Please help! Featured Articles on Main page with intro text - Joomla! Forum - community, help and support

hi guys.

probably silly question have been battling ages.
i trying replicate content , structure friends old j1.0 site new version on j2.5

the main page on old site automatically show articles 2 categories 'news' , 'reviews' , show them intro text thumbnail.. eg: intro text limited 200 characters readmore.

i need same 2.5 somehow.
if cant config categories this, guess featured articles , can select featured articles want on main page.

i cant seem display same original site http://buy-n-shoot.com/

can steer me in right direction?
i have tried in menu manager , selected home page , set category blog option 1 column, , tried variations of number of intro text etc. shows entire 1st article.
we want intro versions on main page can see @ http://buy-n-shoot.com/

hope can help!
thanks in advance. it's quite urgent

if list articles category blog option, can put portion of article in
the intro text section, , add "read more" tag , intro text

also, may want @ latest news plus date or deluxe new oro http://demo.joomlaxtc.com/?extension=deluxe_newspro. allow more flexibility core category blog layout.