Name: Marissa
Site: Croft-Storm
Review completed on: 04/04/07
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A Tomb Raider website, eh? Given that I know next to nothing about Tomb Raider I fully expect to gain a vast amount of knowledge - this expectation of mine seems all the more justified by the text on the top of my browser window, which states that this is "Your One Stop Spot For Tomb Raider News".
News? So this site merely relays up-to-date Tomb Raider news to its visitors, and that's it? No background information about the subject matter at all? What source are you using to accumulate your news topics? Reuters? Sorry, just kidding.
I'm admittedly slightly confused here - I'm thinking that surely there is more to your site than a news blog. Surely!
LAYOUT
Piczo sites go hand in hand with annoying banner advertisments placed hither and thither, small text sizes, and more often than not superfluous horizontal scrollbars. Unfortunately, your site clearly displays all three of these aforementioned components. What a shame!
How come you're on Piczo anyway? I remember reviewing you at some stage last year, and it's surprising that you're still choosing to use this nauseating web 'tool'. What about Freewebs, or getting hosted? No more annoying banner advertisments that way.
I recently visited a theme park called Rainbows End. I went on many rides, some of which made me feel nauseous and inwardly sick. You've got your own theme park right here it seems, with your very own ride - the superfluous horizontal scrollbar ride! Come one, come all, jump aboard the scrollbar and be led into a world of dizzying proportions! Believe me babe, after scrolling left and right and back and forth a few times I'm spinnin'. I'm not entirely sure what you've done here, but you've got a static white div container but the text slides around and.....and...goodness me I cannot describe this to save my life. Bring on the images!
This image displays the initial appearance of your site, pre scrolling.
Scrolling once...
Scrolling twice...
Gone!
"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice Rhiannon (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). "The Tomb Raider layout seems to have mysteriously disappeared!". Little did Rhiannon know that by utilising her iBook touchpad and scrolling in a left direction, the layout would re-appear. Rhiannon admittedly felt that the scrollbars should never have existed in the first place, and she pondered the reasons for their inclusion for several moments, before falling asleep again under the great oak tree.
Mmm, that was a satisfying mid afternoon nap for sure, thanks for giving me the opportunity to indulge in that much needed golden shower slumber.
Nonsensical ramblings aside now - let's discuss the design and colour aspects of Ur'e LaY. Or, your layout, if you'd prefer. I do like the colours you have chosen to use here, they go well with your header image, which also looks quite good. Said header image isn't massive either, it's an ideal height actually. This is good! Where did you get the images of Lara Croft from? I am not seeing any credit being given anywhere. Giving credit when using graphics (or anything for that matter) online is always important, and the fact that you're using CGI image stills from the game...let us hope you do not get caught displaying images that may in fact be illegal to reproduce. I know this all sounds completely anal but believe me, it happens. That's why I always nag about the redistribution of images, the reproduction of lyrics etc etc - I have read about many innocent personal site owners who have done these things and have gotten into trouble for it.
Your update headers are more than a little on the small side - make these bigger. Headers should always be well defined and easy to read. Also, the size of your regular font is also small - an increase in font size here would work wonders. Small fonts were popular with emo / scene kids on the web in mid 2005 - it's now 2007 and yeah....small, hard to read font sizes are obsolete.
That's it for your layout, time to move on at long last. Not sure what I'm supposed to move on to though, given that there's no navigation menu...roll on the good times anyway, I guess.
CONTENT
Your sidebar states that this website will only house one page - the front page. Forgive my candor but what is the point in a one page website? What's even more offputting is that your latest update (March 15th) states that you do not have any Tomb Raider news, and you've asked your visitors if they have any. Again, forgive my candor but you run this Tomb Raider news site and it is up to you to provide all the information for your visitors. It's like me running a review site and asking my visitors to review on my behalf...utterly ridiculous because it is my site, and it is up to me to provide the entertainment for others. Do you get where I'm coming from?
Since there are no additional content links present, I shall go through a couple of the news articles on your front page.
TOMB RAIDER ANNIVERSARY PS2 SCREENS -- MARCH 1ST 2007
This is the first news update at your site. Yet the article says the following, in regards to the game release:
"As we previously reported, the PS2 version is looking positively drooling, so stay tuned for more goodness in the coming days"As we previously reported? So, you're not writing the articles yourself then, all you're doing is pasting them from uncredited sources. Oh dear! What a turn off.
NEW ANNIVERSARY WALLPAPER RELEASED -- MARCH 9TH 2007
This article has been written in the same style as the one I went through prior, so I guess it's just the one source you're getting your information from. How come the wallpaper is only available in a miniscule thumbnailed format?
SUMMARY
Great colours as well as a pleasing header image, but unfortunately these two positive aspects have been marred by the numerous faults your layout - and your entire site - possesses. My examination of Croft-Storm proved confusing at times, not to mention disappointing. I am disappointed because I was expecting some 'Tomb Raider hub' or at least a comprehensive source of facts, news, and background information. In reality, I was merely presented with a few meagre blog entries containing snippets of news copied from another source. The images used on your site clearly do not belong to you, and neither does the content. This is not good enough. I am struggling to see the point in running a site that is so blatantly dependant on other source/s. You should be doing everything yourself here - never rely on anyone else when it comes to the maintenance of a website. It is your website, so run it yourself.
