Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020 Overwatch Plays Of The Game

2020 was a wild year for me in Overwatch, as we earned plenty of Plays of the Game during the Sunday night streams, but also quite a few off stream! This year we earned POTG's with Ashe, Baptiste, Bastion, Brigitte, D.Va, Lucio, McCree, Mercy, Moira, Orissa, Pharah, Reinhardt, Soldier 76, Torbjorn, Tracer, Widowmaker, Winston, Zarya, and Zenyatta!

 

 


 

Today's Notes 12/31/20

Good afternoon everyone,

It's December 31, 2020, meaning it's New Year's Eve and hopefully 2021 will be a lot better than 2020... we can only hope right? Right.

Last night's Star Trek Online stream focused entirely on the Lost Dominion story-arc, which for all intents and purposes should be played either right before or right after The Borg Advance story arc, mostly because it's set up has you going to a conference on DS9 about dealing with the collective. The fact the old in-game appearance for DS9's interior still exists and some of the voice-over overlaps between Garek and Weyoun in relation to the characters they replaced is still in the game, despite this bug being there for oh say, the last 2 years! Needless to say I did direct a tweet at @TrekOnlineGame with a clip regarding this, maybe they'll actually do something about it.... I doubt it however.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was surprisingly short, considering it added it Sway Back combos... but that was only a 3 minute set, which was really strange. I don't adjust the daily settings at all unless I'm doing a bonus stream to make sure No Mercy mode is included, but factoring out stretches, today's session didn't even crack 30 minutes. Again, very weird.

Dropped into Animal Crossing New Horizons this afternoon, and to say Isabelle being sad that 2020 is ending is so out of place in regards to how this year has been, it's down right comical. I get it, the developers weren't really anticipating all the COVID-19 stuff, but damn it was weird to see that.

For tonight's stream, we're closing out the year with Twitch Sings, since this is its last day. It's funny, it's the second game this year that basically got retired because of outside circumstances, the first was RWBY Deckbuilding, which is a game you all know I have streamed as a back-up game on various nights. But we've added and played a lot of game this year, hell technically speaking we've finished 48 games (50 if I count Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and The 39 Steps) and played a whole lot of different stuff. In fact, I have a journal which I keep a list of all the nightly streams and so here's the complete list of every game featured on my twitch channel this year (in order of Appearance)

  1. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy
  2. Star Trek Online
  3. Diablo III
  4. Twitch Sings
  5. Overwatch
  6. The Evil Witchin
  7. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
  8. Planetary Annihilation
  9. Puyo Puyo Tetris
  10. RWBY Deckbuilding
  11. Ghostbusters The Video Game ReMastered
  12. Street Fighter II: Thew New Challengers
  13. The Legend of Korra
  14. Star Trek Timelines
  15. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
  16. CastleVaania Anniversary Collection
  17. Ultimate Doom
  18. BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle
  19. Ultra Street Fighter IV
  20. RWBY Grimm Eclipse
  21. Portal
  22. Gears of War 4
  23. The Division 2
  24. NBA Jam On Fire Edition
  25. Runaway: A Road Adventure
  26. Star Wars Battlefront II (Classic)
  27. Smite
  28. Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill
  29. Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
  30. Batman: The Telltale Series
  31. Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights Camera Curses
  32. The Blackwell Legacy
  33. Drgaon Ball Xenoverse
  34. Blackwell Unbound
  35. The Blackwell Covergence
  36. The Blackwell Deception
  37. Final Fantasy XV
  38. The Grand Tour Game
  39. The Blackwell Epiphany
  40. Batman: The Enemy Within
  41. The Trials of Mana
  42. Power Rangers Mega Battle
  43. Mass Effect Andromeda
  44. Gears of War
  45. Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle
  46. Pokemon Shield
  47. Animal Crossing New Horizons
  48. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  49. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  50. Super Mario Maker 2
  51. Minecraft Story Mode
  52. Super Mario Odyssey
  53. Fitness Boxing
  54. WWE 2K20
  55. Saints Row Gat Out Of Hell
  56. Gears of War 2
  57. Marvel's Avengers
  58. Kingdom Hearts
  59. Stranger Things 3: The Game
  60. Injustice Gods AMong Us
  61. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
  62. Paladins
  63. Nickelodeon Kart Racers
  64. Among Us
  65. Final Fantasy XV: Comrades
  66. Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis
  67. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  68. Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull
  69. Super Mario Bros 35
  70. Full Throttle ReMastered
  71. Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
  72. Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
  73. Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
  74. Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix
  75. WCW Nitro
  76. WWF In Your House
  77. ESPN Major League Baseball 
  78. Celebrity Deathmatch
  79. Showdown: Legends of Wrestling
  80. Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise
  81. The Shivah
  82. The 39 Steps

