Mases upgraded the board to a new version of vBulletin, and changed the main site's layout. He's waiting for them to finish the new version (we're using a beta) before he tries to come up with a skin and implement board modifications. On the main site, there's now comments for news, and to go along with that, Mases removed the news section and decided that news threads will be put into the forum sections they relate to the most. Some news - like walkthrough and guide updates - won't get threads at all.
Unfortunately, the shoutbox is also gone because that was only compatible with the old version of vBulletin. Mases doesn't have an alternative right now, and he seems to be reconsidering policies regarding the shoutbox. I think I convinced him that we should still have one, though. I hope so, because I miss it.