Giantbomb Community Endurance Run V - Cookies n' Charity!

The Giantbomb Community Endurance Run is BACK to fill the gaping Endurance Run-shaped hole in your life! The Community Endurance Run is going to kick off after Unprofessional Fridays on April the 10th and run through Sunday April 12th.

Several awesome members of the Giantbomb community are going to be streaming raw, uncut, un-stepped-on videogame action on Explosiveruns.com in order to raise money for charity!

The charity we are supporting this year is Pencils of Promise, a non-profit which works with communities in developing countries around the world to build schools and change lives. One hundred percent of the funds donated online to Pencils of Promise go into building schools, training teachers, sending kids to school, and improving sanitation.

Last year we raised enough money to send 4 kids to school for a year, but we think that the GB community can do even better this year. We think that this community is so awesome that we can send 12 kids to school this year! It only costs $250 to send a child to school for one year, so we only need to raise $3,000 total. For the price of three copies of Garou: Mark of the Wolves you can send 12 kids to school for a year!

Go here to donate now!

We are going to have a number of different events, prizes, and donation incentives running all weekend so be sure to mark the GBCER on your calendar and get ready for the fun and the funding. After last year's FFVIII/MGS3 speed run showdown, the impromptu Pokemon Snap speed run, and the enthralling readings of vampire/wizard love how can you not tune in!

There will be ongoing updates every week leading up to the event so keep checking in!

If you would like to participate in the Community Endurance Run then PM me and I’ll get you in on the action. Get #GBCER5 trending! Get hype!

You can watch all of the streams, chat and donate on explosiveruns.com!

nom*ables bakery is donating 10% of every purchase you make on their website (before shipping) during the Community Endurance Run to Pencils of Promise! Click here to peruse their fine pastries! Thanks again to nom*ables for sponsoring the GBCER West team and for providing several lovely prize packages!

Schedule (Barring last minute additions or alterations):

Friday:

Directly After Unprofessional Fridays:

We are throwing a Magic the Gathering Friday Night Magic with the GB community! Hosted by @thatpinguino, @rothgar, @bollard, @corevi, and judged by @descends. Vote on the format of the first GBCER FNM Here!Sign up for the events here!

@amlabella, @vash10, and @jeffrud are going to be playing a JRPG of some kind, but they don't know which. Vote on our JRPG Endurance Run here! Suikoden II or Chrono Cross? You decide!

@blu3v3nom07 is going to be playing Ori and the Blind Forest and GTA V Online! When his stream stops or changes nobody knows!

After the GBCER FNM:

GB FNM Standard Royal Rumble! There is a championship belt on the line and the last person standing will be the champion. All challengers welcome! Who will be able to defeat the monster that is @rorie? Who!?

After Unprofessional Fridays - 12AM:

Find the Secret of Mana with @personz!

After Unprofessional Fridays - 2AM:

Resident Evil 4 with @nickieroonie!

Directly After Unprofessional Fridays - 3AM:

@blzzzrrttt is going to be playing Remember Me to completion! Remember that!

8PM - 9PM:

INTERVIEW WITH GREG KASAVIN OF SUPERGIANT GAMES (FORMERLY OF EA AND GAMESPOT) by @thatpinguino!!!

9PM - 12AM:

Beer and a game with @upperdecker and the rest of Rogue Ocean Gaming! Join them for some beers, games, and interviews with indie devs!

Saturday:

3AM - 9AM:

Korean magic with @danteveli and some games! I don't know what exactly is happening during this block, but I bet it will be fun.

5AM - 1PM:

Resident Evil Remake and Net Yaroze with @twolines!

5AM - ?:

@jedted will be playing State of Decay and possibly some of Telltale's Game of Thrones! Zombies and political intrigue go together like bees and honey!

8AM - ?:

LA Noir + All DLC Endurance Run with @zolloz89!

9AM - 11PM:

Final Fantasy IX And Shadow of the Colossus Shrine Climb Speed Run Race with @thatpinguino, @rothgar, @descends, and more!

10AM - 7PM:

Resident Evil 5 co-op with @the_boots and @lochnessie82!

11AM - 10PM:

Finishing up RE4 and playing Alan Wake with @nickieroonie!

12PM - 2PM:

@blzzzrrttt is going to be playing cornucopia of rougue-likes!

2PM - 5PM:

@blzzzrrttt is going to be speedrunning Lisa with on of the game's developers, Austin Jorgensen/Dingaling, riding shotgun for an interview/ co-commentary!

5PM-?:

@blzzzrrttt will be playing all of Killer is Dead!

