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 best community creations from the previous week!
Well, it’s that time of the year again! Yup, it’s GAME OF THE YEAR SEASON! To give you some exact dates, Giant Bomb’s GOTY podcasts will start dropping on Tuesday 12/24. If you want a hint of what sorts of wacky hijinks the staff got up to during the podcasts, here’s a teaser Jan posted on Bluesky. Guest lists are absolutely on the docket this year and will start dropping on the site a whole day earlier on Monday 12/23! There are a lot of lists this year, so, hopefully you are excited for what’s about to drop on the site very shortly.
Likewise, COMMUNITY GOTY 2024 VOTING IS LIVE! Do you have any games from the year you think are getting snubbed or overlooked? VOTE FOR THEM! Did you play more retro games than modern releases? VOTE FOR THEM! Do you only feel comfortable submitting a list of five or fewer games for GOTY considerations? VOTE FOR THEM! It’s not time for excuses; it’s time to vote for all of your gaming highlights from 2024 and make your voice heard! All you need to do is log into your account and click one of the links I provided. If you want an in-depth explanation of how the math for this community competition will work or what the rules are, there’s a handy article by Marino to consult. Also, if you have or know of any friends or close confidants that play or are interested in participating, help them create an account on the site and the rest is self-explanatory.
The GOTY podcast and recording schedule and length of the travel home is why some of your normally scheduled streams were cancelled at the start of last week. However, if you want some bonus content featuring Jeff Grubb, he recently guested on a Disney-themed podcast wherein he discussed his recent vacation at Disney World.
For those that may have missed it, the Giant Bomb @Nite | The Game Awards 2024 VOD went up on the site and is available to rewatch. If you want to rewatch Jan wearing a stellar suit or Dan handing out large hoagies, the countdown red carpet stuff is up on GameSpot’s YouTube account. You can also find Giant Bomb’s commentary talk over of The Game Awards 2024 on YouTube as well.
And for anyone reading this after the fact, there likely won’t be a new Community Spotlight up on the site this time next week in light of the site’s GOTY content and coverage. With that in mind, I want to wish all of you who celebrate a very merry Christmas and look forward to seeing all of you next year in 2025!
GOTY 2024
Lists
Blogs
JeremyF’s 2024 GotY: The Last Dance (By: @jeremyf)
jeremyf provides their 2024 gaming superlatives on their latest blog and this edition has such venerable awards like: “The Silksong Memorial Award for Best Troidlike” as well as “The “I Can’t Choose a Favorite Child” Award.”
Hatchlings’ Choice 2024 (By: @allthedinos)
ALLTheDinos did things slightly different for their GOTY 2024 blog. Instead of writing the standard top ten list, they looked at the games they enjoyed playing with their children and during their alone time.
Sparky_B’s End of the Year Soiree (By: @sparky_buzzsaw)
Author extraordinaire sparky_buzzsaw is back and this time they hand out all of their gaming awards for 2024! They have some creative ones like “The “Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen” Award” and “Best Game that Could Probably Be Played on a Potato.”
Tweets
Art
Yakuza: Infinite Wealth-ass Ending (By: Bill Mudron)
I think I join everyone else in calling Giant Bomb’s red carpet coverage of The Game Awards a smashing success! Obviously, Dan’s sandwich-based tomfoolery was the highlight but seeing various Giant Bomb staffer dressed up was fun as well. But what if their team photo was a little… more gangster?
Danminator Redemption: Blight Club Edition (By: @chucktowski)
Dan’s Blight Club punishment gauntlet is drawing nigh. With that in mind, chucktowski decided to make this promotional poster to get everyone excited for the first part which involves Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Activities
Metal Slug Tactics Is The 25th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By December 16! SPOILERS OPEN (By: @bigsocrates)
The latest game pick for the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club is Journey to the Savage Planet by Typhoon! Have you checked this indie title out? Join the fun conversation by clicking the first link above!
Likewise, the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club has officially opened its activity thread for Metal Slug Tactics to SPOILERS! What did you think of the game’s late-game missions? Fun? Annoying? Share away!
The GB Album Club 072 – The Mantle by Agalloch (By: @unclejam23)
Hey, Giant Bomb community! The Album of the Week Club is listening to and reviewing The Mantle by Agalloch RIGHT NOW! Are any of you familiar with the folk metal group? Some people in the community have been fans, but what do you think? Share away!
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!
Blogs
My Year Of Tech Upgrades (By: @atheistpreacher)
Before tariffs possibly ruin everything when it comes to affordable tech, AtheistPreacher relays all of the tech upgrades they made and invested in during 2024. If you want advice on TVs, computer monitors, or phones, give it a read!
