Although this section looks a little dead I figured I would try and see if I could get some good and constructive feedback for my site.  Phantasy Gaming utilizes a completely custom scripted content management system.  The CMS is not near being finished (still working on custom forums, user control panel updates, etc.), but a major portion of the site is completed and has been up and running since January.  We even have a comment system on the editorials and news articles.  If anyone has any thoughts or feedback in general I would more than love to hear it.  Thank you everyone in advance.

When first visiting PhantasyGaming.com I thought there was a typo in the link, as the opening page is a full page ad for some free online casino. Normally I would never visit a site like this again. When eventually I found the "Skip this ad" button, I decided to click through as any custom scripted game related site grabs my attention.

I like to top search bar where you can search "for a game" or "for news". Unfortunately there is still a bug in the search function as any search I did returned a php error code. The game database is well coded with a file for each game, with tabs for related news, cheats, screenshots,... it's all there.

When trying the chat, I got a security message that asked me if I wanted to trust the Java applet, but the publisher authenticity could not be verified. "The security certificate was issued by a company that is not trusted". That message did not give me enough confidence to continue.

The colours of the text ads by AdBrite on the right do not match the site's colour scheme - they're pink and light blue. The graphic design looks a little nineties, but it's functional.

Finally, when trying to view a video, I clicked the play button and it immediately redirected me to another full page ad - this is misleading and unacceptable.

I can tell it's custom coded and for the most part, that's good, but there are errors on a lot of the pages where the code isn't working perfectly. Additionally, having a full screen ad the first time you click onto a website is a big turn off.

However, what's more important than any of that, is that the site is forgettable. It looks like a site that's come straight from 2004 - http://web.archive.org/web/20040113032932/http://www.gamespot.com/ . It was good then, but now: it looks dated.

What I would recommend is to firstly tidy up the code behind the scenes, get rid of the ads that display full screen ads as no one likes them and work on your layout.

In regards to your actual content, again, it needs some work stylistically. It's nothing that I can't find in a million other places, you need to give your site some form of a "brand", give it an image and write in that image. Once you've developed a sense of style, then people will come back for that. After all, Eurogamer, IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku etc all essentially report the same things, but in different ways with different tones and voices - do that.

I appreciate both of your replies. The full page ads were going crazy, but have now been turned down to only display once every 6 hours. The chat applet isn't coded by myself, however I do plan on creating one myself in the future. As far as the look its exactly what I went for, dated. Hopefully in a few weeks when there are less errors you can check back and reply with new opinions. I appreciate it. Also, thank you both for appreciated the custom scripted CMS!!! It still has a ways to go!