Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am happy to welcome as we look back at the best community creations and site-related news from the previous week!
This edition of the Spotlight is airing slightly late to better accommodate the site's AMAZING live GOTY performance in L.A. The tickets sold out and some of you even organized informal meet-ups to show your love for the site and this community.
For those of you worried about this live show marking the end" of Giant Bomb's GOTY coverage, RELAX! As Grubb and others have pointed out, this year will mark the return of the guest GOTY lists! In fact, you can expect to see those lists soon-ish.
For those of you asking about Community Voting or why I did not get up a thread where y'all can post your GOTY list, the site is working to get things running like in previous years, but more time is needed to figure out how the community voting will shape-up. It is coming, though, I promise.
2023 GOTY Roundup!
Staff GOTY Roundup
- GOTY Day One Podcast [Day One VOD]
- GOTY Day Two Podcast [Day Two VOD]
- GOTY Day Three Podcast [Day Three VOD]
- Giant Bomb at Nite: The Game Awards Podcast [The Game Awards VOD]
Community GOTY Lists
Author's Note: Did you write a GOTY blog or list that I missed? For now, feel free to drop a comment with a link to your GOTY list or blog and I promise to get it on the next edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight!
- GOTY 2023 (By: @chaser324)
- My Favorite Games of "Current Year" 2023 (By: @gxc)
- Top 5 Games (That I Played) In 2023 (By: @totalpatoot)
- Rio's GOTY List 2023 (By: @riostarwind)
- Favorite Games of 2023 (By: @dwreck)
- GOTY 2023 (By: @qjt)
- Top 10 Games Of 2023 (By: @sigint)
- 2023 - A Year With More Good Games! (By: @hardtarget)
- Best Of 2023 (By: @davrivs)
- Best Of 2023 (By: @enfo)
- GOTY 2023 (By: @toasterwarriorlunchbox)
- 2023 - Top 10 Video Games (By: @kinglouis51)
- GOTY 2023 (By: @wwfundertaker)
- GOTY 2023 (By: @mrbubbles)
- Sgt Sphynx's Game of the Year List for 2023 (By: @sgtsphynx)
Tweets
https://t.co/0coUTdVhAs pic.twitter.com/fFty4EMY8X
— Kone (@KoneBomb) December 8, 2023
Jeff, you didn’t tell me you were in GTA 6!! pic.twitter.com/eRg6kWaOlS
— 🏳️⚧️ Creaky Legs 🏳️🌈 (@CreakyLegs) December 7, 2023
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) December 7, 2023
@giantbomb this feels like a phrase a pull-string doll of @tolkoto would have pic.twitter.com/hDu69lwzaq
— ricky (@rickytheintern) December 6, 2023
Spoilers. GOTY is cancelled. We’re just doing karaoke all day. pic.twitter.com/JOqwjKBv7r
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) December 9, 2023
The real MVP of GOTY. pic.twitter.com/31aPIPtjVY
— Brad Lynch (@MarinoV1) December 9, 2023
Galleria
Rockstar(s On A Couch Discussing) Games +
Game Awards Presenter: Jeff Grubb (By: @kone)
Between the leaking of GTA VI's trailer and people buzzing about The Game Awards, Kone had a field day trying to mix both into the new and upcoming events on the site!
Giant Bomb Game Of The Year: LIVE! Posters (By: @jearum)
During the lead-up to Giant Bomb's LIVE GOTY show, jearum got everyone excited for the event by whipping up a batch of posters with everyone's favorite guests and characters from the past year on the site! If these were trading cards, I would tell you to collect them all!
Activities
The GB Album Club 044 - Within the Realm Of A Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance (By: @unclejam23)
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun by Dead Can Dance is the latest pick for the Giant Bomb Album Club! Are there any Dead Can Dance fans out there that have thoughts about their third studio album? Click the link above to join the fun!
Venba Is The 26th Selection Of The UUGPGC Year 2. Finish By December 18 2023. Mark All Spoilers! +
Cocoon Is The 25th Selection Of The UUGPGC. Finish By December 4. Spoilers Open! (By: @bigsocrates)
Venba by developer Visai Studios is the latest selection for Giant Bomb's Community Game Pass game Club! If you have any early non-spoiler impressions of the game, its style, and gameplay, share your thoughts in the first thread linked above!
Finally, the Game Pass Game Club has opened up its discussion for Cocoon to SPOILERS! What are your final impressions of the game's story, gameplay, and level design? Share every thought you have about the game over here!
Blogs
My 2023 "Bounce Off Game" Is Persona 5 Tactica Because I'm Just Done With These Characters And World (By: @zombiepie)
Moderator ZombiePie is starting their 2023 gaming superlative awards with their "Bounce Off Game of 2023" Award! Read why the winner is Persona 5 Tactica because they think they are totally done with the Persona 5 cast.