7PM - 11:30PM:

Another pack of beer and a game with @upperdecker and the rest of Rogue Ocean Gaming. What games will they play and what beers will they drink this time?

9PM - 5AM:

@meatsofevil and his friends will be kicking off an Endurance Run of Siren for the PS2.

10PM-12AM:

Super Feet Boy with @nickieroonie! @nickieroonie will play Super Meat Boy with his feet if we raise $1500 by the time this event rolls around on the schedule!

Sunday:

12AM -2AM:

@nickieroonie will be giving his feet a short respite by playing Alan Wake!

3AM - 10AM:

More Resident Evil Remake and Net Yaroze with @twolines!

5AM - 8AM:

@meatsofevil and friends will be playing SNES games, including high level Tetris Battle Gaiden, and potentially some Persona 4 new game +.

8AM - 2PM:

@meatsofevil will be finishing off Siren for the PS2. Tune in for the horror!

10AM - 11AM:

Chocobo Racing campaign speed run and other dumb Chocobo Racing stuff with @thatpinguino!

11AM - 3PM:

South Park: The Stick of Truth speed run with @thatpinguino!

12PM - 1PM:

@blzzzrrttt will be playing a few more rogue-likes!

1PM - 2PM:

Interview of Dylan Barry/RAILSLAVEGAMES (developer of //SNOWFLAKE TATTOO// and Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens) by @blzzzrrttt!

2PM - 12AM:

Metal Gear Power Hours with @blzzzrrttt. Our intrepid hero is going to be playing through all of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zereos! So much sneaking!

Prizes:

If you want to be entered into a prize raffle then include the prize you would like to win in the comment with your donation. Some prizes will have a minimum donation associated with them so check out their description for further details. Send me a pm if you have already donated and would like to be entered into the raffle.

5 x Nighthawks Posters signed by the GB staff! Minimum $20 donation to enter this raffle.

1 x Bastion Cold War Kid Poster signed by Greg Kasavin and Logan Cunningham of the Supergiant Games Team! Minimum $20 donation to enter this raffle.

Over 300 Steam and Origin Game Codes! Minimum $5 donation to enter this raffle.

1 x Hand Painted Giantbomb Wallet! Minimum $5 donation to enter this raffle. Maximum of 4 tickets per donor.

Several fresh batches of delicious pastry prizes from nom*ables Pastries in Portland, OR! Check out the announcement post in the comments to see all of the amazing cookies and bundles (I won some cookies from nom*ables last year and they were freaking scrumptious). Minimum $5 donation to enter these raffles.

2 x Gotta Catch 'Em All prize packs from nom*ables and Pixeloisis! These packs include one Pokenom cookie and one mystery Pokemon necklace! Minimum $5 donation to enter this raffle.

1 x Chat Noir Apothicaire Lavender Gift Set! It's all hand made and ultra luxurious. The the gift set includes an 8oz bottle of lotion, 4oz of sea salt scrub, a lip balm and a lavender sachet to make your clothes or closet smell fantastic! Check them out here Chat Noir Apothicaire. Minimum $10 donation to enter this raffle.

1 x Nintendo Controller Cross-stitch! @vash10's girlfriend hand-stitched some awesome Nintendo Controller cross-stiches and you can enter win them! Minimum $5 donation to enter this raffle.

Donation Incentives:

FFIX:

You can place a bid on any name-able character's name with your donation. Simply include the character and the name you would like in your donation comment. So If you want Vivi to be named something dumb you have a month!

We are also open to other potential donation incentive ideas for FFIX so feel free to pitch! There aren't as many obvious optional things in FFIX to throw into a run without completely blowing up some basic speed run aspects like Excalibur II.

If we raise $1000 by the time I get to Dali in FFIX, I will finish the entire Stellazzio sidequest!

If we raise $2000 before I reach the final boss rush, I will complete the entire chocobo sidequest!

Super Feet Boy:

If we raise $1500 by 10pm est on Saturday, April 11th then @nickieroonie will play through all of Super Meat Boy using only his feet! You know you want to see that nonsense.

Also you can include a nail polish request with your donation $5 per nail. It is a Super Feet Boy run after all. I suggest pandas or penguins. Update: pandas and penguins have been handled. I now suggest rainbows or flowers. Update: Flowers and Rainbows have been handled. I now suggest fishies and rabbits. Only 6 toes remain!

JRPG Endurance Run:

Both Chrono Cross and Suikoden II feature a ton of different characters. We're letting viewers decide our party, so feel free to donate and leave a comment with the name of the character you'd like to see. Any dollar amount will do, as we're going to pick the characters with the highest donation totals. Folks can donate right now on our fundraising page, so feel free to get started on that prior to the event on April 10-12.

