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 past week!
Hopefully you enjoyed this year’s incarnation of Geoff Keighley‘s The Game Awards and Giant Bomb’s talk over of the event. The staff i spending Friday and Saturday (today) to record most of the GOTY deliberations while they’re all together in Los Angeles. So, expect to get the VODs for their red carpet pre-show and Game Awards watch party up on the site by Monday or Tuesday.
Rest assured, GOTY content will be arriving soon. @marino is happy to report that Guest Lists are also returning. The plan is to having a handful of lists posted each day during the week of Christmas and possibly extending to New Year’s Day depending on how many submissions he gets.
The Community GOTY 2024 will also be returning. Keep an eye out for that around the end of next week for your chance to vote!
Unfortunately, talking about upcoming podcasts brings up the issue of the site’s podcast RSS feed problems and I just don’t have any updates other than Shawn and the podcast team are as frustrated and angry there hasn’t been any progress on this front as you are. Continue to bring this issue up to Dylan and drop a comment in the thread linked in the thread linked in the final paragraph in this preamble if you haven’t done so already. If you noticed that the premium Bombcast feed updated with Game Mess Mornings instead of Bombcast 870, that issue should be fixed and if not it can be fixed if you delete and redownload it (maybe also refreshing the content from the RSS). At the very least, you should be able to download premium editions of podcasts directly from the site and if that isn’t even working, please let any staff member on the site know as soon as possible.
Finally, in case you missed it last week, Fandom’s community manager for Giant Bomb, Dylan, published a thread detailing what has been done to the site and what is being planned to make it better. If you haven’t given that article a read and can think of site improvements that you think are desperately needed, please drop a comment over there. Dylan is responding to every comment made in the thread until an updated thread or article is posted.
GOTY 2024
Lists
Blogs
Game of the Year 2024 and the 3rd Annual Willies Awards (By: @willin)
willin is back with their yearly “Willies Awards!” If you want an entertaining post about their gaming highs and lows, check it out. “Life Ruiner Award For Game I Spent Too Much Time Playing” is a pretty good award name!
Reflecting On This Year Has Made Me Realize How Few Games I’m Ever Going To Play (By: @bigsocrates)
bigsocrates continues their reflections about 2024 in the games industry with a look at the now completely impossible task of playing all of the games they want to play, which I think a lot of us can relate to.
Tweets
Activities
Path of Exile 2 Guild (By: @laktesh)
Hey, how many of y’all are playing Path of Exile 2 right now? Do any of you want to join our community guild for the game to do some online co-op? It’s also open to ANYONE! Get the details over here!
The GB Album Club 071 – PARADISO by Cino Amobi – (Also the Album Club’s Back) (By: @unclejam23)
The Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is BACK BAYBEE! The album starting this cycle off is PARADISO by Chino Amobi! Are any of you interested in talking about this highly ambitious concept album?
Blogs
The Reddit Algorithm Is Serving Gamergate Style Material On The New Naughty Dog Game (Intergalactic) And It’s Depressing (By: @bigsocrates)
bigsocrates was watching The Game Awards like most of us and, upon seeing the big announcement of Naughty Dog’s new game, they immediately found themselves inundated with Gamergate coverage instead of professional games journalism. What issues does this speak to? Read what they think.
I Have a Pathological Inability to Advertise Myself (By: @undeadpool)
As a blogger, Undeadpool is ruminating about the state of writing text online these days and why they can’t help but shake the feeling that they are not doing enough to advertise themself or get productive attention to their works of writing. If you can related, drop a comment.
Go! Go! GOTY! 2024: Turnip Boy Robs a Bank +
Go! Go! GOTY! 2024: Another Crab’s Treasure (By: @mento)
Mento is chipping away at the indie and AAA games from 2024 that they feel like they need to play before they publish a GOTY 2024 list. This week, they played and ranked Turnip Boy Robs a Bank and Another Crab’s Treasure! See which one ranked more favorably by giving their blogs a read!
Discussion Thread
Hottest Mess 2024: Community’s Choice! (PICK 3) (By: @allthedinos)
The voting for Giant Bomb’s Community Choice for “Hottest Mess 2024” is still up and taking votes! Remember, you can vote for up to three gaming-related news items or fiascos that you think represent the lowest moments in the industry. Which specific studio closures or game flops stick out the most to you?
Who’s Playing Infinity Nikki? (By: @axersia)
The game only recently came out, but has anyone else in the gaming community given Infinity Nikki a shot? Have you been enjoying it thus far? Share your thoughts and feelings about it and where you stand on the debate about its microtransactions and in-app economy.
What Game Do You Think To This Day Audiences/People Didn’t Seem To “Get” Properly? (By: @topcyclist)
Here’s an interesting discussion thread on the forums: Which game or games do you think people still don’t get? Here are the top comments in the thread to get you thinking about this topic.
Do You Sometimes Get Convinced To Try A Game, Movie, Show, Song, Etc. Because What The Consensus Online Said They Hated It? (By: @topcyclist)
Have you ever checked out a form of media because it reviewed poorly? Whether it be for the memes or your own morbid curiosity, share away the games, movies, TV shows, or songs you have given a shot despite all the reviews telling you not to do so.
Screamer Reboot Announced (From Milestone, The Studio Behind Hot Wheels Unleashed And Gravel) (By: @gtxforza)
Out of nowhere, the Screamer franchise is getting a reboot and the reboot is coming from the same studio that made Hot Wheels Unleashed and Gravel! What even if the Screamer franchise and what type or flavor of racing game does it represent? Check out this thread to find out.
Lists
Every Game At The Game Awards 2024 RANKED! (By: @daavpuke)
A looooooooooot of games got announced or revealed during the 2024 Game Awards, but that did not discourage daavpuke from ranking every game announcement from the event from worst to best. Shocker, the AI-generated cat game, Catly ranked at the bottom of their list!
10 “Old” Games, Why I Think They Are Worth Buying And Something Else In 2024 (By: @infantpipoc)
infantpipoc joins many of us at Giant Bomb in admitting that most of the games they played and enjoyed didn’t actually come out in 2024. So, they decided to rank their favorite and least favorite retro games they checked out this year instead. If you want some recommendations, especially on the RPG front, give their list a read!
Reviews
@electricviking actually went back to Lego Island and shares in the review why they struggled to rekindle their love even knowing the game is the source of one of the best livestream moments with Drew Scanlon.
Wiki Of The Week
Did you know that Geoff Keighley has actually been credited in more than a few video games? Also, do you want some lesser-reported facts about the man and his storied career promoting games and his conferences and awards shows? Well, then check out our wiki page the guy and feel free to add anything you think is missing.