Dragons With A Side Of Quests

Happy Halloween everybody,

Extracted Tooth Healing Update... keeping foot bits out of the closing gum where the tooth was is at times easy and other times hard...

Anyway last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was kind of slow paced at first as I wanted to focus on finding all those quests that had plus signs, which indicated it unlocks something, like access to Beastman quests, extra dungeons, harder versions of major boss battles, extra types of skill sets (Blue Mage, Gunbreaker) or various features (like a stylish).

And we ended up doing a few dungeon runs that were kind of cool... but then there was that hour spent attempting to deal with 'The Striking Tree' which is the Extreme version of the battle against Ramuh (aka the primal with the epic beard)... and one thing I realized is that the FFXIV level scales every thing, so abilities I was learning above level 50 can't be used in the fight. We came very close to beating him twice in tn that hour... and I feel like I learned enough to get an idea of how to stay out of danger... just as long as there is a good shot caller!

In terms of the Main Story Quest, well I wrapped up the remaining level 54-55 quests from "A General Summons" to "The Song Begins" which basically ends the big Dragon war on Ishgard with the defeat of Nidhogg where some big plots points were revealed. One being that the mortals betrayed the dragons was the true history of events, Two being that Nidhogg was blinded during those events when was seeking revenge, Third, Nidhogg's eye was that Hraesvelgr... which raises the question... if Nidhogg was blinded in both eyes, and one of the eyes is with Estinien ... where is Nidhogg's other eye?

In terms of off-stream progression following the stream, things continued to The Vault dungeon, and the introduction of Hilda who has a very cool design... and it has become real obvious a good portion of Heavansward story line is actually a different version of the tried and true JRPG 'go after religion leaders' trope. Which makes sense, because just look at the world today, religion is often the thing keeping people apart in many instances... at least that's how it always seems to me.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Twitch Clip Links

• I got nuked! We came so close!
  
• That is Hudson... My Chocobo
• Defeat The Krakken!
• Putting Down Nidhogg! 
  

After over 15 years finally got a lead on Requiem From the Darkness Volume 4. The series was a bit of a Horror anthology, and the DVDs are really tough to find. Would be nice to complete the entire set.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Double Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Advanced Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 550 kcal.

It's Sunday which means it's time for this week's Twitch Bits... and this past week we featured Overwatch, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Gears of War: Judgement, Street Fighter III: New Generation, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Final Fantasy XIV, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Devil May Cry & Resident Evil CODE Veronica X!

For tonight's stream, and with it being Sunday, Overwatch is on deck, as we celebrate Halloween for the third and final week of the Halloween Terror Event. I still need 9 points to get the Roadhog skin, so that will be my focus for sure!

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

May Buffy Slay Evil Vampire Residents That Make The Devil Cry

 Good afternoon everybody,

Well last night's stream was all over the place... in what turned out to be a triple header of PlayStation 2 games.

First was Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, originally released in 2003 to fairly-good reviews, it is a third-person beat-em up with puzzle elements. You get to play as Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike plus Sid the Dummy, and there are various behind the scene unlockables like interviews with the members of the cast that actually did voice work for the game... of which Sarah Michelle Gellar is not one of them. The likenesses are pretty on point, a fact James Masters pointed out with him being pleased with how Spike looked. The controls are responsive when brawling but the use of long range weapons like a crossbow and the wonky camera makes it a chore to get through.Now the plan was to play this the entire stream... however the PS2 had some issues and I was not about to go through the entire 2nd level again!

So the second game we played with the PS2 version of Resident Evil: CODE Veronica X. Originally released on the Dreamcast in 2000, it is the TRUE Resident Evil 3... for those who don't know, Sony bitched to Capcom about wanting a numbered game as the next Resident Evil game on the PlayStation.... so what became Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was slapped together using a lot of assets from Resident Evil 2. The PS2 port came out in 2001... and one could say it's been a good 20 years since I first played it... and re-learning to use the tank controls took a lot of effort. Now I'd liked to think I was making progress but a puzzle just stumped me and I was wasting ammo taking out enemies that spawned back into areas I covered already trying to find a solution for the Hawk Medal. and I refused to look up the solution for it after trying everything I could think of and rechecking areas several times for items I have missed!

The final game we checked out was Devil May Cry, originally released on the PS2 in 2001... and it was originally intended to be a game in the Resident Evil series, but it's mechanics for gameplay was so different it got turned into its own things. There is a bit of a learning curve with reading the enemies tactics to realize how to counter, and there are Resident Evil like puzzles and camera angles which. Since I was playing the PS2 version, I have to say it's visual still hold up nicely when compared to it's HD counterpart on Dteam.

How would I know that?

Well after the stream we sent the fun over to spacepiratezod who was playing the Steam version of Devil May Cry over at twitch.tv/spacepiratezod!

Twitch Clip Links

• Well we're dead... 
• What the Puckery Is This?!
• According to Buffy... Just what a girl needs... 
• That Did Not Take Long...
• Get Off Me!
• Open The Shutters 
• We Done Did The Thing... Poorly 
• Am I Supposed To Just Run? 
• Strike A Pose Dante! I Have The Power!