Shadow of the Colossus:

If we raise $2000 before the Tower climb is complete, @rothgar will pause the game and play through all of Ico before returning to Shadow of the Colossus. Please reach this goal while he is climbing something or fighting something.

Lisa:

If we raise $1500 before Saturday @blzzzrrttt will complete the wrestling side quest in Lisa!

MGS V: Ground Zeroes:

If we raise $2214 by Sunday @blzzzrrttt will complete the Deja-Vu and Jamais-vu Side-ops!

I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be reprising my Final Fantasy speed run from last year's Community Endurance Run! This year I'll be playing through my favorite game, Final Fantasy IX. I'm kicking off at 9 A.M. EST on Saturday April 11th and the run should last between 10 and 12 hours if all goes well. After my run through FFVIII last year I'm excited to be running through a game that is a little more involved and a little less silly this year.

Like last year I'll be chronicling some of my speed run prep through my Deep Look videos and I'll be enumerating a bunch of speed run strategies that I've picked up from reading up on the game and watching other speed runs. So if you find your life a little light on FFIX be sure to tune in!

We will be announcing even more events and prizes in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

One of our prizes will include:

5 x Signed Nighthawks poster: http://samfilstrup.tumblr.com/post/58473179613/nighthawks-the-giant-bomb-edition-by-sam

Illustrated by the excellent @screamingghost, and graciously donated by @rorie. These are signed by the GB staff!

Cool!

I might do a thing!

Dude, I love speedrunning, and FF9 is my favorite FF game ! Count me in ! Heck, if we are gonna speedrun, I know how to run Resident Evil 3. I'll need to derust, but there is time until April.

For the FF9 run, do you already have the entire route planned ? Because I would love to try to run this game at least once, but J-RPG routing takes soooo much time (I am 2/3 into a Skies of Arcadia run) so I'll be looking forward to your FF9 speedrun tips :')

I sure am excited for this! I'll be participating again and I've got some cool stuff planned that'll be announced later this month!

For those of you that haven't watched or simply don't know what GBCER is, I highly advise checking out the following; The post-mortem podcast we (@jeffrud, @vash10, @corevi, @thatpinguino, @amlabella and myself) did following GBCER4.

I've also assembled a YouTube playlist consisting of @thatpinguino's FFVIII speedrun, the Pathfinder campaign that was played and some highlights from some of the games I played!

Man I would love to jump in on this! I'll have to see how my work schedule fits into that timeline.

How hard is it to stream from PS4? I have been flirting with the idea of a Last Of Us grounded speedrun for a while...

It's not the same without Jeff and Vinny. It's just not the same... =<

@sweep:

Easy just hit stream and go! If you want to get a camera that requires a bit extra set up but still easy!

@white: But we have a Jeff and multiple Italians. Its basically the same thing if you don't think about it too hard.

@zolloz89: Shoot me a PM if you want to join the fun and I'll add you to the planning committee.

I'm largely going off of the path that the AGDQ guys used for their 2013 run with the potential for some crazier stuff at the end if people want to donate for something like a full Chocobo sidequest or something. I'm in the midst of practicing that route right now and I'm excited to give FFIX a shot. I haven't had any real problems with my first practice run up until getting stonewalled atKraken due to poor planning. On my second practice run I'm hoping that I'll be able to comfortably get Excalibur II because that 12 hour timer is really what worries me as someone who's menuing is not drilled.

If you want to join in on the streaming shoot me a PM and I can add you to the planning committee.

@thatpinguino said:

But are your Italians also stallions and/or entrepreneurs and/or own a small business?

If you do impersonations on the stream I'm in.

@white: We are all stallions. You'll just have to tune in to see if we do impressions! Or donate and include an impression request in your comment. I could easily throw a bad impression into my stream... for the kids.

are these endurance runs archived anywhere?

@jesusfrankenstein: My FFVIII speed run is archived on my youtube channel and @blzzzrrttt's youtube playlist has a bunch of Endurance Run footage from last year's event. As far as the rest of the events, we all have personal archives on our Hitbox/Twitch channels but not in one centralized location. We might have to look into that for this year, but we have nothing in place as of now.

I'm not much of a Jeff, but I probably count for something.

There may be a contest. It will not be pretty.

Very pleased to announce that on Sunday, April 12th from 1 - 2PM I'll be doing an interview with Dylan Barry/RAILSLAVEGAMES who is currently developing two games, //SNOWFLAKE TATTOO// and Selfie: Sisters of the Amniotic Lens. I'm not entirely sure what they are at the moment but come April 12th we'll all hopefully find out together!

