nice icons: they are quite nice. I like them because they are small, and they stand out, but now bellow out. Good choice.
Dislikes:
-Way too many forums: new members, and those inexperienced with forums will get lost. You might consider, now, to group some together. Make them sub-forums, but now, there is just way too many.
-The text on the banner just doesn't stick out. Its a nice font, but it gets "consumed" by the images behind. I suggest, firstly, increasing the size, then having a look at lowering the opacity of the image around the text, so the text stands out.
-Just the random, non gaming stuff when you look at the portal. When I opened it up, I saw the bacon, then I was like "is this a gaming forum?". Try and have clips of games, or game previews. It will bring you way more members, as they will be certain that your forum won't go off-topic.
-If you want to keep your portal, reduce the number of widgets and general "stuff". Not many people will scroll down to read the Latest comments widget. In fact, I'm not sure if anyone has seen that. Reduce the vertical scroll, and you should attract some more people.
Hope that helped a bit 🙂