JeremyF's GOTY 2023: The Final Gambit (By: @jeremyf)
JeremyF has written an essay in which they share all TEN of the games on their 2023 GOTY list! Catch the fun and get some music recommendation by clicking the link and consider publishing a blog or list of your own!
2023 Game of the Year (By: @redhorsespirit)
redhorsespirit tries out their blogging chops with a look at their ten favorite games from 2023! As a novice blogger, feel free to share constructive tips on their blog and see if they included any games you might have forgotten about!
New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe Has Maybe The Most Infuriating Victory Bonus I Can Remember In A Game (By: @bigsocrates)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder inspired bigsocrates to return to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and they wrote a hilarious blog on why they think the latter game has the "most infuriating victory bonus" in video game history!
Mega Archive: Part XXXVII: From Ultimate Soccer to Super Baseball 2020 +
Indie Game of the Week 349: Grime (By: @mento)
It's time for another exhaustive rundown of the games that came out for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive with moderator Mento! This week is about the much-hyped Gunstar Heroes, Gauntlet IV, and the console port of OG Mortal Kombat you care about!
Mento also has a new edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature and this one is all about Grime by developer Clover Bite! Does this side-scrolling Metroidvania do anything special to make it stand out in a crowded field? Read their blog to find out!
PUBG 2023; The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (By: @daavpuke)
DaavPuke takes to the site to talk about the latest PUBG: Battlegrounds season! What was the good, bad, and ugly of the latest season and where do they think the game will go from here? Join their conversation over here!
Discussion Thread
Perfecting The Yellow Russian? (By: @pugtato)
It's a little bit before Mike and Grubb's time, but remember when Dan Ryckert tried to convince the world you could make a cocktail using nacho cheese? Pugtato hasn't forgotten and is trying to make the "dream" real.
Here's Every Reveal Teaser & Game Trailer From The 2023 Game Awards! What Are You Excited About? (By: @zombiepie)
As is usually the case, the 2023 edition of The Game Awards featured plenty of teasers, world premieres, and video game trailers that got different parts of social media and the gaming community excited. Which trailer or trailers did you enjoy the most?
The Game Awards 2023 Winner List & Event Discussion Thread (By: @zombiepie)
Here's an exhaustive list with every single award winner from the 2023 Game Awards. However, the awards are not what is the center of discussion. What are your thoughts about The Game Awards giving Keighley and Kojima more time to chum around than most award winners were allowed to give speeches?
Sony Is Removing Access To Hundreds Of Purchased Movies/TV Episodes On PSN (By: @bigsocrates)
As per recent news, Sony is removing access to hundreds of movies and TV shows consumers paid for on PSN. What is your reaction to this news and do you think there will be a refund program for those impacted?
Microsoft Is Experimenting With Interesting Deals For Digital Games This December. Dead Space Cheap For GP Ultimate Now (By: @bigsocrates)
Microsoft seems to be to be experimenting with deals for digital games in December. Get a brief review of what they seem to be trying and join the conversation on Giant Bomb if this moves the needle for you about the Xbox ecosystem.
Why Aren't Console Makers Honest About Hard Drive Space? (By: @sombre)
How much does it bother you that the advertised storage on game consoles and PC is never the amount advertised? How much storage is your Xbox Series S/X or PS5 using for its OS? Is the immediate evaporation of up to 20 to 30 GB that big of a deal to you?
Lists
Vintage Ranking: 10 “Old” Games Played And Reviewed In 2023 (By: @infantpipoc)
At the start of 2023, infantpipoc decided to start a new review series wherein they looked at classic and retro visual novels and video games. This week, they decided to look through everything they played and compiled a top ten list.
User Reviews
@pauljeremiah's LocoRoco 2 Remastered assesses how well the attempt to "remaster" the PSP classic has gone. Does this portable platformer still hold up? Read his review to find out and feel free to join their conversation!
@pauljeremiah's Enemy Zero review tries to plumb the depths of the Sega Saturn's weirder titles and they share why this one is not without its creative merits even if it is not exactly an even experience.
@pauljeremiah's Policenauts review continues that Saturn-based mini-feature with a debate about the game's reputation and contributions to the visual novel and adventure game formula all while trying to get to the bottom of if it is worth playing today.
Wikis Of The Week
With the 2023 edition of The Game Awards already drawing up a whirlwind of criticism about how it failed the industry and those that work in it or cover it, I decided to throw things back to the past as a friendly reminder of how far Geoff Keighley has come as an event host and coordinator. It's likely a time and era of Keighley's premier event that he probably wants to forget consider it had such categories like "Cyber Vixen of the Year" and "Most Addictive." In fact, you can check out Giant Bomb's generalized Spike Video Game Awards wiki page for frequent criticisms the event faced during its many years.