Giant Bomb

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created offerings from the last week! I know this is something many do not want to hear, but as Rorie mentioned during the last two co-op community corners, all signs point to the staff not going back to the office before the end of summer. I know for many, watching the staff return to their normal routine with studio-quality videos is something people have been asking for, but these are extraordinary times. Please, be kind and polite to the staff as they try new things and attempt to make the best of the incredible situation they are in right now. Also, let's not forget, the amount of content that is being posted to the site has increased dramatically since the lockdown, and that's worth remarking upon as a community. Regardless, let's jump into the site housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host this week as we look back at the best community offerings from the last week! Over the years, I have tended to stay away from "themes" outside of the E3 and GOTY versions of the Spotlight. The sole exception, of course, is whenever the anniversary of Ryan Davis' passing rolls around. Seven years is an absurd amount of time to think about, but that's where we are at. I know there are many of you who joined the site after Ryan's passing. I'm not going to use this Spotlight to shame you or make you feel like you are not a valued part of this community. I do however hope that in sharing some of my favorite Ryan moments that you understand how great of a person he was and how his spirit lives on in how this site has evolved over time. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and thanks to Ryan in the original tribute thread by Rorie on the day of his passing.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back at the best community offerings from the previous week. Goodness, this was certainly a week. I will avoid repeating what has already been said by the staff. However, please be aware that the staff and moderation team endeavor to listen, reflect, and get better as a result of what has come to light. You have our most sincere promise to continue to make this site a safe place worth coming back to years upon end. With that in mind, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping.

• Jeff's statement on recent events.
• Abby will be taking the week off and when they return they will log off from social media entirely. Please respect their decision to do so on the site.
• If you are one of the many users still drooling over Cyberpunk 2077, then you should check out the video Jeff Bakalar recorded with the GameSpot crew detailing his impressions of what he played of the game.

Tweets Of The Week

Author's Note: So..... it appears Jeff saying "BIGGER" has become a meme, and most of the people creating videos like the last two you will find have no idea Giant Bomb is even the source. Don't you love the internet?

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best creative endeavors from the Giant Bomb community! This week we have what I can only describe is the greatest amount of blogs and thread I have seen in a single week! Good work to everyone who shared their impressions of games and current events to the community as it is much appreciated! Also, with the announcement of a new Skate game, I thought it would be "apt" to link to an old video I think has aged as gracefully as you could ask. Anyways, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host as we look back at the best and most creative user-created offerings from the previous week. For many, the fight to end police brutality and fair access to safety rightfully continues this week and every week afterwards. This site continues to remain, as it did last week, in support of Black Lives Matter and that will always be the case. Down below I will continue to refer to Giant Bomb's BLM charity efforts as well as GameSpot's charity efforts to assist operations fighting for equality and basic human rights in the United States and elsewhere. With that in mind, let's review the housekeeping and stay safe everyone!

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best creative offerings from the Giant Bomb Community. I'm going to be honest with you, I have written these motivational introductions for over five years, and this one may be the hardest I have ever written. Last week was rough for millions of people around the world. For those of you fighting to dismantle centuries worth of systemic oppression and brutality, I applaud your efforts. For those of you who are not able to join protests, I'll borrow Jan's piece of advice from last week's Bombcast, use your privilege or platform for good. Below, I'll link to several donation opportunities that will assist various efforts to make the world a better place. If you are not able to donate yourself, please consider amplifying these voices.

Also, Black Lives Matter!

There was a time around here when the idea of missing a Tuesday Bombcast was unheard of, but it's become clear lately that, like a lot of other things that used to seem important, that time is over.

The events of the last week--starting with the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd, and extending through seemingly endless displays of police brutality against peaceful protesters and the callous, dangerous response from our national leadership--have shocked, saddened and outraged us along with all of you. Out of respect for and solidarity with the black community, everyone fighting against systemic racism, bigotry and oppression, and frankly anyone who still values basic human decency in this country, we're postponing today's Bombcast and all other content to allow time for badly needed compassion and reflection, and to make room for vastly more important discussion and information.

