The Community Spotlight 2025.02.01

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 the best community creations from the previous week!

We start this edition of the Spotlight with incredibly disappointing and unfortunate news. As many of you already know, Giant Bomb Infinite is being discontinued and retired. Infinite broke catastrophically and upon assessing what needed to be done to get back running, the costs became astronomical. I have hinted at this before, but Will Carle originally put Infinite on a machine they had in the office, and every few months the GPU would burn out on it from the strain of Infinite. This usually happened on the weekend, so he couldn't replace the GPU until Monday. The thing was burning cards in its original form. So, eventually, he put it on a virtual machine. And if it did crash from there you could reboot it at home. Unfortunately, server costs have jumped significantly especially with 24/7 video streaming. When Dylan offered to host Infinite on his own, the best option came to five figures per month (USD).

I know on the Giant Bomb Discord and forums that some have talked about creating and running a community-made fork or version of Infinite. If that happens, Dylan and I are more than happy to support and surface your effort however possible. And huge props to Dylan (@dtoast). As I hope you can see in his post, he tried to be as transparent as possible and I can attest that he advocated for Infinite long and hard and even offered to host the server on his own. The news still sucks. I and everyone else have no qualms with the frustration and anger being shared; I'm there with you. During the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it was a home for myself and many others.

If you follow me on Bluesky, I will see if I can post all of the bumpers and transitions for Infinite there for old time's sake. Jan and Dylan played a major role in saving most of them, so again, thanks to both of them.

In better news, and I have no idea how to do this transition so I apologize if this doesn't sit well with anyone, Dylan's post has some kernels of positive news as well. A site update is set to launch soon to address the spambot issue. Additionally, Bluesky embed support is coming soon. In fact, after having a meeting with Dylan, I can tell you full Bluesky embed support should launch during February. And though a bullet point, some of the ideas about getting more community creations in the Giant Bomb store were incredibly cool in yesterday's meeting.

Congratulations to the Fire Escape podcast for celebrating its 100th episode! Also, Jan has been making some fun posts on Bluesky worth checking out if you have missed them.

Art

Blight Club "Dan's Turn" Back-to-Back Special (By: @jearum)

It's time for another Blight Club character poster by jearum and this one is maybe their best work yet! All of your favorite characters are here, but now with Alex looming largely in the background! If you enjoyed this one, or any of the art shared this week, please click the link to show your support.

The Four Covers Of Blight Club (By: Pickle Giraffe)

Some of these aren't new, but they are worth re-sharing regardless! Pickle_Giraffe isn't just making fun videos on Bluesky, they are also having a blast making posters and other works of art in honor of the endless hilarity that Blight Club has provided.

Gallery

Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3lgmjvcj63k26

https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3lgxnxt7y5c26

https://bsky.app/profile/marinov1.bsky.social/post/3lh4zjsqxyc2t

https://bsky.app/profile/danryckert.com/post/3lgz4gygmrk2w

Video

BIG KWOON GUY - (Season 6 Episode 3) - An Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club Series (By: Pickle Giraffe)

It's time for another BANGER with Pickle Giraffe! This week they have another animated rendition of Dan's efforts to play and complete Drake of the 99 Dragons! And this episode is PACKED with cameos.

Activities

UUGPGC Voting Thread For Cycle Starting February 1 2025.+

Dungeons Of Hinterberg Is The First Game of UUGPGC Year 4! Finish By February 1! Spoilers OPEN! (By: @bigsocrates)

It's time to send in YOUR VOTES for the next edition of the Giant Bomb Game Pass Game Club! The nominees this time include 2024 GOTY heavy-hitters like Indiana Jones and Kunitsu-Gami! Vote for two games that might be interesting to play.

Also, don't forget that the the community Game Pass Game Club is going monthly moving forward and the first game it will be tackling in 2025 is Dungeons of Hinterberg! Now that spoilers are open, feel free to share what you thought of the game's characters and story!

The GB Album Club 076 - The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (By: @unclejam23)

It is time to talk about CLASSICAL MUSIC on the Giant Bomb forums because this edition of the Album of the Week is looking at Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring! How many of you only know this work thanks to Disney's Fantasia? Share your thoughts regardless over here!

