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!
Earlier, multiple people reported that they were experiencing issues with Pocketcasts not having updates RSS Feeds. As a reminder, there’s a workaround with Pocketcasts. If you copy the RSS feed URL, then add “&foo=bar” at the end of the URL, you can somehow fix or reset your RSS Feed on the app. As Rorie can attest, Giant Bomb has had issues with Pocketcasts for almost a decade and still no one knows what they or this site does so differently that makes Pocketcasts such a problem.
For those of you that noticed that Giant Bomb Forever was banned on Twitch earlier, the issue has been resolved. The admin of the account has confirmed that GBF was banned by mistake and Twitch found that it had not engaged in anything that violated its terms of service. I will share the thread in which many expressed concerns for the sake of posterity.
There was a Premium Townhall on the Giant Bomb Discord. If you missed it, a VOD is incoming. If you had earlier issues with the Discord Premium Bot in trying to unlock the Premium channels on the Giant Bomb Discord, those issues should be resolved at this time.
And here’s your weekly reminder to reach out to all past and present Giant Bomb community members to let them know that it’s incredibly important to log-in so they can opt into preserving their usernames going into the new Giant Bomb site. The ETA to do this still is “before 2026,” but doing things earlier is better. Also, for anyone concerned about if you have opted in or not, if you clicked yes and the pop-up isn’t appearing anymore, you are in the clear. If you want to be absolutely certain you are opting to keep your username, send a DM to chuck on Discord or send an email to su*****@*******mb.com.
Speaking of Chuck, his plea for more assistance building and polishing the new wiki still stands. As a reminder, some of the biggest needs are people with expertise in infrastructure and hosting with GCP or Docker, MediaWiki Administration, data migration, information architecture and content curation, style guidance in CSS, authentication/authorization, 301 redirection, and general content editors. If any of that applies to you, drop a comment in the thread and Chuck will try to get back to you when they can.
And speaking of content on the new site, if you missed it, don’t forget to check out Ford_Dent’s community article over there about spooky horror games to get yourself ready for Halloween!
Art
Minotti Hydmike + Game Informer Giant Bomb Ad Zoomed In (By: @jearum)
jearum has two MAGNIFICENT works of art this week! First, to mark the latest season of Blight Club feature Mike playing through Virtual Hydlide, they went ahead and envisioned Mike on the cover of the game’s JP boxart!
Likewise, it seems a lot of you really enjoyed the Game Informer magazine advertisement Giant Bomb took last month and jearum was kind enough to give you a close up of some of the details in the ad. And before you ask, yes, the ad was actually done entirely in 3D. Simply incredible.
Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:s6uwytvvpihxcqyzvcltzmrr/post/3lxzmijdnhk2l
https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3ly5a4eezus2t
https://bsky.app/profile/marinov1.bsky.social/post/3lxxokmb2ws2x
https://bsky.app/profile/r42.bsky.social/post/3lxn7zhhclk2l
https://bsky.app/profile/johnbron.com/post/3lxzz5bvhgk2i
Activities
Herdling Is The 9th Game Of UUGPGC Year 4. Finish By October 1. Mark All Spoilers! (By: @bigsocrates)
Herdling by Okomotive is the latest game pick for the Giant Bomb Game of the Month Club! Have any of you heard about this mythical herding game? Have you seen its expressive art style in motion? Join the fun over here and drop a supportive comment when you can!
The GB Album Club 095 – Swansong by Carcass (By: @unclejam23)
This week’s pick by the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club is Swansong by Carcass! Are any of you fans of this extreme metal band? Are you completely unfamiliar with this metal group? Regardless, join the fun over here and don’t forget that you can join the club any time!
Blogs
EA Made My Dream Skate Game, But You Will Probably Hate It (By: @willin)
willin takes to the site to discuss why they love almost everything they have played of Skate.‘s Early Access release. However, despite their personal love for the game, they share their concern about the limited appeal of a Skate game for Skate fans.
The Strands That Bind Us. (By: @mooseymcman)
After writing a non-spoiler blog about Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, MooseyMcMan decided to pen an essay discussing every story-related spoiler about the game on this blog. If you want to discuss the game’s many twists and turns, this is the blog for you.
Mento’s Month: August ’25 + Indie Game of the Week 435: After Death (By: @mento)
A new month means that moderator Mento is back looking at their personal gaming and anime highlights and lowlights of their previous month! If you want some recommendations, give the first link a shot when you have the time.
Likewise, Mento has a new edition of their “Indie Game of the Week” feature tackles After Death, a “monster-filled Metroidvania!” Does this game have any juice to differentiate itself in a crowded field? Mentio thinks so and you can read why over here!
Industry-led Labels & Definitions: The Latest Barrier Making Boycotting Generative AI In Game Design All But Impossible (By: @zombiepie)
A recent controversy emerged when Bandai included an generative AI disclaimer on Everybody’s Golf: Hot Shots. But, as ZombiePie points out, you might not want to picket the game and the situation highlights how the current model of relying on industry-led labels is a looming disaster for consumers.
Gears of August (By: @infantpipoc)
infantpipoc shares why they are unimpressed by Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater and how they slowly but surely feel like the novelization of Snake Eater is starting to look like the definitive version of that particular story.
Discussion Threads
Silksong Is Actually Releasing (September 4)(By: @atheistpreacher)
But really… how do we all feel about Hollow Knight: Silksong? Is it an actually good video game? Does the final product live up to the hype? Are you sad the Silksong memes are likely over? Share your response to any of these questions as well as sharing your overall thoughts in the thread above!
Hollow Knight: Silksong: What’s Up With The Cloud Of Online Hate For This Game? (By: @topcyclist)
Were you aware of Silksong getting review bombed by Chinese players over a bad translation? Also, is a counter-narrative forming against Silksong online? Learn all about some of these “controversies” and if any of them will slow down the excitement surrounding Silksong.
Drew Carey Show Discussion Thread (By: @psmgamer)
One of the more active new threads this week is asking the community if they have any favorite memories of The Drew Carey Show. Wait… what? Uh… okay. Anyone a fan of Mimi??? Remember when Drew Carey did things that weren’t game shows?
Did Anyone Else Try Out The Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Network Test? (By: @bigsocrates)
Did any of you catch the Sonic Racing CrossWorlds network test? Are there any netcode or balance changes you want to see before the game’s full release? Is it looking like a legitimate alternative to Mario Kart World? Join the conversation when you can!
UPDATE: It’s OK! Original: Twitch Has Suspended/Banned Giant Bomb Forever. Also Twitch Is Going After Certain Channels (By: @ben_h)
As mentioned earlier, GiantBombForever is fine and its ban earlier last week was a mistake. Nonetheless, this thread’s other points about specific Twitch channels being targeted by morphing moderation standards still stands and you can learn all about it in this thread.
Lists
Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcom (By: @mento)
Mento has been dabbling in the wonderful world of Nihon Falcom games this year! Learn all about some of the wonderful new and old Falcom treasures they have played for a possible feature on the site by clicking the link above.
Reviews
@sbc515‘s Checkered Flag review shares how not only is it one of the worst Atari Jaguar games ever made, it might be a forgotten candidate for worst racing game ever made even if it has the excuse of being an early 3D/polygonal game.
Wiki Of The Week
It’s crazy to think, but the very first Rayman game is turning THIRTY this month! The franchise has definitely had some highs and lows, but you can give our wiki page for the game that started it all a read to learn all about the many versions and releases of the game and how they differ from one another!