We'll be back soon, but for now, we wanted to pass along some resources that will help you chip in and make a difference, no matter who or where you are.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created offerings from the previous week! Whelp, that's another month down the drain! I feel like I say this every week, but seriously, stay safe everyone. In case you wanted an update on the state of the Giant Bomb offices, all signs point to the work at home order extending well into the Summer. However, as many of you noticed during the Beastcast, the staff are looking at making things interesting on the podcasts. Also, I would like to apologize to Abby and company for "disturbing" them while they were playing Deadspace. But enough about me, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

Folks, it is time for another one of those there Giant Bomb Premium sales. We have been building the new studio working on our streaming technology over the last month or so, since This Whole Thing started, and we are planning to start resuming Premium streams on a regular schedule starting...today! Join us at www.giantbomb.com/chat if you're Premium, and if not, try a free trial for seven days! You can cancel anytime, but if you like what you see, you will get a full subscription in a week at the discounted price. You can find out more information here, or just head over here to sign up or click here to extend an existing membership.

Hello and welcome to another exciting edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again you host as we look back at the best creative endeavors of the community!Bow howdy do we have a lot to talk about this week. First, this might be the most exhaustive list of housekeeping items I have ever compiled for the Community Spotlight. Seriously, review the bullet points this week as there is a lot of important news you may have missed this week. Second, the Giant Bomb community wrote up a storm this week with an inordinate number of blogs and reviews. While both do not capture the comments or attention of works of art or videos, I implore you to go out of your way to read at least one blog from a user you have never heard of before. For people who enjoy writing, even a single comment of support can do wonders during this stressful period of time. Alright, with that little rant, let's jump into the housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created offerings from the previous week. Whelp, that's another week down the drain. Not sure about you, but as more countries and states move towards reopening business and workplaces, please, be careful out there. Even if you are excited to go back to "life as usual" be kind to those around you by maintaining social distancing as well as wearing a mask when in public areas. Regardless, we have some important bits of Giant Bomb housekeeping to address, so, let's jump right into it!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and as always I, @zombiepie, am honored to be you host as we look back at the best user-created works from the community. Every Spotlight has a "theme" and this time around it is quite obvious the community has been writing up a storm. We have the most amount of blogs I have seen in months and there are even lists and user reviews which rival some of the blogs I have to share in terms of length. Likewise, the community as a whole is still buzzing about the Xbox Series X event as well as Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the merits of its theme. Regardless, we have a moderate amount of site-related housekeeping, so, let's jump right into it!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back on the best user-created works from the Giant Bomb community! Whelp, that was a month! It's crazy to think the month of April is officially behind us, but that is indeed the case. With everything that is going on in the world, I did not think my sense of time would be this thoroughly messed up. Hopefully the rest of you have been doing well enough. We have a handful of housekeeping items that I think you will enjoy, so, without further ado, let;s jump into it!

Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created offerings from the last week. Well, as we will talk about soon, it was a highly successful week in terms of raising money for charity. The Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run CRUSHED its fundraising goal this year and Abby hosted another successful campaign as well! To everyone who has tuned in and donated, you have my thanks! However, as people start to near the end of their ability to donate, don't forget to spread the word of any fundraisers to family and friends when they happen. Sometimes you would be surprised to see how charity the members of your family can be when it comes to the people who put a smile on your face. With that out of the way, let's jump into the latest edition of the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to an incredibly "charitable" edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host this week as we look back on the best creative endeavors from the community! First off, apologies if this edition of the Spotlight is a bit short than what you are accustomed to nowadays. As many of you may be aware of, I am participating in the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run, and that made making this edition of the Spotlight a bit of a rush. So, apologies for that, and you can expect me to be on my "A-Game" next week! Regardless, let's jump into the site housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community and I, ZombiePie am once again honored to be your host this week! I'm not going to lie, I have a lot of stuff to share to you this week! The most notable part of this edition of the Spotlight is related to the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run! For those unaware, THIS WEEK is when the magic happens! That's right, dozens of Giant Bomb users will be streaming content for your enjoyment all in the name of charity! If possible check out some of the user-made blogs laying out their Endurance Run plans. Also, this year the event will be changing course and raising money for COVID-19 relief, as well as will be joined by Abby on Friday! It should be a fun time for all involved! Regardless, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, ZombiePie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back on the best user-created offerings from the week. Whelp, things across the world have certainly changed. Nonetheless, this week was a spectacular reminder of the power of the Giant Bomb community, and human kindness in general. For one thing, Abby's impromptu fundraiser for COVID-19 relief raised OVER $10,000! Let's keep that momentum up in two weeks when the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run is set to start! Anyways, let's try to continue the positive feelings with a quick rundown of the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and as always I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host this week as we look back at the best user-created offerings! I know it must seem tiring whenever I say, "Gosh, that sure was a week," but this time I really mean it. I know for some of you it was a rougher go about it than others, but again, from the bottom of my heart, do your best and know this community is here for you if you need it. Likewise, it was another SOLID week of video content from the staff barring a handful of technical issues here and there. We bonded over a rat with Jeff and chilled out with Abby in Animal Crossing. And for those of you who like hard numbers, the staff have been outputting and average of six to eight hours worth of video content per weekday since the shelter in place orders hit much of the United States. So, join me in thanking them for their hard work and bringing smiles to all of our faces! With that in mind, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created content from the past week. Whelp, as we transition to a new week, let's all give the Giant Bomb staff a huge "THANK YOU" for another week of home streams! I know there are plenty who have expressed issues with the solo streams, but the staff are already looking into ways to stream collectively and get back into the normal routine. Some staff members plan to begin recording Quick Looks with other staff members remotely, and Alex has revealed the next episode of Mass Alex should occur soon.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back and enjoy the best user-created offerings from the previous week. Well, this was certainly a week. There have been mass cancellations of schools and many of us are now living under various states of emergency. I wont go any further in discussing COVID-19 as many of you have enough breaking news-based anxiety, but please keep safe. Wash your hands; don't touch your face; isolate yourself if you get sick; and don't forget to tell your friends and family that you love them. On a lighter note, given the circumstances, I think we can all agree the staff absolutely hit it out of the park with their at-home live streams. While I personally missed a majority of the morning streams, I found Jan and Jason's streams to be especially entertaining. Likewise, Jeff playing Super Mario Bros. Special might be the best new Giant Bomb video series of 2020 yet. With all that out of the way, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

With increasing health concerns around the current viral outbreak, Giant Bomb has determined that, starting Wednesday, 3/11, the San Francisco-based staff will work remotely until further notice. In the meantime, you can join us over at our live chat starting at 11:00 AM PDT for a variety of streams, from our home to yours.

What sort of stuff should we expect?

We'll hopefully have chat live for most of the day with a variety of streams hosted by all your pals from Giant Bomb. These streams will range from casual multiplayer sessions, to live recordings of shows, and maybe even a little more experimental stuff thrown in here and there. Part of the fun is we'll be figuring it out with you along the way.

How much are you streaming?

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best creative endeavors from the Giant Bomb user base! Alright, after a bit of fooling around the past two weeks, the bio this time around is a bit more "grim." In case you missed the 03/06/2020 UPF, thee Giant Bomb West staff expect to be given orders to work at home at some point during next week in response to the Coronavirus. If this is the case, expect delays on the normal schedule of videos. However, be aware they are already looking at way to stream from home and still record a podcast. If anything, things should be as chaotic as the Whiskey Media days when AWS went down. However, with that aside, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the creative endeavors from the community from the previous week. First, I just want to thank everyone who joined me in reminiscing over HitmanAgent47 last week. It was a trip and somewhat comforting to see those Hitman meme pictures didn't all disappear. However, a few other usernames cropped up during that time that are equally memorable, but probably in a better light. Speaking of which, have I ever said how much of a shame it is Claude isn't on the forums anymore? Jeez, I'd LOVE to see what Claude thinks about the Nintendo Switch! In fact, I'm willing to allow him to have a mini-paragraph review of the system on the next Spotlight if someone can get a hold of him. I know he had a rough go of it a while ago, but MAAAAAAAAAAN would I love to see him talk about the current state of Nintendo consoles, even if it was for just a hot minute. Anyways, we actually have LEGIT news about the forums worth discussing! Also, it was an incredibly "active" week on the forums!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best user-created offerings from the previous week! During the 02/21/2020 UPF the other moderators and myself had a fun chat about how far this site has come. The fact that startles me the most is how the CBSi "era" of Giant Bomb has long since exceeded the Whiskey Media days. And I don't mention any of this to slander the site or its staff members, but it's something I've never really accepted as fact. If you wanted to know, whenever us moderators reminisce about the "old days" HitmanAgent47 comes up. Jeez, I'd be surprised to see how many of you remember HitmanAgent47... use the comments below to show if you have any idea what I'm talking about! Anyways, here's the site-related housekeeping!

