The Community Spotlight 2021.02.06

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back on the best user-generated offerings the past week. First, I just want to thank everyone for the warm response last week! The "final" GOTY Spotlights are always a pain to make and seeing people come out to show their appreciation means a lot to me. Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. That said, we are returning to the "normal" format of the Spotlight. If you end up making a belated GOTY list or blog, I will still happily showcase it, but within the usual categories. With all of that in mind, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping.

• Don't forget about Giant Bomb's 2020 GOTY Portal! If you are worried you may have missed some of the guests or live-streams; this is the link for you!
• As mentioned last week, TRACKSUITS SHOULD BE ARRIVING! If you haven't received a shipping notice for this or your Vinnyvania shirt, please email orders at http://socialimprints.com to inquire!
• Hades won the Community GOTY Voting by a wide margin, but if you wanted the "expanded" results all the way to the top 500 vote getters, Rorie has you covered!

Tweets

Galleria

I Made A GB GOTY Infographic (By: @wightnnerdy)

Join me in giving a HUGE round of applause to WightnNerdy for reviewing every GOTY season Giant Bomb has had since its founding and creating infographics for each year! It's amazing work and they deserve more recognition for their work!

Blogs

Twitch Plays FF7 Part 14: Chasing Dragons and Crawling in Tunnels (By: @kerikxi)

kerikxi's latest retrospective about Twitch Plays Final Fantasy VII on Giant Bomb looks at how the Twitch chat dealt with the final events on disc two and what pitfalls they encountered! Also, you may have noticed they have been writing at a breakneck speed, so, if you missed a blog just click the link above for their directory.

My Predictions About What Square-Enix Is Doing Or Announcing In 2021 (By: @zombiepie)

Moderator and Giant Bomb's resident Final Fantasy "expert" ZombiePie thinks 2021 and 2022 will be "exciting years" for Square Enix and use their latest blog to try and "predict what they might announce in the newt few years!

Indie Game of the Week 205: Earthlock (By: @mento)

Right on cue, Giant Bomb moderator Mento's latest "Indie Game of the Week" is all about Earthlock! Give it a read and see if they recommend the throwback indie RPG on the site!

The Balan Wonderworld Demo Is Weird But Not In The Ways I Anticipated (Or Necessarily Wanted) +

What Will The Legacy Of Astro's Playroom Be? (By: @bigsocrates)

bigsocrates loved and hated what they played of the Balan Wonderworld demo Read all about where they hope the game goes next and join their discussion about the game's first playable demo! Additionally, bigsocrates was a huge fan of Astro's Playroom last year but uses their other blog to question if the game will have a long-term impact on future nostalgia-based projects by Sony and other console manufacturers!

Massive Fallout New Vegas Mod, The Frontier, Crashes And Burns (By: @nateandrews)

nateandrews attempts to chronicle the rise and fall of the now notorious Fallout New Vegas: The Frontier mod. If you are interested in learning about what drove initial interest in the project as well as its downfall, give it a read!

I Played a Few Hours of Ys IX (By: @bowl-of-lentils)

Bowl-of-Lentils played a few hours of Ys IX: Monstrum Nox and share their early impressions of the game on their latest blog! If you are wondering how the ninth Ys game turned out give it a read using the link.

Sonic The Hedgehog: Looks Like Sega Is Gearing Up For Another Soft-Reboot (By: @igort)

Igort takes to Giant Bomb to talk about the prospects of a soft-reboot for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and what Sega needs to do to make people care about 3D Sonic games.

Run, Hide, Die. What is the Future of Horror Games Without Combat? (By: @thehideousshrew)

thehideousshrew has been playing The Medium this week and shares why it reminded them how modern horror games need to have a discussion about whether or not to include combat.

What's the Greatest Video Game: Shaun White Skateboarding (By: @imunbeatable80)

imunbeatable80 has a new episode of their recurring blog series on the site and this episode is all about Shaun White Skateboarding! Use the link below to see if they think the game's anti-establishment skateboarding action still holds up!

Busted Out My PS2 To Try The Original Gungrave, Before I Re-Watch The Anime (By: @gla55jaw)

Don't ask why but user gla55jAw decided they wanted to go back to the Gungrave anime and video game! This week, they talk about which parts of the game hold up and which parts have aged like milk!

The Entertainment (Thoughts) (By: @shirayuri)

Shirayuri finally got around to playing Kentucky Route Zero after hearing a lot of positive things about it during GOTY discussions last year. Read why Act II's "The Entertainment" chapter floored them.

Discussion Thread

Total War: Warhammer III Reveal Trailer Discussion Thread (By: @rorie)

Total War: Warhammer III has been announced! THE CHAOS GODS ARE COMING TO TOTAL WAR! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GODS! AHAHAHAHA! Oh... also Kislev and Cathy are coming to the game.

