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 site-related news and best user-created works from the previous week!
I hate to start on a negative note, but for those of you on Discord, be careful about getting friend requests from someone impersonating Bakalar. The account has been banned for the Giant Bomb Discord and reported, but it seems like someone out there is trying to impersonate Giant Bomb staffers in hopes of roping innocent people into scams.
On a funnier note, last week marked the 39th anniversary of the NA release of Castlevania which provides everyone reason enough to break into chorus and sing "Barkerville."
To keep the fun vibes up, Colin Hemphill crammed the stats and is happy top report that Dan, thanks to Space Ace, has surpassed Grubb in cumulative time blighted on the site! If you want the full details, check out Blight Club Unauthorized which they run.
For those of you with Plex servers, and this came up in the Giant Bomb Discord, if you are trying to set up metadata for a specific show if you have documentation for how Plex interacts with XML, the site has video descriptions, images, episode titles, all that available in the feed XML. Also, the API does this from the /api/public/videos endpoint and for a specific show you would go /api/public/shows.
The forums were briefly inaccessible and the Giant Bomb Presents Premium feed was briefly broken. Both of these issues should be resolved now.
Some people pointed out that the 1080p version of Portal Pals 03 wasn't visible even for Premium users. Chuck ended up rebooting the RSS feeds to fix the issue and we should be all set now, but be aware that sometimes the 1080p version takes longer to process, and it gets posted too early. In that case, you just need to wait for the feeds to catch up.
Speaking of Portal Pals Episode 3, or any video for that matter, if you're getting a "This video file cannot be played" error when trying to play them on the site, those videos were edited in the site's CDN and Chuck has filed a support request with the CDN to get these videos working. Some people are saying the videos are working now, but if they aren't for you, your patience is greatly appreciated.
Finally, some Premium users are reporting that they are seeing ads on the site. As Chuck shared on the "site-tech-issues" section of the Giant Bomb Discord, "There's a condition where if your current site session has expired and not refreshed, but you load a page, the ad script will race the premium session refresh."
Oh, and final final final note, but if you need a good laugh, give this video on BlueSky by JessJeverage a watch.
Fan Art
Viltrum-Mike-Miquanchi (By: jea_rum)
After sharing the Discord photoshop with Bubsy merged with the Giant Bomb logo, Jea_Rum decided to take that concept and run with it in this fantastic work of art! Once again, is it a nightmare? Yes, but that's what you should expect from them at this point.
Likewise, with Invincible back in the zeitgeist, jea_rum decided to imagine Blight Club's strongest warrior, Mike Miquanchi, as a character on the show! Do you think he could last even five seconds against the strongest foes in the show?
Also, don't forget that jea_rum is still open to commissions RIGHT NOW! This Giant Bomb Duder has been making classic and amazing works of art for decades and is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for cool art based on a variety of topics or themes.
Community Articles
Hades Duology Presents A Boy Band Called Snakes 3 (By: infantpipoc)
Here to continue their series in which they imagine the best possible voice acting cast for an anime adaptation for the Metal Gear Solid games! This week, they tackled Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and the tricky issue of Snake's older gravely voice in that game.
DOOM Port Corner, Entry 7: Game Boy Advance (By: ford_dent)
After wrapping up their review of the "classic" console home ports of OG Doom, ford_dent decided to do a fun supplemental this week in which they look at and review the Game Boy Advance version of the game. Read why it's a shockingly serviceable version of the game.
Indie Game of the Week 465: Haiku, the Robot +
Mento's Month: April '26 (By: Mento)
Mento once again has a couple of fun things for you all to read this week! First, their weekly "Indie Game of the Week" feature is back and this time it assesses Haiku, the Robot and its adventure-exploration structure and combat platforming chaos! Did they enjoy it? Read to find out!
Likewise, with it being a new month that means Mento also penned an essay listing out all of their gaming highlights and lowlights as well as a primer on all of the anime they watched during April. If you're up for gaming or anime recommendations this is the blog for you.
Forum Posts Worth Checking Out
Announcements
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
Paste Is Shutting Down Game Coverage (By: bigsocrates)
Paste is shutting down its game coverage. With the loss of another trusted outlet of games coverage, where are you going to? What are the good game coverage sites to read editorials that aren't AI-generated or nothing but sales pitches?
How Do You Make Your Grilled Cheese? (By: mafuchi)
It's time to settle a debate on the Giant Bomb forums: What's the best way to prepare or make a grilled cheese sandwich?
Do you have any secret tips you want to share to the rest of the community? How much butter do you use? Do you stick with processed cheese or American or do you use something fancier?