 I did notice looking at clips that the game audio was being captured and displayed a few seconds ahead of the footage... for me the audio was in real time to what I was seeing while playing    which wasn't noticeable on the clips from Wednesday night.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises: Uppercut Combo #2, Body Uppercut Combo & Body Hook Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 420 kcal. My weight is currently at 245 lbs.

Managed to find a copy of Gungrave volume 7... still need to find volume 6 though.

Actually started to plan out a schedule for what games to feature on which days for this week, Sunday night Overwatch, Monday & Tuesday Night: Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Wednesday night Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact & Gears of War: Judgement, Thursday Night Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, with Friday and Saturday still up in the air, one of those nights will be for Final Fantasy XIV.

Let's talk about work, on Thursday Night I was asked if I could start earlier than normal since it was expected to be a short shift... so with that in mind, I figured things would be done by like 1 or 2 PM... nope... I still ended getting in the full hours in because we got real close to closing out an assignment. Thing is, with how the day went I could've started at my usual time and worked till my usual time because of how things were going.

Last night's off-stream Final Fantasy XIV progress saw a focus on advancing the plot to A General Summons which sees a return to the focus on the issues in Ul'dah after a lot of major revelations was revealed regarding why the dragons are on a rampage and why there will be no peace, plus explaining an instance from earlier in the game where one enemy turned into a dragon. Also started putting my attention onto the Quest Plus stuff to unlock content and features... why means at some point I'm gonna have to do things on 'extreme' difficulty.... five buck says folks like Kalenal will get a kick out of me trying to keep up with the props on things like facing Shiva. 

For tonight's stream, I think we're gonna mess around with Final Fantasy XIV, just to get more ground covered as it relates to knocking out side quests and stuff.

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

The Fantasy Is Not Final Even Beyond The Clouds

Good morning everybody,

Post Tooth Extraction Update, where the tooth once was feel okay, slight stinging sensation, but my attention now turns to a slight gum issue I had prior... since at the moment I cannot use the oral rinse I was prescribed to use back in September, and using regular mouth wash is out of the question as well, it makes things a little interesting.

Still last night's stream featured Final Fantasy XIV because on Monday we'll get back to featuring a large major game several days a week instead of a bunch of little ones like we've been doing for the past month and half.

So the the majoring of the focus was on everything in Dravania , so the level 52 to 53 quests, which involved realizing the dragons are at wall with someone and that has stirred up their blood lust and why they are attacking Ishgard. Iceheart is with us as an in game story companion, and she actually does something but fighting as Shiva against Ravana.... she looses, but it was nice to see an in-game story character fight a primal for a few moments. Also discovered that Ravana also has a knock off the ledge mechanic which I absolutely 'loved' (heavy sarcasm folks)... the following dungeon which lead to the next major area of the game was pretty fun, even if I didn't understand the reasoning behind some of the mechanics in the boss fights.

As far as open areas to explore, Dravania is a real cluster, with a lot of awkward angles needed to find ways up and around, and this was really exposed when I dedicated time to doing side quests in the area. I don't understand why somethings were placed so awkward with no real obvious way to get them unless you just happen to stumble across something out of place.... and if it was meant to show how handy flying is, then locking out the ability to fly with your mount after you earned it is even more questionable I feel as if I'm gonna have to take a night to just use a wiki to find all the loose Aether Currents in each area and do whatever quests are associated with them just to get hem out of the way.

Anyway, I obviously continued doing some Final Fantasy XIV stuff off-stream, and went tracking down said Aether Currents in the first two open areas of the Heavansward expansion, then got back to work on the Bard quests, which involved fighting along side a Moogle Bard in an epic battle against a Banshee... which I kind of wished was apart of last night's stream... but that's the trouble of playing an MMORPG with my tendency of looking for a variety of content to feature, a lot of stuff isn't going to be seen during a stream.

Following the stream we sent the fnn over to SmoresDaFloof was playing Growbot over on twitch.tv/SmoresDaFloof!  

Twitch Clip Links

Shiva needs to go train under Piccolo and learn how to DODGE!

Hey... One simply DOES Walking Into Moldor! 

What the hell.... off the ledge I go!

Managed to track down a copy of Sudden Impact starring Clint Eastwood, now you would think this would be an easy movie to track down, however there was a specific version I wanted and that was the 2001 DVD which was apart of the 'Clint Eastwood Collection'. Why did I want that version? Well it's because I have the rest of the Dirty Harry films from that same collection, and I wanted to complete the set.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises Beginner Combo #1, Hook Combo #2 and Front-Back Step Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 420 kcal.

For tonight's stream, we're gonna take a special look at Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds for the PlayStation 2... not really to beat it or anything, because I remember the gaming being really bad, this will be more of like a one-off 'Halloween' weekend special.

So on that bomb shell we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

A New Generation Of Street Fighter Is The Judgement For Gears of War

Good morning everybody,

Well, how's the tooth extraction healing? Well I've been feeling a little sore in the spot, kind of like a pressure dull pain... nothing too bad, but enough to say, let me go pop in a couple of Tylenol. Talking felt weird at times which made work a bit interesting.

Last night's stream lead off with Street Fighter III: New Generation as part of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. Originally released in arcades way back in 1997, it got.... a mixed reaction. Now I never played it in the arcades, so to dedicate serious time to playing to see if I could figure some stuff out was interesting. Standard arcade mode, beat six opponents randomly selected from the limited roster before facing the boss... the two-toned Gill. 

