Vanguard MMORPG website - need some feedback

I'm nearing completion on the first phase of a fansite for the yet-to-be-released MMORPG from Sigil/SOE (sony online entertainment) called Vanguard : Saga of Heroes.

Site: Vanguard MMORPG
URL: VanguardMMORPG.com

It's pretty basic at the moment, but its starting to come togather. I've used a number of elements to piece this site togather so far I've used Wordpress, Gallery 2 and regular PHP pages and soon will have a forum (SMF) and a major concern is I'm afraid it is beginning to look 'frankenstien'..? (too pieced togather)

Since this isn't a gaming forum, I guess I'm looking for some general feedback on the asthetics & usibility of the site rather than the information with-in it (some of the content is just place holder gibberish or excerpted from the official site until I get all the unique content written)

Any feedback on the following would be extremely helpful:

Usability
Does it load in a timely manner
Is it rendered properly in your browser (please specify which browser there are errors)
Navigation - drop downs work, intuitive labeling

Visuals
Overall visual balance
Colors
Graphics/image treatment
Text size & font

Anything else
I'm looking for any sort of feedback, good or bad


Thanks in advance for taking the time to review the site - its appreciated!

 

Hate to bump my own thread but..

Any gamers or forum owners out there..? How effective do you feel a forum would be on a site like this..? I have it planned for a the next phase (after I've reworked the content) but is it really that important..?

 

Hey man, i really like the design of your site. Still needs some work though.
Here's a few things:
The menu bar on the top. The upper one looks pretty good, however the links just below doesn't fit very well. First off they are pushed to the left compared to the top one - looks abit funny.
And the "about vanguard" is not in the middle of the block its place in.

The site took about 5 secs to load... which is abit much - i have a very fast connection.

I really like the way your placing your content - awesome layout.
And to your question: Do add a forum, that will be what keeps people coming back. People do get a better connection with your site, if they feel they are a part of it.

So definately fix the menu and add that forum

 

I also like the layout and design of the site, but the load time is really dragging it down.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys - appreciated and noted! Keep it coming

 

Nice graphics, well edited, and nice background images [the scroll thing]. You could really work on text, choosing a Tahoma or something like that, because Arial fonts just look stupid [no offence, Arial is '90s font]. At least I think it's Arial ...

 

no comments, a powerful design. Really. Good job done. I don't know if you personally made it all (with graphics and etc,) but it's a really good job.

 

Thanks for all of the feedback - I've made significant changes thanks in part to all of the comments I've recieved - very helpful

• Added a community/forum
• Added organized categories to help promote visitor posting (isn't working yet)
• Compressed/optimized many site elements/images (should help a bit with load time)
• Added a 'Latest...' section to the homepage with latest forum posts, news, images etc
• Added a caching script to pre-compile the 'Latest' on a daily basis (should help a bit with homepage re-load time)
• Added and organized additional content

Any more feedback..? Load times getting better..?

 

Good design, Good Seo. Congrats