First, there's a new shirt in the Giant Bomb store and this AMAZING design comes from Blake Stevenson! Also, there is a men's and women's variant in fourteen color options!
A friendly reminder from last week, PAX West 2023 will be taking place from September 1st through the 4th at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. During PAX West, Giant Bomb will host not one, but TWO panels! These panels are:
- The PAX Panel Show - Friday, Sept 1 at 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM PDT
- Giant Bomb: The Voicemail Dump Truck Rolls into PAX West (13+) - Saturday, Sept 2 at 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM PDT
For those that noticed missing episodes for podcasts on the site and on podcast apps, The Beastcast, All Systems Goku, and Jeff Jeff's seem to be good. The Bombcast still seems short on episodes, but Bakalar is the one that plans to fix the issue by resending every episode from 2014 and earlier. However, given the amount of podcasts that need to be resent, it's a major undertaking and will require additional time.
Regarding ads on the podcast, Giant Bomb is still working on premium JJBA and GMM feeds. Also, people have noted the new ads that are being inserted in the place of older ones. These generative ads and the struggles with having premium podcasts provide ad-free content stems from the site needing to switch to a new podcast advertisement partner after the previous one continually failed to compensate the site. Dylayn/dtoast was on vacation last week, but they want emails to support@giantbomb.com and Zendesk support tickets as soon as possible to justify triaging issues with the new ads or the premium podcast feeds as a top priority.
Fandom was in the news and so was Giant Bomb. The CEO of Fandom did an interview with The Verge and Giant Bomb came up over a half-dozen times. I will warn you, while it is shocking to see the CEO of the network openly profess support for Giant Bomb's subscription model, most of this interview is about the use of AI on textual websites and Fandom Wikis breaking away from the network. Though, finding out they have a trans child and refuses to back down from LGBTQ+ tolerance and diversity initiatives was nice.
Finally, for all of you who've been here a long time, Metal Gear Scanlon celebrated its 9th Anniversary AND Video Thing: 2Human celebrated its 15th Anniversary!
Tweets
HOT NEW DUMPS HAVE HIT THE STORE
— Giant Bomb (@giantbomb) August 25, 2023
Thanks to @blakestevenson for the art!https://t.co/3wircsgptH pic.twitter.com/qj2o4WOftP
I often stress about "supporting devs" by buying Collector's Editions etc. (I'm literally having a back-and-forth right now about the Starfield CE in my pre-orders), but @JeffGrubb on the @giantbomb cast recently helped me reframe my perspective. pic.twitter.com/BB7K3P8EJu
— DTG is waiting impatiently for Armored Core VI (@DavidTomGault) August 25, 2023
Oh, and today marks another important video anniversary in @giantbomb history, but this video needs no introduction.
— GB Duders Feed (@GBDudersFeed) August 20, 2023
This happened 15 years ago.
Video Thing: 2Human - https://t.co/Fvu8IvpGkC pic.twitter.com/Tzvj9JIMWr
I got to see Charles Martinet do his thing a few times at E3. I might be the only person who has a mostly full recording of the behind-closed-doors Nintendo DS presentation he hosted in 2004.
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) August 22, 2023
I've seen a few other 1-minute clips, but here's 10 minutes.https://t.co/uK8LMMK4ZO
— Giant Bomb Out of Context (@GBombOOC) August 21, 2023
Activities
Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting August 28, 2023 +
Supraland: 6 Inches Under Is The 17th Selection Of Year Two Of The UUGPGC! Finish By August 28, 2023! Mark Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)
It's time for YOU TO VOTE for the next game tackled by the Community Game Pass Game Club. Here are the nominees and remember that you can vote for TWO GAMES!
Supraland Six Inches Under is the the 17th selection of season two of the Game Pass Game Club! If you have any impressions of the first-person Metroidvania game set in the Supraland IP or the Supraland world in general, SHARE NOW!
The GB Album Club 037 - We Like It Here by Snarky Puppy (By: @unclejam23)
The Giant Bomb Community Album Club is getting JAZZY with this edition of the Giant Bomb Album Club! This time the group is looking at We Like It Here by Snarky Puppy! If you have any thoughts to share or are interested in join the fun in the future, click the link!
Art
Lucy Funko Pop (By:@MOHAMMEDFI10)
Last week they made a Funko Pop for Tam, and this week they went ahead and made one for Lucy! Click the link above and thank them for their incredible work!
Mortal Kombat ArmaGrubben (By: @jearum)
Have you been enjoying the new video series where Grubb plays through the entire reboot era Mortal Kombat games? Well, jearum sure has and they decided to make a poster for the feature using the likeness of Grubb, Dan, and Mike!