The GB Album Club 115 - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You by Caroline Polacheck (Finale) (By: unclejam23)
Desire, I Want To Turn Into You by Caroline Polachek is the album the Giant Bomb Album of the Week will be ending on this season! Is this art pop studio album worthy of the hype? Share away in the thread linked above and if you want to join the group before the next season starts, drop a comment in the thread!
Spiders (The Studio) Is Getting Squashed (By: bigsocrates)
It sounds like Spiders, the game studio, is dead. Pour one out for one of the most beloved and cherished Eurojank studios in the industry! Share your Spiders-related highlights in this thread!
It Took Almost 14 Years.... (By: chamurai)
Here's a fun one for any older Giant Bomb users on the site. As you can see from the screenshot above, chamurai wore their Patrick Klepek hot dog shirt and was finally recognized by another Giant Bomb user out in the wild. have you had your Giant Bomb shirts or clothes noticed by a fellow user not during a convention?
What Are You Playing/Finishing/Abandoning This Week (April 26, 2026 Edition)? (By: laughingman)
What were your gaming targets and goals for the week? Are you wrapping things up with Pragmata or maybe something from your backlog? Did you pick up Vampire Crawlers?
Has Anyone Else Completely Lost The Patience For 100-hour AAA Games? (By: franky987)
How do you assess your patience and tolerance for 100+ hour AAA games? Are open-world AAA games still your jam or do you want things to get back to being smaller? Did you find the length of Pragmata perfect or not long enough?
Have you ever been credited in a video game? Beyond "special thanks" has your name been in a game?
Premium-Only
Cat Stats (By: mafuchi)
We have even more Giant Bomb users creating Magic the Gathering cards for their cats inspired by Chuck's 9 Lives of Mister Mistofelees feature on the site! If you have Giant Bomb Premium, check it out and join the fun!
Delayed Podcast Feeds (By: bonta)
Did you have issues with the Game Mess Mornings feed? The feed had the wrong date in the title and if you are still having issues, you can manually refresh the feed and it should be working as intended. If you are still experiencing issues, feel free to drop a comment.
Grubbsnax Question Thread (By: jeffgrubb)
For those of you with Premium subs, you can head on over to the Premium-Only board and possibly get a question answered during Grubbsnax if you write and post it in this thread. Huge props to Grubb for taking the time to engage with the forums to whip up some community engagement!
Suggestions & Bug Box
Bug: Video File Cannot Be Played [RESPONSE POSTED & POSSIBLY RESOLVED] (By: paul_tillich)
As mentioned at the start, the issue with some videos on the site stems from the CDN. Chuck has filed a support request but some users are already reporting that videos like Portal Pals 3 are working now. If that's the case, please share if videos originally displaying error codes are working again.
Comment Editing Window [User Responses Clarify & Answer Question] (By: csl316)
Some users are confused about how long the window is for commenting as well as how long the window is for editing comments or posts on the site. If you want a complete rundown, check out some of the user responses in this thread.
Unable to Download Giant Bombcast Audio [MORE INPUT REQUESTED] (By: bludgeoner86)
The Bug Reporting thread had a lone report that a user was not able to download the audio version of the Giant Bombcast. Chuck discovered a 403 being served from the site's podcast syndicator, spreaker, and will bring this up as soon as possible. If this issue is impacting anyone else, please feel free to share this information.
Bug - Video Player Not Resuming Last Played Position [MORE INPUT REQUESTED] (By: liquidirish)
Some users are reporting that the video player is not resuming from the last played position after pausing a video and closing a tab. If this includes you, please drop a comment and remember to indicate your browser and browser version in the report.
Tier Lists
Blight Club Protagonists Ranked Based On How Cool They Are (By: mocbucket62)
Wake up everyone! We have a new all-timer in the user-created tier list arena! This week we have mocbucket62 challenging everyone to think how "cool" every Blight Club protagonist was. I think the Space Ace protagonist belongs in the "Shut up nerd!" category, but that's just me. If you have Giant Bomb premium, have a go at this tier list template.
Paddy from Chicago's Mario Tier List (By: pat_mandu)
pat_mandu had a go at making a Super Mario tier list and this is how things panned out for them! Want to have a go? If you have Premium you can and you can even use their template to speed things up!
Lists
List of Shame 2026: "Plenty Spendy Sick" (By: Mento)
Mento has decided to update their list of games they bought, often at full price, and have yet to play. Is this something you can relate to? If so, consider making your own version of this list on the site.
User Reviews
chocobodude3's review of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a short one, but I kind of dig it. Even if you can't pen a multi-paragraph essay, you shouldn't let that discourage you from sharing a review on the site. Write however much or little you want and I'll happily give you a slot on the Community Spotlight!