new BG2 / IWD site - looking for critiques, comments, etc

Reviews and Advice

Hi all!
I've built two new websites with walkthroughs to Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale. Another site of a similar style detailing IWD2 is also on its way. Anyway, the BG2 site is new and has only just been placed online, so I'd appreciate if people here could check the designs and offer a critique of the site design and content.

The site is online at:

http://www.davemckay.co.uk/iwd/ and
http://www.davemckay.co.uk/bg2/

Happy Gaming!
David.

By Tamris Sun, 09/30/2007 - 11:04am.

I registered just to reply to this. First let me say, BG II .... O.O *twitchspazzjittercling*SO was my favourite game out of all of them. XDDDDD *geek*

Ok, now that that's out of the way I'll let you know what I think -- STARTING with the BGII site because BGII is Uberawesome. Opening it, it took a few seconds to load because of the huge splash page. I love the mouse overs and the way they light up just like in the game. .> Ignoring the content, the layout itself is very nice. And ah, I get to the bottom of the page again. You know, on subpages, I think I would suggest making the background fixed... although I do love the grey stuff which somewhat reminds me of some sort of beastie skin. Also, I would again suggest making everything the same width; that jump from wider to narrower... bothers me. I'm not sure why all the art pages have a different layout than the walkthrough, but that's something that can be overlooked; it's not a bad thing. I don't think. And ToB looks more or less the same way but with ToB related pics. My above advice on SoA still stands.

Now on to the Icewind Dale site. Nice top splash, although again it doesn't do anything to denote that there are links underneath. Then again I suppose that doesn't really matter as that menu takes you to them anyway? Still. Alright it looks the same as the ToB/SoA site which, my comments above.

But now that I'm looking at this I would suggest something further. The blue links off to the right, I would suggest changing them on the the BGII site to maybe red/orange or something of the like. It would blend much better with the images. ^^; (BGII is more fire and destruction... you know Irenicus tended to use more fire spells it seemed to me, in the dreams and such. Not so much fighting, then again I took him out before he could do much. O.O )

Ok, so I think I covered everything I wanted to. Nice job I like them both a lot. ^^;

By davidmckay Mon, 10/08/2007 - 8:27pm.

Just a quick response and some questions to tamris- what resolution do you use, and when you mentioned fixed backgrounds, which pages were you speaking of? the site still needs a lot of work, and I had planned to put together a planescape torment site and finish off the content for an IWD2 walkthrough, but have been sidetracked the past few weeks and havent worked on it.

About the site menu being in the footer, a number of people have commented on it (i posted this to a couple of other forums), and when I was designing the site it (the menu) seemed ancillary, the main content was the walkthrough and the other sections were just afterthoughts, but I may have to think of another way to include it on the first screen.

Lastly about the link colours, you're right, the colour was designed as the light blue for the IWD site first to fit with the cold theme and I carried it over to the BG2 site without thinking.

Thanks for replying, David.