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back on the best creative offerings from the Giant Bomb userbase! With temperatures slowly rising for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it appears as if we have thoroughly shrugged off the burden of Winter. Hopefully, and fingers crossed on this one, this was not our last winter season. Regardless, we have an incredibly diverse Spotlight yet again filled to the brim with great works from the community! But, first, let us jump into the site housekeeping!

• Giant Bomb East's Thursday livestream was canceled due to "questionable odors" seeping into the recording studio. If you want a full explanation of the situation from Vinny, then here you go!
• For anyone using the API, the engineering and design team are looking working on higher resolutions of the Giant Bomb logo and icons for RSS feeds.
• As mentioned at the end of the 02/14/2020 UPF, Jeff will be out during the week of 02/17-21/2020 attending to a medical surgery on his child.

Tweets Of The Week

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best creative offerings from the Giant Bomb Community! We have a real diverse assortment of Giant Bomb community creations this week! With most people transitioning from Winter to Spring, it's good to see the community take the time to work on things both creative and inquisitive. Nonetheless, these were some interesting highlights this week, including Canadians fighting over pizza, but more on that later. So, without further ado, let's jump into the site housekeeping!

Hey everyone! These are the results of last year's Community GOTY voting results - the results of which (resultingly) have been resulted below. This year, 3462 of you submitted a top ten list, for a total of 27791 (not everyone always puts in ten games, which is fine) on 828 different games.

(You'll note that these numbers are somewhat smaller than last year - unfortunately I think I did a poor job of promoting the links to the voting story during GOTY. That's my bad and I'll try to be better about it next year! If you missed your opportunity to vote, my apologies!)

Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again happy to be your host this week as we look back at the best creative endeavors from the community! It's been a slow week as we hit the dregs of the post-Christmas "Winter Game Drought." I have to say, as someone who has been following games for as long as I could remember, this drought, as well as the "Summer Game Drought," has been an industry-wide issue since the dawn of time. Which is why I personally have to dismiss politely any notions that Giant Bomb's content is slowing down. THERE JUST AREN'T MANY NEW GAMES COMING OUT! That aside, the community has been as active as ever, and before we jump into that, let's address the handful of site-related items worth mentioning.

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the wonderful works of the Giant Bomb Community from last week! I'm happy to say we have a real diverse showcase of some AWESOME user-created content. Whether it be reviews, blogs, or works of art; we have a little bit of everything represented on this edition of the Spotlight! So, without further ado, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

• Users that were unable to sign in or log in through Facebook should be relieved to know the issue has been resolved! If, however, are still having issues logging into Giant Bomb through Facebook,file a bug report using this link.
• A LOT of Giant Bomb users have been asking why Rorie's Saturday "surprise" streams are not uploaded to Giant Bomb. The reason is that he archives them on his personal YouTube. Subscribe to their channel to remain up to date on when he archives his streams!

Tweets Of The Week

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the best creative offerings from the Giant Bomb community! With GOTY thoroughly behind us, we all can finally relax and enjoy the scenery. And by "scenery" I mean wonderful works of art and writing from users like you! I don't know about you, but it is finally starting to set-in that we are at the start of a new decade. The site, in general, has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but fingers crossed, I have a good feeling about the site's prospects in the 2020s. How could I not, what, with the busy community and wonderful staff that make each day a memory worth preserving! With that aside, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping!

[UPDATE: I've been hearing from a bunch of people who said they missed out on voting on this since it wasn't easy to find on the site during GOTY. So I'm reopening voting until 1/20! Get your votes in!]

2019: It's not quite over yet, but we're letting you put your voice in for the 2018 Community GOTY with this handy form! Hey, have a bunch of text I copy/pasted from last year's poll because I don't see much of a point in writing it all over again! I'm really leveraging my core competencies today.

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight, and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to your host this week! This week, Dan officially started his job at WWE, and the remaining staff returned to the regular swing of things. However, don't let that convince you the Giant Bomb community wasn't up to its old tricks in making some really cool and wonderful things this week! With that in mind, let's jump into the site-related housekeeping as there are some items worth mentioning.

• Issues with embedding videos into blog and forum posts should be fixed. If you are still having issues, please use this link to file a bug report.
• Voting for the 2019 Community GOTY is closed and you can expect the results soon-ish.
• Some users are reporting the hamburger menu is not appearing when using Giant Bomb on the iPad. If that's you, please file a report using this link!