So all in all, a hell of a year if I do say so, and I do say so! So with that we'll see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!  


Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Today's Notes 12/30/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of The Division 2, which was focused on the latest manhunt this time going after a dude name Kestrel, and of course playing the Division 2 meant we were teaming with Iceman7667, The FnDanteSavage and PowerThumbz. We certainly had a blast going through everything involved, and certainly there was a lot of hilarity going on. But one moment stands out, because towards the end of the stream, Thumbz was talking about getting a set of gear and why he would want it... and well this happened: https://clips.twitch.tv/TentativeFurrySmoothieBleedPurple

Safe to say the set up was totally perfect, and it is not often when I straight up lose it like that in terms of just laughing out right. But come on! Also, this serves as another reminder over how much of a pain in the ass it is to embed anything from twitch.

Also I forgot to get a screenshot of anything from last night's stream, but oh well, is what it is right?

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, blocking combos were added, and I think a big change for this was it goes from right to left (orthodox, flip for southpaw) as opposed to the first game which goes left to right (again orthodox, its flipped for southpaw) which made it feel smoother. That's not saying everything i did was perfect, because of the amount of overall misses (and doing things just okay) my fitness age was up at 24.  Also of note, today was the first session in a while where no lower body stretches was done, since there was no ducking, weaving to step motions to work with, and it felt strange not to do the stretches associated with the lower body. 

Tonight we'll be doing a Star Trek Online stream, and we'll more than likely start fairly early as opposed to 9:30 PM EST, since we'll probably tackle either the entire Lost Dominion or Cold War story arcs. Considering both sets of 5-miission story require some serious retooling, it's a good thing I did a rant on the topic of the developers of STO being complete idiots in terms of level gating or removing content important to the overall story of the game.

In other news Mitch McConnell once again said 'fuck you' to the American people, that's the the shock of no one. But it is funny that he's hurting people who voted him into office, folks from the rural parts of Kentucky that are struggling out right. I do remember one person I interviewed for my day gig said they they are voting for McConnell but they they want him to retire on his own terms. Well that stupid mindset is certainly fucking over people across the country. And don't get me started on Chuck Schumer and his attempt to undercut adult performers on the internet (some of which I happen to know because of other connections). That said it is nice to be looking forward with Trump increasing in the distance of the rear view mirror.

And on that note, we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden



Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Today's Notes 12/29/20

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball (aka ESPN Baseball 2K4), saw my 2004 Phillies going 5-1 in a six game road trip, taking 2 of 3 from the Expos and sweeping the Cardinals. Perhaps my favorite moment from last night was the 12th inning 2-Run home run by David Bell (https://clips.twitch.tv/TiredAdorableHabaneroArgieB8), since that particular game was the first time we went to extra frames. Next time we play ESPN MLB, we'll be on a home stand hosting the Diamondbacks and The Cardinals. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session felt good, even though my timing from the Southpaw stance was off on nearly everything. Which is just funny considering that my better half of every exercise has been the Southpaw stance as opposed to orthodox! We did pass the 26,000 punches thrown count, so progress is being made. Also on a weigh in this morning  I was exactly at 260 lbs, so I'm doing a good job of keeping my weight where I want, with the hope of dropping more poundage. It's a marathon not a sprint after all.

I went to DaemonsW0lf (www.darkwolfcreative.com) with an idea I had for next year's big t-shirt piece, which will feature my bunny mascot as the fourth Doctor from Doctor Who, arriving in a Tardis in the 'lounge', now who he'll see first was actually chosen by DaemonsW0lf, and she selected Samus Aran, Commander Jane Shepard and Tracer, representing Metroid, Mass Effect and Overwatch. When I saw the preliminary sketch, first thing that popped to mind was that our cosplaying time lord Bunny was arriving during ladies night, which considering the overall reputations of Samus, Shepard and Tracer is hell of thing to drop in on. I can't wait to see the finish image! 

