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 best community creations from the week!
This week the most exciting news pertained to the site's ambitious plans for PAX West this year! For those unaware, PAX West 2023 will be taking place from September 1st through the 4th at the Seattle Convention Center in Washington. During PAX West, Giant Bomb will host not one, but TWO panels! These panels are:
- The PAX Panel Show - Friday, Sep 1, 2023 at 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM PDT
- Giant Bomb: The Voicemail Dump Truck Rolls into PAX West (13+) - Saturday, Sep 2, 2023 at 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM PDT
For those wondering the panel show will be attended by Jan, Grubb, Lucy, Tamoor and Jenna Stoeber as a special guest. The PAX West Voicemail Dump Truck will feature Jan, Grubb, Lucy, and Tamoor.
The second biggest issue or topic on the site pertains to old episodes of the Bombcast, Beastcast, and other podcasts not appearing on the RSS feed or third-party podcast apps. Bakalar investigated the issue and ended up downloading the entire podcast archive, including legacy podcasts like the Beastcast, and believes the best/only course of action is to resend all the missing episodes all at once. This worked for the most part for the Beastcast and the site staff and engineering team are looking into doing the same with the Bombcast. Nonetheless, please continue to file bug reports of missing episodes and be ready to see hundreds of podcasts appear on your feed or podcast app.
Finally, GameSpot released an episode of Spot On with Tam and Lucy where they talk about the pitfalls of hype in the video game industry.
Also, Tam has recently recovered from his fourth bout of COVID and would appreciate any words of kindness or support you can spare.
Tweets
— Giant Bomb Out of Context (@GBombOOC) August 17, 2023
One of the first images that comes up when you Google "Lex Luddy Giant Bomb" is this... pic.twitter.com/rAihP9652t
— lex luddy (@BasicalliLexi) August 17, 2023
🚨New episode of Spot On 🚨 @lucyjamesgames and I talk about keeping hype in check, especially for events like Opening Night Live and The Game Awards. Another fantastic edit by @GreatBriTom https://t.co/B7EdyjqWHS
— Tamoor Hussain (@tamoorh) August 18, 2023
Hey @giantbomb users! Looks like the Beastcast feed is fixed. This will likely cause some of you to get updates saying you have 100+ new podcasts as they had to be resent. If you notice missing episodes still, drop a comment here!
— GB Duders Feed (@GBDudersFeed) August 15, 2023
Bug Reporting Thread: https://t.co/Hv7z9GV9QZ
Janimorphs Book Club...
— Macho Man Jandy Savage (@_janjerome) August 16, 2023
Come meet E.T., Jan, Lucy, Tam, and RoboMitch at 5 p.m. on Saturday in the Bluejay theater at #PAXWest pic.twitter.com/tJ9o1Zlpj8
— Grubb (@JeffGrubb) August 17, 2023
Activities
Slayers X Is The 16th Selection Year 2 Of The UUGPGC! Finish By August 14, 2023! Spoilers Open!(By: @bigsocrates)
Supraland Six Inches Under is the he 17th selection of season two of the Game Pass Game Club! If you have any impressions of the first-person Metroidvania game set in the Supraland IP or the Supraland world in general, SHARE NOW!
Likewise, the Game Club has opened up its discussion for Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer to SPOILERS! Share if you recommend this spin-off of Hypnospace Outlaw!
The GB Album Club 036 - Selling England By The Pound by Genesis (By: @unclejam23)
The Giant Bomb Community Album Club is listening to MORE PROG ROCK with "Selling England by the Pound" by Genesis! If you have anything to add to the conversation, comment! Also, where do you stand in the great Gabriel vs Collins debate?
Art
Janimorphs (By: @kone)
During Blight Club, the seminal work of sci-fi literature, Animorphs by K. A. Applegate, and her many ghost writers, came up and Kone could not help himself with this work of Photoshop goodness!
Grubb & Dan Vs. Jeff Jarrett (By: @kone)
Hey, Jeff Jarrett finally appeared on the Voicemail Dump Truck as a guest! To everyone that thought it was a work, give it a listen and come back to me on that one. Regardless, Kone made this photoshop goodness of Dan and Grubb in response to Jarrett's belated appearance.
Tamoor Funko Pop (By: @MOHAMMEDFI10)
With Giant Bomb hitting PAX West HARD, MOHAMMEDFI10 decided to get Tamoor in the spirit of the convention circuit by making a Funk Pop figure!
Mike Minotti x Kool Aid Man (By: @ogto_rt)
In response to Grubb's grab bag Blight Club episode, ogto decided to take a single off-hand comment and make it a reality! Here's Mike Minotti as the Kool Aid Man!
Blogs
Game OVA Season 2: Episode 3 — Magical Hat +
Indie Game of the Week 333: Kaze and the Wild Masks (By: @mento)
It's time for another OVA-to-game writeup by moderator Mento! This time they look at the Dragon Ball-lite Magical Hat and its Mega Drive tie-in Turbo Adventure of Magical Hat! Adventure! However, most of you know it as Decap Attack!
