The Community Spotlight 2022.12.17

Welcome to a very GOTY-themed edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best community-created works from the week. As said in the introduction, this week is all about surfacing staff and community GOTY goodness. If you or someone you know posted a GOTY list or blog that I missed, feel free to drop a link to it in the comments and I promise to get it on the next Community Spotlight! With that in mind, let's get into it.

News

Obviously, the big news is that the site dropped three days worth of GOTY content last week for everyone to watch and enjoy. If you somehow managed to miss these streams, here are the archives:

• Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2022: Day 1
• Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2022: Day 2
• Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2022: Day 3

Community 2022 GOTY voting has begun as well! If you feel like diverge from the staff in their final rankings of games released in 2022, then send in a vote for the community pick. If you have any questions about voting or experience any issues or bugs when trying to send in your vote, here's the thread for that. In general, don't worry about games that came out in previous years or were only in Early Access. If you liked it, vote for it.

For those asking about any other GOTY content, we know the site will not be hosting guest lists this year. This year was an adjustment for many and the decision to do things digitally and not in-person were not made lightly.

Moving on...

Dan recently announced that his cousin Matt passed after following his battle with pancreatic cancer. On his Twitch, he'll be streaming TONIGHT (SATURDAY) AT 7 PM EST to raise money for charity. So, follow his account if you have not done so already and donate what you can.

You may recall that there was a UPF scheduled for last week that got removed from the docket. The site decided to record a new batch of Quick Looks so it would have video content to post during Christmas and New Year's vacations. Also, the staff are taking input from the community and will have "Classic Style" UPFs labeled as such as.

Community GOTY 2022 Content

Community GOTY 2022 Lists

• GOTY 2022 (By: @thechadster789)
• Valorian Endymion's GOTY 2022 List (By: @valorianendymion)
• Sparky B's Best of 2022 (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)
• ArbitraryWater's Games Of The Year 2022 (Which Came Out In 2022) (By: @arbitrarywater)
• Best of 2022 (By: @finaldasa)
• Game of the Year 2022 (By: @aodhhinsai)
• Best of 2022 (By: @davrivs)
• 2022 Game of the Year (By: @chiknfingaz)
• GOTY 2022 (By: @dudewantshisrug)

GOTY 2022 Blogs

Go! Go! GOTY! 2022: Ghost Song +

Go! Go! GOTY! 2022: Return to Monkey Island (By: @mento)

Mento continues with their blog series assessing contenders and pretenders for any GOTY list or debate! This week they check out Return to Monkey Island and Ghost Song, two smaller titles that seem to be in the "dark horse" category for many sites and people.

JeremyF's Top 10 of 2022: I Don't Care About Elden Ring (By: @jeremyf)

What was 2022 in gaming like for someone that doesn't like Elden Ring or Souls games? You can find the answer to that question by reading JeremyF's GOTY 2022 blog and learn why they didn't have any problems making a top ten list for the year!

My Games of 2022 (By: @chamurai)

chamurai wrote up a blog annotating their favorite games and gaming experiences from 2022 on the site. Give it a read by clicking the link below and don't forget to consider making a GOTY blog of your own on the site.

My Favorite Video Game Music of 2022 (By: @majormitch)

MajorMitch sidestepped the traditional GOTY blog this week with a list of their ten favorite musical tracks from 2022 game releases. If you want to hear some bops, give their blog on Giant Bomb a read.

Tweets

Activities

Pentiment Is The 24th Selection Of The UUGPGC! Completion Date Is 12/26/2022! Mark All Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)

Pentiment is the 24th selection of the Community Game Pass Game Club and final game selection of 2022! If you have any non-spoiler impressions of the game, feel free to share them by clicking the link.

The GB Album Club 019 - Waterworld by The Leak Bros (Cycle 1 Finale!) (By: @unclejam23)

Waterworld by The Leak Bros is what the Giant Bomb Album Club is ending their first cycle with! If you have any impressions of this group or album, or want to discuss the future of the activity, click the link above.

Galleria

Bakalar As Sanders + Grubb Silverhand + GOATEE Pronunciation Debate (By: @kone)

Kone had a field day imagining how some of the staff went into the three days of GOTY. As you will quickly see below, no staff member was safe from their amazing photoshop skills.

Gallery

Kone Cyberbullies Grubb Part 1& Part 2 (By: @kone)

Is Kone's insistence that he substitute Bubsy into every single image Grubb posts online an example of cyberbullying? It's frequent and non-stop behavior. So, I think it actually counts based on the textbook definition.

Gallery

Tamoor's Elden Ring Interruption (By: @kone)

It's good to know that one of the funniest and most fun videos posted on Giant Bomb in 2022 is still paying dividends. Great work, Kone!