Blogs

ALLTheDinos' Favorite Games of 2024 (By: @allthedinos)

ALLTheDinos finally got around to making a GOTY 2024 blog! While it might be a belated write-up, it's still deserving of your attention! Give it a read by clicking the link and if you haven't yet made your GOTY 2024 blog or list, feel free to ping me when you do. It's never too late.

Indie Game of the Week 405: Planet of Lana +

Mento's Month: January '25 (+ New Master System Feature) (By: @mento)

For their latest "Indie Game of the Week," Giant Bomb moderator Mento looked at Planet of Lana by Wishfully! Read why they were impressed by its "strong command of its narrative" even if they had a few minor gripes about how it played.

Also, the end of the month means that Mento has their usual monthly review blog in which they discuss their favorite games and anime. However, this time around, they also talked about their plans to debut a new feature looking at the Sega Master System!

2024: Change, Continuity (By: @electricviking)

ElectricViking makes a valiant return to blogging with a look at their favorite games and gaming experiences. As a retro gamer, they have some unexpected awards like "Most Perverse RetroAchievements of 2024!"

Can You Iterate On The Odyssey's Ping Pong With New Mechanics? (By: @timeshero)

timeshero is taking a class about the history of video games and decided for fun to post their first assignment on the Giant Bomb forums! The first question is about the Odyssey and Pong Give it a read and share how you think they did answering the prompt!

Now in the '90s (Tribute): January 1995 (By: @alianger)

alianger is starting a new blog series where they look back at the games and gaming news of the 1990s month-by-month! To start things off, they re-examined January 1995 and they have magazine scans as well as convention shots worth checking out.

Discussion Threads

This Open World Driving Game Is Coming To PS5 And What Are Your Thoughts? (By: @gtxforza)

Forza Horizon 5 is coming to PS5! This is a boon for PlayStation owners but what do you make of Microsoft's growing multiplatform strategy? Is Xbox hardware toast or is this just a reflection of how much the market has changed?

Ubisoft Announces Closure Of Ubisoft Leamington And Layoff Of 185 Employees (By: @zombiepie)

Ubisoft is closing Ubisoft Leamington and laying off 185 employees. What do you make of this news and the previous reports of a Tencent-led bailout? Is Assassin's Creed Shadows going to be the end of the company? What do they even make after Shadows?

Ridge Racer 64 Is Coming To The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack (By: @gtxforza)

Ridge Racer 64 is coming out to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack program! Is this a good get for people using the service or another oddball pick by Nintendo to remind people the thing still exists?

PAX East, West - Are They Less Popular Or Did COVID-19 Hobble Them (By: @monkeyking1969)

Does anyone else feel like the luster and appeal of the PAX East & West conventions is wanning? Do you think COVID did a dent on gaming conventions or were they always trending downward? Are gaming conventions in general not what they once were?

Whelp... Welcome To The (Possible) Collapse Of The AI Tech Bubble! (By: @zombiepie)

So... the AI world appears to be having a "moment." Are any of you actually surprised by the DeepSeek news and do you foresee impacts to the gaming world? Share your thoughts and impressions about Nvidia losing $600 billion in market valuation in a single day.

Lists

Top 25 90s Video Games (By: @fromspace)

The 90s feel like ancient history, but fromspace used their latest list to annotate what they think are the twenty-five best games from the decade! Give it a read and if you too have 90s nostalgia, consider making your own list when you can!

Best Nintendo Switch Games (By: @razorblade79)

With a Switch 2 gracing the world this year, razorblade79 decided to try their hand at making a list of the best games to release on the OG Switch! With the console entering the final legs of its lifespan, feel free to list what you think were the best games on the platform.

Reviews

@bhlaab's Panzer Dragoon Saga review talks about why they consider the game overhyped by enthusiasts and especially Sega hardware defenders and why they don't consider it even close to the best game on the Sega Saturn.

Wiki of the Week

The Sims

It's crazy to think, but The Sims turns 25 this week! It was the "people simulator" that absolutely dominated the 90s and early 2000s and you can read and appreciate the game that started it all by checking out our wiki page for it.