Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, ZombiePie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the recent site and staff-related news and best user-created works from the previous week! Well, if there's one thing I feel safe saying, it's that the new Tier List feature has been a HUG HIT on the site. Almost everyone with Premium has been either making their own tier lists or playing around with template of other users. Again, this feature currently is premium-only but users that don't have premium can still look at and read tier lists created by their fellow users. But if you do have premium, you'll find the option to make gaming tier lists over here!
Additionally, as many of you recall from last week, Giant Bomb announced it would be heading over to PAX East 2026! This week the staff have shared their panel plans as well as dates and times for the event. As you can see in the digital flier below, On Friday, March 27th at the Creator Stage starting at 3:45 PM ER, the staff will be doing a live rendition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and if you miss that panel, there will be a second recording on the 28th at 11:30 AM ET also at the Creator Stage. The main Giant Bomb PAX East panel will be later that very day on Saturday, March 28th at the Albatross Theater at 4 pm ET. Also, Jan will be on a panel on the 26th unrelated to Giant Bomb at the Bumblebee Theatre.
Obviously, that means that you can expect a truncated streaming schedule on the site as well as delays with some of the site's normal programming.
In terms of site-related stuff, some of you may have gotten a ton of emails about Giant Bomb going live. Chuck investigated the issue and if you were wondering how that system works, Chuck looks up look up all users with notifications set for an event. Then Chuck takes those users and creates a cloud task (aka serverless function) to handle queueing up and telling the site's mail service to fire off. In this case, there was a 30 second timeout, and some part of this particular mail group (probably the largest group) was going past 30s, and since the site had a 5x retry logic on failed attempts, it was retrying even though it was successfully sending. It just couldn't finish sending. They suspect that emails are now fixed, but feel free to reach out if that is not the case and you are still getting duplicate emails.
For those of you attempting to listen to Episode 198 of the Voicemail Dump Truck, be aware that there were technical difficulties and the first handful of seconds are mute because that happened live. The video version of this stream was a bit late but it should be up now.
Finally, someone on the Discord was asking how to remove a video from the Watchlist on mobile. As per Chuck, you can cheat and scrub the video to the end and completely remove it. On PC, you can hover over the top left corner and click the bin icon.
Videos & Art
"Giant Bomb x Pax East '26 (Ghana Style)"
Mario Party Party (By: jearum)
As they shared on social media, jearum has always wanted to do a Ghana style poster and now felt like the right time to do it considering the duders are heading to PAX East soon!
For something completely different, jearum missed Mario Day on the site, but still felt like making something in memorial to the occasion. So, they went ahead and applied a Simpson flare to a classic Giant Bomb moment.
And as always, if you enjoy jearum's art don't forget that they are still taking commissions over at their ko-fi page!
Dan Falling To His Death In Space Ace Animated .GIF (By: SynthMinded)
Mike As The Blue Guy In Space Ace (By: wackydeli)
The Space Ace edition of Blight Club sure has people getting creative in the Giant Bomb community! We have a fun animated .GIF from SynthMinded that perfectly captures dan's dispair every time he dies in the game as well as wackydeli being the ultimate thorn in Dan's side as the big blue guy from the game!
Both of these works come from the Giant Bomb Discord, which you can join if you have not done so already by clicking the first link above!
Community Articles
DOOM Port Corner, Entry 2: 32X (By: ford_dent)
Who in their right mind would ever want to play the 32X version of Doom in the year of our Lord, 2026? Well, you can ask ford_dent that question on their latest community article on the site while finding out if this is a playable version of Doom!
Indie Game of the Week 459: Sephonie +
RetroPiece Theater: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (By: Mento)
Mento is back as always with another "Indie Game of the Week" write-up and this time they played and reviewed Sephonie! With the indie game scene packed to the gills with story-driven platforming adventure games, does this title do anything to stand out? Read their essay to find out!
Additionally, with Retro Achievements introducing support for GameCube games, Mento continues to look at the achievements in beloved games on the console and this week tackled The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Did they find any particularly tough achievements? There's only one way to know!
Downloading Premium Videos for Plex (By: mafuchi)
Once again, need help figuring out how to get Giant Bomb videos working and on a Plex server? This user article is here to help! Get a step-by-step guide on how to download premium videos on Plex and feel free to drop a comment if you need any additional help!
Forum Posts Worth Checking Out
Announcements
Email Digests Are Disabled (By: chucktowski)
Again, the Giant Bomb Digest is on a slight hiatus until Chuck can fix a few things that ended up causing issues for the site's VM as well as people getting emails they did not sign up for.
Let's Test The Video RSS Feed For Grubbsnax Premium! (By: chucktowski)
As shared in previous weeks, Chuck wants YOUR HELP in testing the new Video RSS Feed for Grubbsnax Premium to make sure the premium RSS Feeds are working as designed! If this is an issue that has plagued you before, drop a comment in this thread.
In fact, don't forget to check out the Video RSS Feed over here!
General Discussion
Blight Club's True Innovation Is Not Playing Bad Games On The Internet, It's Combining Giant Bomb With Wrestling Style Long Term Storytelling (By: bigsocrates)
What is the "secret sauce" for Blight Club? thread author bigsocrates thinks it is staff's ability to weave wrestling-like promos and storytelling into the act of playing truly putrid video games. But, do you have any thoughts?
Crimson Desert - Opinions (By: FromNaha)
What do you make of the current zeitgeist about review scores for Crimson Desert? Is the normal release window review a bad fit for the game? Whether you have been a critic or fan of the game, share your thoughts in this thread.
