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 previous week.
By the time you are reading this, Giant Bomb’s shift for Hard Drive’s Woke And Gay Charity Stream is over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t donate to the effort! Also, in case of future collaborations, consider following Hard Drive on Twitch. If you missed the fun, here’s a link to the VOD on Hard Drive’s Twitch, and I’ll help you out and skip to Giant Bomb’s segment.
Small update about the site re-design effort on the Giant Bomb Discord. Reminder that if you want to contribute or just want to be privy to the site rebuild effort, the “wiki-street-team” channel is where you want to be! If you would like notifications for posts or are interested in participating in team collaboration Chuck and the mods have a role for that: @Wiki Street Team. Just ask in the channel or ask a mod to get it!
For those of you that enjoyed Giant Bomb playing Skies of Arcadia: Legends, just a friendly reminder that Grubb playing that was thanks to DEMOCRACY! For those of you that have premium you can participate in what games get played during GB Plays! All you need to do is unlock premium on the Giant Bomb Discord and waiting for a ping from Grubb or someone else with a poll. If you don’t know how to unlock your premium on the Giant Bomb Discord, just use /premium connect to unlock the premium discord channels. If you have any issues, drop a yelp in “site-tech-issues” and someone will help you out.
Finally, who wants to join me in re-watching the Quick Look for Hulk Hogan’s Main Event today for no reason in particular? It’s for all the Hulkamaniacs out there and they fear my electric pants, brother!
Art
Grubb & Minotti CAUGHT On Coldplay’s Couple Cam (By: @kone)
I never took Grubb and Minotti as Coldplay fans, but this photographic evidence that Kone found of them embracing each other at a concert seems irrefutable.
Giant Bomb’s Mr. Wobblehead (By: Pickle_Giraffe)
“Hey check this out, it’s my Mr. Wobblehead. So, Marcius, decision time.” Goodness, Xzibit is a many of many words.
Hakuna Minotti (By: doctorvenkman)
Mufasa Speaks With His Son (By: el_paolo_loco)
Dump Truck: Fart Walk With Me (By: Steven)
The Giant Bomb Discord, which I have included an invite to in the first link, was ON FIRE last week making banners and works of art in tribute to everything Giant Bomb! We have two works hyping up Mike’s efforts to beat The Lion King on the SNES for Hard Drive and one having some fun with a Drump truck moment with Bakalar.
Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/hard-drive.net/post/3lub7iol2r22n
https://bsky.app/profile/yozetty.bsky.social/post/3luirfhrti22y
https://bsky.app/profile/chucktowski.com/post/3lub3j3k4cc2j
https://bsky.app/profile/scottydontknovv.bsky.social/post/3lusbpcdsd22b
https://bsky.app/profile/michaelroleary.bsky.social/post/3luoab3skek24
https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3luodbeym2s23
Activities
The GB Album Club 090 – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo by Mr. Bungle (We’re Doing A Black Sabbath Next Week) (By: @unclejam23)
Also, next week the Album of the Week Club will be listening to some Black Sabbath in tribute to Ozzy.
The Album of the Week Club on Giant Bomb is doing something “different” this time around! Its next pick is The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo by Mr. Bungle! If you want to join the fun, drop a comment in the thread linked above.
The Alters Is The 7th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4! Finish By August 1! Mark All Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)
Once again, The Alters has been selected by the Giant Bomb Game of the Month Club as its next game pick, but it should be noted that voting closed before the AI art stuff broke. As a result, all forms of discussion about that and the game itself are welcomed in the thread linked above.
Blog
ArbitraryWater’s Official Unsanctioned and Unsolicited Blight Club Suggestion List (By: @arbitrarywater)
Would you want to watch Grubb play more 3DO nonsense? You should.
ArbitraryWater has been enjoying Giant Bomb’s Blight Club so much they decided to look at and assess the Blight Club-worthiness of questionable games they have played recently! If you have any games that come to mind as Blight Club candidates, share away in their blog as well!
I Have Regressed to a JRPG Sicko Again (By: @ford_dent)
After beating the habit for a few years, Ford_Dent has talks about falling down the JRPG rabbit hole and the recent and classic games, which includes the likes of Persona 4 Golden, Final Fantasy VIII, and more, they have been playing recently.
Indie Game of the Week 429: The Station +
Game OVA Season 4: Episode 4 — Dr. Slump (By: @mento)
Mento with the Toriyama appreciation this week.
For this edition of their “Indie Game of the Week” feature, moderator Mento looks at The Station! Did they enjoy their time with this atmospheric mystery adventure game? Also, is this an interactive graphical adventure game or more of a walking simulator? Read to find out!
