The new GamingBolt is here- A note from the editor

Please check the contest update here.

What a fantastic three years it’s been- in the last three years, GamingBolt has grown from being just a blog to a full fledged site, where we cover more than we ever imagined we would. We have built a great staff, accumulated some pretty loyal readers and have strived to get better in every way possible. When we’re not working day and night to give you the best content possible, we’re thinking of features to include in our site to give you the best experience possible. In the past three years, we have upgraded our site twice, and now the time has come to give you another upgrade, which is also the best we’ve built so far.

We present to you GamingBolt Version 3.0.

Over the next few months, we’re going to upgrade GamingBolt and include ground breaking features, ranging from community to content. We are going to launch Version 3 in phases, two of which are going to be released within 3 or 4 weeks of each other. What you see right now is the first phase, or Phase 1, as we have internally referred to it so far.

Here’s a brief rundown of the major features we have included in the site with the launch of Phase 1:

A flexible home page for a better user experience:

Using the power of Ajax and PHP we have totally revamped the home page. Users can now sort articles in to various streams like Reviews, Interviews or the Hottest Videos. In addition to that, the home page also features the latest screenshots and videos. Gone are the days where you have to wait for the page to load a video. Now you can click on the thumb and the video will load for your right there- a pop up window will open on the same page and you will be able to view the video without having to go to a new page.

Better Reviews:

In addition to our “The Good” and “The Bad” sections in our reviews, we have also included the usage of badges. In the coming days, you will start seeing reviews with badges. We also have proper review archives now.

Flexible and Faster Galleries:

A huge complaint our readers have had with our content in the past was that our Gallery system was archaic, and that loading through separate pages was a pain. We have optimized GamingBolt.com, and surfing through our new and improved galleries is much easier now. They’re also more flexible, and we can now showcase images and videos in the same gallery.

Videos:

Videos have been heavily revamped on GamingBolt. Not only are all video posts much better presented than before, they’re also easier to view. On the home page, if you click on the thumbnail of the video you want to view, it will appear in a pop up, and you will be able to view it without having to go to a different page (as described before). You can still view them traditionally by just clicking on their links, though, if you want to. You can also check our new video gallery over here.

News:

A much more streamlined way of viewing news. Need I say more?

Revamped Comments:

Comments are more intriguing and fun when you can vote down or up other people’s comments.  We have revamped our comments system, urging the user voice their opinions.

Top 10 Users:

Users can now compete for the top spot in the leaderboards. As of right now, users can gain points by registering, commenting and visiting the site daily. In addition we may donate points to the most active user. In Phase 2 we will expand the scoring system to the forums as well — more details later.

What’s more- the top user at the end of March, 2012, will get a free PS Vita. So make sure you keep commenting and stay active!

Hottest Videos:

Like all other videos on our site, you can see the hottest vidoes in a sidebar on all pages of the site, and by clicking on their thumbnails, you can view them then and there, without opening a new page.

And of course, better content:

As always, we will try our best to bring you better content in every way possible- in quantity and quality.

Of course, we weren’t able to tell you about all the upgrades we have made to the site, simply because there are so many, so why don’t you roam around and look for yourself? It might get you some of those points you need to win a free PS Vita!

In the next few days, we will be launching Phase 2 of Version 3.0, and with that, we will be giving you user profiles, private messaging, user scoring, achievements, ground-breaking forum features, an active community and much more. We’ll give you more details when it launches, so be on the lookout, and stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Remember- the top user at the end of the month of March will get a free PS Vita. 

We hope you like the all new GB. You can give us your feedback, too, it’s always appreciated. Send us your feedback via our “Contact Us” page. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as well.

Signing out,

Rashid Sayed

The Big Boss

GamingBolt.com

---