The Community Spotlight 2024.11.02

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the site-related news and best community creations from the previous week.

Unfortunately, we start this edition of the Spotlight on a down note. In case you were not aware, Fandom announced a new round of layoffs, and employees at Fandom internal and GameSpot were impacted. While none of the Giant Bomb employees were directly targeted with these layoffs, many that were were friends of the staff and guests on the site. One of the biggest losses from these layoffs was Bailey Meyers, who not only has been a fixture on the site, but an appreciated voice and personality.

There are likely others and I do apologize for missing any. To those that were impacted by these layoffs reading this right now, feel free to contact me and I am more than happy to include links to places where people can support you. You deserved so much better and I am more than happy to do what I can to help.

On a lighter note, it is Extra Life weekend. More community members are always welcome and if you can do us all a favor, check out the community accounts on the Giant Bomb team and try to make sure no one is at $0! We always do this and it proves to be incredibly effective, but we don’t want a single member of our team to end Extra Life’s Game Day event without a donation. If your plans have changed and you can suddenly stream for maybe just a few hours, please consider joining as well!

A few people have reached out about doing community streams on chat after Game Day and that traditionally has been an event hosted by the Giant Bomb Discord, though they have not done an event like that in a while. If you think there’s interest in doing one, head on over to the Giant Bomb community Discord and share as much.

Extra Life 2024

Alright everyone, Game Day is here and these are the handy links for anyone still interested in watching or supporting Giant Bomb’s Extra Life event! The Giant Bomb site chat will be the place to follow this with community streams alongside the staff ones! Once again, tune in and do what you can to show your support for the staff and community-related tomfoolery!

When it comes to the staff plans, Dan will be hosting a whole assortment of games and guests at his house like last year with Mike, Grubb, and Shawn all confirmed to be appearing during his event.

Jan on the other hand… I’m worried about him. Jan is going to be streaming The Quiet Man for 12 hours! To make matters worse, he’s added a few gimmicks that might cause him further misery. For one thing, he is going to be playing the game in silence and will be forced to reset every time he (or anything) breaks a certain decibel level. Second, every donation over $69 will force him to reset his progress as well. Will there be other shenanigans? Oh, you bet!

Tweets

Videos

LUCY KONG COUNTRY – (Season 5 Episode 2) – An Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club Series (By: @Pickle_Giraffe)

Lucy Kong Country Returns HD is back baybee! And now with Lucy’s misery in glorious HD detail! Once again, Pickle_Giraffe absolutely hits it out of the park with this one and it is a great viewing time for those that have been enjoying her time hosting Blight Club.

Best of Giant Bomb 212.5 ep 7, Bombathon ’21 (Dec 13) – Cybermania (FAN-MADE) (By: @gbgapbridger)

gbgapbridger has a new video in their series looking at the best and funniest Giant Bomb moments in recent history! This episode seeks to compile the best moments from the Bombathon ’21 event!

Activities

Resident Evil 2 REmake Is The 22nd Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By November 4! Mark Spoilers +

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting November 4 2024 (By: @bigsocrates)

Resident Evil 2 REmake is the next pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! Whether you are new to the game or put it on your GOTY list back in 2019, click the link below to join the fun and discuss if this stands as the best Resident Evil game!

Likewise, the latest round of voting for the Game Pass Game is up and the list of nominees is absolutely STACKED! Check out the list of games to vote for, and drop a comment with your picks in the thread above!

Blogs

Scope One: The Horror of Still Wakes the Deep (By: @gamer_152)

This week on Gamer_152’s blog, they are talking about oil extraction, industrial accidents, and a new approach to Lovecraft. That’s right, they are looking at Still Wakes the Deep with this essay and it is a highly introspective read if you are interested.

I Want To Quickly Review Demos From The October 2024 Steam Next Fest Event – Part 1 (By: @zombiepie)

Steam’s Fall Next Fest event was last month, but Giant Bomb moderator ZombiePie wants to talk about a handful of games from the event that they played. Whether it be spooky co-op games like Kletka or ghostly mystery games like Urban Myth Dissolution Center, give it a read when you have the chance.

