Quick: When was the last time you said to yourself, “Hey, I want to read the latest on Grand Theft Auto on the PS3.” Or, “I can’t wait to find out what’s up with Assassin’s Creed on the Xbox 360.”
Sure, like all of us, you want the latest and greatest info, features, reviews, videos and guides on all the games that matter. That’s what we’re here for, and that’s what we’ll continue to deliver.
Above: Everything you need, all on one page
But now, we’ll deliver it in a much easier and more intuitive way. Today, we rolled out some big changes to how we craft and curate content surrounding every game. We have, in short, unified.
What’s that mean? Easy. We’ve created unified game hubs for every single game release. That means when you want to see everything there is about, say, Mortal Kombat, you can now go to one convenient place. There, you can find the review, the cheats, the guides, the features, the previews. There, you can comment on any of the stories, or join an open conversation about the game in general. There, you can find any news about the game, regardless of platform – meaning you won’t inadvertently miss out on a patch that’s announced for another platform but that’s surely coming to yours.
(For those of you who really, really only want the Xbox 360 news, don’t worry; you’ll still be able to visit the various console channels and filter our content that way.)
Why’d we do this? Because this is how we all think about games now. It’s no longer about console wars, or focusing on the minute differences between console releases. Instead, it’s all about the games themselves, and finding out what you need to know about the games you crave. This also helps us track games as “platforms”; after all, games are no longer singular releases, packaged and released, with no updates. Downloadable content, patches, updates and more – those are all just as important as the game itself, and having a real hub around every game allows us to deliver great content while helping you find it faster. You can follow any game you like (or Like any game you follow), and that way you can keep up with what matters to you most.
Above: Reviews are lookin' good
To celebrate this big change, we’ve also made some nice upgrades to our review template as well. It’s cleaner, easier to navigate, with the key info up front. Oh yeah – we’ve also moved to a 5-star scale. We feel it’s the most intuitive way to score, well, anything. While the debate often rages on about what a 5 out of 10 means (is it average, or is it failing?), it’s much easier to see a 2.5-star game and intuitively grasp that that means “mediocre.” In our experience, we’ve also found it’s easier to use the full scale, allowing us to reward the greatest games with the coveted 5-star award while punishing the worst games with the woeful rating of a single star.
So poke around on the site. Check out our new unified game hubs. Peek at our new reviews. And give us your feedback. Leave comments below, or reach out to me directly with a private message. We hope you love the changes as much as we do – but this is your site, so we want to know what you think!
