It is, by now, no secret Vinny Caravella is leaving GameSpot. We will miss him. Some people have had the pleasure of working with him for years. I have had the honor of associating with him for months. He is talented, positive, and a great guy to have on your team. He's got great ideas and makes fun features. All of what he brings to the GameSpot office will be missed. In honor of his final episode, GameSpot is changing up the page.

Thursday, May 08 (today for most people, except those who read this in the far-flungfuture where asparagus shoots are the size of redwood trees) will mark the release of two new pages for the community to use:

A new design of the On the Spot page

A new page dedicated to GameSpot's Community Game Night

Lest you freak out and post a long string of OMG's WTF's and other assorted acronymical inquiries of astonishment, I have taken some screen shots to prepare you for the experience:

Notice how the trivia, Ask a Question, and Win Prizes modules are all in the page. Also notice how the video plays in the page! (if you are having trouble seeing this image,click here).

That's high technology. You will still have access to the various stream qualities you have come to know and love (sometimes wait for as well). Subscribers will have access to chat in a stand-alone window. It is neat! If you aren't a subscriber, I can recommend it. If you still choose not to be one, I canrespect your right to miss out on awesome chats, tournaments, downloadable game guides,and even better features coming later this year. . . but I digress.

For those of you who regularly use the comments section as a chat substitute, notice we have not done away with your chance to comment:

Keen-eyed observers will also notice something else interesting on the screenshot above. That's right. The page changes dynamically. The video should automatically start playing for you when the stream starts. We paid extra for that.

Hopefully you will be able to see our new page tomorrow when you visit us for On the Spot. Be sure to stop in and say hello and wish Vinny a bittersweet farewell. We will miss him.

Our first Nintendo Wii Tournament will be happening the week of 5/12-5/16. The finals will be held on Tournament TV will be held on 5/23 and the three finalist will be the GameSpot Studio for the live taping! That's the exciting news I have to offer.

This Tournament will be open to participants that are age 18 or older, U.S. residents, and GameSpot registered users (free user or subscriber). For those of you who do not live in US, the only good news I have is that you get to watch the Tournament TV finals and participate in the TTV trivia during the show.

Here's the rundown!

Account status: Free registered and subscribers
Resident: US ONLY
Age: 18 or up
Players: 243
Match consist of 3 players, 1 player moves on to the next round
Prizes: Travel package for three contestants requires that we have age 18 or up and US residents only. Total prize package for contestants who win to participate in the finals on Tournament TV = $1,000.

FORMAT: Each match will consist of three players facing off in a Free for All game format. The player with the highest scores will move on to the next Tournament round. If a tie occurs, the game will change to sudden death mode. Players will play until a winner is determined for the match.

SETTINGS:

Game Type: Brawl
Number of Players: 3 (game will be set to 4 players to include the GameSpot Admin)
Time Limit: none
Stock (number of lives): 5 (the GameSpot Admin suicide ingame x5, wee)
Handicap: Off
Damage Ratio: 1.0
Stage Choice: Choose
Items: On, however, 5 items will be excluded. These items include bomb-omb, the hammer, smart bomb, starman and golden hammer.

Pre-Finals Stages: Each player will choose the Stage they desire to play for each of the matches held from Elimination Round 1 through Semifinals round. The Stage will be randomly chosen by the game system. Players should vote for their maps wisely.

Finals Stages on Tournament TV: The stages for the finals match will be determined by GameSpot Staff.

We hope to have another SSBB tournament in the future to allow age 13 or up, and Canadian registered users. However, for the first tournament, we'd like to see the action in person. We hope everyone will enjoy the show that will be aired on 5/23.

The Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament page isn't live yet but you should expect it to show up some time early next week. Registration begins on May 7th at 4pm PT.

Shaun here. I've got an important message courtesy of my friend Alex Sassoon Coby of GameSpot UK fame. It reads as follows:

It's been a while, but GameSpot's UK Community Game Night is back, and we're making up for the long break.

At 8pm BST this Thursday (that's April 17) we're going to have a multi-platform Rainbow Six Vegas 2 session, with special guests the UK Frag Dolls!

We're going to be playing on PS3 and Xbox 360, so if you want to take part just send me your gamertags or PSN IDs before 5pm BST on Thursday and we will do our best to get as many of you in as possible.

I look forward to seeing you (or at least the fading view of your heels as I slump to the floor) there!

Last year's Brain Bust trivia challenge was a big success among the members of the community. Many U.S. members who have never participated in tournaments before finally gave it a try for the first time. We have decided to bring back Brain Bust this year and it is going to be centered around a game series that many of you either love or hate.

For the past few weeks we've been in the process of gathering hundreds of questions and answers for the latest challenge that will shoot your socks off (picture that for a few seconds; no, seriously). With the anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto IV, BestBuy has pulled together with us for Brain Bust II! Registration goes live this Wednesday, April 16th at 4pm PT.

Eligibility requirements include a U.S. resident, 18 years or older and a Total Access subscription. The top two players will receive a trip to San Francisco to complete in a live Tournament TV broadcast. The champion will receive a $1,000 Best Buy gift card.

To get prepared, the only suggestion I can make is to start digging around for the Grand Theft series on GameSpot. We'll post more tips on the Brain Bust II challenge page as soon as they become available.

The god Mitra has gone missing and the prayers of Hyboria go unanswered! Our friends over at AoCWiki have put together a nifty scavenger hunt. Follow the clues on the Age of Conan wiki to find Mitra. After finishing the clues, players will be picked randomly. The prizes bundle includes beta keys or a 3 month pre-paid game card.

Peasants beware! Funcom has delivered 15,000 PC beta keys to GameSpotfor their upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. These beta keys will be unleashed upon the globe on April 16.By signing up today, you may be able to secure a code to grant you access to the pillaging, plundering, and bloodletting sure to be unveiled on April 18. All characters created during the April 18-20 beat weekend will be transformed into level-20 harbingers of destruction. Whilea jewel-encrusted horn may not be the catalyst for the monstrous change, you can bet one out of the 12 classes in the game will bring your inner Dagoth to life.

Check out our feature page for more details and to register for this exclusive event!

Hey you! Yes, you! You play games, right? Online games? Perfect! Because as you know, we run a little program here called the GameSpot Community Game Night. (Example of tonight's Smash Bros Game Night here .) If you've never joined in on the fun, this is your chance to play online against both GameSpot users and staff. What we'd like to know is this: what games would you like to play against others online? What games on the horizon look fun? We'd love to hear your suggestions for future game nights if you feel there are any hidden gems we may have over looked.

And yes, we'll definitely be doing a GTA IV game night when that one comes out. 16 players causing random havoc in a full-scale GTA world? Yes please!

Thanks for stopping by the Community Blog. We decided to name it Spam Filter for the time being. This is designed to be a source of unfettered GameSpot communication between us and any member of the forum looking for answers or information about what is going on around the site, in the forums, and even in the GameSpot offices.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday) is our regular Community Game Night. If you would like more details, go here.

Check back soon for more updates!