The Community Spotlight 2024.04.13

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 best community creations and the important site-related news from the last week. I have to be honest, I was not as "on it" as I tend to be regarding the site-news for reasons you'll learn more about shortly. Nonetheless, here are the big items that I know the staff and people behind the scenes want you to know about.

On April 11th, Giant Bomb hosted another premium-only Town Hall meeting on Discord. You can listen to the archive over here. Some pretty important topics get addressed during this meeting and Bakalar is even reviewing the comments for the archive posting on the site.

As many of you likely already know, Dan and Jan went to WrestleMania XL last weekend and the video proof of this just recently hit the site. Be aware, due to a technical issue, the audio for the travelogue is a bit scuffed until the 48 minute mark. Speaking of audio weirdness, The Bombcast initially had issues with TurboShawn's audio dropping at the end, but those problems should now be resolved.

Regarding the issues with the podcast feed, some of the feed issues have been fixed, but not all of them. As TurboShawn indicated on the Discord, they are trying, but many of these issues will likely be fixed when Jan fully returns and has a full-week to review the issue:

It's all linked together. What I said in the message above applies to Premium versions in general, including directly from the site (the feeds rely on the site-hosted versions). It's just really unfortunate timing for something to break with Jan being out, limiting what we could do to get it fixed quickly.

Likewise, there was a formal review of the missing legacy podcasts, especially ones that are over ten years old, and it seems they may be permanently borked. They current site design and revision does not communicate well with them in terms of adding them to the feed, but they should all now be working as direct downloads. I can confirm that multiple people did work on the issue for days.

In better news, Grubb is planning on doing a Giant Bomb @ Nite event this year, even though E3 is officially dead! If you know of any people that you would like to see on the Giant Bomb couch, have them reach out to Grubb.

Now, let's talk about some really exciting news!

The Community Endurance Run XIV - April 12-14

If you are reading this edition of the Community Spotlight shortly after it has published, then you still have a chance to tune into the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run! This is the springtime community-led charity drive on Giant Bomb and this year the group is working with Feed The Children, an OK-based children's charity! If you want to learn more about the event, click the announcement article, which reviews the plans for the event as well as the ways you can support the various streamers, like me, this year!

No worries if you are unable to donate. I know 2024 has been off to a rough start for most. So, consider sharing this news and event to people you know who might be able to chip in a few dollars to streamers that you end up enjoying watching. Also, don't forget to send some supportive comments in chat or on their Twitch while they are streaming. It honestly makes a huge difference.

• Community Endurance Run XIV Event Announcement Article - Click this to learn all about the event!
• Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run Leaderboard - Please review some of the streamers that still need help reaching their donation goals!
• Giant Bomb Chat - The go to place to watch a constantly rotating batch of streamers!
• PersonZ Returns with another Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run - PersonZ reviews all of their plans for the event!
• ZombiePie's GBCER XIV Plans: "The Quest For The Worst Adventure Game Puzzle" Returns, But First As a Charity Stream! - Hey, that's me! If you enjoy this feature or any of the other things I do on the site, consider sending a dollar or two!

Tweets

Activities

The GB Album Club 059 - Mothership Connection by Parliament (Cycle Finale!) (By: @unclejam23)

Mothership Connection by Parliament is the CYCLE FINALE of the latest edition of the Album Club! Join the community discussion about this album and group and learn how YOU can suggest albums for the next cycle by clicking the link above!

Battletoads (2020) Is The 8th Game of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By April 22! +

Solar Ash Is The 7th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By April 8! Mark All Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)

Battletoads has been selected as the latest game pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! Is this the most dubious or questionable game pick for the Game Pass Game Club? Share your take about the Battletoads revival game.

Don't forget that Solar Ash by Heart Machine was a the previous selection for the Game Pass Game Club! The discussion thread has been opened for SPOILERS so feel free to talk about every part of the game to your heart's delight!

Blogs

Ishar III - The Seven Gates of Infinity (By: @valorianendymion)

Have you heard of the Ishar Trilogy series? Well, ValorianEndymion just posted a MAGNIFICENT retrospective on the third game in the series, Ishar 3: The Seven Gates of Infinity, that is worth a read! Find out what inspired them to check this game out in the first place!