For tonight's stream we'll be returning to The Division 2 in another night of co-op madness as the next manhunt will begin, and if you have seen the more recent streams of the Division 2 which have involved Iceman, PowerThumbs and FnDanteSavage you know there will a whole lot of silliness going on.And since I already got word about other things, I know I'll probably start a bit early just to say I was on time!

And on that bombshell we'll see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!


Monday, December 28, 2020

Today's Notes 12/28/20

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, big thanks to PandaSweet and Nteasie for joining in on several matches each. Perhaps the big highlight was a moments was an ultimate I did with D.va that lead to a quintuple kill. (which can be seen here: https://clips.twitch.tv/WrongImportantLarkMingLee - Twitch doesn't allow embedding T_T) I believe I had four plays of the game last night as well, this particular D.va play, and ones as Torb, Moira and even McCree. Now the question is when will I start work on this years video which would collect all of the plays of the game I earned over the course of this year because there is a chance I might get a couple more because on Tuesday, the final week of the winter event begins which requires 9 wins to get the Roadhog 'Frosty' skin. So I'm up in the air on that.

This morning, we did a bonus stream, which lead off with Fitness Boxing 2, we went 45 minuets (50+ if one counts the stretching). I actually had a moment where I totally felt and knew I missed a punch. Also had an real awkward moment where I didn't realize what the sequence of punches / movements were leading to another miss. Outside of that, and a badly timed duck, I felt everything was in good form from start to finish. The standing side thigh stretches can go fuck off however (HA!) 

Of course with a bonus stream, it meant we did some Animal Crossing New Horizons, which was mostly going around my island checking in on the residents, as Maggie is moving out. There was an odd moment where Ozzie apparently had a fight with Antonio, which was resolved by me making a delivery from the former to the latter, but man, talk about weird. Again it strikes me as odd that there are little drama moments in Animal Crossing of all things!

The bonus stream closed out with a quick run of Super Mario Bros 35, and I finished in 3rd place because of a badly timed jump. Can't finish in first all the time, but I'll take a top three finish when I can get it don't you know!. 

Tonight's stream will be focused on ESPN Major League Baseball (aka ESPN Baseball 2K4), as we'll be continuing the 2004 season with the Philadelphia Phillies, as I believe we'll be on the road. Since I already know certain things are off the table for tonight, we'll probably start early so we can complete six games (or two series). 

And on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!


Sunday, December 27, 2020

Today's Notes 12/27/20

Good afternoon everybody,

A new week begins as the year comes to an end and boy I think we are all hoping for 2021 to get here as soon as possible so we can put a lot of things behind us.

Last night's stream featuring Zero Escape: The Nonary Games was a lot of fun on my first play through of it, getting the awesome Ax ending where my joking nickname for Clover being 'cleaver' because she totally gave off the psycho vibe when I saw DaemonsW0lf playing this game was proven to be true. Just looking at the sentence back and yup, confirmed I type how I speak as in 'not well'. Anyway it was a pretty straight forward affair, as again, seeing the game recently streamed on DaemonsW0lf's channel meant I had a good idea of how to handle certain puzzles so to get through to the Ax ending it took six hours. I'm thinking to pursue the other endings, we'll play this game straight out again until we get the true ending... so almost a guarantee Saturday nights will seem like re-runs, but hey it's a great replacement for Twitch Sings to kick off the new year.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session saw the addition of Front-Back step movements and boy was I dreading those, as my timing with them was horrible. On top of that, I accidentally advanced the screens ahead, meaning I couldn't see exactly what punches were badly timed from either the orthodox and southpaw stances. We did pass 24,000 in terms of total punch count today for FB2, so we'll take what we can get for daily note purposes. 

