What was your first experience with Giant Bomb?

At my old job, I used to go to Google news and randomly come across GB reviews. I saw Jeff on the Bonus Round before that and thought he was cool, but never checked out the site at home. Then I started to enjoy those reviews, and one day I finally remembered to check the site out on my own time. This was around Red Faction: Guerilla, a game I was extremely psyched for. I watched that Quick Look (which is still hilarious), and I've been here ever since.

I used to read Gamespot all the time back in the day, but I never really knew the staff that much (I was more into IGN and its podcasts). So I had to learn the backstory piece by piece, and then I started to realize why this site was so good. It was full of people I'd been reading for years.

@ShadowKing7 said:

I looked at Gamespot sporadically, and when I started looking up old reviews there, I noticed that Jeff had done a bunch. I found out about the controversy and this site when I looked him up. Coming here, the Mega Man 9 failure video was what got me thinking this would be a great site, though I was just a lurker until some months later when I would make an account here.

That video of Jeff's failure is a wonderful bit of magic.

It was the Bombcast for me, one of the first ones I started listening to when I started dl podcasts.

Don't recall what my first video on here was, but I do remember how I found the site. Back when 1up did the mass firings a few years back I kept hearing people posting in the comments about this site and how it was the best thing ever. So I said what the fuck. Giant Bomb sounds like a dumb ass website name for dumb asses, but since my main site at the time was now dead I might as well give it a chance since I now no longer had a home for my gaming news. Few years later, and a little under 10k posts, here I am.

It's kind of funny too, since I spent a short stint over at gamespot back when these guys were over there, but I thought they were the dumbest most annoying people in the world. No idea why it clicked with me over here.

been followin the guys since the days of on the spot and the hotspot. back when carrie, rich, greg, and the rest of the group all worked at gamespot. after the k&l controversy, i started to slowly distance myself from gamespot and following up with the blog that jeff was using after he took some time away from the internet for himself. over time i would see ppl leave gamespot one after another and i would more and more focus on their blogs instead of gamespot. then there was arrow pointing down. talk about gatorade tiger and about going to gdc. hearing the guys just shoot the shit together and uncensored was new to me after hearing them being censored so much beforehand. after some time, you would see a few more ppl chime in with them and then all the sudden there were talks of a new site and things getting a bit "smoggy". once they finally announced that they were opening a new site with dave and whiskey media, i sent my email in the first moment i could once they announced we could for entry to the site. been here ever since day 1 and before. no one does it better than the bomb crew. it's only going to get better from here on out. that much i do believe.

I causally browsed Gamespot, knowing their reviews as "Gamespot reviews" instead of "this guys/girls review". One day I randomly decided to check out On the Spot, and checked out a few after that until I sort of casually knew who some of the people were. I had never listened to The Hotspot because podcasts didn't interest me at the time. The whole Jeff thing happened and because I sort of knew who Jeff was and liked him to a certain degree, I looked his name up on a Google search a little while after the fact and came upon the Arrow Pointing Down blog. I listened to their first podcast and that was that.

My first experience with giantbomb was the arrow pointing down podcast I guess. Though I did follow onthespot and hotspot on gamespot before that so it wasn't the first time I experienced Jeff and his crew.

I don't remember what the first thing I watched/read was, but I do remember that I first came here from a link in a Cracked article that was talking about the Gerstmanngate incident.

Rogue Warrior Quick Look.

I've been with the Giantbomb crew since the Arrow Pointing Down days, and the very first videos of How to Build a Bomb.

Ever since Ryan and Jeff were on the 1Up yours podcast for a Christmas episode. Checked the site out after tat and have been here ever since.

Here from day 1. Followed Jeff from Gamespot straight to GB, registered July 21. Still remember that GB logo with Old Snake mustache.

I don't remember why I was there but newest piece of content on the site the first time I was here was the MGS4 review. I only checked the site occasionally until the Crash Time QL.

@blindisaac said:

Ever since Ryan and Jeff were on the 1Up yours podcast for a Christmas episode. Checked the site out after tat and have been here ever since.

This, except I came over after the 1UPocalypse, months later, because I remembered how fun that podcast was.