@thatpinguino: I want to help out in someway, but I don't think I really have the clout to do any type of stream. I have a thing or two that could maybe be used in the prize pool. Either way this is a rad idea.

We now have a poll up for which JRPG the west coast crew should play. Chrono Cross or Suikoden II? You decide!

On Friday April 10th I'm going to be running a GB Friday Night Magic for the Community Endurance Run! We are going to be kicking off after Unprofessional Fridays and we are going to be running one full tournament of the format of your choosing. I'll be announcing the grand prize at a later date, but there will be a grand prize!

After that I'm happy to announce that we are going to be running the inaugural GBCER MTG Royal Rumble! It is going to be a Standard event and function with roughly the same rules as a wrestling royal rumble. Two people are going to fact off in the first match and the winner is going to progress to the next challenger in the queue. The last person standing wins our lovely GB FNM championship belt. All matches will be single elimination best of 3. So put up or step down folks!

Get hype!

I'm also excited to announce that you could win a print of this lovely piece of Bastion Art:

Signed by Greg Kasavin and Logan Cunningham!

I really need to nail down what I'm playing. Pesky exams!

If I wanted to try an endurance run of Alien: Isolation, and tie it into this (as in, donations I get go towards the GB goal) could I? I mean in short, does this work like Extra Life with teams?

I'll be playing over-the-shoulder games this year, including RE4 and Alan Wake! I'll be starting with RE4 straight after Unprofessional Fridays, and completing both games over the course of the weekend.

I also have other surprises to be announced very soon...

PS - @skippersonne, you can definitely do that! I would suggest that you send a PM to @thatpinguino to get started.

New donation incentive:

• "Super Feet Boy" - If we reach $1500 in total donations, I will complete Super Meat Boy using only my feet! There will be a foot cam, so you also get the pleasure of seeing my Sexy Feet. The run will take place at 10PM EST on Saturday, April 11 so long as we reach the goal.

Socks or no socks?

No socks for extra grip ;D

Ok I fixed the formatting of the main post!

Can we have a donation incentive for nail polish? I would pay money for their to be tiny pandas on each toe or something.

I'm super excited for our announcement this Wednesday... Like you don't even know.

@thatpinguino: It's beautiful.

@thatpinguino : sure. i have no idea how to paint nails, so it should be Gorgeous

So what do I gotta do to get in on this FNM action? Download Cockatrice and let y'all know that I'm down to win the championship away?

@jakob187: You should definitely download Cockatrice fist. Then I'll get a thread going with signups for each part of the FNM, the regular tournament and the Royal Rumble. Then once we have enough people for the draft I'll create a pm chain to make sure we are all set. We should do one test run just to iron out the kinks and then we should be good to go next month!

Edit: You should also donate at least $10 to the cause. Since that's the reason for the season.

I'm excited to announce that I'll be interviewing Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games Friday, April 10th at 7PM!!! I have a few questions I plan on asking, but if you have any questions you would like to pose to the lead writer of Bastion and Transistor then feel free to include them here or in the comments of your donation!

Hey there! I may not have something as awesome as an interview with Kasavin or Super Feet Boy, but I'm here to announce two things.

1. I've got about 50 Steam and Origin codes burning a hole in my pocket, so we're going to give them away!

With a minimum donation amount of $5, you can be entered into a raffle two win some games. Be sure to leave a comment with your donation indicating you want to be entered into any of the giveaways we have! There are prizes available that have different minimum donation amounts so see the Prize section in the original post for more info.

We have two 'grand' prizes tucked in these codes: one is a Steam game of choice (from @amlabella) and the other is a code for RPG Maker VX Ace for all your JRPG developing needs (retail $69.99). But see this Google Doc for a complete list. Should we get any additional codes, I'll be sure to add them to that spreadsheet and post an update.

If you have already donated, please send me a PM if you'd like to be entered in the raffle.

2. I'll be playing the entirety of LA Noire and all of its DLC starting Sat. April 11 at 8am. (I know, way less exciting)

@thatpinguino: You have appeared to have left the caps lock button on when typing the title for your post. Sometimes when you make text very big it becomes more difficult to read &/or stay in the mind's short term memory. Here's a helpful guide on how to turn the caps lock off...

much love,
Cirdain :)

@cirdain: Better now?

@thatpinguino: Would be cool if there was a space before and after the '-' but I guess you've hit the character limit. Otherwise, it's lovely.

