Blog Review
First Impressions
The first feel I get from your blog is a mixed impression of fresh and empty. Fresh is always a good thing, it is open and inviting but the feel of emptiness is not something you should strive for. I believe the main reason I get a feeling of emptiness is due to the lack on content on the menu bars. The top menu bar only contains two links and the main menu bar only contains three. In addition to this you have a left positioned logo which is quite small, meaning you have a huge area on the right side of the screen that is just blocks of colour. Hence the feeling of emptiness. There are different wanys for you to solve this problem, one would be to merge the two menu bars, another would be to create a different type of logo that fills out a larger part of the header area. At least one of these needs doing.
The slideshow is very affective, yet still doesn't tell me much about what your article is actually about. In the description area I would like to see a couple of sentences, not just one line that adruptly ends in the middle of a sentence. The images that you use don't tell me much about the articles either. On the right side you then have a sidebar, which is also nice, clean and appealing. Next to the twitter and RSS button i would like to see a third button as it really feels like one is missing right now, maybe one for Facebook? I can just see the Popular, Comments and Tags bar sticking up with a couple of articles visible without scrolling, enough to interest me, but a couple of sentences here wouldn't hurt either.
Overall you have a very appealing first view of your blog. I understand that your blog is still very new and for that reason there isn't quite enough content yet, but this is something that I don't believe will be an issue. A nice first impression with only some small changes needed.
(Score: 17/20)
Appearance
As I have already mentioned, you have a very clean and fresh layout which is very positive. What I do feel is it gets a bit too clean at times and some of the colours melt into eachother a little too much. A good example of this is the search bar, the design is nice, but it wouldn't hurt to have the border a couple of shades darker. Just to make it a little more visible. The same goes on the top menu bar and on the tabbed navigation system on the sidebar.
All the images you use on the blog are very clear and sharp which is great. They help break the grey/white colour scheme, but I do feel you could be even more daring and outright with the colours of the images. I don't like the idea of the tags at the bottom of the index, I find this sort of thing off-putting and a bit of an eye sore.
Overall I really like the theme, but I do feel you could be a little more daring with coloured details and a few gradients is never wrong. Gradients can be used to steer the eye and lower the feeling of emptiness, something you should consider. Other than that I can't find anything negative about your theme. I do feel you could strengthen the footer a bit more, but thats only if I am going to poke at small details. I would look into filling that Ad Space as soon as possible, it looks a bit odd as it is now.
On the category page the sidebar becomes very empty, also something that you need to have a look at, especially as you have the fixed section below the content.
(Score: 19/20)
Content
All of your articles are very well written and contain good information. Something I really like about your articles is the way they create interest. This isn't something that everyone can do, it takes a bit of talent. What I do find a shame about your articles is the length of them and the one sided opinions. Your articles seldom pass 800 words, which I find a shame as there is so much more you can fit into them on each topic. Another issue I see is the opinions, you give some great information on releases and news, but you never share your own opinion or anyone elses for that matter. Try to make the articles a little more personal, this is the way you will get comments and discussions.
A prime example is your article on No Used Games on the next Generation of Xbox. The very last thing you mention is the negative impact on the gaming community. The feeling I get is your are assuming that Xbox is the only used console out there, also that this is something that is going to happen and affect the whole gaming industry. I feel that you should discuss all aspects of this, there are other consoles. What affect could this have on the sale of the xbox for this very reason? Isn't there a risk that people could choose other consoles instead for this very reason? Trying to write different perspectives is what gets your readers thinking.
Looking at the tags you are using for your articles I don't believe these are quite doing your articles justice. 720, game, kotaku, microsoft, stop, theory, used, xbox - These are the tags you are using. Tags such as "Next Generation Xbox" "Future Console" "Gaming Industry issues" would work much better, both information wise and relativity when searching. These are also better for keywords, SEO.
Your spelling is perfect, but I do feel you miss a few key grammatical errors sometimes. You need to look into the use of kommas and semicolons, this is an easy and common mistake.
(Score: 35/40)
Comments
On the 8 posts I can see being shown on the front page 5 of them have comments, which isn't too bad. They only have 1 comment each, which isn't that much. I would of expected more, especially considering what the articles are about. You have a couple of people commenting who write very good comments, but most of them aren't that detailed or related to the article. I would like to see you answering the comments in an attempt to continue to generate discussion, this is more important than many think. Always be positive and thankful when typing replies though.
I do suggest that you work on getting more comments on your posts, the best way to do this is by leaving a question at the bottom of your articles, it doesn't have to be obvious. For instance, using the same article as above, you could end by saying: It could just be that this causes a downfall in sales for the xbox. This is something that would get your readers thinking and make them more likely to reply.
(Score: 11/20)
Total Score
82/100
Final Remarks
A very nice blog with a talented writer behind it, you have done a good job and just need to keep up the good work. I am looking forward to seeing how this blog develops in the future, don't forget to fill out your profile page that appears at the bottom of each article!
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