A friend had mentioned the site a few times, but I never bothered to check it out. When I did, the first thing I watched was this glorious quick look. I knew about three minutes in that this was the best site in the world.

I oversaw my brother watching a quick look for a game (can't remember which game) about a year ago. Checked out the site for myself and enjoyed it. Finally created an account a month ago and here I am currently.

been here since the very beginning though don't get much time to post these days.

Quick Look Throwbacks brought me in. I love footage of older games, and GB has them in spades. I believe the Dreamcast ones brought me in as a casual lurker, as I am a Dreamcast fanboy. The Happy Hours made me register an account and go premium at the tail-end of 2010.

a guy was like "remember that guy who used to work at Gamespot?" and I said "you mean Greg Kasavin?" and he said "no the other guys," and I said "no, I don't remember them," and then he linked me to the first building the bomb and I was like "this seems cool"

a podcast somewhere around a year after it started, I think. I'd tried listening to some other gaming podcasts and they were are just awful, uninteresting, abrasive, and poorly produced. The bombcast is pretty damn amazing. eventually I checked out the website and was surprised and blown away again by the quality.

Mine was the Quicklook of Tony Hawk Ride. No one else had a review because EA didn't send out review copies. GB bought a copy at retail and did a quicklook.

It struck me as a very straightforward thing to do, something other outlets didn't do either because they couldn't understand the idea of paying to acquire games or else because they were playing ball with EA.

I logged in to GB from Anime Vice and Comic VIne way back then. Stayed for all the quick looks and ER's.

I needed something to listen to for long stretches, because my schedule shifted into one requiring me to wait around for significant spells, so in March of 2010, near my birthday in fact, I downloaded an episode of the Giant Bombcast, seeing as I loved video games. It was the most mind-blowing thing I had ever heard, and my life was forever changed. Wherever I went, the Bomb Crew followed.

Same as OP! It was the Borderlands QL. Went from being a game I was interested in to one I was ravenous to play for myself, and I was blown away by the impromptu commentary, REAL opinions and substantial exposure of the game being exhibited. Since then I was hooked and I've bought many games I'd never have given a second glance otherwise. Long live GB!

Lets go back to the beginning..

I remember reading Nintendo Power in 2004 and first hearing about E3. I was a big fan of Nintendo and I eventually found a website called GameSpot who was live streaming the event. I guess I had no school that day and watched the whole thing. Got way too exited at the end when they showed the new Zelda game. (Link to that videoGamespot embed player is no good.)

That is how i discovered GameSpot and the Staff like Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Alex, and Rich. I think I watched every episode of On the Spot and the Hotspot podcast. (I got an iPod 1st Gen nano then too, so I had GameSpot on the go.) Once Jeff got fired and the rest of the editorial staff that gave that site personality left, so did I. Couple months later I looked for Jeff to see what he was doing and besides talking about Audiosurf on his personal blog, Found about How to Build a Bomb and the Arrow Pointing Down podcast (the first episodes of the now Giant Bombcast.) I have been following the site ever since and have probably watched every Quick Look as well.

I'm exited for the future of Giant Bomb in the new offices. It will be great that they can use that huge green screen too. I went to GameSpot last week for the first time since probably 2008 and the sites still looks pretty cool. Just like old times...

Gah... it been so long, I remember when they left GS in 07. I was one of the people who followed them to this site from there, but yeah, i don't remember too much of what happen back then (i mean what i saw/read on the site at the time)

I've been here since

I wasn't a gamespot user really but when Jeff started the arrow pointing down podcast I started listening to that. I didn't start visiting the site until the Endurance Run and I didn't actually register for the site until about a year ago when I decided I wanted a premium membership.

The first ever video I watched was Jeff playing Mega Man 9. At first I was annoyed because they never showed any footage than I kept watching and found it to be hilarious.

What got me to stay was right before Killzone 2 was released and they could only show like 30 seconds to a minute of footage so they cut the video with stick figures showing the action. Classic.

Bombcast for like a couple months then I decided to see what this giantbomb.com thing was all about and was blown away by all the amazing content.

