Relive GameSpot history; Top 40 The HotSpot moments (2 hours MP3)

This was supposed to be out next month, but in light of recent events we thought we'd push it out early. You may recall earlier this month we opened up voting for listeners to choose their favorite HotSpot moments -- The HotSpot, of course, a gaming podcast featuring some of our GameSpot/Giant Bomb favorites, including Ryan, Vinny, Jeff, Brad, Carrie, Rich, Bob, and Alex. It ran from 2005 to 2007 and then some stuff happened and things changed. In any case, we seem to have gone a little full circle, so this is pretty good timing. Here, then, are the top forty The HotSpot moments as voted by you, the listeners.

Here's the MP3 link and a link to our blog, RSS feed, Twitter, and Facebook. If you haven't heard The HotSpot before, you might consider checking out or best-of highlight shows we produced for The HotSpot's 2005, 2006, and 2007 years. There are threads here on Giant Bomb for them as well with plenty of discussion within. And if you don't know who we are, we're This Year, and we like enjoying old podcasts and new podcasts in the form of lengthy best-of programs. People seem to like reliving them along with us. Enjoy!

This was supposed to be out next month, but in light of recent events we thought we'd push it out early. You may recall earlier this month we opened up voting for listeners to choose their favorite HotSpot moments -- The HotSpot, of course, a gaming podcast featuring some of our GameSpot/Giant Bomb favorites, including Ryan, Vinny, Jeff, Brad, Carrie, Rich, Bob, and Alex. It ran from 2005 to 2007 and then some stuff happened and things changed. In any case, we seem to have gone a little full circle, so this is pretty good timing. Here, then, are the top forty The HotSpot moments as voted by you, the listeners.

Here's the MP3 link and a link to our blog, RSS feed, Twitter, and Facebook. If you haven't heard The HotSpot before, you might consider checking out or best-of highlight shows we produced for The HotSpot's 2005, 2006, and 2007 years. There are threads here on Giant Bomb for them as well with plenty of discussion within. And if you don't know who we are, we're This Year, and we like enjoying old podcasts and new podcasts in the form of lengthy best-of programs. People seem to like reliving them along with us. Enjoy!

I cannot wait to listen to this. Afterwards, I'm downloading the rest.

@ZanzibarBreeze: Hey, I never knew this was yours, dude! Have you done one of these for Talkradar before? If so I'll listen to that, as well as this. If not, you should totally do one.

These are so awesome.

Thank you so much for doing this.

Awesome. I totally forgot about Brian Eckberg, the Hotspot intro song, and the whole mancannon bit. LOL mancannon...

Does it have the thing where they acted a hintline to a nonexistent game?

Thanks! Downloaded and will listen to later.

Thanks so much for doing this, I downloaded and listened to The Hotspot 2007 one and missed when you made more of them.

@GreggD said:

@ZanzibarBreeze: Hey, I never knew this was yours, dude! Have you done one of these for Talkradar before? If so I'll listen to that, as well as this. If not, you should totally do one.

We haven't but I'll note it down for future consideration.

We're totally open to suggestions and field them on Twitter all the time, so if you guys have a particular podcast you want us to look at then drop us a line either on Twitter (@this_year), Facebook (/thisyearcollection) or email us -- feedback@thisyearcollection.org. The schedule is pretty much set for 2012 but we need suggestions for gaming podcasts next year, so do let us know what you want to hear.

@ZanzibarBreeze: I'll keep those in mind, and follow them. But yeah, if you do end up with a TDar episode, the early stuff is choice. First year or so. Also, the top 40 was awesome, thanks for making it happen!

I just finished listening to it and it was great! One thing that did stick out about the podcasts was in the clip for #1 when they kept on saying that stuff was the shit. I never really followed the GB guys at Gamespot but after hearing that clip I totally see the importance of being able to curse without censorship. Giant Bomb just wouldn't be the same without their filthy language.

I had listened to 2005 and 2006 of The Hotspot from your site before, but had completely missed the 2007 and Bombcast Best Ofs. I really enjoy these and am looking forward to diving into more.

Needless to say, I just downloaded 34 hours worth of podcasts. =/ So thank you!

Thanks for listening everybody! Don't forget to tell your friends. Liking the episodes on Facebook helps get the word out -- just hit the like button under the cover image on this blog post and on other episodes you like. And keep your feedback coming in, positive or negative.

Incidentally, one of the closing songs is Midnight Brown's 'Never Fired, Dropped Once'; I always assumed it was about Jeff's dismissal from GameSpot, though that could be a reach on my part.

I lsitened to some, if not all, The Hotspot highlights packages you put together previously, in which case will there be any new material in this compilation compared to the previous ones? Or have they just been packaged differently effectively?

I loved the massive HotSpot 2006 roundup, and I just now noticed the 2007 one... can't wait to dig in to that as well.

I'd love a MBMBaM collection. A few hours of their funniest moments may cause widespread laugh cramps, but it'd be worth it.

Awesome work, I'm listening to it right now. I religiously listened to the Hotspot every week back in the day. I'm currently going through old bombcasts and laughing at stuff I'd totally forgotten about. This should be a similar experience :)

You fucking legend man, I've been following this when you first launched it with Hotspot 07 I think it was... good stuff mate

Just listened to the whole thing. Never a fan of the hotspot back in the day but I don't find it nearly as funny as their giant bomb stuff.

@Zero_ said:

You fucking legend man, I've been following this when you first launched it with Hotspot 07 I think it was... good stuff mate

Thank you!

@RagingLion said:

I lsitened to some, if not all, The Hotspot highlights packages you put together previously, in which case will there be any new material in this compilation compared to the previous ones? Or have they just been packaged differently effectively?

No new material in this Top 40; just the Top 40 moments as you guys have decided them. We put up a ballot a few weeks back.

@ShaggE said:

I'd love a MBMBaM collection. A few hours of their funniest moments may cause widespread laugh cramps, but it'd be worth it.

Totally planning that.

I can't believe I missed this! Downloading now.

@ZanzibarBreeze: Fantastic stuff! Downloading now.

Thanks so much. Downloaded, listened, it was amazing. Love the choice for first pick -- it is probably my favourite video game podcast moment ever.

This was awesome man, thank you very much!!!

Now, could you do the same for the Bombcast?

EDIT: Wow, sorry, you are already on it, awesome!!!

BTW, when are 2009 and 2010 coming out?

@BPRJCTX said:

This was awesome man, thank you very much!!!

Now, could you do the same for the Bombcast?

EDIT: Wow, sorry, you are already on it, awesome!!!

BTW, when are 2009 and 2010 coming out?

Thanks for listening! We're working on the 2009 Bombcast best-of right now, but I can't give an exact release date - I'm about 80% sure it'll be out in April. We've scheduled a 2010 Bombcast best-of for later this year.

The intro was incredibly aggravating to suffer through, but I appreciate the collection.