The Community Spotlight 2022.09.17

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back at the best community-created works form the previous week. There was a lot of gaming-based news to process, but one of the bigger ones to hit the gaming community involved the recent layoffs that hit Fanbyte. Jeff Grubb has stated that in the coming weeks you can expect to see a strong rotation of former Fanbyte staff as guests on Game Mess Mornings. However, while many of the staff impacted by the Fanbyte layoffs are friends and supporters of Giant Bomb, the staff and moderation team again plead for you all to avoid engaging in fantasy hirings and "bookings." While we all understand that these comments come from a place of love, they are distracting to the present situation and place the staff and community in an awkward and uncomfortable position. With that out of the way, let's talk about some site and community-related news!

News

I somehow forgot about it last week, but last weekend marked the start of Drew's yearly fundraiser for Bike MS! Even if all you can do is spare a few dollars, every bit counts. If you cannot donate, consider sharing Drew's page with someone you might know that can donate. He is, of course, a national treasure on the internet.

If you were wondering about international shipping status for the new t-shirt designs, Mr. Rorie posted an update on the site you might be interested reading. Long story short, international shipping is on hiatus until the current printing partner successfully reprints the current batch of ordered shirts. Speaking of which, if you are wondering why your reprints might be delayed, the store's print partner forgot to make one of the new shirt designs and also forgot the process for making the shirt for about a month and a half. Right now, the original batch of orders are currently listed as "partially shipped."

Finally, IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT EXTRA LIFE 2022! Giant Bomb's Team Page for Extra Life 2022 is up and YOU can join whenever you can! Even if you feel like you can only raise a small amount, please consider joining the group because every bit counts! The team goal this year is $223,566

Tweets

Galleria

Galac-Glizzy (By: @jearum)

The term "glizzy" has been used on the site quite often thanks to the staff's newfound love for Fortnite. However, jearum decided to run with that for their latest work of staff inspired fanart!

Splatoon 3's Two-Day Splatfest with Grub (By: @kone)

kone made this AMAZING work of photoshop in response to Jan asking someone to put Jeff Grubb into the Splatoon 3 graphic they showed during the Nintendo Direct. Before kone was able to post it, Jan had already uploaded his own version, but there's always room for more.

Face/Off Re-Imagined (By: @kone)

The rivalry between Dan and Jeff Grubb has already reached legendary level. Therefore, Kone saw it fit to envision the two on a mock Face/Off movie poster. I wonder which of the two could suck a peach for hours.

Activities

Midnight Fight Express Is The 17th Selection Of The UUGPGC. Completion Date 9/19/22. Mark All Spoilers! +

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting 9/19/2022(By: @bigsocrates)

Midnight Fight Express is the 17th selection of the community Game Pass Game Club! The completion date is 9/19/22, but in the meantime, what are your impressions of its setting, characters, and gameplay? Additionally, the next Game Pass Game Club voting cycle is up! The choices this time around are: Paradise Killer, Olija, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, Inside, Coffee Talk, and Immortality! If there are any stand outs VOTE NOW!

The GB Album Club 006 - Fever by Kylie Minogue (By: @unclejam23)

And it's now for something different for Giant Bomb's Album Club! This week, the group will be listening to Fever by Kylie Minogue. If you wish to join the discussion, just click the link above.

Blogs

Indie Game of the Week 287: Epistory: Typing Chronicles +

64 in 64: Episode 14 (By: @mento)

This week, Mento checked out Epistory: Typing Chronicles for the latest edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature on Giant Bomb! Read if they thought the game was able to merge its typing and atmospheric action/adventure elements successfully It's also time for moderator Mento to play Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness and Sesame Street: Elmo's Musical Monsterpiece for their retrospective on the Nintendo 64! Read how both games almost broke them!

Ranking of Albummers! Part 4 (By: @allthedinos)

ALLTheDinos did it again! They went ahead and updated their "Ranking of Albummers!" feature to include some of the recent musical "treats" 2M2LN have covered on the site! Give it a read if something new took their top position as "the worst album!"

In 2022, I Finally Completed Zelda II. Is It ACTUALLY As Hard And Bad As Its Reputation Suggests? (By: @zombiepie)

With excitement surrounding The Legend of Zelda franchise at an all-time high, moderator ZombiePie decided to return to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and figure out if its reputation as one of the worst and hardest in the series was true. Read on Giant Bomb to find out!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses Is Fallout 4, In That It Was Once A Good Game (By: @daavpuke)

daavpuke managed to borrow a copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and shares on the site why they were not as impressed by the game's pacing, cast, and gameplay as most were when the game first launched.

All PS1 Games In Order: Part 008 (By: @borgmaster)

It's TIME FOR TEKKEN with borgmaster's latest blog on the site looking at every game to come out for the PS2 in chronological order! They also reviewed NFL GameDay, Warhawk, and Primal Rage, but this post is really about OG Tekken!

Being Watched I: Surveillance in Her Story (By: @gamer_152)

Moderator Gamer_152 finally got around to playing Her Story and this week explores how it tackles the perspective of video proof being incontrovertible in legal circles as well as how it "works" as a mystery game.

Discussion Threads

Do You Still Pay Full Price For Games? (By: @timoneous)

The forum title really says it all: Do you still pay full price for games? For those that say "no," when was the last time you paid full-price for a video game? For those that say "yes" what's keeping motivated to stay that top of it?

