The Community Spotlight 2023.06.03

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the latest community creations from the previous week.

"Not E3" begins THIS WEEK! As the staff get ready to head down to L.A. in the coming week, get ready for some awesome in-person event coverage.

As I already mentioned last week, Grubb is scheduling an in-person gathering similar to what the site did in years' past. Over on the Giant Bomb Discord, Grubb said that he plans to book 50ish people to attend this year's Giant Bomb @ Nite event with groups of four to five. Wait for the site's weekly programming schedule to see which conferences and streams they plan to talk over and when the night-time events will be done.

Speaking of last week, I mentioned I would be having an online meeting with a Fandom rep about the state of the site and that indeed happened. What I can report is that there should be a new thread on how to report bugs and site issues that reviews how to make bug reports more actionable without overwhelming users.

Likewise, we should have a new thread wherein anyone can immediately report when Infinite goes down or is not working as intended. The issues with almost everything now appears to be related to a cookie conflict with the site's One-Trust policy. Fandom views the current workaround of enabling "Performance Cookies" as not a long-term solution.

Finally, Tamoor was on the Real Time Strategy to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If you are interested in giving it a listen, click this link.

"Not E3" Prep

The Unofficial Not-E3 Summer Games Presentations Calendar (By: @marino)

As he has done for many years, Marino has a time zone chart that will help you figure out when and where to be for every presentation that's coming up!

E3 might be dead for real this time, but that doesn't mean things are not going to be interesting in June.

Tweets

Activities

Diablo IV Community Clan (By: @lamzor)

Are any of you interested in a Diablo IV community clan? We already have one titled "giantbomb" (tag: GB) on PC on Europe and if you want to join click the link, but feel free to offer to create others by dropping a comment.

Mortal Shell Is The 11th Game Selection Of Year 2 Of The UUGPGC. Finish By June 5, 2023. Mark All Spoilers!+

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting June 5, 2023 (By: @bigsocrates)

Mortal Shell, the dark fantasy action RPG developed by Cold Symmetry, has been selected as the 11th game of season two of the Giant Bomb Community game Pass game Club! Share NON-SPOILER impressions!

The latest round of voting for the Community Game Pass Game Club is up on the site and there are plenty of gems to vote for this time!

Art

E3 2017 T-Shirts For Grubb (By: @kone)

Remember the year 2017? It feels like ancient history, but 2017 debuted two of the greatest shirts to ever come out of E3. After Grubb expressed that he regretted not buying those shirts, Kone decided to have some "fun."

Blogs

Is Tears of the Kingdom A Good Sequel? A Comparative Review (By: @jeremyf)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a good game, but is it a "good sequel?" Why is that a mutually exclusive question to whether or not it is a title worth playing? Give jeremyf's latest blog a read to hear their argument.

The Great Chain: Objectivism in Bioshock (By: @gamer_152)

BioShock stands as one of gaming's greatest achievements in world-building. Yet, the full extent of its objectivist satire is rarely explored and the most common interpretation of the game has never made sense. Read why on Gamer_152's latest blog.

Farce, in Valhalla? (By: @infantpipoc)

Muv-luv Altered Fable is a weird thing even for fans of Muv-Luv. infantpipoc decided to give it a shot and shares if they can think of anyone who benefits from playing it. Also, check out this fake Kiefer Sutherland lookalike!

At What Point Is It Time To Reassess Phil Spencer's Tenure? (By: @zombiepie)

We are nearing the tenth anniversary of Phil Spencer taking the reins at Microsoft's Xbox division. Do you think his leadership of the brand has been successful? Moderator ZombiePie reviews the biggest struggles and victories.

8th Gen Support Is Still Very Strong And These Consoles Really Did Have 10 Year Life Spans +

I Scrolled Through My Xbox 360 Download List And It Was Like A Hit Of Industrial Strength Nostalgia +

Frank Cifaldi Explains How Tommy Tallarico's Hubris Destroyed Keith Robinson's Careful Stewardship (By: @bigsocrates)

The Xbox One and PS4 certainly were awkward at times, but with games like Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV, it sure doesn't seem like either is going away soon.

bigsocrates decided to review the massive catalogue of digital titles they have stashed away on their 360. Read why they can't help but get nostalgic looking at games like Eets: Chowdown or Cloning Clyde.

Frank Cifaldi wrote a long thread about how Tommy Tallarico's hubris destroyed Keith Robinson's careful stewardship of the revived Intellivision brand. So, bigsocrates mulls over their claims and evidence as Giant Bomb's resident Intellivision expert.

