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Content
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| Quality : |
16.5 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
14.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
12.5 / 15 |
| Updates : |
8.0 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
5.0 / 05 |
| Download : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
59.5 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
8.0 / 10 |
| Features : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
15.5 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
7.5 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria
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|
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1. Regular updates.
2. Lots of content up.
3. Good search features.
1. Quality could still be improved.
2. A little DRM here and there.
3. Pictures could be larger.
"Over the years, they've really done well to grow and improve, and it shows." |
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Today we're looking at a site called English Lads, which probably doesn't need too much explanation. Hitting up their tour gives you a pretty good idea of the content you're sure to find. They have solo dudes and hardcore gay stuff as well, and they say it's all exclusive content which is a nice bonus. The tour looks a little cheesy/amateur in nature, but nothing too bad. It'll cost you $30 to get in the door, and then $26 a month if you want to stay longer than that.
Once inside, the site looks a lot the same. They give you the latest news (they just added their first widescreen video recently), as well as some navigation links. The main way to browse is by model where they split them up into three sections (or you can view them all on one page). There are over 140 dudes up right now, which makes for a pretty good-sized site. You can also browse through their updates page from the last couple months or so, which I prefer so I can see the newest stuff available. It looks like they add something new every 2-3 days or so, and there are actually more new videos than photosets (though it's a good mix). They also have a visual search tool, where you can find models based on 14 attributes that was pretty neat.
Each model has a little info on them, which is cool to read. The navigation is a little confusing at first with all the medium pictures and thumbnails. One takes you to the actual gallery, while the thumb at the bottom takes you to the model's page where you can see all his galleries up.
Pictures come in two sizes, and to get the larger ones you'll have to click the "larger pictures here" text link at the top of each gallery. This takes them from 600x450 to 1000x750 which is pretty good overall. Quality is pretty good here, especially with the larger picture size which is good to see. You can jump around to the end pages pretty easily, or view all the thumbs on one page. About the only thing missing here are zip files I'd say.
Videos are a little more confusing to get around as they're broken into clips, and also offered in a full-scene usually, but they're all displayed together without much separating one video from another. They come in the MP4 format, and watch out that your computer doesn't rename them to .mov (Quicktime files) as it won't display properly from what I know. They can be played in your browser, or downloaded. They look decent at 320x240 and about 500kbps. The new widescreen videos could be interesting once there are more of them as they up the ante to 512x272 and 670kbps.
Overall, a pretty decent site here. I wouldn't mind seeing some navigational changes implemented (and design while we're at it), but what's here is okay for now. The content is good, and that's what matters most. With new stuff coming pretty regularly, and the price getting cheaper after you stay for a month, I don't see any reason not to stick around if you enjoy what you see here!
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 09-13-06 |
Well things are moving along here at English Lads it seems. The site is larger than ever, approaching 200 videos and more photo sets as well of course. The basics remain the same here it seems, with the design and layout looking familiar. Videos still come just in one format from what I can tell, but the quality looks a little better all around (not that it was bad before though!). I wouldn't mind those few changes taking place still, but at least they're keeping the updates regular and helping the site grow in the meantime.
Score decreased from 80.6 to 80.5.
| 2nd Follow-Up Review |
Review: 06-03-09 |
It's been a pretty long time since our last look at English Lads, and things are looking good here overall. There's a good amount of content up now, with over 500 videos online, which is very impressive. The update schedule is doing well, and I hope they keep it up. Quality bumped up a little too, but it's still not stellar, and could probably use another small bump again soon. The navigation continues to impress with the nice search features available. Videos now come in WMV format as well, though a few of them were DRM protected for some reason (not all though). Overall, with so much to see and some good content, I'd say it's moving up the list quite nicely here as a site to see.
Score increased from 80.5 to 82.5.
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