Highlights from May 24 to 30, 2020

This week's highlight reel to cover the week of May 24 to 30 features Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Trials of Mana and Twitch Sings!

Star Trek Online: The Legacy of the "Cloaked Intentions" Story Arc

This week's commentary is focused on the five part Cloaked Intentions Story Arc which came out back in 2011, which not only served as a source of lore of things happening with the Romulans and Remans, but also the first major step towards things like the Iconians being a major factor. (Note: In the video I refer to these missions as 'Romulan Mystery' as this is what they are listed as under the Klingon Empire mission list).

Freeform Rant: Donald Trump

You know what's funny... 20 years ago I was more or less 'influenced' to enlist in the US Army while in my junior year of High School which probably was a mistake as I should've enlisted 2001... and sure my military (lack of) aspirations didn't pan out the way probably only one person would've hoped, I can safely say as a soldier I would have had no problem serving under George W. Bush or Barack Obama because they both respected the office they held, the country they led and people they served. But I can safely say I would not be willing serve in the armed forces with Donald J. Trump in office.

Now I  am not one to get political because of my 'day job' in market research involves me having to remain neutral. However since New Jersey has been on lock down in regards to COVID-19 and I have time to keep up things thanks to not having to travel to work, when I'm not doing things for work or streaming, I'm able to keep up with the world at large. Now full disclosure, I did not vote for Trump in 2016, I voted for Gary Johnson who was clearly the best candidate in a field that included Hilary Clinton and Jill Stein. For the most part Trump has escaped my attention, because when one has to take the opinion from as many different points of view as possible, one does not want to take a look at the news when they get home. Sure I'd see the headlines on the Yahoo homepage, but I never looked to deep into it, figuring come 2020 he'd be voted out of office.

But since I have been home since the end of March and I have been looking closely at his actions and words, for the life of me I can't wonder why anyone listens to him, he's a fucking sociopath. Trump is a 70+ year old 'man' (and I use that term loosely in his case) with the mentality of a spoiled brat. Everything he has done in the path six months has lead to largest loss of American life in history. He has single handily ensured that race relations in the United States were resent to where they were in the 1960s, he has encouraged riots, property damage, disruption of services. He has called for a restriction of free speech, he is looking to prevent people from voting.  His tirades are more akin to Adolf Hitler than they are to any half-decent world leader this planet has ever seen.

And the more I've seen of him and what he's doing, it makes me physically sick. Never in my life have I had this much vile hatred for anyone. .. because I see what he's doing. Trump is looking to start a civil war, he is looking to make sure that if he loses in November (which he should!), that he'll have every reason to cause more social destruction and unrest. Trump wants a Civil War, he wants the Untied States to tear itself apart over him, he wants to do away with Democracy. Of course one could hope he fucking has a coronary failure between now and November so this all could be avoided, but I don't think we'll be that lucky.

All I can do is hope that sanity returns to the Executive Branch of the United States as soon as possible and that the fallout will not be like anything seen in a video game of the same name.

Twitch Channel Emotes and Artwork

Like many Twitch Streamers, I have reached out to get artwork done for Twitch Emotes and other items, and the person I go is Michelle of DarkWolf Creative (www.darkwolfcreative.com). Their rates are incredibly reasonable, their work is high quality and they are quick in getting things done. Communication is really key when it comes to getting artwork made and Michelle is incredible in keeping me posted on sketches, coloring and status updates of what I ordered.

Highlights From May 17 to 23, 2020

This week's highlights include Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Trials of Mana and Twitch Sings! Which more than likely is going to be the lineup for this upcoming week too!

Voice Chat In Gaming: Can It Be Fixed?

Seeing the supposed controversy revolving around FerocilouslySteph and their views on voice chat in gaming, I wonder can it be fixed?