Over in Animal Crossing New Horizons, Maggie will be moving off of my island, now I can safely say the only ones I know for sure that I'm never letting leave are Antonio, Agnes, Blanche, Audie and Skye, as their personalities seem to gel very well. I'm still kicking myself for letting Sherb replace Cube, even if they have the same quirks, Cube was awesome. Also picked up the Island Togetherness stamp which was a result of chatting with all the residents on my island on 50 different days. So progress made.

Tonight being Sunday means of course Overwatch is on the agenda, and of course we'll be playing the PC version, even though I have the ability to play it on Xbox One and Switch. Blizzard really dropped the ball in terms of not developing cross play, or at the very least allowing cross-progress tracking. Oh well, hopefully that gets resolved with Overwatch 2, which we should learn more about in about a month or so if what I'm seeing is correct.

And on that bombshell, we'll see you later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!


Highlights for the Week of December 20, 2020

Here are highlights from twitch.tv/fredcasden for the week of December 20, 2020. This week's games included Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, The Shivah, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ESPN Baseball 2K4, Twitch Sings, Star Trek Online, The 39 Steps and Zero Escape: The Nonary Games! 




Saturday, December 26, 2020

Today's Notes 12/26/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, as now we prepare to end 2020, a year most of us will want to forget! 

Last night's stream was a little different, as we played The 39 Steps. Yes there is a sort of a video game adaptation of the classic book, which is basically a visual novel with some light game play stuff here and there, in terms of finding objects and interacting with a few sequences, but it really is just the story. It made for a nice Christmas night stream, as it prepared me for tonight's stream. 

You see tonight we are starting up a huge visual novel series, Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, which as DaemonsW0lf puts is just anime saw, as it sees a bunch of people put together in a deadly game. While a lot of it is voice acted, a lot of it is not. And it does have puzzles and different sequences that provide a variety of game play elements, so it will as if we are returning to the Phoenix Wright games from a year ago. Except this time I'm not going to try and blitz my way through them, because unlike the Phoenix Wright games, the Zero Escape games have multiple endings that needs to reached before the true ending is revealed.  

Which of course means, no Twitch Sings tonight as out final Twitch Sings stream ever will be on Thursday Night, December 31st... we'll be singing out the new year, which means Star Trek Online is either moving up to Wednesday or back to Friday for this week. Not completely sure which as of yet.

I have decided to stop loading up the original Fitness Boxing, and to focus mainly on Fitness Boxing 2, mostly the workouts in Fitness Boxing 2 are actually exceeding what I was doing in the first game on a daily basis. Today's session did feature the No Mercy set, which never stops being amusing with how mean Lin can get. Anyway, from the Orthodox stance I had some mistimed Jabs, Left Uppercuts and Right hooks, while from the Southpaw stance only right ducks were a little off. I do wish the developers used a different shade of yellow for uppercuts because on combo sequences it's hard to see the indicator because the rhythm bar is also yellow... or maybe they should've used a different color for the rhythm bar, like purple or something.

Did do some Overwatch things as well, and man it was amusing to see how people don't know how to counter Moira on Nintendo Switch side of the coin. The fact that I can I hide behind the payload and just move from left to right, peaking out to attack with no one from the other team coming to counter me just blew my mind. I wasn't using her fade ability, I was literally moving from side to side. I do wish the Switch version of Overwatch had some replay recording dynamics for plays of the game like the PC and Xbox One versions do. Oh well.

And on that bombshell we'll wrap things up here, see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!


Video Commentary: My Annoyance Regarding Star Trek Online's Level Gated Content

If you've played Star Trek Online prior to the start of the addition of Star Trek Discovery content, you remember when Spectres, Lost Dominion and Cold War were apart of the journey your character goes on, which lays ground work for things you later experience.... but you can't plat those missions unless your character is level 65... and so I go on a rant about that for this week's commentary.



Friday, December 25, 2020

Today's Notes 12/25/20

Good evening everyone,

And Merry Christmas, now yes I am very late with today's notes, hell I didn't eat anything until after 5 PM EST, as I woke up after 1 PM EST and family came over (and boy the smiles on my nieces' faces when they saw their presents was awesome).

