Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! Mike Horn was the guest player for this week's TNT and Matthew Rorie will be making some guest appearances on some videos to be released sometime next week. Despite this being the Summer Games Drought the site has a slew of Wiki tasks for recent releases you should all be welcomed to work on for extra points. Jeff has stated on Formspring that Dave is tinkering around with sub-categories for "Concept" wiki pages. Beyond these small tidbits I've got nothing in terms of major announcements other than the special Premium members livestream for next week is going to be Dave playing Dwarf Fortress. Finally always remember to follow me on Twitter @GiantBombSquad and PM Marino to get stuff on the Front Page Community Promo thing.

Game Nights and Activities

• Giant Bomb Community Steamgifts Giveaway Thread - Look for Opportunities for Free Games or Set Up Your Own Giveaway Here!
• Giant Bomb Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Community Gamertag List - Share Your Gamertag Here!
• Official Giant Bomb Flight Crew for Pocket Planes - Post Your Gamecenter Over Here!

Wonderful Wikis

With the Summer Gaming Drought in full effect the biggest wiki entry for a game coming out this week is Sid Meier's Civilization V: God's & Kings. Beyond that we have the classic game Primal and two major undertaking by the Fire Emblem community worth checking out.

• Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings
• Zihark
• Primal
• Bern

Lovable Lists

User Video_Game_King has created a list of Kanji characters featured in Xenoblade Chronicles and what they mean on his list. Mento on the other hand has created a list of characters and games that feature battle coliseums that hearken back to the Roman times.

• Learning Japanese Through Xenoblade Chronicles (By: Video_Game_King)
• Joey, Do You Like Video Games About Gladiators? (By: Mento)

Best of Blogs

Marino is the true highlight this week with a comprehensive stats blog of all the staff and their reviews now that the site has reached the 500 review point. ArbitraryWater continues his trend of playing old games but with a game only released in Japan this time, which Video_Game_King is all too familiar with as seen with his blog about Vandal Hearts and King Kong 2. Mento has begun playing Master of Magic while Irvandus has started playing SMT: Imagine. User metalsnakezero has written a blog about his Vita while buzz_clik is up to his old tricks with a blog about awesome music from C64 games. Both TrueEnglishGent and Gamer_152 say the hell with punctuality and have written E3 2012 blogs, but all joking aside are both worth reading. Hailinel continues his video game final boss series with Dragon Age: Origins most recently. PerfidiousSinn talks about how Soulcalibur V is a fun game even for someone who sucks at playing it. Sparky_Buzzsaw concludes his review of the 3DS version of Tales of the Abyss. CharlesAlanRatkiff updates you on his adventures in Japan similarly AlexW00d provides videos of the hilarious shenanigans of the PC Gamming Hub. Demoskinos and Hizang contemplate their favorite games of the year so far now that we have reach the halfway point of the year. MajorMitch, Alaska_Gamer and MMMman all provide interesting updates in their gaming weeks. Sweep reveals and discusses his profession in the movie making industry while dankempster strikes Vagrant Story off his pile of shame. Finally StarvingGamer tells the wonderful tale of singing for Video Games Live and meeting Tim Schafer.

• By the Numbers: 500 Reviews on Giant Bomb (By: Marino)
• I Play Old Games that Only Came Out in Japan (SNES Fire Emblem) (By: ArbitraryWater)
• It's Like I'm Getting Dressed in Real Time (By: Video_Game_King)
• A Brief Jaunt Through Simtex's Master of Magic (By: Mento)
• My Look at: The Vita (By: metalsnakezero)
• SID-licious #11: Ghouls 'n' Ghosts (By: buzz_clik)
• TEG's Blog: E3 2012 Thoughts & the Future! (By: TrueEnglishGent)
• End Boss Month #20: Dragon Age: Origins (More Entries Here) (By: Hailinel)
• I Suck At Fighting Games: Soul Calibur V (By: PerfidiousSinn)
• RPG Retrospective - Tales of the Abyss, Pt. 2 (By: Sparky_Buzzsaw)
• SMT Imagine Day 1: Birth of Bonuko (By: Irvandus)
• Japan: Electric Town (02) (By: CharlesAlanRatliff)
• GB Gaming Hub: Community-Created Gamenight Videos Edition (By: AlexW00d)
• Weekly Roundup 06/17/2012 (By: MajorMitch)
• My Top 5 of the Year.... (So Far) (By: Demoskinos)
• Falling Down the Rabbit Hole in Fez and Emerging in Binary Domain (By: MMMman)
• E3 2012: Nintendo (By: Gamer_152)
• An End to My Wandering (By: dankempster)
• Half Way Through the Year, 20 Games Completed (By: Hizang)
• Moving Matches - Part One (By: Sweep)
• How Being a Baritone Led to Meeting Tim Schafer (By: StarvingGamer)
• [insert title] 6-16-12 (By: Alaska_Gamer)

