Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight, and I am honored to be your host once again! As all of you will quickly discover I took to heart a lot of the input that many of you provided about improving the format and readability of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight. As always please continue to provide more advice as this is a feature for YOU and always has been.
Anyways in terms of the housekeeping for the site there are a few items worth going over. Firstly Dan is selling a signed "Waluigi #1" sign from Wrestlemania with all of the proceeds going to charity over here. Friend of the site Dave Lang wants to inform any Giant Bomb users that did NOT receive your Extra-Life rewards from Iron Galaxies to drop a comment over here. The engineers have located the problem behind the CSRF Token errors! It all traced back to the spam attacks earlier this and last week, and a fix has been deployed. Speaking of the spambot problem @edgework would like to inform you that the anti-spam measures that he designed sometimes target regular users. If this happens to you please refer to this guide, and DO NOT create an alternate account as a remedy. Finally...you all really need to check out the PAXAMANIA.com site that @marinocreated.
Clip(s) of the Week
The first clip comes from BTNS from YouTube/Tumblr who has been using the Giant Bomb Quick Look intro to sharpen his animation chops. Check out his best attempt at animating the intro below! The second "clip" is a fairly amazing animated .gif from @fobwashed and showcases his attempt to cross Dan's love for all things Waluigi and Metal Gear Scanlon. Fobwashed also created a wonderfully hilarious clip featuring Drew's bafflement with MGS3's Fury boss battle.
The Giant Bomb Weekly Gallery
As some of you may recall last Sunday was Wrestlemania, and for those of you that did NOT watch the event our very own Dan perpetrated an invasion of the event by promoting his doofy face, Air Force Gator, as well as his pro-Waluigi propaganda. Don't believe me? Well here's the proof:
Community Activities
- Giant Bomb Community Game Jam - EVENT ENDS April 5th! - Remember to Post Your GamesHere!
- Giant ROM ZERO - Here's an Archive of Every Single User Created Giant Bomb Themed Game (Eight Currently)
- Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run - All Set for April 10th to 12th - You Still Have Time to Join the Effort to Raise Money for Charity!
- Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run Royal Rumble - Be An Active GBCER Participant By Signing Up to Play in the Royal Rumble Event!
- Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run Donation Page - Help Them Raise $3,000 for Pencils of Promise!
Best of Blogs
- Sony's Newest Update and How it Helps One Gamer (By:@sparky_buzzsaw) - Sparky_Buzzsaw may be legally blind, but that doesn't stop him from enjoying games. You can read all about how Sony's latest update greatly assists his ability to enjoy games with his disability. I should also add that friend of the site Patrick wrote an article about Sparky on Kotaku.
- PAXAMANIA.com (By: @marino) - Fellow moderator Marino went ahead and created PAXAMANIA.com. Check out his blog to enjoy and "understand" the thought process behind the site.
- Living the Fantasy: A Year and a Half of A Realm Reborn Part 2.3 [Part 2.2] (By: @meestero) - MeesterO continues his retrospective of the year and a half that he has spent playing Final Fantasy XIV. This week MeesterO discusses one of the best dungeons and instances in the game.
- Revisiting FFXIII #006 – The Group Comes Together and Faces Tragedy (By: @grantheaslip) - The latest edition of GrantHeaslip's FFXIII retrospective touches on how the game utilizes tragedy with its motley crew at the end of the game's first set piece.
- Deep Look: Final Fantasy IX- Speed Run Tips: Disc 2 Medley (By: @thatpinguino) - Are you ready for more Final Fantasy? Well thatpinguino has you covered with a Deep Look on how to speed through a handful of bosses in Final Fantasy IX!
- I Just Don't Get Blizzard's Card Design (By: @imsh_pl) - While he does love the game overall imsh_pl extrapolates on the issues that he has with Blizzard's card designs in Hearthstone.
- April Vita Lineup and Upcoming Titles (By: @blacklagoon) - A new month means that BlackLagoon is back with a blog annotating all of the games coming out for the PlayStation Vita in a single convenient blog post.
