A video 10 years in the making!
December 30th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

So, a long, long time ago, some friends got together to make a fun rap video. They included a reference to the year “2013” in the lyrics, not really thinking about the consequences. Almost 10 years later, those friends were still rapping and making videos and they realized they’d made a promise they had to keep. And keep it they did, with a day to spare.

Yes! 64K is finally back, but this time with the incredible music of Bradley Rains to back them up on Twenty-Thirteen! I hope everyone enjoys this video. I know we had a ton of fun filming it and putting it together. We’d also like to thank Epic Games and More for being so accommodating about filming in their store!

If you liked the track and you want to help out us and Bradley, you can head over to our BandCamp page and buy a copy. You can also read all the lyrics there and see just exactly how much hot fire Graham and Jer are spitting.

This week is also the… very last episode of CheckPoint on PATV. If you want to keep up with all our comedy gaming news in 2014, be sure to follow us on Twitch. But for now, go watch Now We Console the Loser, where we finally decide who “won” the holiday console battle, PS4 or Xbox One.

And last, but not least, Graham and Paul bring 2013 to an epic end by giving Anarchy Reigns the Unskippable treatment. I don’t really know what this cutscene is trying to say about the future, but it seems to suck. The strippers are just wireframes and all the men look like pin-headed pyramids. Seriously, everyone’s neck is bigger than their brains. Aside from being weird, I’m not sure that’s should even be technically possible.

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
December 24th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

Hey everyone, it’s Christmas eve! Time to drink eggnog, cook food, and mentally prepare yourself for spending a lot of time with your family!

So What’s the best way to bring a family together on Christmas? Watching LoadingReadyRun videos!

This week’s LRR video is designed to help out all you Americans struggling to understand the meaning of the mysterious Commonwealth holiday known as… Boxing Day. A video that will provide  a nice present for old-school LoadingReadyRun fans.

Come, discover The True Meaning of Boxing Day, and admire the lovely illustrations the talented Maki Naro provided for us!

But wait you say, you want more seasonal delights? Why, we have a whole back catalogue of Christmas-themed videos for you to enjoy today!

How about:
Dave’s Xmas Xporium, the video we did for Cards Against Humanity’s 12 Days of Holiday Bullshit?

Or, Santa and Me, our last holiday video from 2011? (We skipped 2012 due to Strip Search…)

If that’s not enough, there’s the CommodoreHustle Christmas video from 2010, Santa Secrets!

 

Why not watch my all-time favourite Christmas video, our loving Peanuts parody, Merry Christmas Graham Stark from 2009.

 

Still need distraction? If you want to start going non-HD, how about:

The War on Christmas from 2008?

Or, the… simply titled 2007 Christmas Special?

Going back to 2006, we parody It’s a Wonderful Life with It’s a Wonderful Game.

And finally, all the way back in 2005, Jangles and Jones Saved Christmas while they were battling a 4:3 aspect ratio…

PS,

There’s also Unskippable, CheckPoint and Feed Dump if you’re still looking for something to watch. I’ll post about all those videos on… BOXING DAY.

Happy Monday!
December 16th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

Hello everyone! It’s Monday and we have a very special video for you. A video six long years in the making.

Four PS4s.

This video has everything. Four PS4s. The DoubleClicks. A beard. Graphs. Did I mention it has four PS4s?

Please send this to all your most gullible and easily outraged friends.

Next up, this week on CheckPoint, we point out a growing Sony/Kojima conspiracy, a problem with No Man’s Sky and that sometimes people are stupid in Brickbox One.

And finally on Unskippable, Graham and Paul take on the scariest thing since Obamacare… ZOMBIES. In Part 2 of The Last of Us, Graham finally proves that no, you don’t want your mom giving you directions as you try to escape an outbreak of killer fungus.


 

CheckPoint Cleared
December 8th, 2013

Posted by Graham

checkpoint_banner

Many of you have already read this post on Penny Arcade, but if you haven’t please do because I think it’s important to hear Jerry’s own words.

