http://www.escapistmagazine.com/
The website that I have chosen to critique is the Escapist. It is a resource site that features several different subsections, all of which that circle around the central theme of role-playing games and their place within society. In the past, it especially strove to give them a positive image. Currently, it contains a plethora of general gaming and related information, including game updates, game reviews, and miscellaneous game-related articles.
The page itself, for at least the time that I’ve known it, has been very busy in terms of design. It’s divided into two main subsections – an upper specials half and lower news half – and appears to be a 3-column grid. Both the upper and lower parts have subheaders to keep the sections divided. However, the upper-half links to different pages, whereas the bottom links to filters.
The top portion is extremely graphic heavy, packed with images to the daily or weekly special pages as well as the necessary ads, which take up 1/3 of the page. While there is a sense of repetition, the scale of the images in comparison to the text is a little skewed. The large image size makes the text feel cramped and the page feels loaded. The header contrasts well with the light-colored background however, and it does help frame the mess of imagery into its tight confinement. The shift within here from two columns of horizontal imagery to three columns of vertical imagery does allow for a visual break that helps separate the elements at least and help alleviate a little bit of the mess.
The bottom half is almost blog-style in its presentation, with a simple list of links to the latest news articles. Along the righthand side of the screen, links to the site’s standard subcategories lay out.
These subcategory pages are mostly video galleries that pertain to the main page’s general theme, and almost all of them share the same layout scheme, which shares the same grid as the main homepage.
Overall, the page lacks white space something fierce; it’s just too crammed. The site originally hosted articles promoting the educational benefits of RPGs as well as debunking misconceptions of RPGs, however the design looks like a chaotic mess that isn’t particularly inviting to anyone scholarly. While the colors and bold visuals to entice the active gamer, it’s clutter is deterring and causes the design to weaken.
Sabreena's Design Musings 
Good analysis. Reformat your screen shots so they are larger. I would crop them in order to show a specific area that you are discussing in your post. Right now they are much too small to be of any value while you are reading/or scanning your post.