Welcome to the seventeenth NeoGAF thread for GIANT BOMB, the official tips and strategy site for the Giant Bomb Game Of The Year card game. This thread is currently focused on the 2015 edition, so throw all of last year's cards in the trash. They're no good any more.
As 2015 winds down, players are getting ready for the Holiday Rush expansion. With several games to come, such as Halo 5, Fallout 4, and Just Cause 3, debate will be hard and fast over how the metagame has shifted. What games will be held over for the 2016 edition? How will current favorites Metal Gear Solid V and Super Mario Maker hold up against the newcomers? Will early heavy hitter Bloodborne be forgotten as the balance shifts in the new expansion? Will anyone even play Life is Strange?
There is no better place on the internet to debate GOTY 2015 than the Giant Bomb NeoGAF thread!
ABOUT A BOMB:
- Homepage - Your first step into a larger world
- Live Show Page - The official page for all live content, chat, polls, and the amazing hype meter
- Managed Livestream Page - If you missed the show live, here's the link to watch the latest livestream before the archive goes up on the site
- Premium Membership - Become a Premium member today!
Giant Bomb is a website ostensibly about video games. Once described by the site's Editor-In-Chief as "insightful but funny video game coverage", GB is that and so much more, covering all angles of the video game industry and community - whether you're looking for considered, intelligent discussion about the nature of games development, or just a bunch of guys sitting on a sofa making fun of a ridiculous simulator from the depths of Steam Early access, there's something for you here.
Giant Bomb is well into its seventh year of existence and counting. Since its humble beginnings in a Sausalito basement, with just 4 duders and a surprisingly resourceful "t-shirt guy", the site has blown up in a big way, now taking over the entirety of the United States (by which I mean San Francisco and New York City). The sky's the limit when it comes to the insanity at Giant Bomb.
You may also find discussion in this thread about Giant Bomb's sister (or is that mother?) site, Gamespot; and occurrences from friends of Giant Bomb, such as Dave Lang, John Drake and Samantha Kalman. But obviously Giant Bomb Dot Com remains the topic of the day.
THE BOMB SQUAD:
Jeff Gerstmann
Card Type: Domination Combat
Faction: Super Mario Maker
Card Strength: 10
Special Ability: Jeff Gerstmann can play any game from your deck, discard pile, or collection automatically.
Brad Shoemaker
Card Type: Domination Combat
Faction: Destiny: The Taken King
Card Strength: 8
Special Ability: Brad Shoemaker automatically wins all ties.
Vinny Caravella
Card Type: Emotion Combat
Faction: Contradiction: Spot The Liar
Card Strength: 8
Special Ability: No one can get mad at Vinny. The power of all Emotion Combat opponents in reduced by half.
Alex Navarro
Card Type: Logic Combat
Faction: Until Dawn
Card Strength: 5
Special Ability: Alex can play a game from your hand automatically. If your opponent plays a game on their next turn, discard the game Alex played.
Drew Scanlon
Card Type: Logic Combat
Faction: Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition
Card Strength: 2
Special Ability: Drew Scanlon is just happy to be in the discussion.
Dan Ryckert
Card Type: Emotion Combat
Faction: Metal Gear Solid V
Card Strength: 5
Special Ability: Dan Ryckert can play a Metal Gear Solid game for any category, even categories for which it is normally not eligible.
Jason Oestreicher
Card Type: Emotion Combat
Faction: Mortal Kombat X
Card Strength: 2
Special Ability: If Jason Oestreicher plays a game that no one else has in their deck, the game's power is doubled.
Austin Walker
Card Type: Logic Combat
Faction: Neutral
Card Strength: 4
Special Ability: If Austin plays a game with the Indie label, the game's power is doubled.
Matt Rorie
Card Type: Special
Special Ability: Matt Rorie bans any disruptive player from the game.
RECURRING GUESTS FROM THE CBSi FAMILY IN WEEKLY CONTENT:
Danny O'Dwyer
Card Type: Special
Special Ability: When Danny is played, remove any one card from play to record a premium podcast.
Jeff Bakalar
Card Type: Logic Combat
Faction: Neutral
Card Strength: 0
Special Ability: Jeff Bakalar adds one to the power of every other GBeast card in play.
HERE'S WHAT'S BLOWING UP RIGHT NOW:
Free Video Series:
- Quick Look - The guys jump into a new release and give it a whirl for about 40 minutes or so. Unedited, no bullshit - your Giant Bomb meat 'n' potatoes.
- Unfinished - Basically Quick Looks of unreleased games. It can be games in Early Access, or other forms of pre-release builds of games.
- Ranking of Fighters - Jeff and Jason play different fighting games and rank them in a VERY SCIENTIFIC WAY. Right now Samurai Shodown 2 is the best fighting game of all time. This show is part of the rotating schedule of live shows every Wednesday.