I will however also summarize: PA has decided to shift their focus internally, and cease third-party content like outside-produced shows on PATV, and their gaming news site The Penny Arcade Report. For us, this specifically means that CheckPoint no longer has a home there.

We were out of town when PA announced these changes, so we couldn’t get a coherent blog post up until now, but we wanted to fill you in, and I’m going to start by addressing the three biggest questions Kathleen, myself, and the LoadingReadyRun main account received on Twitter:

– We knew this was happening. Folks, Robert Khoo and PA aren’t irresponsible businesspeople. Everyone involved knew over a month ago that this was forthcoming, this did not just get sprung on us yesterday. I know it’s a surprise—maybe even a shock—to you, our wonderful viewers, but we were aware. Don’t misunderstand me, we are still bummed about losing a home for CheckPoint, but we’re still friends with the PA staff and we’re not sore about this decision—these things happen. Though, for your interest, this was not factored into the Kickstarter budgeting, we did not know then. But that brings me neatly to point two…

– We did not rely on CheckPoint for revenue. It was a part of our overall revenue stream, certainly, but were not actually under a fee-per-episode contract for CheckPoint—our money came from a share of ad revenue. We do CheckPoint because we love doing it, we have the time, it’s a great platform for our content, and (to be honest) it’s incredibly useful for us to have a table at PAX’s Bandland, where we can meet our fans and sell merch. And that remains the case, PA is still providing us PAX passes and a Bandland space, and for that we thank them immensely. The takeaway here is, we are not in financial danger with this cancellation. Many fans of CheckPoint (love you all) aren’t really aware of all our other content. Hopefully they get to see it now 🙂

– Strip Search is a Penny Arcade in-house production, and a second season has always been their decision. We did the legwork, certainly, but Strip Search is a first party property of PA, whereas we own CheckPoint. If a second season happens (riding heavily on DVD sales, watch the skies for info on that) we hope to be involved, but it’s not our baby.

So! What is the future of CheckPoint? Well, we basically had three options.

  • Keep doing it ourselves, hope to retain a fraction of the viewership. To rely on the ad revenue for the views we would get, a risky option.
  • Find a new home for the show, willing to pay us some amount of fee. Still a very real possibility, certainly. Something we are not ruling out.
  • Put the show on an indefinite hiatus, and use the time to focus on our 2014 Kickstarter-funded year of sketches and live-streaming. This is where we landed.

Between meeting, writing, shooting, graphics, and editing, CheckPoint basically took Paul, Kathleen, and I an entire day. We feel that, in the face of the Kickstarter and all the amazing things we have planned for the live-streaming, we can better use that time, now that we have it.

Who knows, maybe we can make one of our live shows a sort of “CheckPoint Live”, where we lambast dumb gaming news in a more casual format. It’s on the table, at least.

In the meantime, I hope that clears everything up, but please do ask me anything else on my own Twitter, or the LRR account.

Time to get hot… and saucy!
December 2nd, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Shopping! Presents! Guilt! Turkey! Consumerism! Holidays! Christmas! Annoying family members! Three new LRR videos! December!

This week’s LoadingReadyRun video is Hot and Saucey, a video with a mild pun for a name but a serious kick of hot comedy. Written by Graham, Alex and I, we had A LOT of fun coming up with the various hot sauce names and effects. My favourite is Right Now Forever, which is possibly one of the goofiest jokes I have ever come up with.

This week on CheckPoint, we take a look at Rovio’s latest game in Angry Birds: Cash! Also in the news, Twitch gets into Microsoft territory and Gran Turismo is getting faster and faster, not unlike the cars in its games.

And finally this week on Unskippable, Graham and Paul take on Tales of Xillia, the story of the world’s second-least competent thief and her struggles with the world’s biggest cowlick. Truly a harrowing tale of inspiration, hair products and stupidity.

xillia