Since it's set after the events of Street Fighter V, Street Fighter III: New Generation was intended to be the launching point for a new set of fighters, hence why only Ken and Ryu are in the game... but no one liked the fact that know of the old favorite weren't there, Too me, the small roster gives off some Street Fighter Alpha vibes minus an actual story element. 

Clearing the arcade mode took some effort, as my first run was to use only Ryu... but ended up switching to Ken to defeating Gill out right. Second run was as Ibuki and managed to get through it without feeling the need to switch, as Ibuki felt almost like Sakura in terms of how I like to play Capcom Fighting games. Third run featured a few different characters through out it to try different stuff before clearing it with Ryu... so it all went full circle.

We did do a bit of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix last night as well, in an attempt to grab a few achievements, but came up short. I had a hell of a shot of clearing the Arcade Mode without using a continue but lost my focus when facing Akuma. We'll give it another shot down the road.

Iceman joined in at the half-way point as we continued Gears of War: Judgement, clearing Acts III and IV with plenty of things going wrong at various points. The developers certainly put in a bit of effort trying to keep the game fresh, where you have different ways to attack enemies and how they want you to approach each situation. Finding the COG tags turned out to be quite solid, finding 13 out of 14 in the act... granted I pulled up a guide, but hey, the odd placement of the tags means it counted for something!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. Support the Super Arts: Beat Street Fighter III: New Generation.

Gears of War: Judgment Achievements 

1. Never Forgotten: Recovered 10 COG Tags during the Campaign
2. The Real Thing: Completed Seahorse Hills
3. The Aftermath: Unlocked Aftermath
4. Level 10: Reached level 10
5. Take Back This City: Completed Onyx Point

Twitch Clip Links

• First Time Beating Gill in Street Fighter III: New Generation! 
• Winning with Ibuki's Super Art!
• I was on the receiving end of that... but it was cool! 
• We got that epic finish! It Needed to be 20% cooler! 
• What's Big Ugly And Goes Boom? 
• Thought it was still the cinematic! 
• You keep saying you're on my side but you keep running into my line of fire!
  

My own off-stream Final Fantasy XIV game play continued as I knocked out the remaining level 50-51 main story quests for Heavansward, where we learned about the history between the dragons and man, why there is bad blood, and that one dragon is lost to madness. Also trying to figure out the fucking Aether Currents to fly is a real pain in the ass. I find them and did quests to sync with them but I'm just not getting it. Apparently everything associated with them has to be done which makes zero sense... I get SquareEnix may have wanted to slow down players travel time, but c'mon man! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 423 kcal.

For tonight's stream I'm not completely sure what we're doing, I thought about maybe continuing big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions or loading up a larger game. We'll see, you know me I always make up my mind at some point!

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

 

Rumbling With A Missing Tooth

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday we took the day off of work to let the extracted tooth area heal, no blood or anything, have some general soreness that Tylenol helps with if it gets too bad, the real test will be today with work.

Last night's stream of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions certainly was good in terms of knocking out achievements, as we picked up nine... but getting through the arcade ladders was rather difficult... with at least one fighter, that being Andy 'Mad Dog' Pono, who is clearly a slugger and whose punches should pack more impact, but man I just had so much trouble getting a groove using him during his story. On the flip side, David 'Solo' Nez was really easy to use as he has some natural combos that will shove an opponent into the ropes and into the corners, certainly makes him the most comfortable fighter to use in the game. 

I'm seriously considering if I unlock every achievement except the one that requires completing an arcade ladder on Champion difficulty, we'll dedicate a night to it to go for 100% completion. Granted some achievements would need to be done off-stream because of the need of a second player, and while I have two controllers, I do not have anyone that would be able to come over to knock out the ones that require it. 

Still... I think in regards to this year's tour, I'll count the game as being finish once all Arcade tuns for every character is done with every alternate costume unlocked, which seems fair in my view.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Achievements

1. And Keep Moving Forward: Armor through a Basic Attack 30 times
2. Insecurity: Beat Andy "Mad Dog" Pono's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
3. Silent But Deadly: Beat Viktor Drago's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Defy The Odds: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 10 times
5. Broke Your Nose Again: Knock an opponent into the turnbuckle 3 times in a single match
6. Defy Logic: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 20 times
7. Lone Rider: Beat David "Solo" Nez's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Fight Club: Play a Versus match with adjusted Match Options
9. Fulfill An Incredible Dream: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 30 times
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Thank Goodness He Stayed Down!
• He's Dead! 
• The Big K.O.!
  