Anyway, last night's Star Trek Online stream saw us going through the Spectres story arc, one of three major piece of Star Trek Online's story that was removed from the main story because of sheer stupidity on behalf of the developers. When a game like Star Trek Online has such little content that isn't focused around grinding, the last thing they should've done was REMOVE THINGS THAT WERE IMPORTANT TO THE FUCKING STORY! Seriously, the fact that I'm wanting to continue the Glory For The Empire series means that I had a reason to go into things that should've already been done months ago, as the Spectres story arc is supposed to take place before dealing with Nimbus III.... (roughly level 10-20 give or take), but since it, along with Lost Dominion and Cold War are level lock, players don't get to experience those missions until much later on. Lost Dominion and Cold War are even more important, as one explains the relationship Weyoun has with the player and the other explains why everyone knows about the Preserver archive during the Iconian war. 

Ah well, I did do Fitness Boxing today, and had a solid workout. Felt my timing was just a bit off with jabs out of the Orthodox stance as well as with right uppercuts from the Southpaw stance. The routine was focused on stamina at a regular tempo so it was certainly more combat, without a sense of warming up and cooling down. Also today marked two weeks of Fitness Boxing 2.

Not sure exactly what I'm doing for tonight's stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden, but I'll be coming up with something! Anyway, short post today, but we'll see ya later! 


Thursday, December 24, 2020

Today's Notes 12/24/20

Good afternoon everybody,

It's Christmas Eve, or as the folks in Animal Crossing New Horizons call it 'Toy Day', a great day to exchange gifts a day early to Christmas, particularly if you are going to multiple places to visit family. Now be sure to be safe when traveling, Covid-19 is still a thing and with all the latest news about it mutating already, its best to error on the side of cautions!

Speaking of errors, why is it that when Donald Trump actually wants to do something that will help out people other than himself, the Republicans fuck things up? The fact that the stimulus package that Congress agreed too with $600 wasn't much but hell it would've help some! But Trump of course said the smart thing (one of the few times he actually done so) and pointed out it should be $2000, and while the Democrats straight up agreed, the Republicans basically shot it down with no justification. Just remember folks, the United States is the only country in the world during the Pandemic where its leaders basically have said 'fuck the people'

Last night's stream for my birthday was EPIC, huge thank yous to SuperHappyPuppy, Kalenal, PandaSweet, MarvelMaven, Iceman, DaemonsW0lf and so many others who made last night feel special. It was a long night, going 7 hours, and we did a ton of duets, nearly 50! I'm trying to think of when was the last time I did a 7 hour Twitch Sings stream and it had to be last year at some point. Again thank you so much for last night folks! Also next Thursday, December 31st will be my last Twitch Sings stream, and I talked to DaemonsW0lf, we're going to do a party, those in my discord will get first opportunities to join on the fun!

I picked up the Nintendo Switch version of Overwatch, and I was quick to notice that much like the Xbox One version, it's more of a slug fest on the objectives than compared to the PC version (which is what I mainly play for this game). The fact that I was able to basically get a play of the game right off the bat using McCree on the Switch basically showed me that there isn't much three-dimensional thinking on the console versions. Which is great from a PC player's perspective to just school some folks. Plus it helps that I've used McCree a ton lately on the PC version. And speaking of which I need to start working on getting 9 wins on the PC version to get the Anna Gingerbread skin.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was kept simple staying on the regular settings. My timing was a bit off with Right Uppercuts from the Orthodox stance, while from the Southpaw side, Right Hooks, Left Weaves and Right Uppercuts were a touch problematic. We also reached the 20,000 punches throw barrier, which means I'm 1/10th of the way of catching up to my total in the original Fitness Boxing. And since I'm still continuing doing dailies with the first game, that streak is up to 171 days. 

Tonight's stream will of course feature Star Trek Online, as we'll continue the Glory for the Empire series with the focus being on one of the three 'forgotten' story arcs, either Lost Dominion, Spectres, or Cold War. I'm still very much annoyed that these series of missions were turn into 'side content' when they all add to the overall story of Star Trek Online in explaining why certain things are said to the players in more recent episodes. Add onto the fact that another bunch of missions from the Federation side were scrapped, including the ones focused on Miral Paris is just a reminder of how stupid the people are at Cryptic studios. Look it's one thing to have universal content across all the faction, but the fact is there is too much parallel at the expense of making things feel unique. I would say that's just my opinion, but it's a fact.