The GB Album Club 109 - Going for the One by Yes (By: unclejam23)
This edition of Giant Bomb's Album of the Week is listening to Going for the One by Yes! Is this a clammy clam CLASSIC from the legendary group or overrated? Share away here!
Horizon Worlds Is Shutting Down For VR Headsets And Will Go Mobile Only. Post Your Favorite Metaverse Experience! (By: bigsocrates)
Originally it sounded like Horizon Worlds was shutting down access from VR headsets and going mobile only! Now, Meta has entirely backtracked and isn't cancelling the VR version of Horizons Worlds! What is going on in Meta? Is this a sign of flagging consumer and industry interest in VR or something different?
Have You Ever Quit A Game Because The Story Was So Bad Or Characters Were Unlikable (By: chocobodude3)
Have you every stopped playing a game because you hated a character in it so much? Has a story rubbed you the wrong way so badly you dropped a game mid-way? Share your examples in this thread!
DLSS 5 Is Proof That The Tech People Behind Games Don't Know Why We (At Least Visitors To This Site) Play Games (By: bigsocrates)
People have been dunking on that recent DLSS 5 demo and Digital Foundry video. What's your reaction to the DLSS 5 stuff and do you tread with caution when it comes to Digital Foundry's editorial content?
Premium-Only
Giant Bomb Convention (or Assistance) (By: jordha)
If Giant Bomb were to part like it was 2008 and host its own convention, what would you expect and want them to do? Remember when GameSpot and IGN would host their own conventions where you could play game demos and even watch programming live? This is all pie in the sky wishful thinking, but share a plan for a Giant Bomb-led gaming convention!
AYO! Tier Lists Are Up And Available To Be Made On Giant Bomb For Premium Users! (By: ZombiePie)
Tier Lists are up and running on Giant Bomb! If you end up making anything whacky or fun using the new tier-making suite, feel free to promote it in this thread! The stupider and wackier, the better if you ask me!
Lists
GOTY 2025 (Belated) (By: borgmaster)
It's more than belated, but better late than never! Giant Bomb user borgmaster wrote up and published their GOTY 2025 list on the site and has some real shockers on it. Give it a read here and see if any of the games on your GOTY list made the cut.
CHUCKLENUGGETS' 2025 GOTY (By: chucklenuggets)
chucklenuggets also finally got around to making their 2025 GOTY list on the site! Check out which games they most enjoyed playing last year and don't forget, it's NEVER too late to make a GOTY list!
Tier Lists
Ranking of Blight Club Games (By: nekomancer105)
nekomancer105 made a tier list for every game played for Giant Bomb's Blight Club feature, and I have to be honest... I think they nailed it. If you disagree, have fun with their template if you have premium. Do you have any personal favorites of Blight Club?
Final Fantasy Games (By: remixrunixlp)
remixrunixlp made a tier list on the site with every companion in the major Mass Effect games! Are you homers for classic characters like Tali or Garrus? Are there any Mass Effect 3 or Andromeda characters you'd rank high?
remixrunixlp also made an AWESOME tier list template on Giant Bomb that has every single mainline numbered game in the Final Fantasy series covered.
Ys: Where to Start? (By: Mento)
Are you like Dan Ryckert and only recently fallen in love with the Ys franchise? Well, moderator Mento made a tier list on the site to help guide you to continue having a good time with the series!
The Definitive Ranking of Battlefields (Scientifically) +
A Ranking of Games I've Spent Over 100 Hours In (By: mynameisfatmike)
mynameisfatmike made a tier list for the Battlefieldfranchise! Would you call Battlefield 2142 "Peak" as they did? Click the link and make your own tier list if you have GB premium!
They also got to thinking about all of the games they have played for 100 hours or more and decided to rank all of them in the style of a tier list! You can't exactly borrow this template, but if you make your own tier list, I'll happily share it if you drop a link to it in the comments.
Metroid Tier List (By: MajorMitch)
MajorMitch took their original Metroid Prime ranking list and turned it into a tier list on Giant Bomb! Give it a read and think about how you would rank every game in the series. Are you a fan of the 2D or 3D games?
Best Diablo-like ARPGs (That I've Played) (By: seraphiscain)
What are the best "Diablo-like" ARPGs and how do they compare to the proper Diablo games? seraphiscain attempted to answer that exact question with their latest tier list on the site.
Ranking of Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Games (By: chucktowski)
Are any of you interested in making a tier list ranking the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight games? Site engineer Chuck has you covered and as you check out his tier list you can have a go at ranking every game however you feel!
Mainline Residents Evil (By: onimushroom)
onimushroom finished Requiem so they went ahead and made a tier list with every Resident Evil game on it! How did they rank the classic entries in the series alongside modern entries?
The Definitive Official Ranking of the Trails Series (Except for Two of Them) (By: yelix)
yelix spent most of 2025 playing games in the Trails series. Which games did they enjoy and which games did they think didn't live up to the hype? Give it a read by clicking the link and if you disagree, don't forget to use their template for your own version!
N64 Rental Games (By: largemario)
Remember when you could rent video games at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video? largemario recalls those days and shares which video games for the Nintendo 64 they most enjoyed renting. Remember, these are games that can be played in short 3 to 5 day bursts and aren't necessarily the "best" games on the platform.
Games I Have Put More Than 100 Hours Into (By: kyary)
Similar to mynameisfatmike, kyary got thinking about the games they have put 100 hours or more into and in ranking them in tier list form, they think about if that time was well spent.
Reviews
infantpipoc's review of Titanfall 2
infantpipoc decided to reboot Titanfall 2 to see if the game's campaign still holds up. Spoilers: It does. But why? That's the question they try to answer in their review on the site.