May Magnanimity: Week 4 + Bonus Stage +

Indie Game of the Week 322: Haven (By: @mento)

Moderator Mento has another post about their attempts to pick away at the hundreds of video games they have on Itch.io after supporting a number of social causes and charity efforts. If you enjoy that blog, don't forget to read their BONUS EPISODE.

Finally, Haven, the exploratory adventure RPG from The Game Bakers, is the topic of Mento's latest "Indie Game of the Week! What did they think of the game's themes of love and personal strife? Click the last link to find out.

Discussion Thread

Final Impressions Of The Diablo IV Beta (By: @atheistpreacher)

With the release of Diablo IV upon us, what are your FINAL IMPRESSIONS of the Diablo IV beta? Do you think you will be playing the game for years to come or are you already bored? Join the conversation and share where you think the game is going or should go.

Why Is This Month (+10 Days) So Incredibly, Ludicrously, Stacked? (By: @bigsocrates)

Are there any others who feel overwhelmed by the number of quality game titles that came out the last two months and lookin at the upcoming titles in June, feel even more overwhelmed? How are you handling the deluge?

Are You Excited For Summer Game Fest (By: @superslidetail)

How many people out there are excited about Summer Game Fest? Do you have your fingers crossed for an unannounced title? How many of you are excited about the return of GB @ Nite?

Yo Dawg, This Star Trek Game Be Good (No Spoilers Please) (By: @tartyron)

Has anyone in the community checked out Star Trek: Resurgence? Are your impressions of Telltale Games' rendition of a Star Trek adventure positive or negative? Join the conversation by clicking the link above!

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Officially Announced (By: @gtxforza)

Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 has been officially announced! It was a terribly kept secret, but it's official! Who's excited to give it a whirl when it comes out? Give the announcement trailer a watch over here.

People Make Games New Doc On Disco Elysium Drama (By: @tartyron)

A lot of people are talking about People Make Games' video about Disco Elysium, the ensuing drama at the heart of its development, and the possible bad players at ZA/UM Studio. Join the discussion about their findings.

What's The Best Prank You Ever Pulled On An NPC In A Video Game? (By: @topcyclist)

What are your favorite memories of playing "pranks" on video game NPCs? Have you every caused a quest NPC to go flying into the air or purposefully broken their scripting to hilarious results?

Lists

Cybernoir + Detective Noir (By: @kablammo)

Cybernoir or Future noir is a common theme or topic in the world of video games and kablammo decided to to differentiate it from their "Crime Noir" list. If you can think of something to suggest for their "Detective Noir" list, which they made later, feel free to comment there as well.

User Reviews

@pauljeremiah's Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut review shares on Giant Bomb why they think Ghost of Tsushima deserves its place among the greats of the gaming industry thanks to its satisfying gameplay and decadent art.

@mh23 decided to return to the Xbox One with a new review series on Giant Bomb! This week they share their experiences with Roombo: First Blood and Newt One.

Wiki Of The Week

Diablo II

People sure are excited for the official release of Diablo IV. So, why not throw things back to the game that set the franchise on its meteoric trajectory? Diablo II was and still is a big deal. Our wiki page for the game has almost everything one needs to learn why that is the case.

Thanks for the shout! I gotta say that not-E3 snuck up on me because I'm not exactly deprived of things to play right now. Hope there will be a few cool announcements at least and looking forward to GB@Nite.

Woo hoo, I've gotten threads on here before, but 2 in the same week? I'm mostly just hoping to give that Star Trek game more exposure, it didn't have much fanfare in the leadup and I doubt it's a blockbuster, but I was really impressed by it and really want it to do well enough to warrant another one with improvements.

A great spotlight so far!

Thanks for the update @zombiepie, as always. Also thanks to @marino for the calendar, which is always helpful.

Quick question that may have been addressed and I just missed it. Any talks about a season 4 (or is it 3) of Forkin'? I know I can catch Windbag at his Twitch channel, but felt like nothing woke me up on a Friday morning better than popping into this site and being hit with his intros, haha!

Thanks for the shout out ^_^

Grubb is scheduling an in-person gathering similar to what the site did in years' past

This goes for everyone that works hard to make GB what it is, but special shout out to my man Grubb who always shows that he understands what makes the site truly special.

Y'all gotta stop asking people to remix things.

Because we'll freakin' do it.

Request remixes at your peril: @kone is a absolute menace.

Great spotlight, thank you, @zombiepie!

Someone on Reddit attempted to piece together every single Tweet Grubb and Jan have made about Giant Bomb @ Nite and pieced together that the Night one final panel will be Dan, Mitch, Mike M. and Mary Kish. Spencer is Sunday and will be on the couch with Matt Booty alongside Grubb, Tamoor Hussian and Lucy James.

Closing night final panel will be Dan, Jan and Patrick.

Thanks, ZombiePie, as always.