Let's all welcome Austin Walker =D

Hey ya'll, let's all welcome Austin Walker into the Giant Bomb family~! =D

I'm super excited about one of my favorite writers coming on board to one of my favorite websites! Yesss~~~

Wait...........what?!

The mods can indeed confirm that Austin Walker is now part of Giant Bomb East. Everyone be sure to welcome him here.

http://www.giantbomb.com/podcasts/the-giant-beastcast-episode-01/1600-1226/ Ya'll will want to listen to the end of this Beastcast!

Welcome Austin!

Oh wait for real? There's a new guy on the GBEast team? Cool!

Never heard of him, I hope I'm as happy with him as I have been with Dan & Jason!

(on a side note; I played some Roundabout for the first time yesterday and saw your big debut Fobwashed! Get it son!)

Whaaaa?! Awesome!

I wasn't super familiar with Austin's work previously, but since the mods learned he was the new hire a few days ago I've read a bunch of his articles and he's a great writer. Looking forward to seeing his work on Giant Bomb. Here is his kinda "best of 2014" post which links to a load of his recent work, if anyone wants to check it out.

Welcome aboard, Austin.

OH MY GOODNESS! Great get! I can't wait to see what he writes for the site!

What an awesome surprise. Welcome, Austin!

Awesome, he's a great fit! Welcome Austin!

Welcome Austin! Looking forward to seeing your work and contributions.

I'll join my fellow mod-types and the rest of the community by saying a big happy "Congrats and Welcome to GB!" to Austin!

Exactly the sort of person I expected to be hired.

Welcome! And I look forward to seeing your work evolve with your time on this website. Should be very interesting.

Neato! Austin's a great writer, and about the best pick they could have picked! Glad to welcome you, Austin! :D

I just knew they were going to announce the new hire via the Beastcast. Anywhoo neat, he seems alright from what I've heard of him thus far.

Well, that was weird listening to the end of the BeastCast. Welcome!

@rmanthorp: oh I can't wait for him to troll Dan and we can plaster comments with this :p

Welcome aboard Austin! Can't wait to see what you bring, really looking forward to it.

Haven't listnes to the BeastCast yet, so this is a conplete surprise to me. Welcome Austin!!!:D

This is beyond excellent! Welcome!

Cool, welcome to GB Austin!

Anyone got some links for articles by Mr Walker so I can do a bit of background reading?

Welcome! Now get out to California for E3!

Woot woot!

I've loved his writing over at Paste, so this is good!

ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

Looking at his top 10 from last year on this website he certainly has unique taste as far as giantbomb goes. Here's hoping he has stuff to say about more typical videogames too.

Spoilers, yeesh!

Also, yay! Also also, the next hire after Dan just *happens* to be named Austin, the last name of an iconic wrestler? I've got my eye on you, Mr. Walker... or should I say Dan Ryckert in disguise!?

Great! Welcome Austin!

Unexpected choice for me but exciting to see someone get hired who's primarily a writer.

Welcome Austin!

I have no idea what an Austin Walker is, but I look forward to finding out.

@fobwashed said:

Hey ya'll, let's all welcome Austin Walker into the Giant Bomb family~! =D

I'm super excited about one of my favorite writers coming on board to one of my favorite websites! Yesss~~~

Awesome! Been following Austin Walker for a while too, he writes really good stuff. His piece on Darkest Dungeon was excellent.

A Burnt Torch: Darkest Dungeon, Mental Health and Lovecraftian Horror

Always enjoyed Austin's work. Now it's just going to be easier for me to find. Welcome!

What a great hire, congrats Austin and welcome aboard.

I read up a bit on his writings from links on neogaf and hot damn. Very welcome, Austin Walker! This is a nice GET

Welcome Austin, hope you enjoy your stay.

Wooooo! Welcome aboard!

Welcome! Awesome :D

Most important question: Whats his opinion on Yoshi and Mario Party?

YEAH! Cool! A "fancy" person! GBEAST just gets better and better.

Such great news.

Let's all continue to ask Jeff who the new hire is!

Wait.

NEW GUY!

@thenine: Here is an article he wrote on NPCs and the limited ways you can interact with them in Watchdogs and Shadow of Mordor. Here is an article he wrote on Battlefield Hardline and its unfortunate relationship with current police violence. Here is an essay on how sanity is represented in Darkest Dungeon.

They are all really good and they could be pretty revelatory if you have never read stuff from sites other than GB and Gamespot.

I listened to the podcast. Austin fit right in. Good hire.

Although, I was hoping that GB would add some 'estrogen' to the regular commentary.

After some cursory research I've learned Austin is a fan of tactical rpgs and Valkyria Chronicles. I cannot express how on board I am with this hire. Welcome to Giant Bomb, Austin!

Didn't realize there was already a thread on this!

I'm also not very familiar with the guy, but he seems engaging and entertaining on the Beastcast. Hopefully he is a quality addition to the team.

Also here's an essay he wrote on abuse in Gone Home. It's super good and now I'm going back through all of his stuff.

Welcome to the crew! I have to admit I wasn't familiar with your work before today, but the stuff of yours I read has been awesome. Glad to see another writer on the staff

Austin is a longtime friend, a tremendous writer, a hilarious streamer on twitch, and just an incredibly passionate and considerate dude. Those of you that don't know him are in for a real fucking treat. I'm so excited.