User-Created GOTY 2019 Content!

Author's Note: This will be the last week where I have a dedicated GOTY section in the Spotlight. I'm more than happy to continue showcasing GOTY lists and blogs, especially "Game of the Decade" lists and blogs. However, those lists and blogs will exist in the standard format from before GOTY.

Hello and welcome to an incredibly GOTY-centric edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and as always I, @zombiepie, am honored to be your host! There's really no good way to get around it. 2020 is already off to a bummer of a start. As most of you already know, Dan is leaving the site to pursue a new employment opportunity producing podcasts for WWE. He's moving as a result and will be starting their new job on January 5th, 2020. I know the man has developed the reputation of being the "goofball" at Giant Bomb, but Dan certainly deserves credit where credit is deserved. He is a wildly creative mind and used each video feature he created as an opportunity to try out new ideas and concepts. He rarely, if ever, let his enthusiasm disappear on streams, especially if he was allowed to talk about the state of wrestling.

The time has come! White smoke! After discussing over 100 amazing, or at the very least, interesting games we have arrived at our decision for game of the year 2019. Historically, the last year before new consoles has been a little scattershot, with a mix of huge sequels that show off everything a developer has learned over the course of the last generation and games that feel like they kinda have to be shoved out the door before the new consoles render them entirely obsolete. Ultimately, 2019 feels a little different that than typical scenario, with a wide variety of games across all platforms. We saw a lot of new things, games iterating successfully on the huge genre of the day, and games by teams both large and small that stood out above the competition. While we've seen some people try to write off 2019 as a weak year for games, we think that's off-base. Here are the games we've awarded in 2019.

Alex Navarro is an editor at Giant Bomb, a drummer for NYHC outfit None Above All, and the guy who accidentally made that one Nicolas Cage cameo clip go viral earlier this year. He's on Twitter @alex_navarro.

2019 was a weird year. Some of that strangeness was personal in nature. I made some moves this year that changed up the flow of my life a bit, a flow that hadn't really been disturbed in a long while. I started drumming more regularly, even going to the trouble of joining a band and playing shows. I started reaching out to a few folks I hadn't talked to in a while, maybe partially out of guilt for my lack of communicativeness, and also out of a desire to try to be more outgoing than I usually am. I tried to be a little less terminally Online, to varying degrees of success.

Austin Creed, AKA Xavier Woods, is one third of the seven-time championship winning tag team The New Day. When he's not touring the globe wrestling for thousands of fans, he's also the host of the video game YouTube channel UpUpDownDown. You can find him on Twitter @XavierWoodsPHD.

Kenny Omega is the current AAA Mega Champion, and one of the founding members of All Elite Wrestling, which made its debut in 2019. He's @KennyOmegaManX on Twitter.

Adam Conover is a comedian and the host of truTV's Adam Ruins Everything. In 2019 he launched a new podcast, Factually!, in which he interviews experts on a wide array of topics.

He's @adamconover on Twitter.

"Come on," I thought, "yet another simulation of a retro computer desktop? How interesting could this be?" When I finally played this in late December, I realized how stupid I was.

Ron Funches is the star of Trolls and you can follow him on Twitter.

Hi! I’m Ron Funches--an excellent comedian, solid actor, and mediocre marine biologist. I’m also an avid gamer who doesn’t work in the industry, so unlike the bigwigs at Giant Bomb I’m not jaded and burnt out enough to make Outer Wilds my game of the year just because it took the good parts of Majora’s Mask and made them less charming. Here are the REAL top 10 games of 2019.

P.S. if you like me please listen to my podcast Gettin' Better and watch Harley Quinn on the DC Universe app!

Alex Beachum is the co-creative lead at Mobius Games, the studio behind 2019's Outer Wilds. He's @AlexBeachum on Twitter.

I ended up playing considerably more games than normal this year, which I suspect has more than a little to do with our team finally releasing Outer Wilds* back in May. Unfortunately, I had to scrap a few of my picks as I’ve been informed that Bloodborne came out four and a half years ago, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is barely from the same decade, and we are all hurtling at great speeds towards our own mortality. In honor of the staggering number of good games we will never have time to play, I present to you my Top Five Games That Actually Came Out In 2019.

*Not to be confused with The Outer Worlds, which is a different game made by the fine folks at Obsidian.