Following the stream as ya'll saw, I did jump in to help PowerThumbz and Iceman with the 'Hunting The Hunters' gimmick for The Division 2... which lets be honest wasn't all that interesting in terms of the set up for it, run around shoot things at designated in-game times... which is just... plain idiotic. It was fun to play with them, but come on, it splitting it between in-game day and night cycles is annoying. It was not all pointless, as I did pick up an in-game achievement during it.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Achievements

1. Arrow to the Knee: Shoot 10 enemies in the leg with a crossbow.
   

Over in my adventures off-stream with Final Fantasy XIV, I finished up A Realm Reborn, and began Heavnsward, which introduces new areas and plots to the game... with every other member of the Scions missing except for my character, Tataru and Alphinaud. The new area of Ishgard is certainly styled around a castle and a church, but is pretty vacant, at least compared to the first major city-states I've seen. I only saw one of the major open field areas, and it was certainly a challenge to navigate as it appears to be a series of floating islands, with weird ramps and not really a lot of room to maneuver in case of enemies being on the more narrow parts. Still I am looking forward to see the next phase of the story play out!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises Triple Combo 32, Intermediate Combo 31 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a estimated calorie burn of 503 kcal.

For tonight's stream, it will be split with things being played on the Xbox One side, the first half of the stream will feature something random, then at around 9 PM Eastern, Iceman will be joining in as we continue Gears of War Judgement, picking up on Act III!

So on thate note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

Down A Tooth, Dragnet & Final Fantasy XIV...

 Good morning everybody,

Did not do a Twitch stream last night as the aftermath of having the tooth removed meant I had to switch out the gauze periodically.

So instead I did a watch along in my Discord of the movie Dragnet, starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks. I remember watching this movie a lot as kid, as we had a VHS tape of it. Using the corrupt nature of the 'moral outrage' leaders of the time, the plot sees Detective Sargent Joe Friday and his new partner tackle a series of crimes all connected to extortion, kidnapping and murder.

While in many way a parody of the radio drama and TV show of the same name created by Jack Webb, the 1987 movie is also a great tribute as well, as Aykroyd's impression of Webb speaking manner was on point, plus Tom Hanks' Pep Streebeck serves as a nice comedic counter balance. There are a few easter eggs in the film as well, from the obvious photo of Jack Webb on the desk, to a publicity shot of Harry Morgan and Jack Webb seen in Morgan's character of Captain Gannon... as Morgan co-starred on one iteration of the TV series.

Also the original sound track and score for Dragnet is pure 80s goodness in terms of a rock sound, particularly during a few of the action scenes (such as when Friday and Pep are chasing Muzz for the first time, the escape from the People Against Goodness and Normalcy festival, etc).   

Thank you to everyone who popped into the Discord to watch along, helped take my mind off of the fact I'm missing apart of myself!

Prior to heading out to the Dentist for the removal of a molar... I did get in some Final Fantasy XIV, mostly because I had time to fill, and I did a 'quick alliance', and a few main story quests, as things seem to be picking up with the Ishgard being a major focal point while the turmoil happening in Ul'dah seems to have the long term slow build to it as it seems to be transitioning from a monarchy or a republic. Moenbryda seemed to be a real cool character.... and then when I got back home from the Dentist... I put in more time on FF14 to keep my mind off of things.

I continued playing almost non-stop from about 8:30 PM to 2:45 AM, and dealt with dragons, immortals and then witness once of the biggest what the fuck moments I have ever seen in a video game, with the coup that takes place at the every end of A Realm Reborn in patch 2.55, which sees our hero being separated from the comrades I've come to know and like. I didn't have time to completely close it out before Fin

So what was it like to have a tooth pulled? Well for one I had heavily before hand so I wouldn't feel like eating afterward... they had to use two shots of the anesthetic to get me to feel numb... and the pressure of it being pulled out hurt like hell, so thank goodness for the anesthetic. Here were the instructions i was given.

Instructions Following Tooth Extraction and Oral Surgery

1. Your mouth will be 'asleep' for about 2 hours after surgery. Do not chew anything 2 hours or bite your tongue or lips while 'asleep'
2. Keep the gauze pac on the surgical site for half hour, and do not spit or rinse for 24 hours
3. Bleeding should normally be light when gauze is removed after 2 hours, do not disturb site, do not put anything on the site or on your face, it will heal by itself (No Hot or No Cold packs)
4. Pain should be controlled by over the counter meds like ES Tylenol, Motrin or Aleve, do not use any med containing aspirin (No Excedrin, Bayer, etc). If your surgery was extensive, Take the prescription medication prescribed by the dentist
5.  You should Avoid Smoking for 3 days, if at all possible, smoking is the main cause of Dry Socket, a condition where the bone does not heal normally and may get infected and be very painful as a result
6. Slight swelling may occur with more extensive surgery starting after surgery and continuing for 3 days. This may be normal but if accompanied by fever or if very swollen and not getting better after 3rd day, it requires a return visit to be checked by the dentist for infection or dry socket condition
7. Do not stop eating, nutrition is important for healing. Eat soft or light good on the other side and drink fluids. In other words, eat and drink as normally as possible but stay away from the surgical site
8. If any unusual symptoms occur, call or come into office for evaluation
   

I can safely say Tylenol does a hell of a job of masking the pain, and I feel the minor bleeding stopped around 7 hours after the dental visit... hopefully today won't be too bad.  When I woke up there was no noticeable pain, just a bit of soreness as it appears to be closing up. 

Finally, after 15+ years, added volume six of Chrono Crusade to my DVD collection, meaning I just need to track down volume 7 to complete the set! Also we added a physical copy of The Wolf Among Us for the Xbox One.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 34 minutes with the following exercises: Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo 31 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 for an estimated calorie burn of 631 kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Big Rumble Boxing Creed Champions, going through the Arcade Mode for several characters to unlock stuff and possible get achievements! Plus PowerThumbz and Iceman are probably doing some Division stuff so we might join them around the 10 PM hour mark, so it might be a fairly long stream for a Tuesday. Which means using both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One... should be interesting.