- Pillars of Eternity: Second Impressions (By: @mento) - Not wanting to stay on first base with a blog about his initial impressions from last week; Mento talks about how he went to second base with Pillars of Eternity on his latest blog.
- Wiki Project: Super '94 Q1 (By: @mento) - Mento has been doing some GREAT work on the Giant Bomb wiki with games both obscure and widely known, and you can read all about it on his latest blog!
- Things I Finished in March (By: @shindig) - Shindig struck Transistor, Valiant Hearts, and DmC from his backlog last month and you can read about his detailed thoughts about each of them on his blog!
- Throwback FPS month, Dark Forces, and Serious Sam 2 (By: @tonicbh) - Rather than play recent releases TonicBH went ahead and played the first Dark Forces and Serious Sam 2 this week.
- NorCal Regionals 2015 (Apr 3-5) & Hypespotting 4 (Apr 4-5) Preview! PLUS Daigo Umehara Retires, MKX Round Up & More! (By: @flstyle) - Get the event itinerary for the NorCal Regionals this weekend and all of the latest fighting game community news that you could want on FLStyle's blog!
- Monthly Roundup, March 2015 (By: @majormitch) - MajorMitch played a smattering of games ranging from Xeodrifter to Grow Home, and you can read about his detailed thoughts about each on his blog!
- Blogborne (with SPOILERS!) (By: @mooseymcman) - MooseyMcMan has written what can only be described as one of the most comprehensive examinations of Bloodborne on Giant Bomb that is well worth your time.
Join the Discussion!
- I'm Legally Blind and Want to Play Video Games. Help? (By: @barrock) - Help a fellow user that has suffered two strokes and now is dealing with serious myopia by recommending games that you think someone who is legally blind could play!
- Bloodborne PvP Discussion Thread (By: @fredchuckdave) - Has the PvP in Bloodborne been a nightmare or a romp for you thus far?
- Three-months in: What's Your Favorite *new* Game This Year? [Poll and Discussion Thread] (By:@beachthunder) - The first quarter of 2015 is about to wrap up, but which new release thus far is most likely to grace the top of your GotY list?
- Do Games Ever Make You Feel Motion Sick? [Poll and Discussion Thread] (By: @naoiko) Whether it's a freak case of vertigo or a crippling case of nausea has a video game ever given you a sense of motion sickness?
- Do You Play Games You Actively Dislike? (By: @fr0br0) - Are you a video game masochist, or is there a MST3K aspect to some of the worst games out there? Either way share your thoughts here about the validity of playing bad games.
Lovable Lists
- My Favorite People Behind the Scenes of Games (By: @sparky_buzzsaw) - Sparky_Buzzsaw looks back on the brilliant minds behind some of his favorite games of all time.
- Modern Urban City Builders (By: @capt_blakhelm) - Capt_Blakhelm is looking to create a list of every "modern" city builder game from the first Sim City game forward, and he wants your help in making it!
- My Top Ten Games of 1997 (By: @thesilentgod) - 1997 is one of the best years of gaming according to TheSilentGod, and you can check out his top ten list for the year to see why he thinks that.
Wonderful Wikis
This week we are honoring the continually awesome work that @mento makes to improve the wiki pages to numerous Japanese only games that few of you have ever heard about. Might I also provide a friendly reminder that this is all part of his latest Wiki Project that you can read on his latest blog, and that you are all capable of similar feats as well!
Useful User Reviews
- @wemibelec90's uses his review for There Came an Echo to explain if it's the game to finally integrate voice commands flawlessly. Hint: THE ANSWER IS NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
- @geekcomplex shares why he thinks Episode Two of Tales from the Borderlands is not only is a great game but sets the bar for the entire series.
- @machofantastico discusses how the online community and gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies: GardenWarfare has held up one year after its release.
- @jaypb08 writes why he thinks Halo: Reach is one of his favorite Halo games from the last generation.