Highlights From May 10 to 16 2020

This week's highlights cover the week of May 10 to 16 2020 where I streamed Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV, Batman The Enemy Within, Star Trek Online, Trials of Mana & Twitch Sings! Be sure to come over to see things every night at twitch.tv/fredcasden

First Reaction To Trials Of Mana

A couple of weeks ago I was given Trials of Mana for Steam / PC by one of my regular Twitch viewers and this week I got around to not only playing it but streaming it... and here are my initial reactions to the game!

Highlights From The Week Of March 3 to 9 2020

This video highlights from my Twitch stream covering the week of March 3 to 9 2020, which featured Overwatch (on PC and Xbox One), Final Fantasy XV, The Grand Tour Game, Super Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix, Star Trek Online, Batman The Enemy Within and Twitch Sings!

Why Do I Feature Overwatch Every Sunday?

Every week over on my Twitch channel, I feature Overwatch on Sunday nights? Well I try to explain that with this week's commentary video!

Completionist Notes: The Grand Tour Game

On April 17, 2020 I began playing The Grand Tour Game which of course is based on the Amazon Prime show of the same name and features Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. My intent was to basically just add to my gamer score, you know get as many achievements as I could with my rather limited gaming skills. Now I have played racing games before, most people know I've streamed Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed, and that there was a limit to how quickly I could adjust to all the variables that could throw at me. So in short, my goal was not to unlock everything, but to do the best I could. Now a good portion of the achievements in the game are tied to episodes that gradually were added to the game over the course of season three of the show, and while some are basic of just get a gold medal on every challenge, I did find some to be harder than others.

One that stands out a real pain in the neck is called 'Scotch Mist' which involving Drifting 1050 meters using a car that had Front Wheel Drive (this is done during Well-Aged Scotch, and you're using James May), which basically negated the 'trick' one could use to Drift easily with virtually every other vehicle in the game (which is to basically tap X and do a bunch of small drifts from side to side). Because the track this has to be done is so short in comparison to the others, even with being allotted two laps, it forces the player to get the most out of every inch. Now to get this done, is to basically drift for as long as possible around every corner and hope you close to 100 meters every time. It certainly seems simple but with the car you have to use, this was clearly one achievement I didn't think I'd get because of my approach to playing The Grand Tour, in that it's an arcade racer, so real world physics don't always apply to how the cars handle.

Most people will probably find the four "Win 50 Times With..." Achievements to be a grind if you try and do them all at one time, but the positive is you can set the conditions to where you can just do seven races at a time, turn off gadgets and change other variables to negate the A.I., and of course there are the 'Use the power up items X number of times' that can be done in conjunction with the races. Some of the items only appear if you're trailing behind so you might end up intentionally losing some races in the pursuit of getting the achievements for things like Nuisance Calls and Musical Idiots (good news is that when doing the episodes any power ups you use in those count towards the achievement goal for each item!) .

This being a racer there are time based achievements as well where you have to be as precise as possible to obtain or be observant of the course layout, for example, a gold medal might be say finish an episode segment in under 1 minute 10 seconds.... but an achievement for that segment says to do do it  1 minute 2 seconds. So that's hitting every turn perfect, not a single crash or bump along the way. I certainly got very familiar with some courses that have massive drop offs around corners meaning if you didn't go around the corner perfectly, you were losing valuable time. Some of these van be out right frustrating when you see that you're a second off and wonder where can you tighten things up a bit, doubt will settle in slightly, but all I can say is persistence and having nothing else to do will pay off.

Anyway, on that disappointing note, I'll shut up here.

Highlights April 26 to May 2, 2020

This week's highlights are from the week of April 26 to May 2, 2020, where I streamed Overwatch, Final Fantasy XV, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Star Trek Online, The Grand Tour Game and Twitch Sings! Be sure to swing over to twitch.tv/fredcasden to see things live!

The Division 2: What Is There Left For Me To Do?

Earlier this week, with the help of my buddy Iceman, I finished the original campaign for Tom Clancy's The Division 2, but after seeing what the 'end game' is going to be like, what is there left for me to do? How much more can I get out of this game. That is the topic of this week's video!