The Community Spotlight 2025.04.19

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 last week!

As we look back at all of the wonderful things Giant Bomb and GameSpot did this week, please be aware that scheduling conflicts made a dent on some of the original programming. For example, there was no UPF and other days had their programming schedules cut short. The staff are working on cool things behind the scenes, and hope to bring you the fruits of their labor very soon.

Regarding the site itself, another major fix dropped on the site to address the site video player. If you are still having issues, please drop a comment over here. However, it does appear that disabling uBlock Origin and most ad blockers has been fixing a lot of, if not all of, the issues people are reporting.

In general, @dtoast, the site engineers, and myself are having issues replicating video player problems following the most recent site update. As a result, some people still experiencing issues are encouraged to reach out via support@giantbomb.com or the site's Zendesk ticketing system. As part of your bug report, please try to include a screen recording, screenshots, the title of your non-functional video, a list of extensions you use with your browser, and your browser version.

Likewise, while it seems like the non-Premium podcast political ads reported last week have been replaced by ones led the Black Rifle Coffee Company, which espouses clear political beliefs while selling their product. These ads have been reported and should be removed from the podcast shortly. If you notice similar ads in the future, please report them on the Site-Tech-Issues channel on the Giant Bomb Discord, or let out a yelp in the comments and I can file a report on your behalf.

Weekly List of Programming & Streams

Giant Bomb Power Block Programming

• PS5 Prices Increasing in Some Regions | GameBreaking News 04/14/25
• Let's Crack Open A Tarkir Dragonstorm Booster Box
• Does Warside Stack Up to Advance Wars? | Giant Bombcast 886: Plate of Spaghetti
• Fallout 3 Remaster In The Works, But It's Not Arriving Anytime Soon | GameBreaking News 04/16/25
• OverGrubb 04 (FINALE) | Blight Club
• Hands-On With the Nintendo Switch 2
• Giant Bomb Talks Over: Mario Kart World Direct
• Everything From Today's Mario Kart World Direct | GameBreaking News 04/17/25
• Voicemail Dump Truck 157 | Chicken the Long Way.mp3
• Nintendo Switch 2 Preorders Begin April 24 in US | GameBreaking News 04/18/25
• POWER BLOCK 4/15/25 [COMPLETE VOD] | Giant Bombcast, Opening Magic the Gathering Cards
• POWER BLOCK 4/16/25 [COMPLETE VOD] | GameBreaking News and Blight Club!
• POWER BLOCK 4/17/25 [COMPLETE VOD] | GameBreaking News, The GameSpot Show, VMDT, and Galaxies Gaming Showcase

GameSpot Programming

• MARATHON Feels Like Early DESTINY in the Best... and Worst Way | Hands-On Impressions
• Palia's NEW Elderwood Update - 30 Minutes of Gameplay
• Silent Hill 2 Remake Devs Open Up about the Game's Reception - and Fan Criticisms
• Bloober Team Breaks Down Their Next Game, Cronos: The New Dawn
• CRONOS: THE NEW DAWN Could Be The Beginning Of A New Era For Bloober Team
• The OBLIVION Situation | The GameSpot Show
• The OBLIVION Remaster Needs To Be BAD In Order To Be Good
• I'm Tired of My Consoles | GameSpot After Dark #266
• Galaxies Gaming Showcase | We Talk Over

Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3lmwshvg6q225

https://bsky.app/profile/basicallilexi.bsky.social/post/3ln425pd5fs2h

https://bsky.app/profile/awildjessichu.bsky.social/post/3lmwsrw6cus2r

https://bsky.app/profile/hotcakesdeluxe.online/post/3llwn55765s26

https://bsky.app/profile/chucktowski.com/post/3llrobsezts2c

https://bsky.app/profile/jerf.xyz/post/3ln6imyhyqk25

Art

Niki Grayson x Peanuts + Tamoor x Peanuts (By: @jearum)

Friend of the site jearum is back with a new batch of Peanuts-inspired artwork imagining the Giant Bomb staff as characters in the Peanuts universe. Up first, they tried their hand at making Niki and Tam characters and they definitely nailed it.

Activities

Atomfall Is The 4th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4! Finish By May 1! Mark All Spoilers (By: @bigsocrates)

The Game Pass Game Club is keeping it hip and modern with its latest pick as this month it is going to look at Atomfall! Have any of you given Rebellion's latest game a shot? Are you sick and tired of how often you need to use the metal detector? Share away over here!

The GB Album Club 084 - Low by David Bowie (Cycle Finale) (By: @unclejam23)

David Bowie's Low closed the latest season for the Giant Bomb Album Club and the group is open to suggestions and new blood for the next season! If you are interested in joining an online album or music club, then drop a comment in the thread!