Go! Go! GOTY! 2024: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle +
Go! Go! GOTY! 2024: Little Kitty, Big City +
Indie Game of the Week 400: Cocoon (By: @mento)
Moderator Mento continued on with their quest to get as many 2024 games on their backlog played before they finalize their GOTY 2024 list. This week they checked out Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as well as Little Kitty, Big City. Are either game destined to crack their top five?
Furthermore, GOTY season didn’t put the kibosh on their “Indie Game of the Week” feature! In fact, this week they decided to check out a former Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club pick, Cocoon, a shot! Did they like the game more than the classic film that bears the same name? There’s only one way to find out!
In Favor of Evil: The Many Faces of Critters for Sale (By: @gamer_152)
Moderator Gamer_152 provides a fascinatingly deep look at Critters for Sale by Sonoshee! How does the game make 2D art so scary and images feel evil or gripping? Read their blog to find out what they think is the game’s secret sauce!
Geoff Keighley And The Game Awards Are Getting Better, But We (Probably) Shouldn’t Give Either Too Much Credit For It (By: @zombiepie)
ZombiePie attempts to revive Giant Bomb’s status as the #1 place to appreciate Garfield-based video game by looking at the forgotten Java-based Garfield JRPG for pre-iOS phones! If you want to read about one of the most trippy games ever made, check it out!
Conversely, ZombiePie also ruminated about last week’s Game Awards and ways that they and Geoff Keighley are visibly getting better, but not at the rate or pace that feels sufficient for the industry as things stand right now.
Discussion Threads
Hey, Did You Publish A GOTY 2024 List Or Blog? Promote And Talk About Your Picks Over Here! (By: @zombiepie)
The thread title kind of says everything. If you have published a GOTY 2024 list or blog and want to talk about it or promoted it, we have a community thread where you can do that! Also, feel free to share comments of support for others linking their stuff in the thread.
Do You Think Not Having To Change Disc… Has Affected Your Completion Of Games? (By: @topcyclist)
Do you think not having to swap discs has impacted your inclination to finish or continue games? That’s the topic of this poll on the Giant Bomb forums and you can share your thoughts!
Sony Finalizes Deal To Buy 10% Of Kadokawa, Parent Company of FromSoftware & More (By: @zombiepie)
Sony is buying a 10% share of Kadokawa, the parent company of FromSoftware, Inc., Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and more. Are you relieved or surprised the rumored full takeover didn’t go through? Are any you following Sony’s growing monopoly in the anime industry?
Oh No There’s a Doctor Who CCG and It’s [REDACTED] (By: @peezmachine)
Are there any Doctor Who fans out there? Did you know there’s a new Doctor Who CCG on the Epic Games Store? Doesn’t that sound fun? Unfortunately, as reported by PeezMachine on the forums, the game is a NFT/blockchain shitshow.
Ubisoft Finally Shows That They Can Give The People They Want By Launching An NFT Game In Late 2024 [UPDATED THREAD] (By: @bigsocrates)
Bad news, everyone! Ubisoft released another NFT game but this one features classic Ubisoft characters like Rayman running around a Web3 nightmare world to try and get people to buy NFTs. It’s an absolute travesty that you can get the details about on bigsocrates’ updated thread.
Lists
All Keighley’s Princeps (By: @infantpipoc)
GotY events hosted by Geoff Keighley have evolved massively since 2003, wherein Madden NFL 2004 won the Keighley’s Spike Video Game Awards. infantpipoc reflects on every single Game of The Year from a Keighley event.
Development Hells, Ranked (By: @thepickle)
ThePickle got a little creative with their latest list by looking at and ranking the all-time worst examples of development hell in the gaming industry! how would you assess the cursed development of Duke Nukem Forever alongside StarCraft Ghost?
Reviews
@sbc515‘s retro bad game reviews continues this week with a review of Carmageddon 64! Why is this considered one of the worst games in the Carmageddon series? Click the link to find out!
@infantpipoc realizes some in the gaming hobby might prefer the remake, but they played the original version of Resident Evil 4 and shares on their review why they think there’s a still a case to play it.
@danryback decided to boot up Yu-Gi-Oh The Eternal Duelist Soul in light of the new Yu-Gi-Oh retro collection bringing back some of the classic portable games. How bumpy was the ride? Read to find out!
@pauljeremiah‘s Christmas Nights into Dreams takes advantage of the looming winter holidays and gets to the bottom of whether or not Christmas Nights deserves a present or lump of coal from Santa.
Wiki Of The Week
Hey, everyone. Did you know that Cave Story turned TWENTY last week? That’s right, an indie game icon lurched ever closer to being able to legally drink in the United States. Also, you can learn more about what makes the game so special while you think about your relationship with Father Time.