The week's update on New Metacritic:  It’s coming together

We’ve heard your feedback, and we’re taking it on board. There are plenty of clear and constructive complaints coming through. And we're hearing positive notes about some new features (even the white background, if you can believe it).

We're committed to providing longtime users with the core features they value. No doubt you should be able to determine what DVDs will be coming soon, to find the best scoring games of 2006, and to compare the scores for all Zelda games starting with the N64. We plan to do our best to make your Metacritic experience better than it has ever been.

This site update is a bold change. The new site was (re)built completely from scratch, as the earlier version of Metacritic had existed on an outdated technology platform. While much was painstakingly replicated, some things have been delayed in translation. Please be assured, we're working to remedy the usability issues you’ve singled out, which we’ve detailed below.  

Our goal was not to simply port the old site to a new technology platform, but to create a new experience that would allow Metacritic to grow past the limitations of its old layout.  The new platform is allowing us to add features to make Metacritic more powerful.  Many of you like the person and publication pages. The new site is also more accessible; look for new ways to access our scores off the site later this year.

The best way for us to serve our loyal, long-time friends and new users is for us to move forward. In that effort, the data on the old site (which some of you are still using) will not continue to be updated with new content even though you can get to it for a short time longer. We know we’re going to have work to keep evolving the site, its feature set, and its navigation, and we ask you to please hang in there with us (and bear with the construction dust) while we do so. As always, we value and welcome your input.

Major fixes since launch (August 11):

• Clicking "See all reviews" on the game/movie/album/show summary page now goes to a full list (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/red-dead-redemption/critic-reviews) rather than one limited to 30 items.
• The 3 critics reviews on the game/movie/album/show summary page are now selected to be a statistical representation of the spectrum of scores and are more likely to serve as a mini-snapshot of the full review page.
• The “more new releases” at the top of the platform hubs (http://www.metacritic.com/games/xbox-360) now correctly shows recent releases (rather than older games).
• All game platforms now have their own version of the high scores page (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/all/xbox360?sort=desc), so you can see the best Xbox 360 or PS3 games of all time.
• Music new releases page (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/albums/release-date/available/date) has been fixed so that it actually shows albums that have been released.
• Music coming soon page (http://features.metacritic.com/features/upcoming-album-release-calendar/) is a staff-curated list like it used to be.
• Game new releases page (http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/release-date/available/ps3/date) is no longer hiding games that haven't been reviewed.
• Clicking "Browse A-Z" in Movies now gets you directly into the full DVD lists rather than just the theatrical list.
• Missing user reviews from the old site should now all be present.

Things to be fixed in the coming days and weeks:

• Score and review inconsistencies across pages (many cases are fixed, some issues remain).
• By year high score pages were missing and have now been added. 
• Current releases list on the right column of the movie pages isn't including enough current theatrical releases (currently 18 vs. the intended 20). 
• The current big-image default view for new releases and coming soon pages will be reworked as a longer list page that provides a more condensed view of the release calendar.
• More control on movie lists for showing wide vs. limited releases.
• Some of the key DVD pages, like the one highlighting upcoming releases didn't make the jump. We'll replace these and generally improve the usability of the site for finding DVDs. 
• Restoration of games from older platforms (N64, GameCube, PS1, Xbox, Dreamcast, GBA)

Upcoming features further out:

• iPhone application
• Movie showtimes