Good luck with the event! :)

Big news everyone! I am happy to announce that I will be racing side-by-side with @thatpinguino in a speed run of my own! While he plays Final Fantasy IX, I will play Shadow of the Colossus! "But wait Rothgar," you will surely object, "that's not a fair race! SOTC is way shorter than FFIX!" That's true, but I'm not doing just any old speed run. I am going to start from a brand new save and play through the game as many times as needed to climb the Shrine of Worship and taste that sweet, sweet forbidden fruit. That could take as many as FOUR full plays people!!! One important thing to note:I'm playing on the PS3 version so the infinite climbing stamina exploit is removed, meaning I need to clear at least 64 boss fights and probably eat some lizards along the way. GET HYPE!! The race is on...

If people want to buy @rothgar more time for his slow-ass temple climb in Shadow of the Colossus, I added some donation incentives that will lengthen my superior FFIX speed run. The Stellazzio should add about 20 minutes on the end of the run and the Chocobo sidequest should add a few hours.

I'll still beat him; but, if someone doesn't help him, its gonna be a decimation.

It's true, I have my work cut out for me. @thatpinguino has been practicing very hard so he can mash X through dialogue and text. I've been practicing Sword Launching for Colossus 3, Torch Dropping Colossus 11, as well as my One-Cycle Routes for Colossus 7, Colossus 10 and Colossus 12. If you know what all that gibberish means, then get hype! If you don't, tune in to find out! While @thatpinguino takes a nap during cut scenes, I will be tackling new bosses about every 6 minutes. Enjoy the show folks!

Added more codes to the giveaway list! Thanks @slag for sending them our way.

Edit: Added one more code from @bboys2231. Thanks!

Just a reminder, you can donate now. If you see any prizes or donation incentives that you want to get in on, then hit that bold, italicized, underlined link in the main post and get in there. The sooner people donate the sooner we can lock in some of our more ambitious features and the sooner we can send some kids to school!

There's a new donation incentive in which folks can donate to pick our party in either Chrono Cross or Suikoden II. The characters with the top donation totals will be included in our playthrough. More details can be found in the first post.

New prize: GB Wallet

Carry your money in style with this hand-painted Giant Bomb wallet!

Donate $5 towards this wallet for a ticket. At the end of GBCER, I will draw the winning ticket. You can donate up to $20 for 4 tickets max. The more you donate, the better your chances of winning! Or donate $5 if you're feeling lucky.

The main post has been updated to include our cool wallet donation incentive and Mr. and Mrs. @the_boots's RE5 co-op run on Saturday, April 11th.

1. I will donate this weekend.
2. I have dozens of Steam and Origin games to give away. Get at me.
3. I think I would like to join in and play...something...if you wanted. Help cover the UK-centric timeframe, maybe. Oh, and I've been playing Magic since 1997, so I could turn some cards sideways if you wanted. I'm still goddamn awful at it, though!
4. <>

I'm happy to announce that our beloved community manager Matthew "The boss of bosses" @rorie is going to be taking part in the GBCEF MTG Royal Rumble! Get your standard deck ready for the ultimate GB related test (I bet he plays blue white or blue black).

I'm also happy to announce that I'll be speed running Chocobo Racing and South Park: The Stick of Truth on Sunday, April 11th. So tune in for a weird kart racer and a great rpg.

@fattony12000: PM me and I'll get you in on the madness. All of those bullet points sound great.

nom*ables Pastries in Portland, OR is sponsoring the West Coast Contingent of gamers,including myself, @jeffrud, @amlabella, and @goodspaceguy for the GBCER5 weekend! All food and housing will be provided to the participants from Thursday to Monday.

Additionally, nom*ables is donating a cache of prizes:

1 Combustible Lemon Gift Pack

1 4-jar set of curds (Combustible Lemon, Lemon Ginger, Lemon Lavender, and Blood Orange)

1 dozen Snowballs

1 dozen Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

2 Mounds of Joy

1 4-pack of Pokenoms

1 gamer's snack pack that includes Lemon Ginger Power Pellets, Chocobo Chow, 1x1 Blocks and a Pokenom

In partnership with Pixelosis, there are also 2 Gotta Catch 'Em All sets which each feature 1 Pokenom and a mystery Pokemon necklaceSome photos are included below, but for more information, photos, and descriptions, please visit the websites for nom*ables and Pixelosis!

During the weekend, nom*ables will also be donating 10% of all online sales to the Pencils of Promise GBCER pool.

Gallery

So, thanks @fattony12000 for giving us a huge pool of games to THE LIST to giveaway. There are over 300 games that are itching to be given away!