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

From Overwatch Last Night To A Tooth Removal This Afternoon

Good morning everybody,

Well today's the day... I'm having a tooth removed... a molar on the right side of the mouth... am I nervous, yes I am... anyway my appointment is at 3:30 PM Eastern, and I should be home well before it's time for the nightly broadcast, but I'm not to sure of how bad the pain will be...

Anyway, last night's stream of course featured Overwatch as did a a couple runs of Junkenstein's Revenge, Quick Play and Mysteyr Hero bouts! Big thanks to PandaSweet and Oedu for joining in on the fun as we had our fair share of wins and losses when people were playing right... but we ran into a couple of players who elected not to focus on the objective at times. I picked up a few plays of the games as D.va, Junkrat and Torbjourn so that was cool!

Big shout out to oeduhc for following my Twitch channel last night as well, which means we have reached 1,100 followers! Woo-hoo, milestone!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to sw33ts_gaming over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming as they were playing Back 4 Blood!

Twitch Clip Links

• Triple Kill!
• Just another Quad Kill
• A lucky landing 
  

Off-Stream stuff, made more progress on the Main Story Quest of Final Fantasy XIV from 'Coming to Terms' to 'Let Us Cling Together , which meant I ended up facing Shiva and wrapping up the Dreams of Ice story arc... and then I learned the next portion of the story is locked behind a trio of trials, to face Ifriti, Titan and Garuda once again... this time in the 'Hard' variants of their battles. 

That to be honest is kind of a bullshit way of introducing the 'repeat battles for rewards' mechanic with more of an intense difficulty challenge to be quite honest... because the Titan fight is the only one to me that doesn't make any sense! I mean seriously, there is virtually no tell when he jumps up and lands on ya, there is a ledge that if you fall off it you can't be revived... it's a total cluster fuck man! I mean seriously, how the hell can Titan be harder than Shiva who was added as a boss battle with a default hard difficulty from the start?! 

Speaking of Shiva... I do have to say, I love her design in FFXIV... then again, Shiva has always looked good in all of her appearances in the Final Fantasy games I've played.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 456 kcal. 

Here is the EX achievement update for Fitness Boxing 2 as of today... 318/365 consecutive days for One Year's Hard Work.... 26/30 hours for Janice's Contender.... 318/350 stamps for Unparalleled Stamper... 441,144/450,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 4.

Tonight's stream as I mention at the start is questionable, as dealing with the gauze and other gimmicks I have to deal with regarding a pulled tooth may result in me being way out of it. I just know I'm fully stocked on apple sauce, yogurt and ice cream are all on hand. If I feel like I'm up to streaming, we may just play Final Fantasy XIV, but if I'm not we'll do a watch along over in my discord, the movie I have in mind is Dragnet.

So on that bombshell, I hope to see ya later today over on twitch.tv/fredcasden if note, if you're not apart of the Discord community, let me know and I'll invite ya, but otherwise be sure to check out Kalenal who normally streams Monday over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Clementine's Journey Comes To An End

Good afternoon everyone...

Well last night's stream went way longer than I expected, but we covered all four episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season in one play through... I probably should have split it into two streams, but with the removal of a tooth scheduled for Monday, so I made the choice to play it how we played.

So the Final Season takes place three years after the events of New Frontier, and Clementine has recovered AJ from where David Garcia sent him. Because we kept Clem with Kenny at the end of season two, the fact that Clem can drive a stick shift makes a lot more sense. A big premise of The Final Season is tied to the fact that Clementine is now 'Lee' in that she is trying to raise AJ the right way, so every decision and choice matters to determine how he'll be in the end.

The Final Season also sees where Clementine has two potential love interests in the form of Violet and Louis, and shock of shock, we rolled Clem with Violet on the simple grounds of Louis not knowing when to shut up, a fact that leads to him getting his tongue cut out when he and others are captured by Lily, who turns up like a bad penny. That said, with Violet it comes across as two people who has gone through a lot of trauma finding each other in the most screwed up of circumstances... plus if you save Louis instead of Violet, she turns against you on Lily's boat

The reappearance of Lily is reminder of the selfish nature of humanity, and the 'me first' attitude as it expands on a few things that was already hinted at in A New Frontier, in that different settlements and factions are going to war with each other. We learn that Richmond, where Javier and Kate were, was a war zone by the time Clem found AJ. The other thing regarding Lily is that it is a strong call back to the first season and the idealistic differences between her and everyone else.

Of course the fact that Clementine gets bitten and her fate pretty much is left in the hands of AJ (she lives regardless) is really not needed, because when you look at the circumstances, Clementine could have avoided getting her foot sliced open that left her vunerable... I know why the developers had it happen, for the drama and to set up Clementine being Lee in telling AJ to either kill her or to run away... but considering Clem's streak of getting out of trouble, I kind of feel having it being a determining factor based on player's reaction time would've been better. Maybe having the time to react being shorter than every other instance, making it a near impossibility unless you act quickly enough would've meant Clem doesn't part of her leg.