Blogs

I'm Playing Everything From Idol FX (Part III): Wait, The Drake of the 99 Dragons Studio Invented DLC?! (By: @zombiepie)

After a bit of a hiatus, ZombiePie is back to their old tricks of looking at every game from Idol FX AB, the developer behind the notorious Drake of the 99 Dragons. This week, they talk about two games largely forgotten and absent on most video game databases: Grump and Imp. Want to learn about how Idol FX accidentally "invented" DLC?

The Dredge of Seventeen Rising: Redredgence (Part Two) +

Indie Game of the Week 416: Later Alligator (By: @mento)

This week, Mento has a new entry in their series looking at the 2017 game titles they missed with a new entry looking at Metroid: Samus Returns! Is it more than just "more Metroid?" Is it worthy of courting GOTY favors? You'll just have to read to see what they think!

Likewise, this edition of Mento's "Indie Game of the Week" feature looks at Later Alligator by developers SmallBü and Pillow Fight. Do they think the game has more going for it than its cute art? Did they enjoy actually playing the game?

That Was a Lot of DOOM (By: @ford_dent)

Ford_Dent recently played a LOT of DOOM and SIGIL including for charity. So, this week they decided to review all of the things they have learned about DOOM the last month and what tips and tricks they have to give to anyone that might be a newcomer to the game and its many WADs.

Double-Click: What's Up With the Switch 2? (By: @gamer_152)

Will the Switch 2 be a driver of creativity in gaming the way the original Switch was? Will the Switch 2 ever have a game as influential as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. What even is a console these days? Those are some of the questions at the heart of Gamer_152 's latest blog.

Lords of the Dark Souls Clone (By: @atheistpreacher)

Lords of the Fallen recently got a massive patch that re-balanced parts of the game and made it slightly different than the game it was at launch. So, AthiestPreacher decided to revive an old blog of theirs to see what exactly has changed and if those changes were for the better.

Discussion Threads

Nintendo Will Maintain Switch 2's Pricing; Controllers & Accessories Are Going Up; Paused US Pre-Orders Begin April 24th (By: @zombiepie)

It goes without saying that tech prices and tariff concerns were a bit of a recurring storyline this past week. One of the bigger news items on that front involves Nintendo announcing that they would be maintaining the originally announced price for the Switch 2 while also increasing the price of controllers and accessories. If you have any thoughts about this, feel free to share them!

So Sony Just Announced Another PS5 Price Increase To Europe And Other Markets (By: @abs_b)

Speaking of which, the PS5 is jumping up in price in multiple countries, but not the US. Many are claiming that this is a trickle down effect of Trump's tariffs, but what do you think? Do you think Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have been looking for an excuse to raise prices before?

Devil May Cry Netflix Anime Discussion Thread (By: @topcyclist)

How does everyone feel about Netflix's Devil May Cry show? Did you end up liking or resenting its creative changes from the video games? Do you get or understand the controversy associated with it? Whatever you answers are to those questions, feel free to share them in the thread linked above!

Citing Tariffs, RetroTINK Will Temporarily Cease Shipping To The US Soon; Razer & Framework Pause Sale of Some Laptops (By: @zombiepie)

RetroTINK is going to temporarily block US customers from buying their products due to tariffs. Also, Razer and Framework are blocking sales of some laptops due to tariffs. Do you think more in the gaming and tech sphere will follow suit?

PSA: Now Is Probably A Good Time To Upgrade Your Electronic Devices (By: @atheistpreacher)

It's another thread bump, but the topic is as topical as ever. Have any of you made recent tech purchases in an attempt to avoid predicted ballooning tech prices due to tariffs? Do you expect to make purchases this summer?

Lists

All Keighley’s Quests (By: @infantpipoc)

infantpipoc looks back at The Game Awards and every game to win "Best RPG" at a Keighley-led event. If you want to see which games have won the award, it's worth a read! Give it a read on and remember that weird time when JRPGs never won game show awards.

Top 10 Games Of The PS2/Xbox/GameCube Generation (By: @desuroku)

Desuroku isn't as old as some other Giant Bomb fans, so, they grew up on the PS2/Xbox/GameCube generation of video game consoles and they decided to look back and list what they think are the best and most important games from that era.

Best Games of 2024 (By: @guip1408)

guip1408 finally got around to making a 2024 GOTY list and you can check out which games they think were the best from the year. Remember, I am always happy to promote GOTY stuff whenever you get the time to make it.

Best Of 1991 (By: @lelcar)

Lelcar decided to replay all of the games of their childhood and that inspired them to make a 1991 GOTY list! Check it out and see which games are on it and feel free to make your own version of this list when you have the time.

Reviews

@daavpuke's Donkey Kong (1994) review discusses why they were not that impressed by the game after checking it out following the strong recommendations of Grubb and Mike. Why aren't they a fan of the game's puzzle design? Read to find out!

Wiki Of The Week

Psychonauts

The fine folks at Double Fine Productions, Inc. are celebrating Psychonauts' 20th anniversary, which released on April 19, 2005. Whether you are a recent fan or have enjoyed the adventures of Razputin since the very beginning, check out our incredibly impressive wiki page for the cult-classic platformer.