[July was a big month for us in the community blogs. Lots of content, new blood in the recap team and I found my groove for front page promotions. The recap is only a bit leaner for July since Band of Bloggers had a short hiatus and CBlog Analytics are on hold, plus so much that would be in Recap Team Favorites landed in Promotions and Bloggers Wanted this month.

Also, enjoy more art from Meanderbot! – Pixie The Fairy]

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Summer is a huge season full of big events; some exciting and some not. We had an amazing E3, an awesome EVO with a record-setting attendance and Lord Spencer and I have finally ascended into recapper status in the community blogs!

It feels really good to get back into writing again. It’s like being a Magikarp finally feeling water for the first time in months after splashing all through Rivière Way. Speaking of big events…

A battle scene in Battlefield 6 Open Beta

Band of Bloggers is back and Retrofraction is leading the pack this time! I’m definitely going to get in on that action. June’s topic was“Open Range”and the current topic for BoB is“Hideo Games.”Have there been any games by the illustrious and praiseworthy Hideo Kojima that just left a mark on you? Stop thinking and write about it, you Bidoof! Thanks for carrying the torch, Retro!

There were also some events we weren’t ready for. Most importantly, we lost a legend in Satoru Iwata, who was the only suit that actually cared about video games in my opinion. Like Shade said, he WAS the ending for any Nintendo game we played. The man was responsible for reformattingPokemon Gold&Silverso that we could have both the Johto and Kanto regions to mess around in.

capcom evo moment 37

We understand now, Mr. Iwata. Rest in peace.

Anyway, this here shindig is about THE BLOGS, SON! We’ve had some awesome blogs this summer, especially from the “Better With Age” prompt. Man, I should have written one when I had the chance. I would have given you guys a beautiful sermon on whyEinhänderis amazing. All of you did such a fantastic job and it wasn’t easy for us to pick our Topsauces out of the bunch. It wasn’t easy for me to pick mine, either.

As for the current “Bloggers Wanted” prompt, we’ve got an exciting new topic still running hot on its heels from this past EVO. This time it’s “Challengers Wanted” and we want to know what your favorite characters in competitive multiplayer games are! Got any techniques you love punishing players with? Why is Jigglypuff such a nightmare in the air? Isn’t Leona like the bestKing of Fighterscharacter ever? Get to those keyboards and get your thoughts out. Seriously, I love fighting games with a passion so you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be reading every single one of them.

GigabyteMon

Enough of my blabbing, let’s get to the good stuff, baby!

– Hyper Lemon Buster Cannon

To ensure noting slips by us for Recap Team Favorites and to pick up on trending topics, I make a habit of paging back through a month’s worth of blogs. July sawnearly 400 blogsposted and we had a lot of promotions to reflect that productivity. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis, a story from the heart or just a funny anecdote, our community bloggers really brought the heat.

What’s the deal with Compile Heart?–OverlordZetta

A snap of the upcoming MESA update in PEAK

Better with age: Inmates running the asylum–ShadeOfLight

Better with age: From the bargain bin to Japan–Dengar

Naked Snake sneaking around in MGS Delta.

The Dtoid community’s best blogs of July 2015–CblogRecaps

Satoru Iwata loved video games–James Montagna

Battlefield 6 aiming RPG at a helicopter

Better with age: Knights of the Old Republic II–James Internet Ego

How historically accurate is The Witcher? Part 3–RedHeadPeak

BO7 key art

My Gamerscore is BOOBS–mrandydixon

“Better With Age”was an idea that I pitched for June’s “Blogger’s Wanted” prompt and while everyone liked it, we knew any topic we picked would get buried in E3 predictions and reactions. Given that, we saved the idea for July and that turned out to be for the best. The topic ended up resonating strongly with the community, resulting in the most responses to any prompt we’ve had this year. There were even weird spin-offs of the topic, which I suppose I’ll include here for posterity.

I still have some blogs from this line-up to promote and hope to get them out soon, in the meantime, our new prompt,“Challengers Wanted,”is up and ready to go. Get to it!

yordles animation still image

– Pixie

Better with age: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time–James Houghton

Better with age: Chess/Dungeons & Dragons–Manchild

Milla Jovovich portraying Alice in Resident Evil 2002, wearing a red dress and holding a gun in her hand.