Maybe I'm too hard on that aspect of the game with it being fresh in my mind at the time I'm writing this, but when you consider the dream Clementine has when she is talking to Lee to get some reassurance about her choices, which is even more heart breaking to watch...because you know Lee would've been proud of how Clem turned out, that everything he did in season one mattered. Add into the fact that for my play through of all the games, we kept the ties strong with the first season, siding with Kenny in every way possible in Season Two, plus bringing up Lee when we could as someone who meant the world to Clementine.

In my opinions, The Final Season was a great way for the TellTale series of Walking Dead games to end, as it ends with Clementine in a good place... however, I do have my concerns considering that the folks at Skybox have decided to continue Clementine's story in a comic book format. Now if they were doing the full series of games in a comic book format from start to end and then continuing the story from there, that would be cool, it would put it in the same realm as comic adaption of The Wolf Among Us... but a straight up continuation, where Clementine leaves AJ  behind just feels... wrong... 

Big thanks to long time friend of the channel Refoxukcov for using Twitch Prime to sub to my channel! The support is always appreciated!

Anyway Following the stream we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was playing House Flipper over at twitch.tv/ggvexy! 

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Achievements

1. Protector: Completed The Final Season Episode 1
2. Defender: Completed The Final Season Episode 2
3. Leader: Completed The Final Season Episode 3
4. Savior: Completed The Final Season Episode 4

Twitch Clip Links

• That's Romantic 
• You're Slipping Into The Boat! 
  
• Clem Gets Bit
• Clementine AXing Questions 
• Recovering Clem's Hat
  

So if the stream went 9 hours what time did I get to bed... late... or early... depends on how you look at 4 AM when you factor in all the post-stream stuff I do! Hell most people know these blogs are mostly written after each stream, which is when I put together the Facebook Highlight reels (along with the Twitch Bits following the Saturday streams). I really should consider starting Saturday and Sunday streams earlier...

It's time for this weeks Twitch Bits video, collecting clips which features moments from Overwatch, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. Final Fantasy XIV, Gears of War: Judgement, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions & The Walking Dead: The Final Season! 

Of stream Final Fantasy XIV stuff, I did some playing yesterday afternoon, completing the series of Guildhests to have them available for the daily duty finder, plus knocking out the first two quests of the Dreams of Ice story arc, Traitor in the Midst and Back and Fourth, Even tried my hand at FF14's PVP content... which was a confusing mess!

By the way when it comes to archiving streams, things are being ported over to YouTube early, but they don't become viewable until a day or two later, depending on what's being sent over with scheduled 'going live' times of 9 AM.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Hook Combo #1, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Block Combo for an estimate calorie burn of 470 Kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Overwatch because it is Sunday! We'll handle it as we did last week, mix of Junkenstein's Revenge and Quick Play matches!

So see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

The Primals And The Crystal Towers

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream was a ton of fun with Final Fantasy XIV taking center stage. Of course we did stream it on Tuesday to finish the original campaign, but the reason we played it last night was because I didn't want to start up something else just yet.

So what did we do during FF14? Well the first big thing was dedicate time to doing the Crystal Tower story quest, which involved two Alliance Raids, since I did the first one off-stream on Thursday night, Both went smoothly... but there is a special place in hell for whoever came up with the ABC stuff for the fight against Cerberus in the 3rd Alliance Raid.

Of course a huge focus was playing the Main Story Quest, and we covered the second half of Through the Maelstrom (Patch 2.2), which saw the big battle against Leviathan, and huge thanks to Kalenal (twitch.tv/Kalenal) for jumping in to be apart of that and to coach me up on what needs to be during it. Then then MSQ content continued into the Defenders of Eorzea story arc  (Patch 2.3) and knocking out over half of it including the battle against Ramuh who truly has an epic beard.

The plot regarding the refugees and how some are treated in comparison to those who just arrived (Yugiri's people) is certainly borderline close to being a parallel to real world issues on immigration and taking care of the poor, to the point that if some of the dialog that didn't have voice acting did have it, it would have a hell of a lot more bite to it.

Also of note, I did knock out the back half of the Patch 2.3. story stuff off stream in the middle of the night as well, mostly because I realized the Guildhest are not just group tutorials but actual mini-dungeons.

Thank you to eltipometroidvania for the follow! I know they stream so you can check them out over on twitch.tv/eltipometroidvania! 

Also thank you to Dango42 for the raid! They were playing Final Fantasy XIV as well over on twitch.tv/Dango42! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Pack 8 over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!  

Twitch Clip Links

Learning How To Handle The Leviathan Battle

Let The Sun Shine In! 

I comment on the Music... and I get zapped...

Going through my DVD collection, I realize that I may need to add a couple of things to make it complete or look neat... so I'm in the process of tracking down a copy of Sudden Impact starring Clint Eastwood, which is of course apart of the Dirty Harry series of films, as well as Volumes 6 & 7 for both Gungrave and Chrono Crusade, two anime series from the early 2000s. 

Picked up Tales from the Glory Hole by Drace Domino, it is a tie-in to their earlier book Rise of the Battlebitch which was a great read. Also added Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning for the PlayStation 4 to the collection as well.

