Weekly Report: Outage & Activities

Announcements

Account Login Downtime
We plan to do some updates to the account login functionality starting at 10 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, April 30. We expect this downtime to continue until 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday, May 1, at the latest. During this time you will not be able to log in, create an account, or edit your profile options. Think of this time as the only time you will enter the GameSpot edition of the Community Twilight Zone. The forum streets will have fewer people on them, and those contributions will be missed, but don't fret, the site will be back soon enough and you'll wake up from the dream. In the meantime, we suggest that you play some games, or you can mingle with other GameSpotters on Facebook or YouTube!

JodyR UPDATE 4/30 at 11 a.m. PT: Drop by the technical support forum to get an update about how you can continue to use your community tools while the maintenance occurs.

GameSpot MR_Riddles Activity
Yep, he is back for week two of the GameSpot Answers Challenge. Last week we talked about all things bosses, and this week we're looking for answers to puzzles and quests. So grab your thinking caps and submit your answers! Remember, the lucky few whose answers we pick as prime puzzle-fighting power will receive the Answers Expert emblem. For more details on this activity, you can check out the rules page here.

GameMarket Gets Updated!
Games! We've got games here! We wanted to let you GameSpotters know that we recently launched an updated version of the GameMarket. We gave the old girl a little sprucing up, a new look, and a bit of a change to the primary GameMarket page. Also, you can now manage and monitor your activity. Drop by the GameMarket tab for more details.

GameSpot Spotlight YouTube Community Channel
We have a new YouTube channel that is dedicated to GameSpot members and YouTube Gamers. Drop by www.youtube.com/gamespotspotlight to check it out. If you're a creative video creator, check out this week's tip to learn how you can get noticed by staff. We might select you to be featured on the page and pass your video along to the video production staff to have a mention in a show like On the Spot!

PSN Security Concerns
With the recent news about a type of security breach to your PlayStation Network account information, we'd like to make sure you are also considering all of your accounts you have on the Web. Drop by GameSpot's PlayStation 3 forum to find out how you can protect yourself.

Latest Trivia Winners
GameSpot's trivia for Today On the Spot, On the Spot, and Now Playing over the past month has been so abundant that we figured it was time to catch you GameSpotters up on who exactly is winning all of these fabulous prizes. Check the latest Producer's Note blog for details.

Member Spotlight

This week's member spotlight goes to our GameSpotter of the Year, deershadow! We're finally getting a moment to announce who won the GameSpotter of 2010! Check out his submission in reference to this discussion.

YouTube Video Spotlight

As you might be able to tell from today's announcement, we've got this awesome new channel on YouTube that will give you all a chance to share your user videos with us to feature on the GameSpot Spotlight page. This week's shout-out goes to the following video:
- tofu-lion91 posted her impressions of Portal 2 and believes that this game has many familiar highlights from the original game, while at the same time having enough additions to make it feel shiny and new, a perfect continuation of Portal.

Blog Bunker

- gbrading talks about how amazing Portal 2 can be: POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
- Gelugon_baat talks about in-game collectibles.
- yeah_write displays fantastic art for his future son.
- Uesugi-dono gives a profound look at the PSN situation.
- s_h_a_d_o shares an open letter to the Crytek Modding Community.
- NColdhardt has a list of cherry-picked songs for April.
- Pierst179 talks about the three roads of the virtual world.
- SYdoggXxX has been a busy bee lately with reviews, reviews, and more reviews.
- Cloud_765 talks about his favorite game genres.
- NeonNinja rates a wide assortment of gaming titles.
- The_Game21x talks about how "geek is the new cool."
- JustPlainLucas shares with us his 3DS activity during the past month.

Staff Fingerprints

- Sophia Tong makes her dog do some funny tricks.
- Justin Calvert remembers Paradroid
- Tom McShea makes a Wii prediction in his blog.
- Jon Leo from GameSpot Asia shares his Mortal Kombat impressions in a forum discussion.

User Reviews

PC
- Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II akhorahill
- Minecraft The_Game21x
- Medal of Honor Domstercool
- Dragon Age II Garrison_Ford
- Dead Space 2 LGTX
DS
- Final Fantasy III Cloud_765
- Rhythm Paradise SuperfastSonic
Wii
- Super Mario Galaxy gamefreak197
- Donkey Kong Country Returns Dracula_16
PS3
- Mortal Kombat Asagea_888
- Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned AzellKosMos
- Shank tennis12master
Legacy
- Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage c_rake
- The Legend of Zelda Koi-Neon-X

Shout-Outs!

Thanks to the GameSpotters who voted for GameSpot during in the Webbys Peoples Voice award. We will be gathering your names early next week to grant you the participation points you so richly deserve for all your fantastic support, though be sure to keep in mind that the emblems and bonus points won't be granted until the Webbys has announced the game-related category winner! The results will be announced May 3, 2011.

Tip of the Week

As we mentioned before, GameSpot Spotlight is the new YouTube channel dedicated to you GameSpotters. But how do I submit my awesome video, you may wonder. Look no further! In order to get your video featured on the GameSpot Spotlight, you need to upload the video to a location we can access. We suggest Dropbox.com.

- Go to www.dropbox.com and click on the big old Download Dropbox button at the bottom of the page.
- Once Dropbox is installed, copy your video into your Public Folder.
- Right-click [control-click in OSX] the video file in your Public Folder.
- Choose the Dropbox submenu and select "Copy Public Link."
- Compose an e-mail to spotlight@cbsinteractive.com with the subject line:
"SPOTLIGHT VIDEO SUBMISSION."
- Paste the link into the body of the message.