Better with age: Psychonauts–wutangclam

Better with age: Morrowind–Gamemaniac3434

Better with age: Nothin’ but bits–CH Gorog

Better with age: NIN your face!–KingSigy

Better with age: Have “faith” in your running skills/Max, dearest of all my friends~–Rudorlf

Better with Cage: A brilliant baby–SeymourDuncan17

Better with age: Peeling back the layers of Dishonored–naveenwf

Better with age: A Journey worth retaking–gajknight

Better with age: Konami’s legendary mystical ninja–StriderHoang

Better with age: Megabomber–OverlordZetta

**Better with age: Yoshi’s Island–Meanderbot

Worse with age: This guy right here–Nanashi

Better with age: My cats–KiiWy

  • Promoted Aug 1st

** Posted August 3rd, but part of the topic.

Comments of the Week is still alive and managed to hit 6 months old since it was revived. This popular feature still has all of the head-nodding truths, the gut-busting laughs and the eyebrow-raising weirdness you may expect from Destructoid’s finest all in one place. If you happened to miss an edition, why don’t you kick back and check them out?

– Dreamweaver

Comments of the Week 24 – Am I doing it right?

Comments of the Week 25 – Doing things in the dark

Comments of the Week 26 – What’s going on over there?

Cblog Recaps PODGASMS: July 2015

[Added this as a new, possibly regular section so everyone can see what’s on the minds of our community managers, whether it’s relevant to our roles here on Dtoid, personal updates, thoughts or just being goofy. – Pixie]

It’s been a pretty trying time for the community. Lots of changes, most of them controversial, plus you see different sides of everyone you know. I personally am afforded some luxury as a community manager since that’s all I am in an official capacity. Since the mods will come into direct collision with your opinions about your opinions, they’re naturally going to get a lot of flak. It’s hard to believe Occams is seen as anything other than the goofy black resplendent grandmother but sure enough, he does mod seriously and it’s led him to butting heads a few times.

As for me? I just promote blogs on a part-time basis because frankly that’s all I have time to do. Though on a few occasions I like to act like a heel when it comes to being a recapper. After all, when it comes to being on the FP, you gotta try as hard as you can. But on the community recaps, I misspell people’s name and give their blogs goofy descriptions. Well, at least when it’s about the strictly behind the FP, community stuff, I don’t mind playing up a sort of heel reputation. After all, the community’s persevered against a lot of stuff. What makes this so different (aside from the magnitude I guess)?

– StriderHoang

Late night thoughts: better with too many hats–StriderHoang

*Shamelessly promoted in July, but it felt more appropriate here.

We begin withAdam Pwondering what flavors ofice creamvideo game characters would be andAvtrSpiritreturning to discuss a better class ofgame criticismonce more. Also, its about to getCJ Andersonin here.

Dinosirtells us howMissingnoworks.Forsakeneyesfaces the loss of aloved one.James Internet Egowants to know yourfinestgaming moments andJosh Riverswonders if Randy Pitchford is fromthe moon.

KiiWydiscussespositivityin media.KingSigyhas not forgottenRemember Me, doesn’t see games as awaste of timeandKyle McGregoris our newweekend editor/hydra head.

TheLimoMakertalks about what games he would like to see asanimeand discussesminimaliststorytelling.Manchildhas theconversation, enters the theater of themind, goes on a neverendingadventureand talks aboutreal value.Mike Martinremembershis brother.

OrochiLeonadelves into Konami’s only foray intolaser discgaming.OverlordZettaismakin’ babiesinFire Emblem: Awakening.ScreamAidgives us asmashingmusic compilation andSeymourDuncan17shares his cosplaybucket list.

Some guy namedFirebrandborrowsSigfriedLion’sblog to talk about makingTouhou card games.StriderHoanggets bound withIssac. Sounds kinky.Squaremantalks about howstory and personalityaffect games

Terry 309looks at howday and nighttimeaffect gaming habits.Virtua Kazamagives ussomehistoryonEVOand to wrap things up,wutangclamtalks aboutsubversive multiplayer.