Dragon’s Dogma 2, A.K.A. The Best Early 2000S Open-world Game You’ve Ever Played (By: @atheistpreacher)

AtheistPreacher just published an essay on why they think a lot of Dragon's Dogma II game design reminds them of 2000s era, pre-Breath of the Wild, open-world games. Read why they don't entirely mean that as an insult.

Nested: Cocoon's Worlds Within Worlds (By: @gamer_152)

If you are a fan of Cocoon by developer Geometric Interactive, might I interest you in a blog by Gamer_152 about how the game uses environmental design to craft puzzles? Be warned, there are spoilers to be had, but this is a great read.

What's the Greatest Video Game: Seventh Cross Evolution (By: @imunbeatable80)

It's time to return to the world of Dreamcast games with imunbeatable80's latest "What's the Greatest Video Game" feature on the site! This episode tackles Seventh Cross Evolution, an evolution themed sim game.

Mega Archive CD: Part IX: From Vay to Arslan Senki

Indie Game of the Week 365: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising (By: @mento)

This edition of Mento's "Mega Archive CD" feature tackles Sega CD games like Vay, Lethal Enforcers, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Puggsy! It's definitely an eclectic mix of games that you can read all about in the blog above!

Also, with the "real" game right around the corner, Mento decided to check out Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising as part of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature on the site. What does this action platformer expert think of this spin-off of a still-to-be-released tactics game?

Discussion Threads

Not Content With Making The Crew Unplayable, Ubisoft Is Reportedly Now Revoking Licenses For It On Ubisoft Connect (By: @bigsocrates)

So, it appears Ubisoft might be revoking players access to The Crew from their Ubisoft Connect accounts. The game is already offline and unplayable, but what does this say about the current state of game preservation?

Are You Still Having Helldivers 2 Connection Issues? (By: @junkerman)

It's been a minute, but are you still having issues getting connection issues when playing Helldivers II? The launch of the game sure was a mess, but are things getting better on PS5 or PC? What's it like trying to host your matches these days?

Is Mitch Becoming A Ranked Mortal Kombat Mythologies Speed Runner The Most Dan Thing A Non-Dan Cast Member Has Done? (By: @bigsocrates)

You may have heard that Mike Minotti is a top-five Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero speedrunner! It's TRUE and OF COURSE that's his speedrun.com profile picture! Send him congratulations in the community appreciation thread.

GDC Panels & Awards Discussion Thread (By: @johnsublime)

johnsublime had the pleasure of attending Game Developers Conference 2024 in-person this year and even posted a video of their favorite panel from the event. Did you follow GDC at all? Where there any highlights from the event you enjoyed?

Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club Nomination Thread (By: @bigsocrates)

Voting is closed, but bigsocrates needs YOUR HELP in selecting new games that have entered Game Pass that might be worth playing or covering as part of the Game Pass Game Club they host on the site! Can you think of any recent gems? Share your picks!

Lists

Warcraft Series I've Finished (By: @hellscream)

The Warcraft, non-World of Warcraft, strategy games stand as some of hellscream's favorite games of all-time. But only some of them! So, they decided to finally rank all of the Warcraft games they have played from best to worst.

Coziest Games of All Time (By: @drrichardshay)

What do you count as a "cozy" video game? The term cozy differs greatly between every person and is highly subjective, but DrRichardShay took a stab at listing what they think are the coziest games they have played. If you have ideas of your own, consider publishing a list on Giant Bomb as well!

MK12 Or MK2 Wishlist (By: @badassbeck)

It's obviously still too early to be even thinking about a sequel to Mortal Kombat 1, but badassbeck looked at the current roster in MK1 and the points of strength and weakness and decided to curate an ultimate roster for the next game in the series.

Wiki Of The Week

Kuai Liang

In honor of Mike becoming a top five speedrunner for Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, let's review the weird and complicated life of Kuai Liang, the man many of you know as Sub-Zero and why he's currently NOT Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat 1.

Huge props to @marino for keeping this character page up to date!

[Editor's Note from Marino]

The Sub-Zero in Mythologies is the original Sub-Zero, the older brother known as Bi-Han. In the previous timeline, after Scorpion killed him in the first Mortal Kombat, he became the wraith known as Noob Saibot. Yeah... it's complicated.