Mento’s Month: October ’24 +

Indie Game of the Week 394: Cthulhu Saves Christmas (By: @mento)

Mento has has a fun summary of their gaming and anime watching during the month of October. Only they can answer why they got back on the Umineko train while also watching Dandadan in the same month!

Likewise, they seemed to have skipped a few months and went for a Christmas themed game for their latest “Indie Game of the Week” feature with Cthulhu Saves Christmas! Is anyone else surprised at how long lasting these joke Cthulhu games have been going?

What’s the Greatest Video Game: Rival Turf (By: @imunbeatable80)

imunbeatable80 is back with a new edition of their “What’s the Greatest Video Game” feature and this one is all about Rival Turf! Is this retro sports game as memorable or timeless as Windjammers or NBA Jam? Read their blog to find out what they think!

Schlocktober ’24: Dredge Has A Fantastic Set Up But Mostly Ends Up Idling In Shallow Waters +

Schlocktober ’24: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare Is More Like A Pleasant Afternoon Nap +

Schlocktober ’24: Killing Time Resurrected Isn’t Scary Or Objectively A Good Game, But I Couldn’t Stop Playing It (By: @bigsocrates)

Halloween is over, but bigsocrates still wants to talk about spooky games for their “Schlocktober ’24” series! This time they talk about Dredge, a game they loved at the start, but soured on as they entered its endgame; Alan Wake’s American Nightmare being an interesting concept that doesn’t fully deliver; Killing Time and its remaster being ultimate Halloween “Guilty Pleasures.”

Dead Space (2023) And The Futility Of The Direct Remake (By: @apewins)

apewins tried to get into the spirit of Halloween by playing the Dead Space remake and penned an essay on why they still aren’t sold on high-fidelity graphics and remakes being good for horror games.

Discussion Threads

Ubisoft Finally Shows That They Can Give The People They Want By Launching An NFT Game In Late 2024 (By: @bigsocrates)

Ubisoft recently launched a blockchain game with a marketplace selling NFTs for as much as $7 to $64,000. It’s an absolutely bizarre situation that you can learn more about in the thread linked above and feel free to share if this is a sign of Ubisoft’s potential demise.

Sony Is Shutting Down Firewalk Studios, Makers Of Concord (By: @bigsocrates)

Well, it finally happened, Concord is dead, dead. What is your reaction to the news about Sony’s closure of Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi on top of the company killing the ill-fated hero shooter? How are you all even processing this endless supply of layoffs?

Was Your Gaming Life Happier When You Were Younger? (By: @fallen189)

Are any of you old enough to remember what it was like to play video games before the rise of social media? When you think about when you played video games as a kid, do you think you were happier playing them?

Lists

Unique Games With Real Life Integration (By: @thecollectorx)

thecollectorx has a new list concept that needs YOUR SUGGESTIONS! This list is about “Games with real life integration!” Can you think of games that required you to use real-world objects or projections?

Caustic Soda (By: @villhaver)

VILLHAVER has an idea for a community list that is open to YOUR SUGGESTIONS! This list is trying to annotate, with episode notes, every time the Caustic Soda podcast references or mentions video games! If you are also a fan on this podcast, help them out!

Reviews

@infantpipoc played Metaphor: ReFantazio entirely on a Steam Deck and if you are interested to read how that went, their review on @giantbomb might be worth a read. They also share their overall thoughts.

@pauljeremiah gave the game 20XX a shot recently and shares on their review why the game is a love letter to “classic platforming” with a few unique twists that might be worth checking out.

Wiki of the Week

Hero Shooter

It’s time for another call to action edition of the Wiki of the Week feature on the spotlight! With the closure of Firewalk Studios and the demise of Concord, Hero Shooters are under a microscope again. However, while our Hero Shooter concept page definitely has plenty of games attached to it, it could do with some text and examples of how this genre can take shape.