The Community Spotlight - 09/06/2013
By ZombiePie 0 Comments
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Community Spotlight! I am your host as always and PAX Prime 2013 has ended! For those of you that like John Drake related nonsense you should really check out the Sexy John Drake Tumblr for a good laugh. So there's this "Men of Game Development 2014" calendar, which thanks to friend of the site Dan Teasdale, aka @deliciousbees, you can get with a special bonus if you mention that you are a "duder" in the purchasing comments. On a downer note there will not be a Big Live Live Show Live this year. For those of you that had issues with the site earlier in the week the engineers rolled out a new beanstalk server for the site and it took them a day to find out why nothing was talking to it.
Clip of the Week
For the clips of the week I just want to thank Dan Teasdale, again, for making this wonderful testimonial of Ryan for his Drake Tracker app. That and the Card's Against Humanity Tribute Panel to Ryan is nothing short of amazing:
Community Activities
- ExtraLife 2013 GiantBomb Team! - Play Games, Heal Kids - Join the Effort Over Here!
- Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn - Official Giant Bomb Company - Join The Company Here!
Wonderful Wikis
So yeah PAX Prime 2013 totally happened. Total War: Rome II might be a technical mess, but that doesn't stop it from having a great wiki page. Rayman Legends also has a welcoming wiki page filled with detail and the same can be said about the Puppeteer. Finally you might not have ever heard of Katsuhiko Suzuki, but a friend of his has taken the time to try and explain his video game career on the Giant Bomb wiki.
Best of Blogs
Wow a lot of you went to PAX Prime this year. big_jon, combot, and fobwashed all have pictures of the panels and games that they saw at PAX Prime. Hailinel and Asmo917 have written all about the panels and games that they saw and experienced at PAX Prime. However, Hailinel also played The Wonderful 101 and explains why he thinks it is so wonderful. CornBREDX takes the time to explain his personal history with Castle of Illusion and why he likes the remake. jclane talks about why he thinks Demons Soul may be one of the best horror games of the modern generation of video games. For those of you that have been having technical issues with Total War: Rome II buckybit breakdown how RAMDisk can help you make the game look better and run more stable. Music maestro Hamst3r has another video game remix and let's play for you to check out, whereas Mento explains why Illusion of Gaia is a forgotten classic in terms of video game scores. Video_Game_King played a couple of oddball racing games with Uniracers and Crazy Taxi as the subject of one of his blogs, and the other blog starts a new screenshot adventurelog series related to Dragon Quest V. Speaking of old school JRPGs Sparky_Buzzsaw decided to go back to Wild Arms 3 as part of his RPG Retrospective, and he talks about whether or not it still hold up. ArbitraryWater has made it a habit of playing bad games and explains why Grabbed by the Ghoulies is a terrible game by Rare. Vaancor, Major_Mitch, and Archlightbirealis all give you an update on what they have been playing. GrantHeaslip has finally finished Final Fantasy XIII-2 and takes the time to explain why he feel unsatisfied with the game, whereas kai333135 talks about how Divekick is a great game if you take the time to try an learn all of its mechanics. morecowbell24 has 40 songs he thinks would be perfect for the next Siants Row gameand Daneian may be late to the game, but he's finally gotten around to Saints Row: The Third. Finally Gamer_152 discusses how the Ouya fails to tap into the idea of a true "indie console," and BlackLagoon has a list of all of teh games coming out for the Vita.
- Is This the Real Mouse? (Pictorial Spoilers) (By: @cornbredx)
- (Not)Horror Games Part 1: A Mindflayer a Day Keeps the World Tendency Black (By: @jclane)
- RAMDisk up Rome II - Enhances Graphics & Framerate (By: @buckybit)
- Check out My Remix of the Theme to Quake! (By: @hamst3r)
- A Blog so Fast, you Won't Even be Able to Read It (By: @video_game_king)
- A Quest for Dragons. In Screenshot Form. (By: @video_game_king)
- I Continue to Play Old, Bad Games (Grabbed by the Ghoulies) (By: @arbitrarywater)
- SoundTreks: Illusion of Gaia (By: @mento)
- My Meeting of All the Videogame Duders 2.0 (At PAX)! (By: @big_jon)
- GB PAX Prime'13 Panel (Pics) (By: @combot)
- Duder at PAX Prime 2013 (By: @fobwashed)
- What I've Been Playing: 9/04/2013 (By: @vaancor)
- Divekick Review (By: @kai333135)
- Final Fantasy XIII-2 Part 6/6: Unique, but Unsatisfying [Part 5: Chapter 5](By: @grantheaslip)
- First Impressions of The Wonderful 101 (By: @hailinel)
- Hailinel's Magical PAX Prime 2013 Adventure: Day 4 [Day 3, Day 2, & Day 1] (By: @hailinel)
- RPG Retrospective - Wild Arms 3 (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)
- Top 40(ish) Songs Ripe for the Saints Row Treatment (By: @morecowbell24)
- PAX Prime Day 4 and a Day 3 Epilogue [Day 3, Day 2, and Day 1] (By: @asmo917)
- [something different] 9-2-13 (By: @arclightborealis)
- The Saints Flow Part One: Purple Stuff (By: @daneian)
- The Struggles of the Indie Console (By: @gamer_152)
- Monthly Roundup, August 2013 (By: @majormitch)
- September Vita Lineup and Upcoming Titles (By: @blacklagoon)
Fantastic Forums
Major thanks goes to patbaer this week for getting "Bob Ducca" to talk about all of the games he enjoyed playing with Ryan and publishing a n audio only version of it on the forums. In terms of discussions we have one for Final Fantasy XIV and another discussing the ending to Outlast, Patrick's favorite game of the year. Do you think WWII shooters should come back? Well talk about why or why not on the thread pontificating upon their return in the next generation. Finally as this console generation comes to an end which game soundtracks do you think were the best?
- Bob Ducca Remembers Ryan Davis - The Audio (By: @patbaer)
- Final Fantasy XIV Discussion Thread (By: @verendus)
- Outlast Ending Discussion Thread (By: @vermisean)
- Do You Want Another WWII Shooter? (By: @creepyunclebrad)
- Best Soundtrack of the Generation? (By: @bisonhero)
Lovable Lists
Think about this for a moment, how many games that you have played have featured rolling balls as part of the game? Probably more than you are willing to admit, but Mento has created a list detailing plenty examples of this trope. Klinkcow tries his best to match drinks to various video game characters he thinks would be down to party. Finally ArbitraryWater has been playing so many "bad" games that he felt motivated to create a list numbering his video game follies.
- I Rooooll Them Balls (By: @mento)
- Who's on the Party List & What are They Drinking? (By: @klinkcow)
- Questionable and Bad Games Initiative 2013 (By: @arbitrarywater)
Useful User Reviews
- @machofantastico's user review of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
- @wemibelec90's user review of Brothers: A Tales of Two Sons
- @dimsey's user review of Killer is Dead
- @yummylee's user review of Saints Row IV (PS3)
- @_mattallica's user review of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist
- @morecowbell24's user review of Papers, Please
- @domstercool's user review of GRID 2
- @reelife's user review of Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
Potent Podcasts