The Community Spotlight 2024.04.20

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the most notable community creations and site-related news from the previous week!

Giant Bomb has been collaborating with the fine people over at MinnMax for the past two weeks. First, Dan did an interview with Ben Hanson but in the style of Hot Ones. If you want to see Dan struggle to answer questions like "Is Dan's whole thing a bit?" then this is the video for you! Likewise, on April 22nd, Jeff Grubb will be on an episode of Trivia Tower.

Some of you might have tuned into some of the Fuser livestreams that Niki Grayson has been hosting on Friday evenings. As they have stated on the Bombcast and during their streams, the schedule for these streams is irregular, but they will always be hosted on Giant Bomb chat should they happen. Likewise, here's a link to the VODs for the first two episodes.

TurboShawn and I are under the impression that the RSS Feed issues have been resolved. If that's not the case for you, please file a bug report and indicate your frustration about this issue not being resolved. For those wanting context on why it took longer than normally to resolve this issue, after engineers published an update to fix the issue of premium podcasts not showing up on RSS feeds, new one popped up right as Jan left for his WrestleMania trip (complicating getting a quick resolution).

However, there is good news when it comes to the production side of things. Tom Caswell from GameSpot, whom some of you that attended PAX East 2024 might have seen and encountered if you went to the Giant Bomb panels, will be helping the Giant bomb team when it comes to video production and uploading.

If you noticed new pop ups that prompt you about cookies and tracking tools there's some new information to share. Long story short, there is a new cookies module that presents itself fairly regularly. Unfortunately, this is in response to new laws in the United States regarding tracking and cookies. The previous prompt is no longer possible, which, yes, when functional, allowed you to set your preferences across long sessions or multiple days. This current prompt cannot be removed.

Finally, the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run is OVER and the event was a huge success! When the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run ended its last stream, the event overall raised $5,152.33 for Feed The Children. Here's the team page one more time and thanks to everyone that tuned in and donated!

Tweets

Activities

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting April 22 2024 +

Battletoads (2020) Is The 8th Game of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By April 22! (By: @bigsocrates)

It is time to send in your votes for the next edition of the Game Pass Game Club. As you can see below, there are some BANGERS to pick like first-time nominees Li'l Gator Game, Botany Manor, and No More Heroes III!

Also, don't forget that Battletoads has been selected as the latest game pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! Is this the most dubious or questionable game pick for the Game Pass Game Club? Share your take about the Battletoads revival game.

The GB Album Club 059 - Mothership Connection by Parliament (Cycle Finale!) (By: @unclejam23)

Also. don't forget that the latest cycle for the Giant Bomb Album Club has come to an end! However, they are ending things with a bang with the final pick being Mothership Connection by Parliament. Join the conversation when you can.

Video

SuperDantasy LXIV Re:Intro Intergrade - An Animated Giant Bomb Series - (Season 2 Episode 3.5) (By: Pickle Giraffe)

Due to Wrestlemania and other things, there was an off week for Blight Club, but that did not stop Pickle_Giraffe from getting "creative" with their almost weekly Giant Bomb Animated series! Give the latest episode a watch whenever you can!

Galleria

Fallout X Giantbomb - Tamoor & Lucy BAFTA Edition (By: @MOHAMMEDFI10)

For those of you that might have missed it, Tamoor and Lucy once again attended and emceed the BAFTA Games Award. To celebrate this huge occasion, Mohammed on Twitter made this incredible fan art!

Grubb Doll x Mike Kroger Mascot (By: @kone)

For those unaware, Kroger debuted a new humanlike mascot to attend ribbon cutting ceremonies at new stores and people have pointed out that it looks like Minotti.

Also, Kone, if you are reading this, you owe everyone a national apology.

New Giant Bomb Discord Banner (By: @chucktowski)

Thanks to the AMAZING work of chucktowski, the Giant Bomb Discord has a new banner as seen below! If you still have yet to join the Discord, here's a link to the invite.

