I can live with most of this but the font makes it painful to read, especially if you're reading long posts.
The thumbs up/down buttons need changing. - They look stupid and I can't tell if a post has pos/neg rep at a glance any more.
I don't even hate the little blob things, they look quite cute even if they are childish.
While I come on this site quite a bit, I often think of it as a sixth-form/uni student site, even if I was on it in my GCSEs. This new lookout however is really off-putting and it belittles the site.
Also, I'm sure that the money from subs could have been spent in a million better ways than this, you could have reduced sub-prices or added some server space or anything... Instead you've just made many of your members unhappy. - Well done.
TL;DR: (Can't blame you in this font.) I think it's quite bad, verging on ****.