Anyway we'll see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Today's Notes 12/23/20 - Happy Birthday to Me

 Good afternoon everyone,

Well it's December 23... which mean's I'm now a year older, certainly not wiser... but I think for many of us, 2020 has been a year many would like to forget. But time keeps moving forward, and well we all do what we can. Jokingly, as I am reminded year after year, I am virtually impossible to shop for because anything most things folks would get me as gifts I pretty much get myself. But I do appreciate all the birthday greetings I've gotten on Twitter, Discord and Facebook.

Last night's stream of ESPN Baseball 2K4 started early and ran about five and half hours, as my 2004 Philadelphia Phillis swept the Montreal Expos and Flordia Marlins in two three-game sets at home. One thing that bugged the hell out of me was why was Nick Johnson on the Expos roster. The A.I. didn't do a trade between the Expos and Yankees, the team I often associated Johnson with... and it turns out in December of 2003, the Yankees did traded him to Montreal with two other players for Claudio Vargas. But here's the thing, for as closely as I followed baseball in that time frame, for the life of me I don't remember Johnson ever playing for the Expos and later the Nationals. 

Today's Fitness Boxing session was solid, as we did the longer heavy workout which meant we did have a Hell Mode set to get through. Timing was a bit off today with Jabs, Center Ducks and Leave Weaves from the Orthodox stance and Jabs and straights from the Southpaw stance.  Since Fitness Boxing 2 has in-game achievements, we've already unlocked 30% of them... a lot of them does involve using other trainers.... so eventually I'll switch from using Lin... just not any time soon mind you. 

Loaded up Animal Crossing New Horizons, and so I experienced the 'Birthday' celebration, with Audie, Skye and Agnes being the ones throwing me a surprise birthday party which is pretty cool. It's little touches that, and the Halloween event from October that certainly keeps players wanting to continue playing it after getting the end credits to roll. Now of course December 24 is the in-game 'Toy Day' event, so good thing my inventory is filled with gifts for my Island residents lol.

Speaking of gifts, the great thing about having so many friends who are gamers is that they have Steam wish lists that makes it easy to shop for them, of course not everyone uses Steam or has a wish-list and I have to get a little creative. 

And that will wrap up today's notes, we'll see you later today for Twitch Sings over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Today's Notes 12/22/20

Good afternoon everybody,

I can safely say I didn't get to bed to about 5 AM because I went to work on putting together this year's music video featuring all 48 games finished this year. During the course of which I realized I forgot to list Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, so instead of 49 games, the total stays at 48 as we'll drop Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days since again it was more of a movie. I actually made two versions, one of which I'll show on New Years Eve since it using the audio track from my self-duet of 19th Nervous Breakdown, while the YouTube version using the Colonel Bogey March from YouTube's audio library... so both are different lengths but basically the same.

Last night we sat down and finally played The Shivah, and imagine my surprise to see not one but two direct references to the Blackwell Legacy series, with Roseangela Blackwell sending and e-mail to Rabbi Zelig and we see her in the bar towards the ends of the game, talking to someone who isn't there... which firmly places The Shivah after the events of The Blackwell Legacy, which also tells me Roseangel and Joey were investigating the death of Ethan Goldberg. You know I might make this game the topic of this weeks commentary on Friday... but oh besides all the Blackwell stuff, The Shivah is a good little game, it does have multiple endings so there some replay value. Because my family on my father's side is Jewish, it safe to say I got most of the Rabbi jokes... even if I am more of goy than anything else these days.

Today's Fitness Boxing session was solid, kept it at regular settings so I didn't go through a No Mercy mode during today's routine. Did struggle a little with my timing for Left Uppercuts and Right Ducks from the orthodox stance and also with right hooks from the southpaw stance, but hey, it's a good thing I see those execution sections to get an idea of where my weaknesses are to try and do better next time!.

We also played some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate last night, and actually won three online matches as Min Min from the ARMS game. Which considering that was a game made to show off motion controls for the Nintendo Switch, makes me thing I should try to track down a copy of that game to try it. Now that I think about it I think most of my Online Wins in Smash.... which is a total of 25, involve Min Min lol. 