Fire Emblem: Engage Looks Pretty Good, But What Are Your Thoughts On This? (By: @gtxforza)

So, what does everyone think of Fire Emblem: Engage after what Nintendo showed yesterday? Is this a new way to reinvent the Fire Emblem formula to keep things fresh in a good way?

Street Fighter 6 - World Tour, Fighting Ground, Battle Hub Game Mode Trailer (By: @pauljeremiah)

Have you seen the most recent trailer for Street Fighter 6? If you missed it, catch it on the forums and join the discussion if it is enough to convince you to sign up for the closed beta lottery or how you feel about the cartoony character animations.

G4TV Hit With Layoffs (By: @tartyron)

G4TV's revival has been hit by a batch of major layoffs. Does the news surprise you? If you were in charge of the network, how would you block out programming? Join the discussion on the site by clicking the link above!

RRR- If You Only Watch One Film This Year, Make It This (By: @sombre)

RRR has come up on the Bombcast a few times. Most say they love the movie, but what do you think? Join the discussion thread about the Hindi movie the internet can't stop talking about!

They're Already Shutting Down Babylon's Fall (By: @rorie)

Babylon's Fall is already shutting down after less than one year after its release! What do you make of the news? Do you even remember the game? Is it a candidate of "Hottest Video Game Mess" of 2022?

Will The PS5 And Xbox Series X Reach 100 Million Unit Sales (By: @monkeyking1969)

With supply chain issues only marginally better, can you imagine a world where the PS5 and Xbox Series X reach 100 million unit sales? That was once a benchmark of previous consoles, but what about now?

Should All Future Non-MMO PlayStation & Xbox First-party Games Exclude Online DRM? (By: @gtxforza)

Where do you stand these days when it comes to online DRM? Most of us have Steam accounts, and an ungodly number of launcher accounts to make games work these days. Are we all just tired and numb?

What Are Your Go-to Mods For Single-player In Red Dead Redemption II? (By: @rorie)

Our very own Mr. Rorie recently attempted replaying Red Dead Redemption II and is interested to know for those of you that love the game, what mods you normally run with the PC version. Share your recommendations if you have any!

Starting With Skull & Bones On Nov. 8th, All "Big AAA" Ubisoft Games Will Be $70 (By: @zombiepie)

Ubisoft recently announced that starting with Skull & Bones, all "Big AAA games" in their portfolio would be priced at $70. Are you surprised? Will this impact how many games you buy at launch?

PC Version Of The Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection Has Been Confirmed To Launch By October 19th, 2022 (By: @gtxforza)

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection has a confirmed PC launch date of October 19th, 2022! How many of y'all plan to pick up that version? For those that are, is this your first or second rodeo with these games?

Wordle, Quordle And Similar Word Games (By: @ahanna_jagger)

They were all the rage a while ago, but how many of the daily word games are you still playing these days? Do you still use Wordle? What about its variants and forks like Quordle?

Lists

2023 Good Stuff Sparky Played (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)

sparky_buzzsaw makes a slight return to Giant Bomb after an extended hiatus with a list annotating everything they have been playing since they last blogged on the site! Give it a read and wish them the best by clicking the link.

Most Atmospheric Games (By: @redfoxbennaton)

redfoxbennaton isn't normally a fan of the terms "atmospheric" or "immersive" when reading reviews or bios about games, but they went ahead and took up the task of listing on Giant Bomb what they consider the most atmospheric games.

Shmups I Have Played And Loved (By: @muttersometaxicab)

Shmups are one of MuttersomeTaxicab's favorite genres. Check out their exhaustive list of their favorite Shmups, both new and old, that they recommend to newcomers and veterans of the genre!

The Many Evils of Middle-Earth (By: @captainofthestars)

With interest in The Lord of the Rings high, captainofthestars decided to take up the monumental task of listing and annotating every single LOTR villain that has appeared in video games and what they have done.

Wiki Page Of The Week

Crude Renditions of Real People

This week's Wiki Page of the Week is for Crude Renditions of Real People! It's a key example of the MYRIAD of awesome concept pages you will not find anywhere else! Please oblige if you can think of more examples.

Great art from Jearum and Kone as usual, but the Face/Off poster is haunting. Becoming Dan to defeat him is a pyrrhic victory to be sure.

Thanks for the shout-out, Zeep! And good God, that poster is... uh... nightmarish? In a good way!

And speaking of charity, don't think I'm letting you off the hook for that Club Dead blog, either, @zombiepie. I demand your suffering be put into writing!

Missed commenting on last weeks but thanks for another spotlight! Need that Jeff/Dan Faceoff movie.

Thank you for featuring my threads again!

Oh, for the screenshot of DiRT Rally 2.0, where it shows up if the player loses their internet connection then they're unable to progress through, I should have thought of 3rd party games online DRM as well.

As always, thanks for sharing everyone's stuff each week, ZomhoneybiePie. If it weren't for you, some of my stuff wouldn't even get noticed. Forever in your debt.

Thanks for this ZP!

Thanks as always for the shout-out!

If I knew Tekken 8 was going to get that trailer last week, I would have made a bigger deal about Tekken 1 for the sake of synergy. Ah well, there will always be more Tekken whether I want it or not.

Thank you for the wrap up ZP! Great read as always.

Happy to see the team coming back again this year! This will be my 8th year of running with everyone, and I'm already looking forward to gameday a month from now!