The Community Spotlight - 07/16/2016

Many thanks to bigfaec for the caricature goodness this week!
Many thanks to bigfaec for the caricature goodness this 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 this week. It has certainly been an "interesting" week both in and out of Giant Bomb, but aside from the madness is another week of great community participation. With the 2016 EVO Championship Series dominating the weekend, the community's competitive spirit was at an all-time high! But first, let's review the few bits of site-related housekeeping worth discussing:

  • User @joe_mccallister located Kraig Kujawa's Return Fire review for 3DO Magazine that Dave Lang mentioned on the Bombcast from last week.
  • According to Jeff on Twitter, Gang Beasts has finally been DETHRONED as Giant Bomb's Top Wiki Page!
  • Has the text editor failed on you while you were attempting to publish a post or blog? Fill out a bug report by clicking the link.

Clip(s) of the Week

Giant Bomb Animated (Kinda) - In the Mouth of Madden-ness (By: @samcb)

samcb is back with a new episode of his "Animated Bombcast" video feature, and this week he animated the hilarious, classic discussion about monetizing PSN.

Gamespot’s E3 2005 Documentary - Electric Showdown (By: @wwfundertaker)

Giant Bomb user wwfundertaker was recently perusing his hard drive and incidentally relocated “The GameSpot Report” for E3 2005! Enjoy the nostalgia!

Austin Walker at Giant Bomb Tribute Video (By: @blackblade500)

blackblade500 compiled his favorite Giant Bomb Austin Walker moments while he was at Giant Bomb. Enjoy all 22 minutes of this well-edited masterpiece!

Giant Bomb Unprofessional Fridays - Roundabout (7/15/16) (By: Dan Evanson)

Also on YouTube, Dan Evanson created a Roundabout video featuring UPF's Double Dragon "Scrub League."

Giant Bomb Galleria

Giant Bomb Caricatures (By: @bigfaec)

User bigfaec is a caricature artist, and shares a handful of warm-up sketches that he created that feature the Giant Bomb staff.

Gallery image 1 Gallery image 2 Gallery image 3

Community Activities

Make Dave Lang happy and play Videoball!
Make Dave Lang happy and play Videoball!

Return of Giant Bomb Discord __game Day Tournament (By: @nikral)

The Giant Bomb Community Discord Group is planning on hosting a new tournament! This one is for Rocket League!

Videoball Private Match Thread (By: @yungwilliam)

We now have a cross platform Private Match Thread for Videoball! Make Dave Lang happy and join it NOW!

Best of Blogs

I
I'm hoping that all of you managed to avoid falling off cliffs whilst playing Pokemon Go.

My First Day Of Pokémon Go (By: @lastbesthope)

LastBestHope chronicled the first 24 hours he spent with Pokémon Go, and as you might expect it included walking.

Metroid and Me, Part 4: Lone Star (By: @majormitch)

MajorMitch comments on world design on the latest episode of his Metroid retrospective, and how it continues to draw him in.

Understanding The Beauty Of Grand Theft Auto V, And Games In General (By: @armaan8014)

armaan8014 shares his greater appreciation for GTA V, as well as what continues to draw him into Los Santos.

Convo Interruptus: How Oxenfree Breaks New Ground for Dialog in Games & Edutainment Evolved: Thoughts on 1979 Revolution (By: @darth_navster)

Darth_Navster extrapolates why he believes Oxenfree features a dialogue system the entire industry should embrace or at least learn from. Darth_Navster also pontificated upon the educational potential, and historical value, of 1979 Revolution.

Bucolicaholic: A Greenhorn's Guide to Stardew Valley's Appeal & Sunday Summaries 10/07/2016: Tales of Xillia (By: @mento)

Darth_Navster used his blogs to convince his audience of the educational potential of video  s this week.
Darth_Navster used his blogs to convince his audience of the educational potential of video games this week.

Giant Bomb moderator Mento endeavored to "discover" the appeal of Stardew Valley, so see if you agree with his theories. Mento also continued to trudge along with the Giant Bomb wiki as well as Tales of Xillia.

A Personal Video Game Retrospective (1986- 2015) 2015-2016 (By: @riostarwind)

riostarwind ends his retrospective blog series on the years of gaming he has lived through with a look at 2016, as well as his final takeaways from his series.