People are asking if the prop weapons that Alec Baldwin used to accidentally end the life of Filmmaker Halyna Hutchins are dangerous.... gee, let's go ask Brandon Lee who was on the receiving end of a prop malfunction back in 1993! Look if you're using weapons as props for films and if they are not correctly maintained, configured and triple check for safety purposes of course they are going to be fucking dangerous! Could it have been prevented yes, but at the very least this may see the stop of using REAL guns in film making.

There are some character changes in coming for Overwatch. Torbjorn's Overload's cool down is being reduced as is the consumption of ammo used when using the Rivet Gun's alternate fire. McCree's Deadeye is getting a shorter slower damage ramping speed and his combat roll can be used in the air, Moira's Biotic Orbs will have a slower speed when it has a target, and Junkrat is getting a near rework so that he's better at close range to reduce his long-range spam potential 

Speaking of McCree... he's getting a new name, Cole Cassidy... and to which I ask... when is Butch Sundance joining Overwatch? I'm apologizing for that joke, because everyone else picked up on the obvious 'Coal and Ash' because of the character of Ashe... me, I'm going for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reference!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minuets with the following exercises.: Beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 478 kcal... and I'm two months away from turning 39... ugh....

For tonight's stream we'll be playing The Walking Dead: The Final Season to wrap up that series! We'll start early because the goal is to play all four episodes!

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

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Is A Lot Of Fun!

 Good morning everybody,

For last night's stream, we hooked up the PS4 and played Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions for the first time!

Now I wasn't expecting much, maybe just a modern take on the Rocky games that were released for the PS2 over 15 years ago... in terms of presentation and how it looks, it's a real pretty game. The character models are on point for the licensed characters of Rocky, Apollo, Adonis, Clubber, the Dragos and the villain from the first Creed movie. There is a nice set of arenas, plus a back alley location, so not every fight is in the ring. The music is nice, with the real gem (and DMCA nightmare being Eye of the Tiger from Survivor).

Game play wise... it's a button masher, while the controls are simplistic... it's really more about overwhelming the opponent with a barrage of punches in a quick fashion. There does seem to be a delay or lag when it comes to blocking and dodging, which makes it a lot tougher than it needs to be.Still once I got the hang of it I was able to put some combos together

Now surprisingly there are quite a few unlockables, from bonus characters to alternate attires, and there are two ways of doing getting them. One is to go through the arcade mode with every default fighter at least once to unlock their respective alternate attires and a corresponding bonus character (example beating Arcade Mode with Rocky, unlocks Rocky's alternate trunks as well as Apollo Creed). The other method is to just do versus matches and grind out the requirements needed via an XP type bar to unlock something random.

With that said, I highly suggest and encourage going through the arcade mode, because every character has a story. With Rocky, he's telling Adonis stories, and you are replaying some of the big fights from the films, plus a couple to help stretch out the story mode. With Adonis, he's in a fixed tournament going up against guys he had issues with it... then you have Ramirez, whose story is a prequel to the original Rocky, where he is dealing with a loan shark and it caps off with street fight against a young Rocky... then you have Scraps, whose story is a fever dream involving having to fight for world peace against Ivan Drago and the resurrected Apollo Creed. 

Perhaps the biggest drawback is lack of online multiplayer, considering the roster, it seems like it would be a blast to play online. Oh well....

With Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions being a PlayStation 4 title, there are plenty of achievements to earn, and the best part is, because of the Arcade mode being a story mode, it justifies me streaming it again! And you can bet we'll go through everyone's story!  

Following the stream we sent the fun over to eltipometroidvania who was playing Super Punch-Out! over at twitch.tv/eltipometroidvania! 

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Trophies

1. This Guy Is Still Standing?: Land a Super Move 3 times in a single match
2. Finality: Win a match by Knockout using a Super Move
3. Ain't How Hard You Hit: Armor through a Basic Attack 10 times
4. Unmistakable Fire: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 3 times in a single match
5. It's How Hard You Can Get Hit: Armor through a Basic Attack 20 times
6. Sunshine And Rainbows: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 10 times
7. The Legend: Beat Rocky "The Italian Stallion" Balboa's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Eye Of The Tiger: Win a match without Slip Countering or blocking any attacks
9. No Playing: Perform a Slip Counter 10 times
10. Imma Let You Finish: Interrupt an opponent's attack with a Super Move 10 times
11. No Jiving: Perform a Slip Counter 20 times
12. You Slip, I Slide: Slip Counter a Slip Counter 10 times
13. Just Business: Perform a Slip Counter 30 times
14. The Legacy: Beat Adonis "Hollywood" Creed's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
15. A Mean And Nasty Place: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 20 times
16. Flying High Now: Slip Counter your opponent 3 times in a single match
17. Head Trauma: Beat Luke "Scraps" O'Grady's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
18. Beat You To Your Knees: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 30 times
19. How Winning Is Done: Get the first Knockdown in a match without losing any health
20. One Step: Pierce an opponent's Guard with an Unblockable Move 5 times
21. Hit The Bars: Beat Axel "El Tigre" Ramirez's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty

Twitch Clip Links

• Rocky: "Yo!" / Drago: "Die"
• Eye Of The Tiger! 
• Watch it!
• Apollo Creed Is Back From The Dead?! 
  