Embracer Group To Acquire Gearbox For Up To $1.3 Billion (By: @brian_)

Gearbox has been sold! Embracer Group, the parent company of THQ Nordic, continues their trend of buying up smaller developers! Do you think Gearbox was worth the hefty price?

Hitman 3 Ending Discussion (By: @dareitus)

Calling all Hitman 3 fans and owners! What are your impressions of the game's story and ending? If you are itching to talk about SPOILERS here's a link to the community story discussion for the game!

Mass Effect Remaster Trailer Discussion Thread (By: @rorie)

There's a new trailer for the Mass Effect Remaster! What do you think about what has been shown? Also, what do you make of the recent news that camera angles and cutscenes will be re-shot? If you comment about that second topic, just remember: don't be a jerk.

Stadia Is Shutting Down Internal Game Development And Jade Raymond Has Left The Company (By: @bigsocrates)

The community is BUZZING about the Google Stadia news! If you missed it, Stadia is shutting down internal game development and Jade Raymond has left the company. Get updated and join the discussion using the link below!

Which Features You Wanted For Gran Turismo 7 And Forza Motorsport Reboot? (By: @gtxforza)

If they made a new Gran Turismo or Forza Motorsport, what sorts of features of quality-of-life things would you want to see in it? Some community suggestions include car modification/upgrading and brightness settings!

How Is Last Gen Era's Line Up Of Racing Games So Far? (By: @gtxforza)

If you enjoyed the last racing discussion thread, here's another one for you! As the title says, did racing games become a "niche" genre during the 8th generation of consoles? Has the genre lost its "pull" in recent years?

Stubbs The Zombie Returns In March... As A Port! (By: @glots)

Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse is getting a port to current consoles! Are you interested to give the game a second shot? For those that remember the game, do you recommend the game?

What Are People's Initial Impressions Of Destruction Allstars? (By: @bigsocrates)

Are there any users out there that have checked out Destruction Allstars? Join our community discussion of the game using the link below and share your positive or negative impressions of the game!

PoP Sands of Time Remake Thread - Delayed Indefinitely? (By: @vaiz)

What is your reaction to the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake being placed in "indefinite hiatus?" Do you think there will be a modern Prince of Persia game to release this generation?

What Major Title Would You Most Like To See From Nintendo This Year? (By: @finaldasa)

Here's a fun discussion thread on the forums: What major title would you most like to see from Nintendo this year? With Pokémon Snap coming soon, what other franchises or spin-offs need a revival? Or, do you want to see a new IP?

Anyone Checking Out The Steam Game Festival? Any Recommendations? (By: @sandm0rph22)

Have any of you checked out the latest edition of the Steam Game Festival? For those that have, do you have any recommendations? If so, share your picks with the rest of the community using the link above!

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Discussion Thread (By: @rorie)

To all of the Pathfinder players in the community, what are your thoughts about the recently announced Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous? Do you support it still using the Pathfinder 1E rules?

Lists

Best Non-2020 Games I Played In 2020 (By: @bigevil1987)

bigevil1987 wanted to give a shout out to all of the non-2020 video game releases they enjoyed last year. Read all about the older releases and classic games they loved the most using the link.

SIGINT's Favorite Games (By: @sigint)

SIGINT decided to "update" their list of their all-time favorite games! Use the link below to check out the new and old games they are happy to play no matter what!

User Reviews

• @yyninja's Eiyuu Densetsu: Zero no Kiseki review on Giant Bomb shares why they think it is best Falcom and the Trails series has ever looked and played!
• @infantpipoc bought and played the PC port of Death Stranding on a whim and uses their review on Giant Bomb to share why they both loved and hated the game.

Wiki

Yakisoba Pan

Yakisoba pan is the food of the gods, and I'll never pretend otherwise.

Everyone on the couch is great, however my personal memory is of Brad being at the back all the time googling food.

I miss the couch setup so much. The "desk" setup just felt so impersonal.

Giant Bomb needs more Yakisoba Pan content. It literally saves lives.

Thanks for the feature GB! I've been putting a ton of work into the TP FF7 updates and should hopefully have it finished within a few days. Thanks everyone who reads and I hope you enjoy it, it was quite a wild ride.

Thanks for highlighting my post on Ys IX!

Also, I love that we have a Yakisoba Pan page now :)

Awww yiss, Trails From Zero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4FhQ9CRE48

Didn't make it into the spotlight but here is also my fine art that has gone unnoticed by Alex

EDIT: Also maybe Tweet embedding doesn't work again I dunno. This is pretty old but now that Alex has started watching Gundam I thought it was timely again.

same :/

I was so happy to read in the newsletter thingy that Jason's health is finally starting to improve a bit. As someone who doesn't have diabetes, and doesn't closely know anyone who does, I was shocked to see how bad the effects can get, in such a short time. Even in someone who's probably not that much older than I am.

I hope there keeps being good news for you :]

Thanks for highlighting my GOTY infographic! :D