The Community Spotlight 2024.06.29

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

How are your bank accounts holding up now that the Steam Summer Sale is here? Hopefully it hasn't completely ruined your finances as most of you transition into the hot summer months, sorry to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.

As a slight update to last week, TurboShawn is still working on the premium podcasts not appearing in people's podcast feeds. This time it sounds like the premium version of the VMDT did not appear on Pocket Casts this week. Once again, please continue to file reports about these issues as they do help.

There are some of you still waiting on your lifetime premium subscriptions redeeming. As per Bakalar, please allow the site's customer service another week or two to get through all of the submitted forms. The good news is that the site will not close the request form down any time soon, and instead, upper management encourages everyone who is eligible to fill it out when they can.

Also, full disclosure, I wrote this while on a laptop in a hospital while with family upon finding out my sister-in-law went into labor.

Tweets

Galleria

Giant Bomb Z: Grubb Edition, Mike Edition, Jan Edition, and Dan Edition

Karate-eh Kid (By: @jearum)

Let's give jearum a massive round of applause for the two art projects they did this week. The first involve re-imagining the current Giant Bomb cast as various Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z characters. I have to be honest, their "casting" for Grubb and Jan is 100% on the money.

Likewise, they photoshopped a Karate Kid movie poster for Turbo Shawn and Bakalar with both of them on it.

Gallery

Majinotti Buu (By: @ethers_elixirs)

And the mashups between Dragon Ball Z and the Giant Bomb team continue with this work of photoshopped goodness from evie mae/@ethers_elixirs on Twitter. Now I guess the question should be asked if Yajirobe or Majin Buu is a better fit for Mike.

Activities

The GB Album Club 061 - Portal of I by Ne Obliviscaris (By: @unclejam23)

The Giant Bomb Album of the Week club welcomes you to join them in their discussion for Portal of I by Ne Obliviscaris! Is this debut studio album a banger? Have you listened to Ne Obliviscaris' subsequent work? Join our discussion BELOW!

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Voting Thread For Cycle Starting July 1 2024 (By: @bigsocrates)

It is time for you to vote for the next video game pick for the Game Pass Game Club! VOTE FOR TWO! Is this the week when Bluey: The Videogame wins thanks to memes and jokes? How about first-time nominee Haunti?

Video

Mudslide of the Erdtree - An Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club Series (S.3 Ep.7) (By: Pickle Giraffe)

Now it is time for Grubb to fight back crashes as well as the typical foes in John Romero's Daikatana and Pickel_Giraffe is here to animate the whole escapade! This episode is as thrilling as the previous one and ends with a bang!

Blogs

The Game Pass Trap: Bramble: The Mountain King Has Great Aesthetics And Mediocre Gameplay. I Forced Myself To Finish. +

I Thought I'd Love Penny's Big Breakaway. Inconsistent Controls Made It A Mixed Bag. (By: @bigsocrates)

bigsocrates is starting a new series wherein they look at the smaller titles on Game Pass and starts things off with Bramble: The Mountain King! Have any of you played this side scrolling horror game from Dimfrost Studio?

bigsocrates also shares why they simply couldn't reconcile their struggles with Penny's Big Breakaway's controls with the rest of the game, despite how colorful and dynamic its worlds felt.

Indie Game of the Week 376: Mail Time (By: @mento)

Moderator Mento 's latest "Indie Game of the Week" feature looks at the 3D platformer, Mail Time! Read their blog linked below to see if they think there's more to this game than just its cozy graphical stylings.

DOOM 64 Deserves Its Cult Classic Status (By: @ford_dent)

Ford_Dent replayed Doom 64 now that it can be played on almost everything and discusses why they think it deserves its "cult status" as one of the most misunderstood and underrated Doom games in the franchise.

What's The Greatest Video Game: Peggle 2 (By: @imunbeatable80)

imunbeatable80 is back with a new edition of their "What's The Greatest Video Game" feature on the site! This week, they decided to give Peggle 2 a whirl and assessed it much vaunted status as a game with addictive gameplay.

All 3DO Games (Kinda) In Order: 1994 (Part 08) +

All PS1 Games In Order: Part 031 (By: @borgmaster)

You maybe did not wake up this day and think to yourself: "Man, I want to read a rundown of the video games released on the 3DO in 1994." But guess what? borgmaster has you covered!

Luckily, for their own sanity's sake, they also played games that released on the PS1 during August 1997. That includes Tecmo Super Bowl, Madden NFL 97, Jumping Flash! 2, and Alone in the Dark 2! Hey, some of those games are fun!

Not E3 2024: Nintendo (By: @gamer_152)

Moderator Gamer_152 decided to give the June 2024 Nintendo Direct a watch and shares why they feel like the event's efforts to end the Switch with a bang reflect a major change with Nintendo's mindset.

Will I Remember Another Code: Recollection? (By: @jeremyf)

jeremyf was initially excited at the prospect of playing Another Code: Recollection, but as you can read on their latest blog on the site, not only did the remaster's structure rub them the wrong way, they also did not enjoy playing it.

Discussion Threads

Steam 2024 Summer Sale Discussion & Suggestion Sharing Thread (By: @zombiepie)

It's that time of the year again! That's right, it is time for Gabe Newell's digital marketplace, Steam, to devastate your bank account! With this week marking the return of the Steam Summer Sale, what are some deals that caught your attention?

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC Discussion Thread (By: @rorie)

Obviously, I revived this thread last week, but a new conversation and debate has emerged surrounding Elden Ring's Erdtree DLC. Is it too hard and is there a disconnect between the reviewers of FromSoft games and the people that are trying to play them? What are your thoughts?

Forza Horizon 4 Is Being Delisted (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)

Forza Horizon 4 is being delisted from all digital marketplaces on December 15th, 2024! Get the news and join the discussion about it on the forums! Have you made amends that all racing games eventually get delisted?

Dr. Disrespect Outed As A Potential Pedophile (By: @av_gamer)

Alright, outside of the discussion thread for the new Elden Ring DLC, this was by far the most active thread on the site. So far, the community has done a fine job of disseminating the information that has come out pertaining to Dr. Disrespect and why they were banned from Twitch. Nonetheless, let it be known that Giant Bomb is not the place to come to his defense and that information that has come out, honestly, feels disqualify of being in any part of the gaming sphere.

Reviews

@infantpipoc decided to return to Supergiant Games's Pyre as they get ready to get into Hades II. Check it in their review why they think the game represent an important midpoint and turning point in the studio's catalog.

Lists

I Genuinely Just Wanted to See If I Could Easily List 20 SNES Games I Think Are "Great" (By: @undeadpool)

On a whim, Undeadpool challenged themselves to make a list of twenty SNES games they think are "Great." Click the link below to see which twenty games made the cut and think about making your own list on the site if you can!

Wiki Of The Week

Forza Horizon (Franchise Page)

With the announced eventual delisting of Forza Horizon 4, I thought about highlighting the Forza Horizon franchise page for this edition of the "Wiki of the Week," but there's one tiny problem that I need you to help me with. The franchise pages actually does a phenomenal job of highlighting all of the new features each entry introduces; with one exception. There's no information about Forza Horizon 5. If one of you could help out with that, it would be great!