Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am happy to be your host as we look back at the best community creations from the previous week.
Right off the bat, I want to thank everyone who streamed and donated during the community Extra Life event last weekend. The community streams alone raised over $35,000, which is actually a record for the Giant Bomb team when you subtract staff contributions to the team total.
Here are some basic stats as of 11/11/2023. The Giant Bomb Extra Life team is in the top 20 on the leaderboards. With the staff streams underway, that is only bound to get better. The top fundraiser for the team is Anthony Thomas/atrainn at $6,159. Not a single member of the team is currently sitting at $0. Everyone has at least one donation.
Cool new merchandise is coming to the Giant Bomb store in the future! There's new clothes on the horizon, but the big one has to be hand-carved and woodcut printed Giant Bomb Posters from Just A Jar Press! Just be warned, because these are handmade posters, only 100 uniquely printed posters will be available as well as 10 Limited Edition + numbered holofoil prints.
When it comes to an update with the video player and missing podcasts in the RSS feed, dtoast made a statement on the site. He's talked to almost every member of the engineering team and the team is aware of the issues, the product manager is aware of the issues, and the engineering manager is aware of the issues. He's still reporting and advocating for what he can along the way and thanks everyone for sending in bug reports and tickets and understands people's frustrations.
Giant Bomb's Extra Life 2023 Information
It's time to enjoy the staff streams for Extra Life 2023! That's right, after hosting over a dozen community streams, the site will now be moving to hosting a smattering of in-person studio-based streams for your pleasure. If you are wondering when all of this will happen, here are the times!
- Saturday, November 11th
- 9AM-3PM Eastern: Grubb & Friends
- 3PM-3AM Eastern: Giant Bomb West ft. GameSpot Friends
- Saturday, November 18th
- 12PM-8PM Eastern: Giant Bomb Midwest ft. The Windbag - Live from the Dancave
And as was the case last week, here are the important links to all of the articles and donation pages for you to review and consider. For those asking about streaming well after Extra Life's Game Day event, that's fine! I would ask that you ping me on social media @GBDudersFeed on Twitter and @gbdudersfeed.bsky.social on Bluesky so your streams get some extra attention. Extra Life doesn't reset its donation pages until the start of 2024, so, you have until December 31st, 2023 to donate and stream!
- Giant Bomb Extra Life Updated Article - Has EVERYTHING about the site's plans for the next three weeks!
- Giant Bomb's Individual Donation Page - Donate HERE during the main Giant Bomb Extra Life Streams!
- Giant Bomb's Extra Life 2023 Announcement Thread - Now being updated DAILY with details!
- Dan Ryckert (Giant Bomb Staffer) - DONATION GOAL OF $7,440
- Shawn McDowell (Giant Bomb Social Media & Team Captain) - DONATION GOAL OF $100
Tweets
Legit has changed the path of my life. From S1 running bootleg tourneys for the Giant Bomb community and FourWude helping me get calm for my first Final Round, to being adopted by Florida, catching that fire for commentary in COVID era and the amazing people and moments between. https://t.co/gMjQ5I7HeT
— VectorSpecter, Dead and Loving It (@AVectorSpecter) November 8, 2023
I haven't done this in multiple years, but Imma be streaming for #EXTRALIFE for the @giantbomb team on November 16 at 8AM CST to at least 8PM! Since this is the year of Dungeon RPGs Imma mostly be going through the huge amount of Dungeon RPGs that released this year @GBDudersFeed
— UT (@UltTrainer) November 10, 2023
what I looked like when GTA V came out vs now https://t.co/B1gars5oJy pic.twitter.com/o8hBJ20322
— Lucy James (@lucyjamesgames) November 8, 2023
What I looked like when GTA V came out vs now https://t.co/cZmHS34bFQ pic.twitter.com/ik1u8zuydZ
— Jansport Ochoa (@_janjerome) November 8, 2023
what I looked like when GTA V came out vs now https://t.co/anu0ZvEpXa pic.twitter.com/QsthZZSWNF
— Dan Ryckert (@DanRyckert) November 8, 2023
found another photo of you from that time period pic.twitter.com/ZENpkphmrw
— Dan Ryckert (@DanRyckert) November 8, 2023
Activities
A New GB Album Club Cycle Is Coming! Come Submit Stuff! (By: @unclejam23)
The Community Album Club is making a comeback! Whether you are an audiophile or just someone who wants to try out new music, to welcomes everyone! Click the link above and comment that you want to join the fun!
Ghost Song Is The 23rd Selection Of Year 2 Of The UUGPGC! SPOILERS OPEN! (By: @bigsocrates)
Jusant is the 24th selection of the Giant Bomb community Game Pass Game Club! Have any of you checked out the game thanks to Game Pass? What are your impressions of its climbing-based gameplay?