Tonight we'll probably start way before 9:30 PM with ESPN Baseball 2K4 and probably do two three-game series of our Philadelphia Phillies 2004 campaign. I will try not to brutalize the AI too much, but if I do I'll increase the difficulty to keep myself in check.

And on that note, that wraps everything up! See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden


Monday, December 21, 2020

Today's Notes 12/21/20

Good afternoon everybody,

Hopefully you're all having a good day so far. Ordered myself a new blanket yesterday and it arrived today, which is good because this winter is a hell of a lot colder than the last few years.

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, as the changes made to the queue system in terms of letting folks queue up as flex (tank-damage-support) really speeds up wait times for getting into a match in Quick Play, as I spent a good portion of the stream playing as damage heroes. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on the fun, we finished on a good stretch winning eight of the final ten matches we played last night!

We did do a bonus stream this morning of Ftiness Boxing 2, and outside of my background screen being out of position, it was pretty solid on all fronts, though I pissed some punches that I knew I threw... then again I accidentally threw the wrong type of punch twice. Still it was good solid effort, which featured a nice variety of movements across the board. 

Beyond Fitness Boxing, we dropped in on my Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where it was Blanche's birthday. Did saw something weird where it appeared two of my island residents (Pietro and Hopper) apparently had a heated argument... didn't think I'd see something like that. Also Sherb apparently had a really.... really weird sixth birthday where a clown entered his house and never left. Talk about strange!

We did also did a little Super Mario Bros 35 to close out the bonus stream and came in first place. It was a a quick run of this limited-time battle royal, but coming in first place is very rare, but the last few times I've played I have came in the top 10 more often than not, and with luck I can get into the top five, so I was probably due to win out right. Still it was a nice way to close out the stream.

Tonight, we'll be playing The Shivah, which is from the same people behind the Blackwell series of games. As mentioned before, it technically takes place in the same continuity as some of its characters appear in the same games. This should be interesting since Hanukkah just ended a few days ago, and good portion of The Shivah revolves around a rabbi. 

Did get a question of what's going to happen with my rabbit puppet, dubbed Philly because of his jersey, since he was a big part of Twitch Sings which is closing on January 1st. I'm really not sure, we might make a coin redeem where I use the secondary camera to have him pop in at the times where he provides some inane commentary ripping on me or something. Who knows. I'll figure something out involving him.

And on that note, we'll see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden


Sunday, December 20, 2020

Today's Notes 12/20/20

Good afternoon everybody,

So last night after the stream I loaded up Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and tried out the Sephiroth Challenge, to not only unlock the villain from the most overrated video game of all time (Final Fantasy VII), but to see just how rusty I am at that game. Not that I was any good as Smash to begin with, but I think on a normal setting I could handle most things the A.I. could throw at me,  which is why I beat the challenge on Normal difficulty and yes I did it as Cloud. I can safely say the Sephiroth's stage takes way to damn long to transition through and thus the only way to really appreciate it in a match is to se the time length to its longest possible setting and hope for a match that takes longer than 90 seconds.

As I look back to one year ago with the split between me and Dare to Stream and I can safely say, that while my Twitch viewership totals may be down in comparison, I was able to meet and interact with far more people. The funny thing is, I've seen invites to join other 'stream teams' and they all have that same bullshit rule of only host and / or raid within the team which does nothing more than prop up the leadership's channels. Hell lets say the big channel of a team draws in say 20 viewers at the very start, but because they are starting right about when other members of the team are ending, they know because of the rules they are setting they are getting a boost in their start totals of say 2 or 3 viewers from a raid plus any lurkers still on the smaller channel's page who opted out of the raid.. It makes the leadership's stats look good in comparison. As I said, my viewership totals may be down in comparison to a year ago, but at least I not feeding into a machine to prop up someone else.

Now with that off my hairy chest (ha ha), last night's Twitch Sings stream was a lot of fun, with it being one of the final ones I'll be able to do. Perhaps the real highlight of it wast the duet of Gaston I did when I went beyond ham and straight on to bacon with my performance. In comparison to others I can safely say I'm not very animated so just cutting loose like that was a lot of fun. Of course we did a bunch of duets and solos last night... hell thought we may have lost one because Twitch Sings started to act really goofy.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was fairly solid from start to finish, even though I feel and the game actually pointed out that I struggled a lot with Right Hooks and Left Weaves from the Southpaw stance, which was a bit odd, considering I've been pretty damn consistent with Southpaw Right Hooks all week, since they normally thrown in the form of a jab-straight-jab-right hook combo, and today's combos were a little more different. Ah well, tomorrow is a new today.