Additionally, Kaze and the Wild Masks is the subject of their latest "Indie Game of the Week." What makes this 90's inspired platforming adventure game from developer PixelHive tick? Read to find out!
More Than Ever Square-Enix Needs The Enix Part Of Its Name To "Figure It Out." (i.e., What's Going On With DQ12?) (By: @zombiepie)
With Square-Enix's management calling Final Fantasy XVI a "disappointment," moderator ZombiePie wrote a piece on why the Enix division deserves as much scrutiny as what the FF16 team is getting. Like, what is going on with Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate?
What's the Greatest Video Game: 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (By: @imunbeatable80)
imunbeatable80's latest "What's the Greatest Video Game" blog post on the site tackles 1979 Revolution: Black Friday! Read how they assess the title's compelling story and odd attempts to graft it into a video game.
A Saga of Pixels and Pride (By: @pauljeremiah)
pauljeremiah decided to return to "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" after everything we have learned about Billy Mitchell. Does the documentary still hold up or is it an uncomfortable experience today? Click the link above!
All PS1 Games In Order: Part 025 (By: @borgmaster)
Top Gun: Fire at Will!, V-Tennis, A-Train, and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball round off borgmaster's latest effort to play every single PS1 game that released in North America! If any of these games ring a bell drop a comment on their blog.
Bakamitai: Summer's Backlog Battle (By: @jeremyf)
jeremyf picked up a copy of The Yakuza Remastered Collection on Steam and writes which games from the Yakuza franchise most benefited from the HD treatment! Read about which games they most enjoyed.
A “Late” Summer Night’s Fever Dreams (By: @infantpipoc)
After the main Bombcast and Nextlander talked it up a lot, infantpipoc decided to watch Heat, the movie. Read their impressions of the film and the directorial and aesthetical choices of Michael Mann.
Discussion Threads
The Xbox 360 Digital Store Closing July 2024. Purchases Still Re-Downloadable. Backwards Compatible Games Still Buyable. (By: @bigsocrates)
What is YOUR REACTION to the news that the Xbox 360 Games Store and Movie digital store will be closing July 2024? Is this another sign that digital games are not a proper replacement for physical media?
You Can Start Preloading Starfield On Xbox If You Have Early Access Rights; 126GB On Xbox & 140GB On PC (By: @zombiepie)
So, starting on August 17th, people with an Xbox Series X|S premium edition copy of Starfield were able to pre-download the game to get it ready for its Early Access release. The storage requirement is 126GB, and the PC version is apparently worse at 140GB. Are you surprised to hear this?
Ranking of Reverse-Bullet-Hells/Auto-Shooters/Vampire Survivor-likes. (By: @joeygills)
Vampire Survivors has seemingly revived the genre, but what are your favorite Bullet Hell games or auto-shooters? What are the intermediate or expert games in the genre for Vampire Survivors? Feel free to share your picks!
Baldur's Gate 3 Act 3 Discussion Thread [SPOILERS ALLOWED!] (By: @dareitus)
A LOT of y'all have a LOT to say about Act III in Baldur's Gate 3. Where do you stand? Are you mostly positive about the twists and turns or are you still upset? Join the discussion in the thread linked below. SPOILERS!
Lists
Now That Baldur's Gate 3 Is Popular Here Are The Last 10+ Years Of Games You Could've Also Been Playing (By: @arbitrarywater)
Have you been enjoying Baldur's Gate 3? If so, ArbitraryWater has made a MASSIVE list of recent/modern CRPGs you should consider playing next that scratch similar or adjacent itches! So, give it a read and expand your horizons!
Fire Emblem Ranked (By: @odysseyrpg)
It remains their favorite video game series, therefore, it makes sense that OdysseyRPG would have a list annotating their favorite games in the Fire Emblem franchise, right? Give their list a look and then consider making your own!
User Reviews
@yyninja's 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim review relays why they don't just think it is an excellent visual novel, but also consider it one of the best love letters to the sci-fi genre in gaming!
@sbc515's reviews this week include Mortyr (2093 - 1944), Mission: Impossible (Nintendo 64), and Taz-Mania (Genesis)! This week, I recommend their Mortyr review as a must read as the game in question previewed so well that some people went so far as to call it "a spiritual successor to Wolfenstein!"
@pauljeremiah's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots review continues their tradition of reviewing entries in the Metal Gear franchise and with this review they attempt to see if the PS3 entry in the series still has legs.
Wiki Of The Week
Everyone and their grandmother seems to be excited about the pending release of Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. So, let's throw things back to the game that started it all! Give our FANTASTIC wiki page for Armored Core a read and learn all there is to know about it and your many mech-based options in the game!