@Brendan said:

I causally browsed Gamespot, knowing their reviews as "Gamespot reviews" instead of "this guys/girls review". One day I randomly decided to check out On the Spot, and checked out a few after that until I sort of casually knew who some of the people were. I had never listened to The Hotspot because podcasts didn't interest me at the time. The whole Jeff thing happened and because I sort of knew who Jeff was and liked him to a certain degree, I looked his name up on a Google search a little while after the fact and came upon the Arrow Pointing Down blog. I listened to their first podcast and that was that.

This is probably the closest to my story.

She was sitting at a Starbucks. We locked eyes from across the cafe. I spilled my caramel macchiato on my lap and made a mad dash toward the restroom. When I came out, she was gone.

I had just finished Persona 3, and was telling friends how much I loved it. People asked me if I had heard of the Persona 4 Endurance Run. Started watching it, got hooked, then started watching all the other videos and listening to the Bombcast.

I've posted this before, but I was watching G4TV's Feedback podcast-thing a few years ago (Which means I knew who Patrick was before I knew what Giant Bomb was all about. Seems odd now.) when they were talking about Deadly Premonition. I went to DP's Wikipedia page and saw a link there to the Endurance Run. I got hooked on that and then realized a few episodes in that..."Wait, the Jeff in these Deadly Premonition videos is Jeff Gerstmann?!" I remembered him from Gamespot but I didn't know him well enough to follow him over here. I've been here pretty much every day since.

after the whole gamespot debacle i followed Jeff and the guys on their various blogs and found the arrow pointing down podcast. the rest is history.

I had been visiting gamespot since 2004-2005. After Jeff and a lot of other staff left I stopped visiting. One day I found out Jeff and crew had a new blog and podcast and I've been visiting almost everyday since. I think I really got hooked with the How to build a bomb videos and this.

@Homer39 said:

after the whole gamespot debacle i followed Jeff and the guys on their various blogs and found the arrow pointing down podcast. the rest is history.

What this guy said. I remember Jeff setting up a temporary style blog so he could still talk about games, then the podcast appeared and things just kept getting better.

In fact I may just go back and listen to that very first podcast again.

@Bucketdeth said:

I have been following since the day I heard Gerstmann was fired and they released the Arrow Pointing Down podcast.

Same.

Proud to have a day 1 account.

Persona 4 Endurance Run, sometime around the end of it. Someone mentioned it on the spoony experiment in a comment when Spoony was talking about Persona. So I checked out the endurance run (at the time it was hard for me to figure out how to find the first episode as I recall haha) and it was hilarious- so I checked out other stuff and yada yada. 

Arrow pointing down podcast

The Persona 4 Endurance Run, though I had heard of the site before then.

Been following these yokels since 2001, every bump, hurdle, triumph, and drink. Can't belIeve I've been listenIng to these these dudes since I was 16, can't imagine a gaming world without em

this thread:
 
http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/sexy-picture-thread-no-porns/1496/

@Canteu said:

The arrow pointing down podcast.

This.

I dont remember the video, but I do remember that it was before the proper site was up and it was pretty much a Word Press blog. They where probably still really early into the "How To Build a Bomb" videos.

That same Borderlands video the OP mentioned, then saw other similar long length videos and crazy shit like mailbags and was hooked.

That's the one part I wish they'd still do more of, the random videos and mailbags and things. Like they did the chili thing recently but before that there hadn't been one in awhile.

started listening to Arrow Pointing Down... I miss all the energy drink tastings....

Jeff talking about it on xplay...or did they announce it on arrow pointing down first?

I was on another message board that had a thread about video games. We were all mocking Tony Hawk: Ride and someone posted the Quick Look. I instantly got hooked by the beginning when Jeff shows Brad and Ryan the ride board. I thought it was funny as hell at the time. Watching him show off how bad the game was in the rest of the QL made me want to explore the rest of the site. Shortly after that I stopped going to IGN (which was my go-to game site) and GB became my go-to.

I think it was either the Rock Band 2 review which someone linked me to or the "Scanning the Background" podcast.

What really enamoured me with the site was the 08 Game of The Year podcast.