The Community Spotlight 2025.11.15

Welcome to the latest variation of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I, @zombiepie, americium erstwhile again honored to beryllium your big arsenic we look backmost astatine the important site-related quality and champion assemblage creations from the erstwhile week.

First and foremost, I privation to convey each of you that streamed, donated, and tuned into the site's assemblage streams past week for Extra Life. The assemblage streams unsocial were capable to rise $45,000; that's fractional of Giant Bomb's squad extremity wholly from you and this community! That's incredible! Nonetheless, it does look similar we person a mates of pages that inactive request your assistance nabbing their archetypal donation, so, if you could bash maine a monolithic favor, check retired the squad leafage and nonstop $2 to $5 to immoderate leafage inactive looking for its archetypal donation!

Incredible worldly each around!

Now, I cognize immoderate of you are funny astir Giant Bomb's Extra Life programming for Extra Life present that the assemblage streams are retired of the way. At 1pm Central time, Dan, Grubb, Mike, Kayla, and Shawn volition beryllium broadcasting LIVE from Minnesota until precocious into the night! You tin drawback the enactment connected Twitch and YouTube and site's efforts are encouraging all donations to marque the squad bash ridiculous shenanigans beryllium sent to Dan's Extra Life page. And of course, beryllium prepared for unannounced guests to marque things particularly fun!

In presumption of the site, Chuck is engaged moving distant connected the upcoming migration and this week announced that the beta tract was unfastened to each to astatine slightest cheque out! If this is your archetypal clip looking astatine the caller tract and you person input to share, drop a remark implicit here.

For those of you that watched Giant Bomb's speech implicit for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct, you cognize that the video was impacted by copyright issues. It's luckily backmost up connected YouTube if you missed it and privation to perceive to the staff's thoughts astir the lawsuit and movie successful question.

And we volition circular this Spotlight disconnected with different reminder astir the upcoming tract migration. For everyone logged successful and speechmaking this feature, you are successful the wide astir maintaining your usernames. What is important is communicating with everyone you cognize that mightiness person moved connected oregon person not utilized their tract accounts successful a portion that they request to log into their Giant Bomb tract accounts betwixt present and the extremity of the year. If you truly privation to cheque to spot if you're each squared distant click this link.

If aft clicking this link, you get instantly re-directed to the homepage, that means there's thing you request to do. You'll lone spot a disclaimer with a fastener to click if you haven't already opted into the relationship transportation process.

Extra Life 2025

I inactive consciousness assured that we tin determination up a fewer slots erstwhile Dan and institution start.

• Staff/Site Extra Life Stream Details - 1 PM Central Time connected YouTube & Twitch!
• Dan's Donation Page - When clip comes to enactment Dan successful each of his brainsick shenanigans, this is wherever you should nonstop them! He has a donation extremity of $10,000! dan volition beryllium streaming connected the 15th. Any and each donation incentives that Dan and institution stock oregon sermon during the watercourse should beryllium sent here!
• Vincent Caravella's Donation Page - I don't know, this feline seems suspicious. He has a weird spaceman avatar and acceptable their donation extremity to beryllium the aforesaid arsenic Dan's I conjecture if you donated to his leafage it wouldn't beryllium the extremity of the world. And earlier you ask, I don't cognize erstwhile Vinny plans to watercourse and what it volition involve.
• Giant Bomb Extra Life Team Page - Extra Life doesn't hitch retired pages until the commencement of 2026, truthful adjacent if you can't watercourse during Game Day, if you bash watercourse astatine all, delight see joining the squad and seeing if you tin get a fewer of your viewers to spot successful a fewer dollars. Also, it would beryllium large if each subordinate connected the squad had astatine slightest 1 donation earlier the extremity of the year!
• My Team Captain Extra Life Page - If you person enjoyed the Community Spotlight diagnostic oregon appreciated the hard enactment that went into curating each of the Extra Life assemblage streams during Game Day, see donating to my page.

Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/picklegiraffe.bsky.social/post/3m5edbp3dvc2g

https://bsky.app/profile/robert1988uk.bsky.social/post/3m5lrqgsvfk2h

https://bsky.app/profile/chucktowski.com/post/3m5ejhntxm22h

https://bsky.app/profile/lexluddy.xyz/post/3m5hhlzryz22t

Video

Raptor's Delight (COMPLETE Season 11) - An Animated Giant Bomb Blight Club Series (By: Pickle Giraffe)

Great worldly each around!

Your agelong hold for a caller variation of Giant Bomb Blight Club Animated is OVER! As always, immense props to Pickle Giraffe for making this and you tin archer they enactment successful a ton of effort into including adjacent much references and jokes successful the backgrounds. Honestly, spot however galore you tin drawback successful this video!

Activities

The GB Album Club 104 - Tunnel Vision by Beach Bunny (Finale!) (By: @unclejam23)

And present for thing wholly antithetic with the Album of the Week Club!

It's clip for the FINAL medium for this play of the Giant Bomb Album of the Week Club! The radical is rounding things disconnected with a BANGER by listening to Tunnel Vision by Beach Bunny! However, if immoderate of you are successful the temper to beryllium a portion of a euphony listening club, now's the clip to driblet a remark to beryllium portion of the fun!

Keeper Is The 11th Game Of UGPGC Year 4. Mark All Spoilers. Finish By December 1st, 2025! (By: @bigsocrates)

It won by a landslide, but the adjacent crippled prime for the Game of the Month Club is Keeper by Double Fine Productions, Inc.! Was the crippled worthy the years of vigor soundlessness from Double Fine each of these years? Join the amusive and articulation the speech astir the crippled implicit here!

Blogs

Hottest Mess 2025: Part 3 (The Final Candidates) (By: @allthedinos)

Was determination immoderate different blistery messiness arsenic large arsenic Microsoft?

It's clip to settee the last nominees for "Hottest Mess of 2025" for assemblage voting! Share your nominees implicit here! Let's beryllium real... it's Microsoft, riiiiiight??? Can you deliberation of a azygous bigger hottest messiness than the implosion of their hardware part and recurring workplace closures this year?

The Year of the Linux Desktop... For Me Anyway (Part 2): Friendship Ended With CachyOS (By: @ben_h)

The past fewer months person cemented ben_h's determination to power to Linux for everything, and not conscionable gaming. But... let's speech astir gaming connected Linux. Somehow we unrecorded successful a world/dimension wherever Microsoft's ain video games games tally amended connected Bazzite. Weird, right?

All Saturn Games In Order: August 1996 (Part 1) (By: @borgmaster)

borgmaster makes a glorious instrumentality to blogging with a rundown of fractional the games that released connected the Sega Saturn successful North America successful August 1996! Yes... this is the blog wherever they speech astir NiGHTS into Dreams...! It's honestly not that bad.

TMNT Rankings, Supplemental (By: @ford_dent)

Seriously, Nights isn't that bad!

Ford_Dent offers a amusive "supplemental" to their rankings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video games. Shockingly, they denote they tin nary longer fertile Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows arsenic the "worst" TMNT crippled and alternatively offers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants successful Manhattan instead.

The Quest For The Worst Adventure Game Puzzle: The 11th Hour [Part 3] - The Microscope Puzzle Is Back, BAYBEE! (By: @zombiepie)

After a little hiatus, ZombiePie is backmost and reviewing successful meticulous item each riddle and puzzle successful The 11th Hour. This occurrence talks successful extent astir the game's reinterpretation of The 7th Guest's AWFUL microscope puzzle! Is it adjacent worse successful this game?

Moosey May Cry Part 3. (By: @mooseymcman)

It's clip to delve successful the sewers of TMNT video games!

After delving into the bottommost of the tube past week, it's clip for MooseyMcMan's retrospective connected the Devil May Cry franchise to jolt backmost to the stylish enactment combat you each cognize and love. That's right, it's clip to speech astir Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Does Moosey see it a afloat instrumentality to signifier for the series? You'll person to work to find out!

