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 site-related news and best community creations from the previous week.
First, thanks to the incredible efforts of a handful of people on the Giant Bomb Discord (i.e., @chucktowski, @alwaysbeclothing, and more) there’s a new fan-run Giant Bomb Infinite alternative on Twitch called GiantBombForever for everyone to enjoy! GiantBombForever brings back a 24/7 stream of Giant Bomb videos, including voting and has a closely monitored Twitch chat that is welcoming all frequenters of the old Infinite chat. Also, thanks to Jan and Dylan, I was able to create a playlist on YouTube that has every single classic Giant Bomb Infinite bumper or transition.
On a technical note, the engineers are working on new filters and auto-ban tools that hopefully make a dent on the recent influx of spambots. Right now they are testing a filter that blocks or automatically nukes a post or comment if the content contains greater than 70% links. They also are going to set the site’s filters to nuke the post/comment if the content contains greater than 50% alternative unicode characters (e.g. 𝙴𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚜… vs Expedia offers…).” If you notice any comments or threads that fit those criteria and are still up, feel free to let me know or @ me in the thread in question and I can share a screenshot of it to the engineer in charge of dealing with the spam issue. So far, it’s been catching almost everything the mod team and myself have been having to delete manually.
When it comes to Bluesky embed support on the forums and site, it should be coming soon, but still isn’t here quite yet. When I hear more, I’ll be happy to update you and any changes to the site-rules or text editor about Twitter use.
Art
Giant Bomb: Coast To Coast (By: Pickle Giraffe)
How are all of my 90s kids doing these days? Pickle Giraffe envisioned the Giant Bomb staff as the main characters of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and it completely works. You also can find a timelapse of this banner on Pickle_Giraffe’s bluesky account.
Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/gbdudersfeed.bsky.social/post/3lh7ot6nujs2c
https://bsky.app/profile/basicallilexi.bsky.social/post/3lhmtngbsuk2p
https://bsky.app/profile/davesnider.com/post/3lh7fxbngt22f
https://bsky.app/profile/philsalv.bsky.social/post/3lgvlexn7bk2z
Video
BETA MOUNT – (Season 6 Episode 4) – An Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club Series (By: Pickle Giraffe)
It’s been another week and that means that Pickle_Giraffe has another episode of their Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club series for you to enjoy. This week they had plenty of fun with the game’s notorious elevator sequence and level!
Giant Bomb Infinite Bumpers Playlist (By: @zombiepie)
I mentioned it during the intro, but thanks to Jan and Dylan, I was able to track down every single interstitial and bumper that used to play during the transitions between videos on Giant Bomb Infinite. Whether you want to enjoy some seals or Alex dancing, I have you covered on this YouTube playlist.
Activities
Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess Is The Second Game Of UUGPGC Year 4! Finish By March 1! Mark All Spoilers (By: @bigsocrates)
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess made a lot of GOTY 2024 lists but today it was announced as the next pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! If you have any thoughts, especially if you gave it props during GOTY time, share them over here!
The GB Album Club 077 – Sorry For Your Time by Space Monkey Mafia (By: @unclejam23)
The latest edition of the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is for Sorry For Your Time by Space Monkey Mafia! Have you ever heard of this musical group before now? Do any of you want to listen and discuss some peak ska music? Click the link to join the fun
Blogs
Colorado Night Anime (Satoshi Kon Presents) (By: @splodge)
Splodge makes a valiant return to blogging by talking about using a recent batch of free time to watch the classics of Satoshi Kon like Paranoid Agent! Did they enjoy what they watched? Of course they did, but if you have suggestions for other adult-oriented anime, feel free to share!
My Quest To Defeat One Of The Granddaddies Of Kusoge: Makai Hakkenden Shada – A Terrible Ys Copycat (By: @zombiepie)
The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 has plenty of good games, but moderator ZombiePie decided not to play any of those. Instead, they played one of the worst games on the console: Makai Hakkenden Shada. Read how it treated him and why he’s recently been swayed by the kusoge gaming community’s mindset.
Kobayashi Mario Goes Hawaiian (Part One) +
Indie Game of the Week 406: Afterimage (By: @mento)
Mento has a new blog where they attempt to nab all of the Retro Achievements for Super Mario Sunshine! Which achievements drove them crazy and were they the same challenges and environments that drove the Burgle My Bananas crew mad?
Likewise, they have a new episode of their “Indie Game of the Week” feature and this one tackles Afterimage by developer Aurogon Shanghai. If you want to learn more about this hand-drawn 2D action adventure game and if it is any good, give their write-up a gander!
Some 4X Games And The Origins Of The Term (By: @valorianendymion)
In light of the release of Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, ValorianEndymion asked themselves a simple question that sent them down a long rabbit hole: What is the origin of the term “4X?” If you enjoy educational deep dives, then this is the blog for you!
Discussion Thread
MGS 3 Remake Announced For PC and Next Gen Consoles (By: @thepickle)
After teasing it for a while, the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, has an official trailer and a release date! Give the trailer a watch and share if you are excited to play this game and support Snake Eater getting the remake treatment!
Iron Galaxy Makes Layoffs In An Effort To Survive (By: @bigsocrates)
Iron Galaxy Studios has announced a round of layoffs and issued a statement that the company is in a state of financial distress. Catch the news and share your thoughts on the forums if you think the studios has a viable path forward to sustainability.
How Do You Feel About The Idea That Xbox Might Become Sega Like? (By: @topcyclist)
After doing it half-assed for a bit, it seems like Microsoft and Xbox are now fully committed to releasing their games on everything they can and have finally embraced their third-party game publisher status. Is this a good or decent strategy for them? What do you think this means for their hardware?
Rollerdrome Removed From Steam (By: @krakalackin)
Rollerdrome has been delisted though 2K Games has said that it will be republished. That hasn’t changed the fact that Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. closed Roll7. Share your impressions of the news and what you think the entire situation says about the state of indie games and how they relate to game preservation.
Turok And Turok 2 Finally Comes to Nintendo Switch Online in Japan (By: @chamurai)
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2 are coming to Nintendo Switch Online in Japan! Do you have any hope of this coming to Switch Online elsewhere? How about the prospects of a full revival of the franchise? With Dino Crisis already making a comeback on GOG, is this a year for dino-based games?
Lists
GOTY 2024 (By: @infinitespark)
InfiniteSpark finally got around to making their GOTY 2024 list! While it might be a bit late, it is still a great read! Click the link to see which games cracked their list and as always, feel free to join the belated GOTY list-making group if you still haven’t gotten around to making one.
Resident Evil (Ranked) (By: @odysseyrpg)
There have been rumblings that we will hear more about Resident Evil this year. As someone who has played almost every game in the series, OdysseyRPG ranked the games from best to worst and you can feel free to use their list as a template for your own list!
Reviews
@bhlaab‘s Disney’s 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue review continues their retrospective of the most questionable fifth generation video games! See what they think about this Disney tie-in and if avoids the low bar of being the worst Disney game on the PS1.
@gaminggamer‘s R.C. Pro-Am review looks at the game from a modern lens and shares why they think it still holds up and is as addictive as it was when it first released! Why do they think this Rare gem is filled with game juice? Read to find out!
Wiki Of The Week
Vagrant Story is celebrating its 30th anniversary! If you are unfamiliar with the adventures of Ashley Riot in this technical masterpiece by PEAK Squaresoft give our wiki page for the game a read and discover one-fifth of what makes this game so special! Special thanks to Alexander O. Smith‘s localization!