The Community Game Pass Game Club has officially opened its discussion of Ghost Song up to story and spoiler discussions! What were your thoughts about the game's story? What do you want developer Matt White to tackle next?
Art
Discord Photoshop Edits (By [in order]: REFERENDAPANDA, @kyary, @kone, and REFERENDAPANDA)
The Giant Bomb Discord, in true form, was on a bit of a photoshop mood last week and ended up making a batch of photoshop edits based on community requests. If you want to send in Giant Bomb meme request or enjoy these edits as they happen, click the link to join the Discord!
Blogs
Beta Report: The Finals (By: @nateandrews)
nateandrews played 20 hours of the beta for The Finals and came away mostly positive from it. Read all about what he thought was good as well as what he thinks needs immediate improvements. If you have played the game, give this a read and feel free to drop a comment.
Three Years In The Xbox Series Lacks Identity. Playing Out The String Or Calm Before The Storm? (By: @bigsocrates)
We are now three years into the Xbox Series X|S console cycle. Has this been a successful pivot for Microsoft's console ecosystem? Is there a compelling reason to own an Xbox? bigsocrates discusses these points in-depth for your reading pleasure. Additionally, bigsocrates checked out The Pathless by developer Giant Squid and penned an essay on why the game's post-game being an improvement over the main campaign is a lesson more games could learn from and emulate!
Indie Game of the Week 345: Quarantine Circular +
Mega Archive CD: Part VII: From Ecco the Dolphin to Jangou World Cup (By: @mento)
Moderator Mento has a new edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" series and this one is all about Quarantine Circular by Bithell Games! What did they think of the 2018 spiritual follow-up to Subsurface Circular? Read to find out!
On top of that, Mento is up to their old tricks with another blog looking at every single game that came out for the Sega CD! This blog looks at the "gems" that came out on the platform from July '93 - August '93!
Discussion Threads
GTA VI Officially Official - Rockstar Says Trailer Incoming In December; Will Be Most Expensive Game Ever Made (By: @zombiepie)
GTA VI is finally announced! After a rough bit with the source code getting stolen and leaked to the public, it seems like Rockstar is confident in what they have been working on for years to show something this December. Also, it sounds like this might be the most expensive game ever made? Do you buy that?
Nintendo Announces Live Action Zelda Movie (By: @bigsocrates)
So... a live action The Legend of Zelda movie is coming. With the success of the Mario movie, do you think this will pan out positively? Do you think the decision to go live action instead of animated is a mistake?
Modern Warfare III Already Sounds Messy - Uses 213GB, Campaign Reviewing Poorly, And Can't Launch Without Launching MW2 (By: @zombiepie)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is already looking like it will have a messy launch. The storage requirement is 213 GB and the single player campaign is reviewing poorly. Are you surprised?
A 2023 Hot Mess Gets Hotter And Messier - Microsoft Officially Writes Off $120 Million Due To Overwatch League Shutdown (By: @zombiepie)
Microsoft is now going to write off up to $120 million due to the collapse of the Overwatch League. How are Overwatch and Overwatch 2 fans taking the news? Do you think the situation surrounding OWL is a reflection of the game itself?
It's November 2023, What Are The Things Happening In The Video Game Industry So Far? (By: @gtxforza)
With 2023 nearing its conclusion, what do you think were the biggest "recurring" storylines from the world of video games? How do you rank the implosion of Unity with the frequency of layoff announcements?
Another Gacha Bites The Dust - Cygames Announces World Flipper Japan Shutdown In 2024; Worldwide Shutdown Eventual (By: @zombiepie)
World Flipper, the Japanese pinball RPG that initially got people buzzing a few years ago, is shutting down. Do any of you remember playing it? Are any of you worried about developer Cygames?
List
Resident Evil Ranked (By: @odysseyrpg)
OdysseyRPG finally played Resident Evil 4 and decided to update their rankings of every single Resident Evil game they have played. Click the link to see if your favorite game in the series fared well, and consider making your own list if it did not.
Reviews
@pauljeremiah's Persona 4: Golden review discusses why it still remains a seminal work in Atlus's catalogue and with its release on Game Pass and Steam, it has never been better to check out this gem in the Persona series!
@nateandrews was really hoping that Assassin's Creed Mirage would be the small-scale course correction that Ubisoft promised, but that just isn't how things are and why they don't think the game doesn't work.
Wiki of the Week
Giant Bomb Game of the Year Awards
We're highlighting this one again because Marino thought he was done with building the Giant Bomb GOTY hub last week, but then he spent several days digging through some ancient CMS entries on the back end of the site. Why would he do that? Simple. Now, every single deliberation podcast, video, roundup article, and guest list is directly attached to each year's GOTY page. Just check the Video and News tab on each page.
A few things from Giant Bomb Game of the Year 2009 are uneditable in CMS for some reason, but the links on the wiki page itself still work.