Oh yes, I also wanted to say that I do not like the skinning job for a couple of reasons.
#1: It seemed to slow down the video compared to normal and the movements seemed out of sync with the voices which is not normally a problem.
#2: I can respect that The Escapist is a business and need to support itself through advertising (which allows it to maintain the forums, and thinks like Zero Punctuation, ENN, and other features), HOWEVER I think there is a point at which too much advertising becomes an issue.
I'm not concerned about annoyance so much as the fact that The Escapist is allegedly a neutral source on games, and geek culture (movies, RPGs, etc..). Somewhere to go to get a fairly unbiased opinion on these things. When you see The Escapist taking that much money apparently to advertise for a specific game it makes the abillity of it, and it's employees to remain impartial questionable. I think back to the entire "Kane and Lynch" fiasco on another review site, where a popular reviewer was let go under the cloud of his poor review of a heavy advertiser's product being responsible for the desician.
Will we see games that Yahtzee won't totally tear apart (or wind up supporting) simply due to money? Will certain titles, companies, and industry figures become off-limits to ENN?
If such things already exist it's not noticible, but I am concerned that it will become more so in the future because an advertising display of that level does not bode well for neutrality.
-
I'm just a user, but I'd prefer not to see reskins, even of features. Besides which since people come here for the reviews, and to see games/the industry ripped on in some of these features, I sort of suspect in the long term it won't be worth it because fancier and more expensive advertising is pointless if less people actually see it. The Escapist seems to have a decent user base, and be a good community, I'd hate to see that change.
I could be totally wrong, but it seems The Escapist was supporting itself fine before this.
Apologies if this upsets anyone, this is simply my opinion.