Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight and I, @zombiepie, am once again honored to be your host as we look back at the site-related news and best user-created works from the previous week. First, let’s start things off with a huge congratulations to Hard Drive for raising $11,873.60 towards the Trans Lifeline Network as part of their Woke And Gay Charity Stream! If you would still like to donate, here’s the link! For those of you that missed their stream, they have posted the entire 14-hour event on YouTube in two parts, with the first part featuring the Giant Bomb staff and Mike Minotti playing The Lion King on the Genesis.
Speaking of Mike, he was on a recent stream on Kinda Funny Games in which he shared his predictions with Greg Miller for last week’s Nintendo Direct before it aired and while it might be a bit “dated” it’s still a fun watch if you missed it.
With this coming out during Evo Weekend, it feels more than appropriate to direct all of you to check out the EVO showroom tour that TurboShawn recently uploaded. As they say, better late than never, but it sure is a trip seeing Maximilian Dood and the YoVideoGames crew on a Giant Bomb video. Likewise, speaking of Giant Bomb videos you should give a watch and drop a supportive comment on is Best of Giant Bomb 227: It’s Just! Pictures
Regarding site-related issues, a growing number of users have reported inappropriate crypto or political ads during podcasts. Bakalar has responded to a recent rash of these on the Giant Bomb Discord’s “site-tech-issues” channel and affirmed that while they can flag the categories that opt these ads into the podcasts, it’s “a whack a mole situation unfortunately,” with the best solution being you all reporting inappropriate ads when the crop up and the Giant Bomb Team reporting them as quickly as possible to their ad partner.
For those of you that may have noticed or experienced issues with the last two Bombcasts on Premium, wherein the podcasts would get to around the 40 minute mark and then error-out, the problem has been resolved thanks to Chuck. If you noticed that error in the future with any podcasts please report the impacted episodes as soon as possible as it is a fairly straightforward problem to solve as Chuck has explained on the Discord: “Ionos manages subdomains separate from other records (I am not sure why) so when I turned on cloudflare and migrated all my records, it just left my CDN subdomain behind. I just added it back in cloudflare.”
Finally, for those of you reading this near when it first publishes, you can send in your vote to Grubb’s Bomb 12 feature, wherein Grubb briefly reviews the games Giant Bomb users have voted as being the games they are playing that they want to bring more attention to.
Art
Dan Found A Dead Mouse… (By: @jearum)
Inspired by Blight Club’s Pimp My Ryckert Ep.3, jearum made the hell scenario of Mickey Mouse existing in the world of Pimp My Ride alongside Dan Ryckert. Obviously, things didn’t end up so nicely for one of them, but that’s to be expected.
Janny Fallon (By: @kone)
Who do you think among the staff would most likely veto a Giant Bomb staff camping trip? Should Bakalar put the kibosh on the idea considering Dan with a burner or trying to set-up a campfire sounds like a disaster waiting to happen?
Also, with late-night American network TV programs, especially talk programs, on the decline, Kone joins the rest of of in thinking Jan could completely revive the dying late-night talk show format!
Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/hard-drive.net/post/3luxofivaak2b
https://bsky.app/profile/jearum.bsky.social/post/3lv5tm2r44s2y
https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3lulpofctsc2l
https://bsky.app/profile/gregpivo.bsky.social/post/3luvtmzqxdc2d
Activities
The GB Album Club 091 – Master of Reality by Black Sabbath (By: @unclejam23)
In light of recent events, the latest edition of the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is for Master of Reality by Black Sabbath! If you want to join the fun and honor the life and works of Ozzy, this is the thread to do it! Also, what other works of Black Sabbath do you recommend?
Giant Bomb Discord Fantasy Football League (By: @uppercaseccc)
If there are any of you out there that are NFL fans and are interested in joining a Fantasy Football League, the Giant Bomb Discord Fantasy League has open slots for this year’s competition. Just be aware the league has $10 entry fee and may involve multiple divisions if needed. Drop a comment in the thread if you still are interested.
The Alters Is The 7th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4! SPOILERS OPEN! (By: @bigsocrates)
With the start of a new month, that can only mean it is time to open up last month’s Game of the Month pick to SPOILERS! Given that the group is talking about The Alters, feel free to share your final takes on the AI controversy as well as its story.
Blogs
Indie Game of the Week 423: Majotori (By: @mento)
As we ease into the start of August, Mento has a fun write-up discussing and reviewing all of the games and anime they enjoyed and not so enjoyed during the month of July. If you want their indie game or anime recommendations as we bid farewell to summer, give their monthly review a read.
Likewise, Mento has another “Indie Game of the Week” feature on the site and this one tackles Majotori an early work from the developer that would later go on to make Pineapple on pizza and is a narrative trivia genre blending experience. Does it “work?” Read their blog to find out!
