The Community Spotlight 2025.01.11 – Giant Bomb

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest episode of Giant Bomb Community Spotlight. I, @zombeepeeI’m once again honored to be your host as we look back at the community’s best creations from the past week. While I can’t promise you that this episode of Community Spotlight will be as action-packed as last week’s, I can promise that everything here is just as memorable and worthy of your time.

In case you missed it, both community GOTY polls have closed and the results are posted! The GOTY Community Results for 2024 have now been released. And @marino has statistics up to the 50th game. Speaking of Marino and GOTY stats, Tam and Lucy have not yet submitted their GOTY lists, so he will likely release his GOTY stats with partial information soon.

@allthedinos published the results Winners of the public survey “Hottest Mess 2024” and, shockingly, Concord finished only in second place, and Microsoft’s poor management of its games and consoles division only earned it an “honorable mention.” What could take first place? Read on to find out!

For those of you who are still worried about missing out on any Giant Bomb GOTY 2024 content, Marino will tell you about it on the page 2024 Giant Bomb Game of the Year wiki and general GOTY hub at Game of the Year Award: Giant Bomb also worth a rewatch if you’re struggling to find something you want to rewatch or watch.

However, it is worth paying attention to the housekeeping associated with the site. Yes, the site and engineers know that Giant Bomb Infinite is currently offline. People are working to get it back and you can read about why it’s still not working and when the engineers and product manager plan to get it up and running.

There is also no discussion around this issue, but the site is currently facing a wave of spambots. Trust me when I say that the entire Giant Bomb moderation team is unhappy with the current situation and that we have shared our concerns and frustrations with all relevant staff. They are also unhappy with the new influx of bots and are discussing possible solutions.

GOTI 2024

Lists

Blogs

Hottest Mess of 2024: Public Poll WINNERS (TO: @allthedinos)

The votes are in and the winner of the “Hottest Mess 2024” competition according to the Giant Bomb community is officially recognized! Would you be surprised to learn that Concord only came in second? What other video game mess has been bigger or more confusing than Concord? Click the link to find out!

There were too many damn video games in 2024 (TO: @ford_dent)

Ford_Dent posted their GOTY 2024 blog and while they felt there were too many good games last year, they discussed what they ended up liking and recommended others check them out if they missed them!

2024 Moosies Video Game Awards, Part II! (TO: @mooseymcman)

Part two of MooseyMcMan’s Moosies Video Game Awards is here and you can read it right now. Find out about Helldivers II became their “Co-op Game of the Year” or why Destiny 2: Final Form won Expansion of the Year.

Tweets

Art

Total trick, brother! (TO: Pickle_Giraffe)

I don’t know about the ever-changing end date, but Alex’s Blight Club selection of torture games is already delivering some great moments. The Pickle_Giraffe’s Blight Club animated series is definitely going to be great! Also, be sure to click the link to see this animated banner with sound.

Video

DOUBLE KONG CHOCOLATE CHIMP – (Season 5 FINAL) – animated episode “Giant Bomb Blight Club” (TO: Pickle_Giraffe)

In case you missed it, Pickle_Giraffe posted the FINAL of their Lucy “Blight Club” animated episodes featuring Skull Island: Rise of Kong! Check it out and get ready for their amazing work ahead in Dan’s year of torture.

Activity

The GB Album Club 074 – Uta’s Songs: One Piece Film Red by Ado (TO: @unclejam23)

Everything is a little “DIFFERENT” on this episode of Giant Bomb Album Club! The club gives a chance to Uta’s Songs: One Piece Film Red by Ado, and most of the members didn’t know about Ado before choosing this album. Do any of you listen to anime music?

Blogs

I finally beat Agent Interception and I just don’t know if I care about completing games anymore (TO: @bigsocrates)

bigsocrates promised to host more games from their portfolio in 2025, but are still playing and trying to finish Interception Agent quickly made them realize that they needed to respect their time more.

