Apologies all for the late LRR blog update! I was out of town this weekend down in Austin to compete in Geek Bowl VIII, the biggest, most exciting competitive trivia event in North America. I ran into a couple of Quizmasters who watched our videos, and the whole event was great fun. If you like doing trivia and there is a Geeks Who Drink quiz at a bar near you, I suggest you get a team together and check it out. Ok, that’s enough shameless plugging for my hobby. Now onto shameless plugging for our videos!

First up is this week’s LoadingReadyRun sketch, The New Chess. Paul has been kicking this idea around for a while, and I think we can all agree that in the age of Dota and LOL, balance issues are even more pressing than ever. Although multiball seems a little OP. I think we’ll need another patch to get that perfectly sorted out. Maybe they can fix it when they get to the pawn double-move bug you see at the beginning of the game.

Graham goes solo on this week’s CheckPoint+ Tales of Troubles, but 100 percent less Kathleen means Graham gets to deliver 100 percent more of the jokes! This week, we grapple with the next-gen console reality, hear about how the UK’s new pornography filters are having some unintended consequences (file under:  Department of We Fucking Told You So) and learn how Bandai Namco discovered the mystical alchemical secret behind turning gold to shit.

And finally, this week’s Unskippable is Killer is Dead. Now, I know Suda 51 games are usually pretty crazy, but honestly… this episode of Unskippable features one of the bigger “WTF just happened” moments I’ve seen in quite some time. And honestly, when an opening cutscene manages to be both 100 percent predictable AND completely unexpected… I think we have a winning formula. A winning formula for LAUGHS that is!

…

*crickets*

…

I’ll get me coat.

It’s Monday and that means it’s time for the new videos!

This week’s video is a return to an old favourite that many people have been clamouring to see. Yes! It’s Paul’s goatee The Warriors of Darkness! After five long years, the warriors are back! Their weapons may be sharp, but sadly for them, their minds are as dull as ever.

This week on Unskippable, Graham and Paul probably have some questions to ask about the nature of “action games” as they give a well deserved ribbing to Call of Duty: Ghosts. For a game that sort of depends on you thinking it’s exciting and fun to play, they sure have made a dull opening scene. Never before has a wayward space weapon seemed so… boring. Luckily Graham and Paul have plenty of ways to make this cutscene fun!

And remember, be sure to check out our Twitch channel at 2:00 pm Pacific/5:00 pm Eastern/10 pm UK/ 11:00 am Australian for the next episode of CheckPoint Plus. Last week we had far fewer technical issues, so hopefully we get it down to zero this week!

Our official spoiler video for the next Theros-block set is live!

This spicy sorcery from Born of the Gods is… what else, a five drop? It buffs your creature, but also brings friends, so that’s nice. Watch Graham break out his Slim Jim (™) voice to capture just how epic Raised by Wolves is.

It’s Monday and that means it’s time for the new videos!

This week we return to everyone’s favourite crackpot to hear his latest “mind blowing” truth about international finance in The Bitcoin Conspiracy. I don’t know if this video makes you more (or less) likely to consider investing in the cryptocurrency, but it should should make you wary of investing in a mobile van-based hacksman lair.

This week on Unskippable, Graham and Paul take on the grimy, dark, and darkly lit world of Game of Thrones. The opening cutscene is sadly entirely devoid of breasts and violence (aka, the things we like Game of Thrones for) but it is just packed full of men who look suspiciously like potatoes. So there’s that. Anyhow, the Night’s Watch seems to have some retention issues, but Graham and Paul are full of good suggestions for improving morale.

And remember, be sure to check out our Twitch channel at 2:00 pm Pacific/5:00 pm Eastern/10 pm UK/ 11:00 am Australian for the next episode of CheckPoint Plus. Hopefully with less technical issues!

2014 has now officially started (sorry 2013 purists), and with the new year comes a whole new crop of videos. Well, they don’t technically only come with the new year. We put up a bunch of videos every Monday, it really doesn’t depend on the changing of the year… but you know what I mean.

The first official LRR video of 2014, and therefore the first video in the YRR of LRR is Ways to Blow the Kickstarter Money. What better way to celebrate a successful crowdfunding campaign that to fritter that crowdfunding away? To see a breakdown of what we actually spent on the video, keep reading and check out the handy infographic Graham made! It’s less than you might think, thankfully.

Next up this week, Graham and Paul take on Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist for Unskippable. Jokes about the incredible, magical camera the dude in the cutscene is using aside, I like how the names of this series are just… idiotic. I mean, “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. It’s basically five words that don’t want to be in the same sentence at all making the best of a bad situation. Although it’s not as bad as the most recent tie-in novel Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist: Aftermath. Ugh. 

Speaking of things that might make you go “ugh”, have you seen the first new Crapshot of 2014? It’s called Happy Bus and I didn’t get it, but once the concept was explained I was very enthusiastic. Not about the inspiration, but the video. Jeez. Get your mind out of the gutter.

And finally, did you check out the first episode of CheckPoint+? We did it today on Twitch and there were some… technical difficulties, but that’s how you can tell it’s live! We’ll get the kinks ironed out, we promise. But until then, watch and chuckle at our shame. And remember if you miss any of our Twitch shows, you can go directly to our list of replays on our profile page.