With this edition of their OVA-to-Game examination, Mento goes for a titan: Dr. Slump! How does one of Akira Toriyama’s early works, and its handful ofgame adaptations, hold up? Give their blog about it a read and bask in the Toriyama nostalgia!
Should Have Been Gilroy Part 2 Of 3 Dark Forest (By: @infantpipoc)
infantpipoc’s treatise on David Benioff’s career and this time covers extensively why his treatment of The Three-Body Problem on Netflix is deeply problematic and not the best representation of the text.
The Merits Of Lethal Company-Likes – Part 2: Let’s Talk About Chained Together, R.E.P.O., Peak, And GAME JUICE! (By: @zombiepie)
Continuing with their examination of the genre from last week, ZombiePie persists with their discussion about the rise of the streamer co-op/multiplayer game with reviews of Chained Together, R.E.P.O., and Peak as well as a talk about the concept of “Game Juice.”
Discussion Threads
Welcome To The Smutpocalypse: Itch Begins Deindexing “Adult” Games & Is Denying Payments To Adult Game Devs (By: @zombiepie)
With itch.io needing to delist and blacklist adult games, are we descending into a “smutpocalypse?” Where should developers go and what should people do? Share your thoughts and possible options with the rest of the community.
Hulk Hogan Is Dead (By: @spleeny)
Any thoughts about Hulk Hogan you want to share in light of his death? I’ll say it if others are afraid: While deeply influential to wrestling and its evolution, Hogan used racist language and was a known union buster. He was also a terrible singer.
Ozzy Osbourne, Legendary Metal Frontman & Singer, Is Dead (By: @zombiepie)
Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness and legend in music and games, has passed away. Join the Giant Bomb community in memorializing the man and his legacy in the thread below. Do you have any favorite memories of their music or appearances in media?
Capcom Isn’t Making A New Dino Crisis, So We Will Have To Settle On Code Violet – The Best Worst Trailer & Game Of 2025 (By: @zombiepie)
Real OGs remember Ozzy getting pissed off people weren’t listening to his during this Madden performance.
HOT DAMN! It doesn’t sounds like Capcom is interested in making a new Dino Crisis, Code Violet has arrived on the scene in hopes of filling the void. After the game dropped its most recent trailer and gameplay demo, the game is looking like a disaster, which is why some people cannot wait to play it. Learn more in the thread above.
Project CARS 3 Will Be Delisted From Digital Stores On August 24th, 2025 (By: @gtxforza)
Another racing game, this time Project CARS 3, is being delisted likely due to car licenses expiring. Whether you enjoyed this game when it came out or think this is another reminder of how impossible it is to preserve modern racing games, share your thoughts in the thread.
The Outer Worlds 2 Being Xbox/Microsoft’s Personal Test Of The $80 Price Point Feels Bad, Man…. [Update: NOPE!] (By: @zombiepie)
These are some Obama Administration Era pre-order bonuses.
So, it appears The Outer Worlds 2 WON’T be Xbox’s litmus test for the $80 price point! What do you factored into this sudden change? Do you think pre-orders were low or is this an attempt by Microsoft to drum up some positive press?
Lists
The Giant Bomb Community’s Top 50 Standalones of 2001-2025 (By: @mento)
If you limited the pool to standalone games, what would Giant Bomb’s list look like then?
If you were to do Giant Bomb’s “Best Games of the 21st Century” feature but specify that the games had to be a standalone with no sequels, spin-offs, or remakes, how would things go? That’s Mento’s latest list in a nutshell
NES Games I Played As A Child, As I Remember Them (By: @lommy)
Father Time is sometimes rough on our memories, so, Lommy tried to think of every NES game from their childhood and wrote brief sentences of what they remember of them. Do you also have a hard time recalling the games of your childhood?
These Aren’t Doom Clones! (By: @drjimmyb)
DrjimmyB has been sharing retro games from their past to their friends and annoyingly noticed quite a few of them have been called “Doom Clones” by those friends. What are the games and why do they dispute that label for them? Read their list to learn more.
Reviews
Anyone a fan of the classic Phantasy Star games?
@pauljeremiah‘s retro video game reviews are back with a review of Phantasy Star II! Is this legendary galactic JRPG still worth playing today even if it has been overshadowed by other JRPGs from this era? Read to find out!
Wiki Of The Wiki
Want to learn more about one of Nintendo’s weirdest failures in their history?
The Virtual Boy recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and you can check out Giant Bomb’s wiki page for the game to learn all about one of Nintendo’s biggest early console failures and the innovative technology that went into making it happen.