Today being Sunday means that we'll be playing Overwatch this evening, I already have the Junkrat greenish elf skin unlocked from getting nine wins off stream since Tuesday. Still we'll see if we can help other folks get the skin if they don't already have it.

Also I've already finished (or beaten) 47 games this years, and since I want to start working on some end of the year video projects, I want to add one more game to the list to have an even 48. The game that will take that spot is called The Shivah, which was developed and published by the same folks behind The Blackwell series. Technically The Shiva sorta of takes place in the same universe as some characters came from it, so this is kind of like a prequel. I'll be playing this Monday night/

And with that said, we'll see ya later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden



Best of the Week December 13, 2020

Here are the best moments from my twitch channel (twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of December 13, 2020, which included Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario 35, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, ESPN Baseball 2K4, Star Trek Online, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Twitch Sings!

 

 

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Today's Notes 12/19/20

Good afternoon everybody,

I can safely say if the snow stays on the ground it will indeed be a White Christmas in South Jersey, and hopefully we won't be seeing any more snow for the rest of the winter. I don't mind the cold as much, but snow is fucking annoying and I can't understand why anyone would encourage anyone to interact with it... and I'm saying when you have some school districts who have administrators who are Trump supporters assigning students to do just that (I'm looking at you Mount Vernon School District).

Anyway, last night's stream saw the return to the Kingdom Hearts franchise with the watch-along of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (which is read as Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2... don't ask). As a set up for Kingdom Hearts II it certainly works, as we get a lot of Roxas's backstory... or lack there of as the real star being Xion, who just happens to be Sora idealized version of Kairi. Roxas comes across as having rocks for brains and just really annoying. Axel gets some character development from what we just recently saw in Re:Chain of Memories since a good chunk of 358/2 Days overlaps with Re:CoM. Graphically, it does make a lot of use of Kingdom Hearts II assets, in particular for nearly every thing involving Organization XIII's Castle and Twilight Town. At the very least we do get the explanation of why Rikku looks like Ansem in Kingdom Hearts II.

By the way, in case you're wondering why last night's stream was a watch along, is because orignally Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was originally released for the Nintendo DS, and it's split screen set up couldn't really be converted to consoles, even though it was an action RPG. So what the developers did was just took all the cut scenes and made a movie while using occasional test pieces to explain details that took place in other places.... which is probably the biggest gripe I have regarding it, since they have all the other cut scenes, why not included the ones that took place in the Disney areas too? I get wanting to keep it under three hours, but as a viewing experience it does break the immersion.... not to mention the chance of locations would've been nice.

On a side note: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days was last Disney project to feature Wayne Allwine, who was the voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years.


Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was a little short as I wanted to see to see what different settings were like, such as increasing the intensity from Get Moving to Stamina while lowering the duration from Heavy to Regular. The result ended up being few punches thrown because of the shorter duration but more constant movement and things being done with a more rapid pace. Kind of perfect for days when I wake up late as hell (lol). Plus since I'm doing Fitness Boxing 1 before before 10-15 minuets it events out a little (plus that helps counter some of my snacking lol).

Tonight being Saturday, means we'll be doing one of our final Twitch Sings streams, with the game shutting down on January 1st. Se we got tonight and next Saturday the 26th, and maybe December 31st if we want to close the year out with Twitch Sings. Actually no that wouldn't quite work as the 29th starts up the next Division 2 manhunt and the question of if PowerThumbz is going to start that then and finishing up the 31st. Ack! I'll figure it out... who would've though that the Division 2 would've became such a major part of my streaming line up? I sure as hell didn't.

And on that bombshell, we'll wrap things up here, catch ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden


Achievements and Trophies For The Week

Tale Within a Tale in Dragon Age II Listened to Varric begin his tale of the Champion of Kirkwall. Nefarious in Dragon Age II Allied yoursel...