Judoboy

I probably buy ~4-5 full priced games a year and that's limited to that being the number of new games I want to play not a financial decision. I have more money than time these days. If I think buying the game during release will enhance the experience and ride the zeitgeist I'll always buy it. It's funny how that's changed in my life. I really don't care about the price of the game, I'll buy whatever I want to play at the time. Probably only buy like 10-15 games a year now anyways and at least a third of those are gonna be $20 or less.

Happy Gilmore, and it still puts a huge smile on my face when I watch it today

This sums up my experience. In 2000 I got timewarner roadrunner broadband internet and set Gamespot to my 'homepage' when that used to be a thing. Gamespot became my home on the internet. Then Giantbomb. I selfishly hope Gerstmann continues to do something publicly on the internet. Or as a consolation follows Ryckert's model and streams weekly.

Like a lot of others I think other than Inscryption and the Diablo 2 remaster the games I played didn't come out this year. I expect this will continue to be the trend. Playing this year for the first time God of War, Max Payne 3, Halo 3 and Reach, and Slay the Spire are my standouts.

Reading AI test data is fun

I'll be honest....sometimes I wish Jeff and the crew just went full Patreon and basically did what MinnMax is doing. I'd gladly pay $5+/month. Hearing the casual absurdity of the Fire Escape Cast and seeing Dan's shenanigans on Twitch makes me miss the days when this site felt less serious.

I'm assuming its okay to do this but here's a link for Brad's tech podcast he does outside of the giantbomb realm - https://techpod.content.town/.

I'd expect there are gonna be a lot of people reading this that didn't know that podcast existed and perhaps will now more than ever want to listen to it...assuming Brad continues with it which I hope he does.

This hit me hard. I tried to explain to my wife that it feels like my best friends are moving away. Ryan's death also felt like the death of a close friend. I struggle to wrap my mind around what it means to have one-way relationships with people on the internet. But I guess what it comes down to is that I've checked this site daily since 2008. Between all of the content I've probably averaged 5-10 hours per week for the last 13 years. I've spent more time hearing their voices than anybody else outside my family.

I checked my account and I joined July 22, 2008 which is a day after the "full site" launched. I was already following Jeff and the OG crew at Gamespot since 2000 which is the year I got Roadrunner broadband internet and officially became a teenager. Giantbomb and it's weekly cadence of podcasts and videos has been the steady rock in my life. I can connect moments in Giantbomb with moments in my real life. I was a sophomore in college in 2008 and I now live across the country married with 2 kids. I've grown up with them. I can watch clips and sometimes remember where I was in my life or what I was doing at the time.

I'm just in shock. I feel compelled to write something because this site has been a huge part of my life. It's like I'm writing a eulogy and it does feel that way emotionally but I don't want to disrespect Jeff and the staff that are about to give this site another go. I have no plans in cancelling my subscription. I hope they shake things up and find a new groove. I also hope Vinny, Alex, and Brad continue to do public facing things so they can still be a part of my life. Cheers guys. It's been a hell of a run.

I'm not sure how to phrase this without sounding a bit arrogant, but I'm in a situation in my life where I have a good paying job but with kids and other responsibilities so I maybe play ~5 hours a week on average. What that means is I will basically pay any price if there's a game I want to play. As long as I'm not buying games that I'm not going to play right away, which maybe only happens a few times a year or if there's a Steam sale, I'm not paying that much in a year to enjoy my favorite hobby. Same goes with hardware - I basically buy anything I want... (That's not to say I have the best of everything, I don't have an Xbox Series X, still use a 24" 1080p monitor, still have a 1070 in my pc). I probably buy no more than 12 games a year with only 2/3 of those being new, full-priced games.

If there are a few games I want to play sure I'll start with the one on sale. But having time to play games is the scarce resource right now so if there's any game I'm excited to play when I find time I will just immediately buy it. I also like owning games, physical if I can, so game pass and services are not that appealing to me. It's a good problem to have I suppose.....though truth is I'd be happier being a kid again with the opposite problem of too much time and not enough money to afford games.

I was just about to post this too. Played this a ton. Unreal Tournament demos too.

My real answer hasn't been mentioned yet and thats the multiplayer demo of Soldier of Fortune 2. It was a single multiplayer map and I played dozens of hours of it and I think I did eventually buy the game but I barely played any more of it after I bought it. Such an underrated game. I still think about the AK in that game.