Hello everyone 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 and staff-related news and best user-created works from the previous week! As many of you are aware, the Great Giant Bomb Road Trip has come to a close, which means the Giant Bomb gang will be at Mysterium (the Myst convention) THIS Saturday in Portland, Oregon! Their panel, The Trial of Daddy Atrus, will be at 4:30PM PT!
Speaking of which, the VOD for Day #1 of the Giant Bomb road trip can be found over here.
Over on the site itself you can enjoy a new feature or portal if you haven't done so already called "Giant Bomb's Games That Made History!" This is something that Chuck made this after tinkering with the site and wiki for a bit and you should definitely give it a read when you have the time and fill out which games from this timeline you have and have even completed. Some users have been using the Giant Bomb Discord to share gaps or games they think deserve a spot on this page, and after the roadtrip wraps up, Chuck hasn't ruled out any updates or revisions. For now, it's definitely a cool think on the site you can do Chuck a favor in spreading the word and sharing it with as many gaming friends you know.
A few users have been getting gambling ads on the non-Premium podcast feed. As Chuck shared on the Giant Bomb Discord, Google recently changed their policies on gambling ads and are allowing more of them. The Giant Bomb staff have stated their preferences with their ad partner that they don't want them, but there's not much they can do other than send an angry email when the crop up. If you do get these sorts of ads, or any other unsavory ads or even political ones, drop a comment in the "site-tech-issues" section of the Giant Bomb Discord.
Last week issues with Chrome were one of the bigger issues facing members of the community trying to enjoy Giant Bomb content and streams on the site. Chuck posted an update they may have possibly resolved the issue, but more input from all of you is greatly appreciated. As they share in the thread, moving forward the site will be "storing old front-end files longer term in a GCS bucket and serving them from there; this should make it so if your browser tries to reference old files, it will still work. Then at some point your browser will pick up the changes as things cycle through," but feel free to share if that is still not resolving the problems.
Someone on the Discord asked about trying to link their YouTube Account to Giant Bomb Premium now that the site is playing around with memberships on YouTube. Sadly, that's not possible now or (likely) ever. The only option right now is if you get a YouTube membership, then you can get premium content on Giant Bomb with account linkage because money is going to both YouTube and Giant Bomb (which is also why it's more expensive).
And finally, as I will share in the thread that announced it, last week marked the 18th birthday of Giant Bomb as a website, authoritatively, about video games! As a wise man once so eloquently put it, it's been a long road getting from here to there, but here we are! Giant Bomb can legally consume alcohol in most countries and even vote at this point! As so many people have already shared, what are some of your favorite Giant Bomb moments the past eighteen years? Is it something from the Whiskey Media days? Are you still fond of the Giant Beast days? Is there something with the most recent years of Giant Bomb that sticks out to you? Share away and hopefully we can all continue making memories here!
Fan Art
Banjo-Minotti (By: Anya)
Many thanks to Giant Bomb Discord user Anya for making this INCREDIBLE Banjo-Minotti boxart cover! You can catch more incredible works of Giant Bomb fan art as they drop by joining the GB Discord, which I have included as an invite link to above!
Giant Bomb Roadtrip Sketch (By: WarpMart)
The Giant Bomb roadtrip was certainly a blast, especially when Dan and Mike were up to their usual antics. In response, WarpMart decided to make this sketch which I think perfectly captures the vibes in that van as it housed Dan and Mike within arms reach of each other.
Giant Bomb Clip of the Week
Grubb Owes Us Butt Stuff (By: firehair12000)
Transcript
Grubb: I owe you guys butt stuff
Dan: What's that?
Grubb: I owe them butt stuff.
Dan: Oh, okay.
Community Articles
Hey MiSTer, Whatcha Up To? (By: ford_dent)
What's the absolute state of MiSTer in the year of our Lord, 2026? Well, Giant Bomb user ford_dent just got their SuperStation and writes about how that's going for them and if they recommend the device for any retro gamers in the community.
Game OVA Reversal: Episode 3—Download +
Indie Game of the Week 477: Harold Halibut (By: Mento)
Mento has two continuations of their expected article-based programming on Giant Bomb. The first, a new entry in their Game OVA Reversal series, jumps on the Ghost in the Shell zeitgeist by checking out Madhouse's long-forgotten Download OVA. If you have never heard of this work, check out Mento's post and see if it has any merits these days.
Likewise, Mento's latest "Indie Game of the Week" checks out Harold Halibut and relays if they think it deserved any of the GOTY buzz it got when it first released. Read what they think and why the game ended up giving them the same vibes as the first Gabriel Knight.