Blogs

My First Time Playing Super Mario 64: A Diary (By: @grantimus)

In honor of Jeff Bakalar playing Super Mario 64 for the first time in their life during the PAX East 2024 live show, grantimus posted the notes of their first attempt to beat the game... from 1996. Give it a highly nostalgic read over here!

Hades II Technical Test Field Report (By: @allthedinos)

ALLTheDinos gave the technical test for Hades II a shot and relays their impressions. Is the game improving upon the original? What are the areas for improvement they noticed? Give their field report a read and share your impressions as well.

Yars Rising Is Proof That Gaming IPs Will Always Get Recycled

I Love (Some) Indie Games, But They're Often Missing Spectacle, Polish, And, Perhaps Most Importantly, Discourse. (By: @bigsocrates)

Wayforward making Yars Rising definitely took bigsocrates by surprise. As a result, they decided to go through the many games associated with the Yars' Revenge IP, including the Panzer Dragoon-like, Yar's Revenge.

Frequent poster bigsocrates penned a defense of the AAA game. Read why playing a bunch of indie games recently convinced them that there's plenty of room for games with sky-high production values and years of Q&A polish and why they miss conversation circles about bigger games.

Quick Hits! Q1 Gaming Newsletter (By: @jeremyf)

The first quarter of 2024 had a lot of gaming surprises for jeremyf! Whether it be playing modern titles like Balatro or Persona 3 Reload or classics like Mother 3, you can read all about it on their latest blog on the site!

Anyway, Here's WonderSwan (Part Three) +

Indie Game of the Week 366: Ghostrunner (By: @mento)

It is time to get tactical and WEIRD with Mento's latest blog looking at the WonderSwan! This blog has Super Robot Taisen, Guilty Gear Petit, Klonoa, and more! Are any of these portable experiences worth playing today? Read to find out!

Likewise, Mento has a new edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" and this time they played Ghostrunner by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks. Is there something "special" about this cyberpunk first-person action platformer? Read to find out.

Discussion Threads

So The Fallout TV Show Is Good, Actually? It Better, Because Amazon Renewed It For A 2nd Season! (By: @zombiepie)

It turns out the Fallout TV series might be good, actually? Have you seen an episode? Where do you think it compares to other decent to great modern adaptions of video games like The Last of Us or Twisted Metal?

Community List Of Games With New Game Plus Or New Game Plus Like Features (By: @christianbethel)

ChristianBethel noticed that the site's New Game Plus concept page was missing modern game examples and hasn't been updated in a while. If you are interested in helping them bring the current page up to date, chime in with recent gaming examples!

Welcome (Possibly) A New Multimedia Empire/Overlord (Part Deux): Sony In Talks To Buy Paramount (By: @zombiepie)

Sony Pictures might be in the process of buying Paramount with the help of a another interested party. What do you predict might be the consequences of a loss of competition in film and television?

Community Endurance Run XIV - April 12-14 [Event OVER] (By: @marino)

Once again, while the event itself is over, I still want to encourage those of you that missed out on the Community Endurance Run to read over the announcement thread and see if you can donate to any of the streaming members on the team.

Lists

Optic Beam (By: @badassbeck)

badassbeck taking up the challenge of making a list of video game characters that can shoot laser beams from their eyes. Their current list on the site is a work in progress and they are happy to take suggestions over here!

Games That Have Made Me Cry (By: @shami_sansi)

There aren't that many but Shami_Sansi decided to create a list of every game that has made them cry. Give it a read by clicking the link below and consider making your own version on the site!

Switch 1st Party Top 20 (By: @edsone)

There's no doubting that the Nintendo Switch had INCREDIBLE first party support. So, Edsone took up the task of trying to create a list of their top twenty favorite first party Nintendo Switch games.

Wiki Of The Week

Fallout

With the television series attaining almost universal acclaim, let's throw things back to Giant Bomb's franchise page for Fallout! What shapes and genres has the series taken over the years and what are its recurring themes? Give this page a gander to find out!