... and here's my final version.
http://users.senet.com.au/~dbschah/test/rpgcodex5.htm
Out of all of this, I've learnt that I have no real photoshop skills. But, to combat the boredom of having the same banner up the top, I'd suggest you run a competition. Let anyone make an RPG Codex banner. All the good/decent entries can be uploaded to the site. Then you just need a bit of code that randomly picks a banner to display each time you visit. Each time you visit, it randomly displays one of the banners available, so you don't get the same one all the time.
To reduce the clutter of links up the top (as 6 of them dealt with the same thing, mainly content) I moved them around and cut a majority of them out. As a result, there are now 7 key links at the top, those being what I feel are the most important ones. See if you can't find the new link to the News Archive. It shouldn't be too hard to find (if it is, then I'd recommend you don't move it as seen in my design).
news | archive | submit | editorials | reviews | previews | interviews | articles | content search | forums | irc chat | links | staff
... versus ...
news | submit | content search | gallery | forums | about | links
As a result, the main article link is now 'content search' which I think is better than linking to them all indivudally. You might want to upgrade the listcontent.php search page to make it clearer. At the moment, I found it a bit confusing to navigate and find what I was after. I think making the content search function a lot clearer and easier to use will be more beneficial than having 13 links up the top of the site, in order to cater for the 6 different types of content. This would also be another code change for Calis. I'll need to have a proper look at the page again before I can come up with any ideas about what to specifically do to make it easier.
EDIT: Nope, page looks fine I think. Scrap that.
As before, the red tabs indicate NEW items, items that have appeared since the user last logged in. I realise this is still a code change for Calis to do, but the idea and graphics are there if/when he gets the chance. (That newsline.gif isn't meant to look pink either, if it looks like that to you. Supposed to be a grey/white colour. Those arrows are also supposed to be better lined up too. Meh.)
Note that I've only coded the first two days of news into tables. That's because I'm hard-coding these changes in HTML, not in php, so I have to manually make every table (well, copy & paste). I think the two days of news I've done give you enough of an idea for the news layout. It actually gives you a good comparison guide to the changes. Scroll through the old and then the new layout, then tell me which is easier to read and which stands out better.
I played around with adding some kind of graphic behind the news as well, but couldn't come up with anything that I felt worked properly. I'm sure that if Rex feels like it, he'll be able to come up with something.
The Gallery link is for that secret gallery of screenshots that I know you're hiding.
I think an interface in there allowing you to choose a game, then view the screenshots for that game, would be 'A Good Thing to Add(TM)'.
The 'about' link I suggest, links to a new replacement section for the staff link. In that section will be a 'mission goal' for the site (in whatever form it's decided to be put) as well as the staff section. I'd also recommend putting the IRC channel info in there as well.
Finally, the most important part of it all is right down the bottom of the page in the footer text.
Me hope you like.
