Guys, remember that not everyone here comes from a strong designing background (or any designing background for that matter) so comments in the nature of "Well, improve on the header first before you start on the content area", are of no help whatsoever.

Anthony headed in a better direction by offering changes which could be made. Shame about the "gray" comments towards the end when you consider this very site (*wink*). However his comments still don't go far enough (IMHO) to help a new designer move along.

blip, I commend you for coming into the group wishing to improve on your design -- after all that is what we're here for! -- and I would like to offer a few of my own ideas. Try to make the main portion of the header stand a little more proudly from the stripey background. You already have tried dropshadows (or emboss, I can't quite tell) but try either making them more pronounced and/or moving their direction to over the background (with a lighter shade of shadow... ie, light gray/white). This should separate the background and header more strongly which adds depth to the image.

For the navigation, your first change should be the text colour. Dark blue on mid-dark gray really does not provide anywhere near enough contrast for easy reading. You could either lighten the gray bar and leave the text dark blue, or change the text colour to a lighter one with maybe a dark border (stroke) around the letters if you find that looks better. I would also suggest moving the "Home | News | Downloads..." underneath the "PS2Gamer.org" header so that they align nicely, rather than centering it on the page.

Finally, and back to the header. I would also suggest decreasing the opacity of the green stripes (ie, make them more transparent) as backgrounds are best done subtly in anything but fairly rare circumstances. I think this style of design needs a subtle background rather than a strong one.

Cheers,
Salathe