The Community Spotlight 2024.07.06

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 big site-related news and best community creations from the previous week.

First, as most of you could already tell, all of Fandom had a four day weekend due to Independence Day in America, which is why UPF was recorded on Wednesday and there was no Bombcast REVENGEANCE either.

Also, there have been complications related to the Lifetime Premium Subscriptions for those of you that bought them when Giant Bomb was selling tickets to its live Summer Game Fest panel. Bakalar and others on the customer service side of things are working on the issue and ask for you patience. If any of you have your premium subscriptions expire or lapse in the meantime, please send an email to support@giantbomb.com. Also, for those of you that could not send in your information to the Google Form to get your lifetime subscription, please try again and then send an email to support if that still does not work.

Over on YouTube, Giant Bomb tried something different with its 16th anniversary celebration. The entirety of Metal Gear Scanlon is now free on YouTube! Additionally, Season 5, which consists of Drew and Dan playing through Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, has been published it as a single continuous video! It's 43 hours and one of the longest videos on YouTube! If any of you manage to actually finish the video, let me know because that would be a genuine accomplishment!

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not end this episode with a not about the previous week marking the 11th anniversary of Ryan Davis' passing. The date creeps up every year and as Giant Bomb continues to march on with new, excited, and passionate faces both in staff and community. I realize there are many of you that possibly joined Giant Bomb after Ryan's death. There's no shame in that. I'm glad you are here, but I do want to pause for a minute to communicate why many of us still grieve at this moment for Ryan. Below are a collection of the Ryan moments that continue to live "rent free" as many would say in my head. For those of you that were not here when Ryan commanded a presence on the Bombcast or during Quick Looks, viewing just a few of these videos will communicate clearly how much Ryan loved games and loved sharing his passion to everyone. I rest happily knowing that you feel there are people at Giant Bomb now that provide that for you, and I also know that his legacy and his vision continue to persist even as Giant Bomb changes and evolves. Thank you, Ryan.

• Quick Look: Dragonball Evolution
• Train Simulator 2012: Trains vs Zombies Gameplay Playthrough
• Quick Look: Story Hour: Adventures
• Gamespot Karaoke
• Bombcast Bombinations: Will Smith's ¡Exzécutable! Decision
• Giant Bomb Animated (Kinda) - In the Mouth of Madden-ness
• An Entire Day of Kinect (04/11/2010)
• Unedited Testimonial Video: Ryan Davis

Tweets

Galleria

The Full Minotti (By: @jearum)

jearum heard Lucy James get close to naming the Minotti x Full Monty mashup and went with it with this movie poster. Fun fact, my mother's favorite movie is The Full Monty even though she always complains that it takes her a good fifteen minutes to understand what they are saying. She also started watching Delicious in Dungeon and will not stop sending me text messages about how much she hates the cat. That's my life right now.

Activities

The GB Album Club 062 - Phantasmagoria of Jathilan by Raja Kirik (By: @unclejam23)

The Album of the Week Club welcomes you to join them in their discussion of Phantasmagoria of Jathilan by Raja Kirik. Have you heard of this group before? Are there other works of theirs that you recommend?

Bluey: the Videogame Is The 14th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By July 15. Mark Spoilers +

Botany Manor Is The 13th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By July 1. Spoilers Open (By: @bigsocrates)

Well, it won by a considerable margin, so, Bluey: The Videogame is the latest pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! Do any of you out there watch the show? Is the game a decent representation of what makes it so popular? Share away!

Additionally, the Game Pass Game Club has opened up its discussion for Botany Manor to SPOILERS! Did you find any "goodies" while playing the game worth reporting? How did you feel about how the game ends?

Video

A Terrible Night (By: Lanz Alentzia)

Hey, whoever said AMVs were dead? Over on YouTube, Lanz Alentzia is starting a funny experiment that mashes hilarious Giant Bomb moments with the cheesiest cutscenes in video game history! This one uses Alex lamenting missing out on seeing Werner Herzog over a notorious cutscene from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.

king minotti (By: TheM00ndawg)

A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of you enjoyed the Giant Bomb x Dragon Ball fan art that jearum made last week, and with good reason, it was incredible stuff from jearum! However, there is one person who disliked those works of art and it's Mike Minotti. That's because he was unhappy about the character jearum decided to connect him with.

Blogs

Indie Game of the Week 377: Phoenotopia Awakening +

Mento's Month: June '24 +

Game OVA Season 3: Episode 1 — Area 88 (By: @mento)

Mento continues their "Indie Game of the Week" series with a blog examining and assessing Phoenotopia: Awakening by developer Cape Cosmic! Read why they were impressed by the game's scope and Zelda II-inspired structure as well as its nostalgic pixel-based look.

It being the start of a new month means that Mento also wrote a review of everything they played and watched last month. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is their "Game of the Month" but there are other games and anime worth discussing!