Fantastic Forums

User papercut continues his trend of making review avatars for staff the don't have any with Alex this week. While Irvandus and nintendoeats have created forums with interesting discussions about outside things affecting games and if reviewers are obligated to play games all the way through.

• Now, It's Cartoon Review Alex! (By: papercut)
• Games Ruined by Outside Things (By: Irvandus)
• Reviewing Games Without Finishing Them (By: nintendoeats)

Useful User Reviews

• Mento's user review of Binary Domain
• Voxel's user review of Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• Mason_M's user review of Dirt: Showdown
• TheSilentGod's user review of Starhawk
• TheGamerGeek's user review of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

User Created Podcasts

• The Brewcast - Episode 9 - Beard Yeast
• The Lincolncast, Episode 8: BWE2 Impressions (Dungeoneering ed.)
• The Mighty Electronic Box: Season 2 Episode 20 (06/17/12)

I wasn't listing Japanese words; I was listing kanji. Huge difference, man.

I wasn't listing Japanese words; I was listing kanji. Huge difference, man.

@ZombiePie said:

@Video_Game_King said:

I wasn't listing Japanese words; I was listing kanji. Huge difference, man.

It has been fixed.

@ZombiePie said:

Kanji words

Sort of.

Holy crap, that's a lot of blogs I need to catch up on. I leave the joint for a month, and see what happens? A bajillion great writers show up!

If it isn't too late, please add the new episode of The Brewcast to the podcast list :)

Thank you for the mention! I'm glad to see the Steamgift thing doing so well.  
 
Now to check out some of the stuff listed!

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

If it isn't too late, please add the new episode of The Brewcast to the podcast list :)

It's up now, keep up the good work.

I wrote a blog about my experience with Persona 3: FES. I would be grateful if I could be on the spotlight next week!

Congrats everyone! Another busy week flies by fast in Giant Bomb.

Edit:

Thanks ZombiePie for helping me with the quest, The Great Wall.

Apologies for my underwhelming pseudo-LP blog, peeps. It's now a three-parter, so that hopefully alleviates the underwhelmy-ness. (Real word.)

As always, thanks to ZombiePie for highlighting my junk and Marino too for some of the stuff of mine he's deemed worthy enough for the front page.

And I'm chiming in with my blog two months in the making.

Wiki pages:Kieran, Lyn, Sniper

Thank you, ZombiePie, you're awesome.

Edit:

I just wish I can find some good screenshots for the Fire Emblem wiki pages.

@takashichea said:

Wiki pages:Kieran, Lyn, Sniper

Thank you, ZombiePie, you're awesome.

Right back at you.

@Claude said:

Fun fact: today, I learned that the Japanese language doesn't have a word for "kiss". It has to borrow it from English. And just like that...depression sets in. Amazing.

@Claude:

You know, I was going to post a random IASIP clip in response to that, but after watching enough of them, I am convinced that you're just Charlie in Frank's body. It makes the most sense of anything ever.

The Resonance comic blog/review isn't going to come in under the time limit, so here's a consolation prize of a daffy new list and that Lands of Lore two-parter.

More from me next week, I know y'all can't wait.

The late but latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight is up now.