I can see logic in both sides. Bear in mind I come from this from a tablet view point (I never use the laptop to view the site unless I'm trying to do something complicated)...
The "feel" of what you did makes it look fresh and open and I think intriguing to a visitor (and I'll come back to this in a minute). I do agree with Bart about the number of main sections for games like GTA, Minecraft, Warframe, etc. Maybe look again in say, 2-3 months, when holidays are over, etc with a view to pruning some back?
I think the thing to bear in mind is that I assume most regular forum members are like me and have the "unread content" page bookmarked and use the site from there...they don't see the Home Page, that's how visitors interact with the forum and, as such, that needs to be the shiny, easy to navigate bit, especially from a tablet point of view. A couple of scrolls is all the time you have to hook 'em!
Good work tho Lee and thanks for taking the time to do it