On Tuesday evening I arrived home from work, made some food, put my feet up and prepared like I do most Tuesdays at around 6pm, to listen to the ramblings of Giant Bomb. But this recording of the Giant Bombcast was going to be different. Right at the start they announced the news that many long time fans dread, a member of staff is moving on from the site. That person was Vinny Caravella. Then it snowballed. Alex Navarro then jumped in that he too was leaving the site. And finally, completing the trio was Brad Shoemaker announced he was also departing. As someone who has listened to these voices together for a decade at least (I have the original Whisky Media 2010 t-shirt somewhere in this house) the news hit me like I didn’t think possible. Giant Bomb will of course continue. Founder Jeff Gerstmann still remains along with new, official hire Jeff Bakalar, but it’s hard not to think an era of games journalism is coming to an end.
Giantbomb has always been there for me in the times of great hardship. I already wrote a piece for the site about the Persona 4 Endurance Run, but that was only a small piece of the sites history. The Mario Party’s, Jeff playing PS2 Garfield games, Unprofessional Fridays, the podcasts, these were all endlessly rewatchable joys. And when I’m having a bad day or week, nothing cheered me up more than scrolling through past videos and maybe watching an episode of Steal My Sunshine or Breaking Brad. Yes, like you’d expect they covered the big, AAA releases, but not many other sites would partner this with a series devoted to killing themselves in The Sims.
There are so many moments that had me rolling with laughter time and time again that it’s hard to list them all. One that doesn’t get enough credit are the Fast & Furious Film & 40’s series. Hearing Vinny’s utter disbelief at “THE CLAW” from 2 Fast 2 Furious, the way they turned Ludacris into a super hacker out of nowhere, and not forgetting the Jason Statham reveal causing Vinny to shout, “is he a time traveller?!?!?”. I now cannot watch these movies again without the Giantbomb commentaries, they’re that good.
The outpouring of love and support from all sides of the games community shows what a beloved website Giantbomb was. And while this isn’t the end, I’m still going to pour one out for Brad, Alex and Vinny.
With that said, what better way to end this than a bit of accidental racism from Alex.
