I really think you have a great design on your hands that only needs a little tweaking. There are so many great things working on NWR its unbelievable. The displayed time since the article was made, the new image viewer, the categorizing of everything, and not to mention the amazing improvement on the reviews pages. I have to applaud everyone who worked on this for putting so much time and passion into something purely voluntary. I think that all of these features will bring in a much wider range of people to the site but at the same time, I can see some of the aesthetic qualities throwing people off.
Like I said, I really do think you have a great design. It just looks a bit unfinished. The most noticeable part of this is how little separation there is between different sections of the page. The gradient on the top is a great start, but I think more of that could be implemented to further this. The 3 flash boxes are also a great addition but seem a little lonely compared to the rest of the non flash site. Again, just more of this would be great. The last thing I'll say is that the brand new name of the site, Nintendo World Report, should take up much more room on the page. I think its such a great, strong name that needs to be a much more powerful part of the site.
I made an example of some of the things I talked about, along with some of the suggestions we've all talked about recently which you can find here...
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-2/947569/nwrsample2.jpgI would love to know what everyone thinks, what you think works, doesnt work, and maybe we can solidify some of our concerns for the best Nintendo site on the planet.
Also, I just want to make it clear that I am in no way trying to push anything on the staff or telling anyone what to do. These are purely just ideas I'd like to share with everyone. After all, it is a forum.