The First Half of 2016: The Best Time to be Playing Video Games (By: @cav829)

Cav829 annotates his personal top ten __game highlights from the first half of 2016 on his latest blog.

Pokemon Go Is Capturing Hearts Despite It's Many Issues (By: @lordbarvis)

LordBarvis attempted to discover what individual aspect of Pokemon Go makes it so appealing to general audiences.

I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be
I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be "free" from Final Fantasy.

A Classtrospective: A Minor Final Fantasy XIV Heavensward Thing (By: @meestero)

MeesterO returned to Final Fantasy XIV, and uses his latest blog to discuss the "misunderstood" Machinist class.

Playing Gone Home After Firewatch [Spoilers For Both] (By: @bigsocrates)

BigSocrates comments on his disappointing impressions of Gone Home after playing Firewatch on his latest blog.

Join the Discussion

Fighting Games General EX Plus α - Evolution 2016 Streaming In GB-Fight-Club (By: @starvinggamer)

Hopefully you enjoyed watching people digitally punch each other in the face.
Hopefully you enjoyed watching people digitally punch each other in the face.

If you have been enjoying EVO 2016 feel free to join our community discussion for the event and share what you think have been the highlights from it.

Overwatch's Newest Character, Ana, Discussion Thread (By: @darth_navster)

What's your gut reaction to Overwatch's newest character, Ana? Healing people with sniper rifles seems weird to me (Stand-in editor Sparky_Buzzsaw here: If it's weird to ZombiePie, then it's pretty damn weird in general. Seriously, the man puts ketchup in his rice. Uh, carry on).

Videoball Discussion Thread (By: @patfeerick)

What are your early impressions and thoughts pertaining to Videoball? Share your thoughts about this small slice of the "Lang Zone."

How Do You Think The Last Guardian Will Turn Out? (By: @ntm)

Based on everything you know thus far how do you think The Last Guardian will shape up? Discuss your bet and/or prediction with other users.

Super Nintendo Classic Edition - What Games Would You Want? (By: @skinky)

Can I exchange my e-reader for an NES Classic?
Can I exchange my e-reader for an NES Classic?

With the announcement of the NES Classic Edition what would you like to see included in a SNES version? Share and discuss your list of games over here.

Hitman Elusive Target Discussion Thread [July 15th Update]

How have you fared regarding the latest Elusive Target for Hitman? Share your tips, tricks, and impressions with other participants.

Which Team Did You Pick in Pokémon Go? [Poll and Discussion Thread]

So which team did you end up going with in Pokémon Go? Share and vainly attempt to discuss why it WASN'T based on your favorite color.

Lovable Lists

Want to read a list of soul crushingly annoying bullcrap in JRPG  s? Well then check out Mento
Want to read a list of soul crushingly annoying bullcrap in JRPG games? Well then check out Mento's list!

White Whales (By: @sloppydetective)

Check out SloppyDetective's list of his most shameful gaming "White Whales" that he truly plans on playing soon.

MrGarland's Top 10 Games Of All Time (By: @mrgarland)

MrGarland finally took the time to list his ten favorite games of all tine which are near and dear to his heart.

Tales of Tiers (By: @mento)

After completing Tales of Xillia Mento went ahead and "ranked" all of the playable characters from the "Tales of" franchise from best to worst using a highly scientific tier system.

Useful User Reviews

  • @extintor highlights why "inconsistent" is the best word to describe The Technomancer on his review.
  • @stordoff's review of Anarcute discusses how it's the most fun he's had with French civil unrest in a video game
  • @thefakepsychic shares why he found Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE to be an unapologetically weird, but fantastic video game
  • @thefakepsychic's review of Mirror's Edge Catalyst extrapolates why he found the game to be one step forward, but also two steps back.

Wonderful Wikis

Both of our wiki pages today fall into the same category of being game pages that received a wonderful amount of tender loving care that transformed them into great informational tools! I'm going to hazard a guess that you haven't even heard about both.

  • Deranged Rabbits
  • GanGan GanChan
Filed under:
EVO Championship Series
Pokémon Go
Videoball
E3 2005
Double Dragon
Metroid
Grand Theft Auto V
Oxenfree
1979 Revolution: Black Friday
Stardew Valley
Tales of Xillia
Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn
Gone Home
Overwatch
The Last Guardian
Nintendo Entertainment System
Hitman
The Technomancer
Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE
Anarcute