The Community Spotlight 2024.12.07

Welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host this day as we look back at the important site-related news and best community creations!

Well, I'll drop the preamble and say Giant Bomb has a ton of announcements related to its upcoming coverage of The Game Awards, so we will just immediately jump into that.

On Wednesday, December 11th, Giant Bomb will be hosting its Giant Bomb @ Nite in-person event and things will start at 5:00 PM PST! You can catch the fun on the Giant Bomb chat as well as twitch.tv/giantbomb or youtube.com/giantbomb. Plenty of new and familiar guests will be attending the event and you can expect a VOD on the site as well as Giant Bomb's YouTube account if you miss it live.

The next day, on December 12th, Giant Bomb will be joining GameSpot in counting down to The Game Awards with staff on site snatching interviews and giving you breaking coverage as the event gets ready to start. That will start at 2:30 PM PST and you can catch the fun on our chat, youtube.com/gamespot, youtube.com/giantbomb, or twitch.tv/giantbomb. I can confirm that other alternative social media platforms will be tested for streaming this event, but I would say these are your safest bets for a smoother watching experience.

For those of you interested about GOTY content or coverage, the Giant Bomb staff will be recording most of the deliberations while they're in Los Angeles together. The popular guest lists will start going up on the site on Monday, December 23rd. You can expect to see the community voting for GOTY to go up SOON as well so keep on the lookout for that.

Finally, Dylan posted an important announcement about the state of Giant Bomb's physical site. The article in question relays what's been done and what's going to be done to make the actual site experience better. They are also being honest when they say they want you to share what you want fixed next.

Tweets

Activities

Hottest Mess 2024: Community's Choice! (PICK 3) (By: @allthedinos)

HEY, EVERYONE! The Giant Bomb community is once again hosting its community voting for "Hottest Mess," but this time for 2024! What takes the award this year? Ubisoft, Microsoft, Concord?

Metal Slug Tactics Is The 25th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! Finish By December 16! +

We Love Katamari Reroll Is The 24th Game Of UUGPGC Year 3! SPOILERS OPEN!(By: @bigsocrates)

The latest pick for the Game Pass Game Club is Metal Slug Tactics! Do any of you have thoughts about its blending of gun and gun combat with tactical strategy? If you have already played the game, share away!

Blogs

Indie Game of the Week 399: The Case of the Golden Idol +

Go! Go! GOTY! 2024: Botany Manor +

Mento's Month: November '24 (By: @mento)

Moderator Mento has another edition of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature and this one looks at The Case of the Golden Idol by Color Gray Games. With the sequel now out, read why they absolutely loved it!

Mento is also making a final push to cross out games on their backlog before 2024 ends and starts things off with Botany Manor! Read why they think it is "a fine aperitif" for 2024 GOTY efforts.

Finally, we have officially started the final month of 2024! That also means that Mento is back with a written summary of their gaming highlights as well as their favorite anime shows in November!

All 3DO Games (Kinda) In Order: 1994 (Part 11) (By: @borgmaster)

It's time for another tour of every game that released on the 3DO with borgmaster and this week they reviewed what released on the console in 1994! That's right, it's time to talk about the one and only, Sewer Shark!

Anthropocene: An Analysis of Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (By: @gamer_152)

In case you missed it, moderator Gamer_152 continued their retrospective on Sid Meier's Civilization VI by looking at the Gathering Storm expansion! Is it comforting the game brings up climate change and is seeing a game simulate its effects "fun?"

Playing The Plucky Squire Showed Me How Much Circumstances Affect Gaming Experience (By: @bigsocrates)

bigsocrates is also doing some GOTY "cleanup" by is playing their cards close to their chest and stuck with a smaller indie game like The Plucky Squire. However, read their blog on why the game's story of an evil wizard taking the magic of a storybook away resonated with them.

Discussion Thread

It's Nearly The End Of 2024 And What's Your Opinion About This Year For Video Games In General? (By: @gtxforza)

This sure was a year. How would you gauge the good games we got alongside the inundation of studio closures and video game flops? What did you like and dislike about the year from a gaming peprspective? Share away in the thread linked above.

Do You Think Apple Cares About Gaming On The iPhone? (By: @evelyngrace)

It's been over five years, but what do you make of the current state of Apple Arcade? Is Apple's iOS mobile game streaming service worth it these days? Also, how committed do you think Apple is to gaming these day? Share away your thoughts to any of those questions!

What Is A Reasonable Size Roster For A First (In A Series) New Fighting Game? (By: @topcyclist)

Here's a discussion for the Fighting Game Community: what's the "right" number of characters for a new fighting game at launch? Do you like vanilla fighting game releases to have small or big rosters? How many of the established fighting game characters do you want?

Path of Exile 2 Early Access Discussion Thread (By: @atheistpreacher)

Have any of you checked out the Path of Exile 2 Early Access? If so, which classes have you played and do you have any leveling or respeccing tips? Also, what features or mechanics do you still have your fingers crossed for by the game's full release?

Deadservices Update: Foamstars To Stop Updating After Current Season, But Remain Online (By: @bigsocrates)

Foamstars is getting one final update in December but then the game will be in support mode. Is this genuinely a more honorable fate than Concord? Also, like XDefiant, do you feel like Foamstars' failure was all but guaranteed after the game's release?

Ubisoft Is Sunsetting XDefiant After Denying They Would For Months. Also ~277 Will Lose Their Jobs As A Result (By: @zombiepie)

What do you make of the XDefiant news? Most aren't surprised by the news, but how much of a future do you see for Ubisoft as a company? It sure seems like Ubisoft's entire future as an independent company depends on the success of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

This Has Kind Of Been A Horrible Year For High Budget (AAA) Games From Western Developers (By: @bigsocrates)

Do you agree with the- argument that 2024 was a bad or "down year" for AAA western games? Does the point stand thanks to the studio closures after the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?

List

Rio's GOTY List 2024 (By: @riostarwind)

riostarwind published their 2024 GOTY list! Give it a look and don't forget that even YOU can create and publish your own GOTY list when you can!

2024 Games (By: @borgmaster)

borgmaster only bought ten games that released in 2024, which made things incredibly easy for their 2024 GOTY list! As a primarily retro gamer, read what 2024 things they played and if they liked them!

BeardDuder's 2024 GOTY List! (By: @beardduder)

BeardDuder has posted their 2024 GOTY list! Give it a read, especially their preamble, and share your thoughts. Also, as you can see to the right, their list has a picture of an adorable dog.

GOTY 2024 (By: @darkjohnny477)

In no particular order, darkjohnny47 decided to list their ten favorite games from 2024. They have a little of everything on this list and games both big and small.

Top 10 2024 (By: @mightyduck)

MightyDuck partook in the expected AAA megahits along with a smattering of indie classics this year and you can discover which games rocked their year by checking out their GOTY list!

Reviews

@sbc515's FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction review articulates why they consider it the beginning of the end for the FlatOut series. Sure, it didn't completely kill the series, but as they explain in their review, it practically did.

Wiki Of The Week

Spike Video Game Awards 2004

Which games took the greatest number of favors at Keighley's game awards show twenty years ago? Unsurprisingly, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, and Half-Life 2 did incredibly well at the event hosted by the one and only, Snoop Dogg! Giant Bomb's wiki page for the event has every category and winner for your reading pleasure!