Blogs

Indie Game of the Week 300: Superliminal (By: @mento)

Old habits die hard, even with the site still in the full swing of GOTY discussions and debates, moderator Mento still found the time to publish a new edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature! This episode is about the first-person puzzle game, Superliminal!

Blogging About Failure - Part 1: The Adventure Games That Broke Me In 2022 (By: @zombiepie)

Moderator ZombiePie is writing a mini-series on the site where they reflect on their gaming and blogging "failures" in 2022. This week they think about the one-year anniversary of their adventure game series and the games they didn't finish.

A Legend of Galactic Voices 7 +

A Legend of Galactic Voices 6 +

A Legend of Galactic Voices 5 (By: @infantpipoc)

For these entries of infantpipoc's fantasy booking of an anime adaptation of Mass Effect's “Shepard vs. Reapers” trilogy in the style of Cyberpunk Edgerunners, they decided to get a little "obscure" with their character recommendations. Check it out and feel free to share your input.

All Saturn Games in Order: October 1995 (By: @borgmaster)

Sports, off-road racing, air-combat, and strategy are some of the things covered in borgmaster's latest retrospective on the catalogue of games released for the Saturn in 1995! As the title suggests, this time his tackles the month of October!

Logging the Backlog: The "Fuser is Being Pulled from Sale" Special (By: @brian_)

brian_ pulled an audible for their latest blog annotating their attempt to make a dent on their 500+ game backlog by throwing Fuser into the mix with Rare Replay, Lovely Planet, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz, and MORE!

HuCARTography II: THE Kung Fu (By: @jeffrud)

Hey YOU! Yeah YOU! Do you want to read all about the cursed history of THE Kung Fu/China Warrior for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16? Even if you said "no" you should still give jeffrud's most recent blog a read!

Logical Operator: 20th Century Food Court and Adaptive Circuits (By: @gamer_152)

Have you ever wondered how a computer works? Hell if I know, but this week Gamer_152 is talking about 20th Century Food Court and how digital electronics adapt to any problem you can throw at them.

Discussion Threads

Epic Shutting Off Servers for a Bunch of Games on January 24th. Removing Games From Digital Sale (By: @brian_)

Many are still taken aback by Epic Games' announced server shutdowns. Are there any games impacted that have you especially frustrated? Many are decrying the loss of Rock Bands 1-3 and the app.

Is Vampire Survivors A Musou? (By: @looterjennings)

Alright FINE! Let's host a community poll and discussion thread on Giant Bomb debating if Vampire Survivors is a "musou?" It's the debate topic that almost caused the site to split asunder, so, share your thoughts and VOTE YOU COWARDS!

Hottest Mess 2022 - The Community's Choice (By: @allthedinos)

After everyone expressed interest in it, ALLTheDinos is holding a community vote for "Hottest Mess of 2022!" Here's a list of nominees and if you feel like there's something that jumps out to you as the clear #1, then vote!

What Was Your First PSN Trophy? (By: @spacemanspiff00)

Here's a fun thread for the entire Giant Bomb community to mull over, but what was your first ever PSN Trophy? Do you recall the exact game or achievement description?

Your Recs For New(ish) Idle Games? (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)

For those of you that follow and play idle games, what were the best idle games of 2022? Is the genre in the decline or are there still plenty examples of its standing strong?

What Is The Worst Well Rated Game You Ever Played? (By: @topcyclist)

With The 2022 Game Awards behind us, there's at least one example for everyone, but what is the biggest disconnect you have had with the general consensus or critical reception of a video game?

Lists

POTY 2022: Pre-Game of the Year 2022 - The Ones That Didn't Make It (By: @daavpuke)

daavpuke took the time to annotate all of the games they very much enjoyed playing in 2022, but do not think could cut it on their 2022 GOTY list. Give it a read and consider making a list of your own if/when you have the time.

Lock Your Doors (By: @warcat777)

warcat777 is working on a "fun" list that could definitely benefit from more community input! They are trying to make a list of every game where you can lock doors as a gameplay mechanic! Share your suggestions!

Achievements-Related Concepts (By: @captainscarleg)

CaptainScarLeg is working on a list that takes noted of every single "Achievement-Related" concept page on the site and is trying to see if the wiki has an gaps or missing examples that need to be added! Help them out if you can.

35 in 35: A Not-So-Final Final Fantasy Retrospective (By: @mento)

With the 35th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise looming around the corner, moderator Mento whipped up a list that looks at 35 games in the series and introduce what they brought to the table.

User Reviews

• @infantpipoc's Witch on the Holy Night review masterfully praises the game and its worldbuilding and characterization and why the worldwide release of the game is a major breakthrough in the visual novel department.

Wiki Of The Week

Riven: The Sequel to Myst

This is ZombiePie talking, and I am totally filling out the Wiki Page of the Week with one of my all-time favorite games. If you think Riven is boring, then I'm sorry you don't like environmental storytelling and good world-building.