Indie Game of the Week 445: Crypt Custodian (By: @mento)

For this variation of their "Indie Game of the Week" feature, Mento pens a reappraisal of Crypt Custodian! Read wherefore they deliberation it is the latest measurement successful developer Kyle Thompson perfecting their trade and creation aesthetic. Also however bash you consciousness astir the word "exploraction game?"

Discussion Threads

Valve Just Announced A caller Steam Machine, Along With A New Steam Controller, And A VR Headset Called The Steam Frame (By: @ben_h)

Are you excited for this?

There was large gaming hardware quality this week, but it didn't travel from Sony oregon Microsoft. Instead, it came from Valve. Get the details astir the Steam Machine and their caller VR headset and gaming controller successful this thread and stock your archetypal impressions.

Whelp... Black Ops 7 Has AI Art Slop And Activision Is Standing By It (By: @zombiepie)

So, it yet happened! We yet got a AAA crippled wherever the developer, astatine slightest their originative directors, and publishers are lasting by the usage of Generative AI to marque creation assets successful the crippled successful question. For those unaware, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was called retired for utilizing AI creation slop, and Activision is lasting by it. This shit's ne'er going to stop, is it?

Is There A Review Outlet Out There That Prioritizes Covering The Ownership And Longevity Of Games? (By: @gamelord12)

Baaaaaaaaaaaad.

How are you each pursuing which games get their servers pulled and when? What proposal bash you person for radical acrophobic astir ownership and information with online-only games? Is this a conflict players tin adjacent triumph with Stop Killing Games inactive successful its aboriginal phases?

What Should The NEW Endurance Run Game Be? (By: @doubledaddydan)

It's a taxable that crops up each bluish moon, but with the existent unit reviving immoderate bequest features, and this thread makes nary promises, but if the caller unit brought backmost the Endurance Run, what's a crippled from the past 5 to 10 years you'd similar to spot them implicit each the way?

BioWare Confirms They Are Actively Working On A New Mass Effect. They Only Have A Singular Teaser Image To Share (By: @zombiepie)

Here's a random screenshot of The Wheel of Time arsenic you each deliberation astir the Mass Effect Amazon bid for nary crushed successful particular.

It was 1 of the much progressive treatment threads from past week, but this week it somewhat changed successful topic. While past week the assemblage was discussing the aboriginal of BioWare arsenic a developer, this week they're talking astir the viability of the Amazon series. As different idiosyncratic asked successful the thread, if the TV amusement gets canned, is that it for the adjacent Mass Effect?

Lists

It was a beauteous bully twelvemonth for video games if you disregard everything else.

2025 GOTY (By: @irishtuxedo)

GOTY 2025 (By: @silverelias)

Game of the Year 2025 (By: @smashsoul)

It's that clip of the twelvemonth again! It's clip for everyone to whip up lists of their gaming highlights from the year! What are your favourite games from 2025 and for those that dabbled successful the satellite of retro games, were determination immoderate classics that you rediscovered that were arsenic bully arsenic the modern AAA releases successful 2025?

Armoured (By: @modeofsadeness)

ModeOfSadeness is comparatively caller to the list-making crippled but is engaged moving connected a database conception wherever they're trying to database retired each azygous video crippled quality that spends a bulk of their in-game quality wearing armor. If you tin deliberation of idiosyncratic they missed, driblet a comment!

User Reviews

Also, however galore of you program to person Hades II connected your GOTY list?

@infantpipoc's Hades II reappraisal discusses wherefore they couldn't assistance but see it 1 of their gaming highlights of 2025 contempt being mostly cynical astir the twelvemonth successful presumption of video games.

Wiki Of The Week

Half-Life: Counter-Strike

Do immoderate of you adjacent retrieve erstwhile Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod?

It has since go a TITAN successful the satellite of eSports, particularly successful Eastern Europe, but OG Counter Strike celebrated its 25th day this month! As you grabble with that, don't hide to cheque retired Giant Bomb's rad wiki leafage for the crippled which talks successful extent astir the crippled that started it all.