DEMO-lition Derby: A Review Of The Demos For South of the March, Woodo, and Penguin Colony (By: ZombiePie)
ZombiePie is back with a new write-up discussing three new game demos they checked out that have been getting some buzz on the internet: South of the March, Woodo, and Penguin Colony. Did any of the demos for these games impress them? Read to find out!
What's The Greatest Video Game Of All Time: Tomodachi Life Living The Dream (By: imunbeatable801)
This edition of imunbeatable801's "What's the Greatest Game" by on @giantbomb looks at Tomodachi Life Living the Dream. Do they prefer it to the first game? Read their post to find out what they think and don't forget to share where you stand as well!
Forum Posts Worth Checking Out
Wiki
Big Changes (Positive) To The Wiki! (By: Chuck)
As mentioned earlier, Chuck deployed a major update to the wiki recently. This update hopefully has fixed some of the formatting and display issues on older wiki pages and should set things up for a smoother future. If you want to read all about what has been done and how you can help, give the following post a read.
General Discussion
Happy 18th Birthday To Giant Bomb; It's (Still) A Website About Video Games (By: ZombiePie)
Happy 18th anniversary to Giant Bomb! It's been a long road getting from there to here, but here we are! Share your favorite Giant Bomb moments with the rest of the community in the thread. Personally, I'm rather impartial to Jeff's Tim Allen autobiography reading at PAX.
Arcade Challenge Game Club: Vs Super Mario Bros (By: imunbeatable801)
The latest pick for the Giant Bomb Arcade Game Challenge is Vs. Super Mario Bros! Want to join the fun or possibly pick the next game? Do you think you can make Giant Bomb history and take the top prize this time around? Regardless of how you answer any of those questions in your head, drop a comment in the thread and at least show your support for the group's continuing efforts on the forums!
The GB Album Club 118 - Stella by Yello (By: unclejam23)
This week's pick for the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is Stella by Yello! Are any of you Yello fans? Do you like the groups move away from experimental sounds? Join the fun over here and don't forget that the group is always looking for new members!
What Are Your Favorite Monolith Soft Xeno Series Games (Xenogers, Xenosaga And Xenoblade) (By: chocobodude3)
There have been rumblings around the Xeno series by Monolith Soft online with a few collabs and press releases recently, but what are your favorite games? For one thing, are you a Xenoblade or Xenosaga fan?
Tell Me Your Funniest Interaction(s) About Video Games With People Who Seldom (Or Never) Play Video Games (By: atheistpreacher)
Can you think of any funny IRL interactions with people about video games from people that seldom or rarely talk about or play video games? Share your examples in the discussion thread linked above.
PS3 Streaming On The PS5 (By: csl316)
For those with the PS+ tier that nets you PS3 games how do you rate the quality of Sony's streaming program Is it a good way to re-experience classics from that era? Are you still better off emulating these games?
What Are Your Top 5 Best Games With World Reactivity To Your Choices And Why (By: chocobodude3)
What are games that you feel reactive to your choices or decisions? What stood out in those games and how did they make you feel? Join the conversation and share which games you think are the best examples of games reminding you that they didn't forget about your choices.
Suggestions & Bug Box
Issues on Chrome [Possibly Resolved/Update Posted] (By: gyratyne)
As mentioned earlier, Chuck has deployed a site update/change that hopefully resolved the issues with Chrome not playing nice with the site. If you're using Chrome and still are experiencing issues, please drop a comment in the thread above and be as specific as possible with your Chrome version and OS.
Not Sure if Bug - Regarding User Reviews (By: linksocarina)
linksocarina has been on a storm trying to revive their old game reviews from the original version of the site. Thus far, they have only encountered a few issues and Chuck has been able to resolve them rather quickly. Nonetheless, if any of you decide to revive/restore old user-created content make a thread, or, if it is about user reviews, share your issues in this thread.
Lists/Tier Lists
Video Game Bear Tier List (By: mocbucket62)
mocbucket62 has made a good attempt at making what they consider the DEFINITIVE tier list of video game bears! Here's a hint of what they consider the bestest and most top tier bears in all of gaming and remember, if you have Giant Bomb Premium, you can use their template for your own list.
User Reviews
undeadpool published a review for Rogue Galaxy on Giant Bomb and you can read what they mean when they call it one of the most buffet games they have ever played!
infantpipoc decided to boot up Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and shares in their review on Giant Bomb on why they still think it represents Platinum's "peak" as a game studio and why the battle against President Armstrong may well stand as the greatest individual thing they have ever made.
linksocarina has been going back and restoring old reviews they published on Giant Bomb back on the old site. The reviews they restored last week that are a real blast from the past are:
If any of you reading this decides to do the same, keep me posted as I am more than happy to include you in a future edition of the Community Spotlight.