Finally, Mento also revived their blog series on where they look at the anime OVA-to-game pipeline! To start things off for their third season, they the anime, Area 88 and how it led to the creation of the beloved U.N. Squadron!

Satya Nadella's Vision For The Future Is Blowing Up While Phil Spencer Takes The Most Embarrassing Victory Lap (By: @zombiepie)

Previously, moderator ZombiePie wrote about their lack of confidence in Xbox's Summer Showcase. This week, they affirm that as they look at Satya Nadella's vision for the future blowing up and Phil Spencer's embarrassing victory lap.

Seen Unbelievable Things? Part 1 Of 2 Half Decade Into A Past +

Seen Unbelievable Things? Part 2 of 2 Quarter Century into A Future (By: @infantpipoc)

Blade Runner 2099 is starting filming SOON so infantpipoc decided to re-watch the original Blade Runner as well as Blade Runner 2049. Check out their write-ups on both and see why they think 2049 is a complete improvement on the original in almost every narrative regard even if the original is rightfully regarded as more historically important.

All 3DO Games (Kinda) In Order: 1994 (Part 09) (By: @borgmaster)

borgmaster decided to talk about FMV adult games on the 3DO before the SCOTUS and Republicans ban talking about porn on the internet. In the mean time, click the second link to read their blog about NeuroDancer: Journey Into The Neuronet!/Mind Teazzer, Night Trap, Novastorm, and PaTaank!

Gotta Rank Them All EP 1: Final Fantasy VII (By: @toolzz360)

toolzz360 is new to the site and is starting things with a bang as they start a new blog/review feature of going through every single Final Fantasy game while also ranking them from best to worst! Sounds like a good idea.

My 2024 Rankings Halfway Through The Year. Not A Lot Of AAA Or Standouts For Me. (By: @bigsocrates)

We are halfway done with 2024 and bigsocrates decided to review the games they have played thus far and see if they could justify a top ten list already! Which games did they like and hate? See how things shaped up in this blog!

Discussion Threads

Ryan Davis, 1979 - 2013 (By: @rorie)

As mentioned in the intro, it has now been eleven years since Ryan passed away and I want to thank those of you that have checked out the original article announcing Ryan's death to pay your respects once again.

Heads Up Folks: GB Uploaded Metal Gear Scanlon To YouTube For Your Viewing Pleasure (By: @ben_h)

As you might have noticed earlier, Giant Bomb just put every single episode of every season of Metal Gear Scanlon on YouTube for free! What do you think of this as a way to republish old Giant Bomb content? Also, what are your favorite Drew and Dan moments from it?

Hey, Dolphin Got An Update For The First Time In Eight Years! (By: @zombiepie)

After an eight year break, the Dolphin emulator finally got an update and this one is a big one! Are you excited to hear that Dolphin will have continual updates moving forward? Also, what platforms or devices will you use this version of Dolphin on?

It's Maddening How Much "Anti-Woke" Stuff Gets Shoved Down Your Throat Trying To Engage With Gaming Discourse (By: @bigsocrates)

It's an uncomfortable topic but also one we are all facing increasingly on social media and other platforms like YouTube, but how are you fighting against algorithms presenting you with "anti-woke" or alt-right garbage? Have any tips?

Welcome (Maybe) A New Multimedia Empire/Overlord (Part Three): Skydance And Paramount Reach A Deal With A Caveat (By: @zombiepie)

It sounds like Skydance is moments away from merging with Paramount and creating a new multimedia empire. Get a helpful summary of how we got here and discuss how you feel about the television and movie world contracting.

Reviews

@yyninja's Unicorn Overlord review talks about why they think the strategic gameplay carries a mediocre plot and what they consider the most bland Vanillaware protagonist yet. Give it a read and feel free to write your own!

@infantpipoc's Opus: Echo of Starsong review shares why they consider it a buried treasure game that should not be missed. With the game on sale as part of the Steam Summer Sale, read why you might want to give it a chance!

Lists

The Worst Superhero Video Games (By: @captainofthestars)

captainofthestars challenged themselves to make a list of what they consider the worst superhero video games ever made. Here's what they have so far, and if you think you could make a list as well, feel free

Wiki Of The Week

Giant Bomb Reference

With the anniversary of Ryan's death, I am once again reminded of one of the funnier concept pages that we have in the database. Have you noticed video games that made reference to this website? Well, we have a wiki page that attempts to catalogue all of these games, but the page could use one of you reviewing what is on here and updating it to include new games that may have sneaked in a reference or two.

Also, that you can feel free to share your thoughts about. Should references to Drew's Blinking White Guy meme count for the "Giant Bomb Reference" concept page? It happened during a Giant Bomb stream, sure, but I think we accept that 99% of people who use and know the meme don't know it comes from Giant Bomb. However, what do you think?