Help with some php – Listing posts

Hey guys!

very inexperienced with php & creating a website. Having trouble working out simple tasks.. I’ve literally sat here for the last 2-3 hours reading tutorials and trying to attempt this myself but cannot accomplish what im aiming for..

What my end goal is to have a common news feed on the front page with the usual title, thumbnail, date, short excerpt, etc.. ive been using plugins but would like to do this with php.

Heres an example of what im after.. http://www.mmobomb.com/ – the news feed.

If anyone with some free time could write a little snippet i could use and explain where to place it would be much appreciated!

PS sorry about the rant!