Kinda Funny & Giant Bomb Wedding Crashers (By: @kone)
Friend of the site, Imran Khan, recently got married and you might know this thanks to Kinda Funny and Giant Bomb using his wedding in video and podcast content. After lamenting this fact, Kone had some fun with this work of photoshop goodness!
Is Mike Minotti The Jar Jar Of Modern Giant Bomb (By: @ogto)
ogto raises a good point with this work of photoshop art. Is Mike Minotti the Jar Jar of the current era of Giant Bomb? Even if you think that is too mean to Jar Jar, send words of appreciation their way on Twitter for making this and posing this fun brain teaser.
Blogs
The (Un)Official Giant Bomb Trading Card Game (By: @drmaddock)
Someone just created a Giant Bomb-themed TCG and it has rules and cards of staffers both new and old! Check it out over here and SPREAD THE WORD! This is genuinely one of the best things made by the GB community this year!
What is the Cost of Defeating Evil? (By: @majormitch)
majormitch turned their thoughts about Tears of the Kingdom's ending into a blog on Giant Bomb! If you don't mind SPOILERS then read why they think the game does a magnificent job of making you think of the "cost of defeating evil!"
All 3DO Games (Kinda) In Order: 1994 (Part 03) (By: @borgmaster)
It's time. After announcing that they would be playing every single 3DO game to ever release in North America, borgmaster has reached Plumbers Don't Wear Ties. A game too wretched for Dan, Grubb, and Mike for Blight Club.
Armored Core, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Robot Building (By: @arbitrarywater)
There's a LOT of hype surrounding Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. So, ArbitraryWater played every single game in the franchise and wrote a blog on which ones they recommend for newcomers and what they think AC6 will be like!
Indie Game of the Week 334: Cris Tales (By: @mento)
Moderator Mento has another edition of their "64 in 64" series and this episode looks at and assesses Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Gex 64: Enter the Gecko! Do you like Hoth levels and memes? If so, check this blog out! It's also time for a new edition of Mento's "Indie Game of the Week" feature on Giant Bomb and this episode is all about Cris Tales! Remember this time-travelling themed role-playing game?
Skill Shot: A Brief History of Pinball (By: @gamer_152)
In a blog that is bound to catch Jeff Bakalar's attention, moderator Gamer_152 wrote about the long and storied history of pinball. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about the subject, give it a read!
Discussion Threads
Charles Martinet Is Stepping Down From His Mario Video Game Roles (By: @bigsocrates)
What is your reaction to the news of Charles Martinet stepping away from voicing Mario? Rather than speculate what happens next, join the community in a round of applause to the man and hoping he enjoys his post-Mario life!
BioWare Might Be Imploding; Cuts 50 Positions And Cites Need To Become "Agile" For Release of Dreadwolf (By: @zombiepie)
What is everyone's thoughts about the layoffs announced for BioWare? Are the studio's days numbered? How confident are you that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will ever come out, let alone its new Summer 2024 release date?
PlayStation Portal, A PlayStation 5 Wi-Fi-Only Remote Play-Focused Device, Will Cost $199.99 (By: @zombiepie)
Is there anyone out there planning to pick it up? Under what conditions do you think its asking price is justified, if ever?
Baldur's Gate 3 Is Finally Coming To Xbox With MS Waiving Requirement That Series X and S Have No Feature Differences (By: @zombiepie)
What are your thoughts about Microsoft waiving the requirement that there not be feature differences between the Xbox Series S and X with the release of Baldur's Gate 3? Does this set a good or bad precedent?
Lists
The Batman Archetype + The Superman Archetype (By: @captainofthestars)
captainofthestars made lists of video game characters they thought fell into a "Batman Archetypes" and "Superman Archetype." Give each list a gander and see if you can think of any characters they may have missed.
Street Fighter 6 DLC Wishlist (By: @jeremyf)
It's safe to say that Street Fighter 6 made a good impression during EVO 2023. As a result, jeremyf tried their hand at making a list of SF6 DLC characters they think best suit the game based entirely on "vibes."
User Reviews
@pauljeremiah's Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes & Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain reviews have them nearing the finish line of their review retrospective of the Metal Gear Solid franchise! Discover if they enjoyed the last times we saw Solid Snake in a proper Metal Gear game!
@infantpipoc wrote a great review for Quake II after playing it as part of the 2023 remaster on Steam Deck. Even though it only took them five hours to get to the credits, you can read why they found it to be a highly experience!
Wiki Of The Week
Charles Martinet has voiced more than just Mario in the Mario universe. However, I have already showcased the site's amazing pages for the likes of Mario and Luigi. So, let's go with the lovable goof, Wario for our hat-tipping for Martinet's retirement announcement!