Rogue: Lockpicking In The Bethesda RPGs (By: @gamer_152)
Lock Picking and Bethesda RPGs, can you think of a pairing that has resulted in more groans in the RPG enthusiast community? Moderator Gamer_152 decides to examine the much reviled match made in heaven and ways in which things could indeed be better.
Buying Games Is No Longer Fun. Modern Digital Shops Are Awful. (By: @bigsocrates)
Between the issues of censorship, game delistings, and recurring layoffs in the industry, bigsocrates discusses on Giant Bomb why it just doesn’t feel “FUN” buying games anymore. With the year well-past the halfway point and there being more games to come, do you feel the same?
Retro JRPG Review – Legend of Legaia (Part 2): Of Course This JRPG Ends With Childhood Trauma And Body Horror! (By: @zombiepie)
ZombiePie wraps up their two-part retrospective on Legend of Legaia! As a self-professed JRPG “expert,” they share why the game’s innovative combat system isn’t enough to carry but they absolutely were NOT expecting the game to involve a ton of body horror during its final act.
Should Have Been Gilroy Part 3 Of 3 Death’s End (By: @infantpipoc)
infantpipoc rounds out their retrospective on David Benioff’s writing career with a scathing review of their Netflix adaption of Death’s End by Liu Cixin! Want to read an exhaustive write-up about why Benioff’s interpretation of the source material is completely wrong? Well, here you go!
Discussion Threads
Fighting Games General EX Plus α (By: @starvinggamer)
In a move that will hopefully get TurboShawn excited, we have revived the long-running Fighting Game Community Thread on Giant Bomb for Evo Championship Series 2025 WEEKEND! To kick things off, FLStyle dropped a comment with all of the stream links for each of the games being played.
Xbox Will Require Age Verification For UK Players Starting in 2026 (By: @zombiepie)
Xbox has announced that starting in 2026 UK residents will have to submit photo ID to comply with new laws. What does this mean for gaming and when do you expect similar statements from Nintendo and Sony? Share away on the site.
New Katamari Game Announced! (By: @fishlion)
There was some positive gaming news this week and one such highlight was the announcement of a new entry in the Katamari franchise, Once Upon a Katamari! Are you excited to give the world of Katamari a roll again? Share away your feelings and any ways you think they can keep the formula hip.
Nintendo Announces Price Increase For Switch 1 In United States (By: @nocall)
Effective August 3rd, 2025, the price on the Nintendo Switch and all of its products and accessories will increase in the US due to “market conditions.” Remember when consoles got cheaper as they got older? Do you blame this case on public policy or Nintendo being greedy?
Microsoft Has Reached A $4 Trillion Company Valuation; Company Leaders Credit Investments In AI And ‘Necessary’ Cuts (By: @zombiepie)
Microsoft is the second company in history to reach a valuation of $4 trillion! With declining hardware sales and massive layoffs at Xbox Game Studios, does any of that mean anything to gaming? Also, with Microsoft still embracing AI like the next big thing, are they just bound for a horrible collapse?
Is Playing A Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Game On The iPad An Okay Time? (By: @heraldfighter64)
Considering they aren’t the cheapest games on the iOS or Google stores, but are the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters actually good on mobile or tablets? Related, but are turn-based JRPGs the only RPGs that work well on an Android tablet or iPad? What are your RPG recommendations for tablet users on the go?
Lists
Douglas Adams’ Ghost Presents A Thirty-five-year-old’s “Definite” Top 9 Games Of The 21st Century In Release Order (By: @infantpipoc)
What are the games infantpipoc felt most comfortable including on their “Best Games of the 21st Century” list? While they didn’t quite reach ten games, their list is still a worthy read! Also, if you have yet to make your list, please do and I will happily share it on the Spotlight.
Reviews
@nateandrews‘s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review discusses why they found it to be a MASSIVE improvement over the first game, though not without a few hiccups, and loved its open-ended gameplay approach as a possible jumping-off point for Kojima.
@mrcropes also has a Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review on the site and in their review they share why they think it is a highlight of all of Kojima’s strength, with few of his normal pitfalls, on one of the biggest stages he has ever assembled.
@pauljeremiah‘s Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition review looks at the game that spawned the single greatest moment in EVO’s history, but is there any reason to return to the game itself these days? Read their review to find out!
Wiki Of The Week
As is a tradition on Giant Bomb, you can expect to see the 2025 Evo Championship Series results on our wiki page for the event! For now, enjoy consulting the page as it has every major recorded tournament result since Evo started way back in 2004! Also, Marino continues to curate an amazing treasure-trove of images on the page.