- The Old Games Show - Jeff, Brad and other staff members play old games and talk about them. This show is part of the rotating schedule of live shows every Wednesday.
- US vs. Them - GBWest takes on GBEast in this feature where a team from the east coast play against a team from the west coast in competitive multiplayer games. This show is part of the rotating schedule of live shows every Wednesday.
- Encyclopedia Bombastica - Quick Looks for older games, basically. Generally comes with more of an "in the know" feel.
- Giant Bomb Mailbag - The crew opens mailbags from the community. Don't just send them your trash, put some effort into it!
Premium Video Series:
- Unprofessional Friday - Premium member exclusive show. Just 2 hours of whatever nonsense the crew feel like showing off. Giant Bomb at its most chaotic.
- Demo Derby - Dan, Drew and Jeff look at old Demo Discs across multiple platforms in this feature. Some times we get to see demos of good old classic games and other times we get to see demos of the worst games ever made.
- Metal Gear Scanlon - Drew is on a mission to play through all numbered MGS games as he has never played them before. Local MGS nut Dan Ryckert tries to help/troll Drew throughout the playthrough.
- VinnyVania - Vinny is playing through every console 2D Castlevania game, and maybe some more?
- Breaking Brad - Brad plays particularly difficult games and challenges in games. Will he conquer it, or will it break him?
- GBE Playdate - Vinny, Alex and Austin play 2-ish hours of a game, either as a one-off thing or as a series for one particular game.
- Mario Party Party - The Gang play 50 fucking turns of every single numbered Mario Party game. NOBODY WINS.
- Jar Time - Jeff answers questions from the community into a microphone.
- Unplugged) - The gang plays various DnD games, and Avalon.
Free Podcasts:
- The Giant Bombcast - Up every Tuesday, with an accompanying thread popping up here on GAF near enough on the dot.
- The Giant Beastcast - Giant Bomb's second flagship podcast, with Vinny, Alex and Austin as regulars and JEFF SPEKTAKULAR in the rotating fourth chair. Like with the Bombcast, every episode gets its own thread here on GAF.
- Giant Bomb Presents - Previously Interview Dumptruck. It's the podcast feed where they can post whatever doesn't fit in the other podcasts. It's probably still gonna be mainly the GB crew interviewing a wide range of people from the industry and gaming community, and posting the mostly raw audio straight to the site.
- Giant Bomb Gaming Minute - One minute news, reviews, and commentary produced for radio, Jeff puts these on the site in podcast format because why not?
Premium Podcasts:
- Danswers - Danny & Dan with a wide array of guests discuss and danswer the listeners' personal questions.
- Alt+F1 - Drew and Danny discuss F1 and a lot of random shit.
- The Powerbombcast - Alex, Jeff, Dan, Giancarlo Varanini and guests discuss the latest happenings in the world of professional wrestling.
EXPLOSIVELY USEFUL INFO:
Twitter and GAF User Names:
- Brad: @bradshoemaker, rudds
- Jeff: @jeffgerstmann, MonsterDunk
- Vinny: @VinnyCaravella, bionicpuppy
- Drew: @drewscanlon, N/A
- Alex: @alex_navarro, N/A
- Rorie: @frailgesture, N/A
- Jason: @unastrike N/A
- Dan: @DanRyckert, DanRyckert
- Austin: @austin_walker, WreckTheLaw
Officially Unofficial Websites:
- QLCrew: Giant Bomb Video Playlist - The best way to search for GB videos, with lots of options
- Myggen's Premium Content List - Myggen's frequently updated list of (some of) the best premium content to watch or listen to
- The Giant Bomb Unarchived Youtube channel - If any content involving Giant Bomb members or "friends of the site" isn't archived on the site, you'll find it here - big thanks to fellow GAF members alr1ght and Zaph for keeping this channel updated!
- TurboMan/xpantherx's Youtube channel - fantastic "Best Of" Giant Bomb videos
- The Year Collection - A site with 4+ hours of highlights of every year of The Giant Bombcast, going back to 2008
- GB-GAF Synchtube Channel - This is simply a chatroom where people can cue up YouTube clips (including live content, which I can imagine could become pretty handy in the future) that play in sync with everybody else. I'll try to plug it whenever there's a live YouTube stream going on, but for now I'm loading it up with old GB clips. Established by Piston Hyundai
SPECIAL THANKS:
To everyone who posted an official thread from which this one is blatantly stolen from:
- Myggen
- Jimmyfenix
- SteveWinwood
- Patryn
- Hot Coldman
- randomlyrossy
Gone, but never forgotten.
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edit: 10-12-2015//
OFFICIAL GB GAF GAME COMMUNITIES
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edit: 10-14-2015//
THREAD TITLE HISTORY
10/06/2015 - 10/14/2015 - Giant Bomb #17 | I ☁ Extended HD Gameplay
10/14/2015 - current - Giant Bomb #17 | Baby Dan Wyckert
