They are not plugins. For phpbb, they are mods.
My tips from experience...
-Scrap phpbb2 and move to phpbb3
-Get a skin, free or custom.
-Where are your rules, announcements, etc? If a user can not see them within a few seconds, he will not look for them
-For each game, merge general and games chat. Too many empty forums are bad. Within a few months, I guaruntee you that 1/2 of the forums will be empty or only have 1 post
-Get your own logo, or at least get rid of the phpbb logo.
-If you get phpbb3, disable the use of the flash BBcode, make bbcodes for hr, center, and right align.
-If you get phpbb3 or stick with phpbb2, get some sort of karma/rep modification. That way, users have a reason to be nice.
-Offer something rare and/or unique.
-Make only a few moderators. Right now, only you and one other person should be it. To many makes people think that you will give out positions for free.
-Have some sort of (paid) contest, that gets people attention
-Make a few good posts yourself
-Quick reply is enough
-Any other small customizations (such as a profile field that lets users say what gaming systems they have, would be good. Possible in phpbb3 standard, and phpbb2 with a mod)
-Add an OTHER console section, for old consoles or barely used consoles