Go! Go! GOTI! 2024: Magical delicacy +

Indie Game of the Week 402: Chants of Sennaar (TO: @mento)

Moderator Mento won’t let the end of the Giant Bomb GOTY 2024 coverage stop them! Today they appreciated Magical delicacy To Scallop to see if it has a spot on their final GOTY 2024 list!

And like clockwork, Mento is back with a new edition of Indie Game of the Week! This week they played and reviewed Songs of Shinara game that was talked about on GOTY a few years ago!

Sigil is a love letter to DOOM (TO: @ford_dent)

Ford_Dent is up to his usual antics and talks about Rock! However, this time they wrote an essay about why Sigil is a true love letter to classic Doom and everything it represents.

Mouthwash: A storytelling triumph held back by subpar acting (TO: @sexnoise)

SexNoise wrote a short essay about why they liked it so much Mouth rinsestory and characters, but sometimes he found it difficult to play. Read their thoughts and share them if you agree or disagree here.

Discussion topics

Ubisoft kicks off 2025 by delaying the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and CEO Eve sends mixed messages about selling Ubisoft (TO: @zombeepee)

Assassin’s Creed Shadows lingers again and it sounds like UbisoftRussia’s financial problems remain a real problem. Do you think the rumored buyout of Ubisoft led by Tencent or a hedge fund manager will happen? Will the shadows be good?

Suitable for almost teens? (TO: @cubbielover)

Perhaps best suited for those of you who have the game on your GOTY 2024 lists, but cubbielover is asking on the forums if it’s playable. Thank God you’re here!! with my 11 year old child. What do you think, given some of the scenes and consequences in the game?

Help teach my partner how to use Twinstick (TO: @spectralcat)

Speaking of asking for help from the Giant Bomb community, Spectrumcat posted a thread asking how to teach your partner the concept of needing to use both analog sticks on a controller at the same time. Do you have any advice on how to make it easier for someone to control two joysticks?

What video game genres would you like to see on the next Xbox and PlayStation 6? (TO: @gtxforza)

What game genres do you think will make a comeback next year? Can you think of any types of games that deserve their own “roguelike renaissance”? It seems like it’s been a long time since people talked about RTS games.

Lists

CHUCKLENUGGETS’ 2023 GOTY Top 10 +

The most anticipated CHUCKLENUGGETS games in 2025 (TO: @chucklenuggets)

CHUCKLENUGGETS were going to release their GOTY 2024 list and they eventually did, but then they realized something… THEY FORGOT TO PUBLISH THEIR GOTY 2023 LIST! Today they corrected this oversight!

CHUCKLENUGGETS continues their series of compiling lists that annotate and rank their most anticipated gaming releases in 2025! What games are you interested in? Is it a small indie game or one of the hotly anticipated AAA games?

Best of 1994 (TO: @lelcar)

With the passing of 2024, Lelkar realized that 1994 was 31 years ago! So they decided to revisit their favorite games from 1994 with a new GOTY list! I don’t know how you feel, but I feel like I’m turning to dust.

GOTI 2022 (adjusted) (TO: @mento)

Moderator Mento did something interesting this week: looked back at their GOTY 2022 and changed their rankings to include games they’ve recently played! Find out what knocked Elden Ring off the #1 spot!

All the beauties of Kayley (TO: @infantpipoc)

Do you think the Best Artwork award at The Game Awards is a complete mess? Well, you don’t have to remember when it was named “Best Animation” or “Best Graphics” when Keighley was on Spike TV!

Reviews

@infantpipoc‘s Portal And Portal 2 The review covers both the game’s playability on the Steam Deck and all the cool special features that Valve has added to the game since its original release in 2011!

Wiki of the week

Game of the Year Award: Giant Bomb

Last week I shared a concept for a wiki page for 2024 Giant Bomb Game of the Yearand this week it seems more than appropriate to share the front page of EVERYTHING related to Giant Bomb GOTY coverage since its inception. If you’ve ever wanted to know which games won awards back in 2008, this page is for you!