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued with my attention turned to the Crystal Tower story line, which involved my first taste of the Alliance Raids... and boy, just being told 'kill stuff and don't die' certainly was inspiring on my first successful run of Labyrinth of the Ancients. Granted I was downed once... but still managed to get through it, thanks to one person putting in some tips as well as having a wiki up to see where I'm supposed to go. Turned my attention also to the next steps in the Main Story Questline, which introduces Yugiri and the Doma, who are refugees who we get to bring to Reverenant's Toll... and I also learned that I'm now on a collision course with the next Primal... Leviathan... why do I feel there's going to be a Primal a giant  Tonberry

Am I nervous about my Dental appointment on Monday afternoon... yes... yes I am.

Received my copy of Daria: The Complete Animated Series today, and I wasn't expecting the delivery, in fact I didn't get a notification it would arrive until late this evening... after it already arrived. That said this box set is the 8 disc variant with all 5 seasons plus the two movies. The box set itself is from the era where for some reason, every packaging maker tried to be cute, and so the discs don't on the pegs neatly. Oh well.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Advanced Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 494 kcal.

For tonight's stream we're going to do something random,,, not completely sure, as I want to save doing more Big Rumble Boxing for next week as a feature title! Plus on Saturday, we're playing The Walking Dead:  The Final Season, so we need something chilled for tonight. We'll see what I come up with!

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

Puzzles And Judgment

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream proved to be a lot of fun with a tad bit of frustration tossed in.

First off, we lead off with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, with the goal of trying to beat it on the HARD difficulty setting with Dan on the standard arcade mode, then do it with another character (Ryu) also on the HARD difficulty setting in the classic arcade mode. The difference between the two is some sort of subtle balance change , but I didn't notice any difference. We were successful on both attempts which was really cool, so we've officially added Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix to the games finished list for this years tour! 

Then at 9 PM, the half way point of the stream, Iceman joined in as we started up Gears of War Judgement, as we continue our journey through the Gears Saga with the game set earliest in the time line. Marcus and Dom are not in it, as the focus is on Baird and Cole. The controls are slightly different than in the first three games so it's taking some getting use to, and the enemies are certainly a hell of a lot more up in your face. Iceman has played it before but it's been a long time for him, so it's almost a totally blind play through. We did clear the first two ACTs, and there are six in total, plus a bonus one for finishing the story that takes place in Gears of War 3. 

The story For Gears of War: Judgement is that Baird and his team are on trial for basically going against the orders given to them, and everything is being told as a flash back. So Baird is in the role of Marcus, and Cole is along for the ride as well, with two new characters Sofia and Paduk. As Iceman tells me, this game is basically explaining Baird's attitude in the first three games where he basically doesn't give a fuck about what those in charge have to say! 

Now for the ugly side of the night, three times during the stream, everything just froze, the stream didn't go down, it's just froze... all the USB devices (webcam, Elgato, speakers, stream deck) disconnected and then reconnected. I tried looking for a solution in Event viewer after restarting the PC but couldn't find any system errors... which I suspect were erased after when I restarted the PC after the stream....

Also, Twitch Raids weren't working so we couldn't send the fun along to anyone last night... so that was disappointing.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Achievements

1. Modern Battle Master: You completed X’ Arcade Mode on Hard or Expert Difficulty.
2. The Longest Journey: Ya-hoo! You have completed X’ mode (Hard or Expert difficulty) using only Dan.
3. Classic Battle Master: You completed X Arcade Mode on Hard or Expert Difficulty.

Gears of War: Judgement

1. Challenge Accepted: Completed your first Declassified mission
2. Ribbon Master: Earned 3 unique Ribbons in any section
3. They Called Him Karn: Completed Museum Of Military Glory
4. Level 5: Reached level 5
5. Open Arms: Completed Halvo Bay Military Academy
6. A Peek into the Future: Watched Aftermath teaser 

 Can I just point out how much Donald Trump has made my job difficult with how he has brainwashed the people who were nuts to begin with? Not every political poll has to do with him, even if he has to be included because of his influence.

Acquired Zarya's skin for week two of Overwatch's Halloween Terror 2021 event, I have gotten pretty good at picking my shots as McCree during Junkenstein's Revenge.

Started the Seventh Astral Era Quests for Final Fantasy XIV last night as well, these were apart of patch 2.1 released who knows how many years ago.  Anyway, the big goal was to knock out Thornmarch, a quest that releases a new duty assignment for group raids... and after a long wait was able to get into it... and involved fighting Moogles and their king.... it took a few attempts, but someone was about to relay what needed to be done and we were successful in the end, and we knocked out the rest of the story progress that sees the Scions base relocated from Vesper Bay to Mor Dhona. Also learned that there is a mandatory side quest involving the Crystal Tower that has to be done... joy....

Got the confirmation / reminder call for my Dentist Appointment on Monday at 3:30 PM, and I'm still up in the air on if we're going to stream that night or just do a watch along in the Discord of something.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises Triple Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Uppercut Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 418 kcal

For tonight's stream we're going to hook up the PlayStation 4 and mess around with Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, since November will mark the 45th anniversary of the release of Rocky (I think... not sure)

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