24/7 giant bomb content livestream
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown
Quick Looks
The Mosquito Gang
Unprofessional Fridays
Game Mess Mornings 05/23/25
GrubbSnax
159 | Faygo FOMO.mp3
Voicemail Dump Truck
The Community Spotlight 2025.05.24
The Community Spotlight 2025.05.17
Giant Bomb is now 100% independent
The Community Spotlight 2025.05.14
The Community Spotlight 2025.05.03
Game » consists of 3 releases. Released Nov 18, 2003
Present in most action games, where people can say cheesy stuff and get away with it. Usually spoken by the hero, before or after wasting a dude.
Used by protagonists when opening a door that is locked, or just for looking really cool.
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, commonly refers to the programmed behaviors of NPCs in a game, whether it's the fact that a soldier takes cover behind a wall in Gears of War, or that townspeople cheer upon your arrival to their village in Fable.
"You fight like a dairy farmer!" and "I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than you!" are both good examples of this.
A proprietary video codec (.bik/bk2 extension) developed by RAD Game Tools and used in a very large number of video games.
Body armor in games acts as additional protection. In most cases, when a player takes damage that would completely affect their health, their body armor reduces the damage taken or takes the damage instead.
Bosses are enemies that fight you at the end of a level or at a significant point in the story.
A boss fight is a culminating challenge that pits the player against one or more enemies representing a greater threat and/or difficulty than those previously faced. These scenarios typically feature unique antagonists.
Button Mashing is a term used to describe gameplay where certain skills can be only realized explicitly through mashing buttons, a reckless player trying to get results or when the game rewards the player(s) who bash buttons the fastest. The latter example is common in Party Games.
A page for the Camera Following Projectile concept of when the player fires a projectile (bullet, arrow, cannon ball), time slows down and the camera will follow the projectile to its target (can be controllable with sixaxis such as in Heavenly Sword).
Typically found in fighting games, combos are a series of strung-together moves.
Games that ask the player whether they are sure about the decision that they have just made.
Counter-terrorists fight terrorists wherever they are found. These professional soldiers are highly disciplined and skilled in their profession.
Games involving characters that round up local hoodlums for the good of the community.
A sight placed on the HUD used to aim and provide a point of reference to the player when looking and interacting with the game world. Although they often aim weapons, they have a variety of uses and have appeared in many games in many different forms.
A non-interactive sequence within a game most often used for plot advancement.
The usually self-appointed leader of a region with totalitarian control. Usually will come into power through violence and will stay in power until he dies or is killed.
Sometimes, enemies will explode (usually when shot at) and will cause damage to the player.
A powerful release of energy. This energy is usually expelled in all directions very quickly, typically giving off orange or red flames.
The last boss you face in a game, usually representing the final climax of the game.
Finishing moves are typically moves that end a fight in a traditional fighting game.
In games, fire can be an obstacle, a tool, a weapon, or a solution. Just don't play with it...unless you really want to.
Games in which fire can spread continuously across the environment or between objects.
First-Person is a vantage point that attempts to simulate looking through a game character's eyes. It is most commonly found in first-person shooters, racing games, and visual novels, and to a lesser extent in other genres, such as RPGs, 3D platformers, and adventure games.
Graffiti is the practice of painting, etching, stickering, pasting, or in any way marking public or private property with lettering or images for a variety of different ends. Depending on one's perspective, graffiti can be considered either art or vandalism.
A heads-up display is a graphical overlay of vital information used in most modern games.
Most modern shooting games add the realistic touch of rendering shots to the cranium instantly fatal. Glorious for the shooter, kind of a bummer to the shootee.
Health is a value that gauges how much damage players can take in a game before they die or pass out. Also known as life in some games. Health is usually represented by a bar or a percentage instead of an exact amount. Found in most non sport games
They crash when they're supposed to drop you off, they get assailed by RPGs when they come to pick you up. Sometimes, they're eaten by huge monsters. Why do video games hate helicopters so much?
A character that deliberately destroys themselves in order to kill their enemies. This can be something like letting a grenade kill yourself and your enemy in a first person shooter.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Use your keyboard!
Log in to comment
Log in to comment