An Improvement In Stream Quality

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch certainly was interesting, I got in quite a few matches as more than just D.va and Moira, played as Zenyatta, Brigitte, Tracer, Junkrat, Sombra, Torbjorn, Mei. Picked up one play of the game as D.va which was a quad kill... and I thought i had it clipped, but nope. At least I got a good triple kill with D.va later in the stream which we did manage to clip.  Big thanks as always to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun.

Now I do want to talk about the new Overwatch League skin for Sombra, and this was something PandaSweet made me realize, is that it looks as if it should be a Symmetra, as the overall esthetic of it seems more in line with her than it does for Sombra. Still it does look really good regardless.

Now let's talk about the 'improvement in stream quality', if the clips from last night are any indication the higher upload speed from Xfinity has lead to a clearer picture for those watching when I play PC games. See I was streaming at an Video Bit Rate upload of 2800 before, I have increased that to about 4000, and it has lead to a clearer picture. 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Triple Kill! Boo-Yah!
2. Just another Squish! 
3. Taking out the Widowmaker and then getting a nice Rip-Tire
   

We did not do a raid last night, instead we just hosted Maximillian_Dood who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD!

That said, we did get a raid last night from BeastMan8890 who was also playing Overwatch over on twitch.tv/BeastMan8890!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 featured the following exercises were Beginner Combo #1, Hook Combo #2 and Front-Back Step Combo.During the Free Training portion, I set a new personal best with Double Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. Now way I figure if I continue to do close to 60 minute workouts on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays with 30-40 minute workouts Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays, I might have Evan's Contender and Champion EX achievements fully knocked out by maybe around mid April.

Put in more achievement grinding in WWE 2K15 last night to ensure the Xbox daily achievement streak continued to today... in case what we're going to play doesn't result in anything achievements. Oddly enough, less than 3% of Xbox players accomplished the NXT Takeover achievement... that is just odd to me considering how 'hated' Cena was by so man people back in 2014 that they make it an actual achievement.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• NXT Takeover: Defeat John Cena using one of the NXT Superstars.
• Unknown veteran: Win 10 times using a custom Superstar.

For tonight's stream we're going to play Contrast, which is a Puzzle Platformer. I have played the Steam version several years ago.. and I don't think I ever played it on stream. Regardless ,we're going to use the Xbox One version for achievement purposes! If we finish the game early, we'll probably play some Gears 5 or Forza Horizon 4 as well. we'll see.

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

 

A Night Of SmackDown 2: Know Your Role

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream certainly was a throw back to the year 2000 with WWF SmackDown 2: Know Your Role. Now I would've just done exhibition matches, but turns out I didn't have a save file for it on any of my memory cards, so that meant going through the season mode to unlock various characters, like Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, the Mean Street Posse and others, which meant sitting through skipping matches I was not involved in and seeing the many... many cut scenes and the numerous loading screens.

Game play wise, SmackDown 2 is fine, and I was playing it on its hardest difficulty setting (unknowingly) and I was mostly using Shawn Michaels once we unlocked him. There was of course the awkwardness when Chris Benoit appeared, so that had to be glossed over to some degree. It is amazing looking at the roster from mid-2000 to realize who's dead and who's alive at this point, considering the major string of WWE Alumni deaths that occurred from 2005 to 2015, and to some degree marveling over who is still having matches every now and then.

Now we only got through to September of the Season mode, so this gives me an excuse to feature it again next week, probably on Saturday night to get the remaining characters... and probably count the game towards this years tour list, since we're doing an entire season.  

Twitch Clip Links

1. Getting the tag!
2. The Big Kick For the KO!
3. Lita is the Winner

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!  

As far as my own Final Fantasy XIV adventures go, I went hunting for some Blue Mage spells, grabbing a few fairly easily before I ran into some over whelming odds.

I forgot to get enough clips from last night's stream for the Facebook page's highlight reel... oops!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo. During the extra bits I was doing I set a new personal best for Block Combo set on No Mercy Difficulty. Following everything, I'm now at 49/50 for the Hiro's Champion achievement, so I should hit it tomorrow.

Okay, why are people being mad that Russell Westbrook is being called 'Westbrick'... the dude has bricked many shots during his NBA Career started back in 2008 with OKC. And it wasn't Skip Bayless who first started calling him that, calling Westbrook 'Westbrick', this goes back to the 2011 Playoffs against Dallas and shot 36%

My Xbox achievement streak continued early this morning with knocking out three achievements, and let me tell ya finding all the roads in LEGO® Valley was more of a pain in the butt than one would have thought... because some roads in the city center overlap!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• I Live My Life…: Reach Round 10 in the Horizon Drag Racing Series.
• Ground Force: Get 3 stars at a Danger Sign in a vehicle from the Trucks Car Type.
• Microscale Explorer: Discover all the roads in LEGO® Valley.
  

It's the start of a new week which means a video recap of the things we played over the last seven days, which included Overwatch, Light Fairytale, SoulCalibur, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal and WWF SmackDown 2 Know Your Role! 

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is... it's Sunday which means Overwatch!

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

Kamoshida Has Been Spiked

Good afternoon everyone,

Let me stress the fact that I'm really glad I set Persona 5 Royal to be exclusive to Friday nights, because man just letting the story breath and go at its pace takes quite a lot of time. Now we did cover quite a bit ground with last night's stream, don't get me wrong, but I really can't pictured playing Persona 5 on like a Monday or Tuesday.

That said, I found the first real boss fight against Kamoshida to be a hell of a brain test to learn about some of the mechanics of being aware of would be the best choice to steal the treasure, not to mention resulting in some big tension moments. Ann sparring Kamoshida's shadow self to make him atone for his misdeeds was quite the character moment for her. That said... Kamoshida's confession was certainly a great scene, but I'm curious as to know how much of the reaction to it in the game was influenced by the culture in Japan, as it certainly was more subdued than I was anticipating. 

Other things figured out was more side activities to do to increase Joker's state and keeping the Phantom Thieves with a solid amount of Yen, while growing the connection we have to some of the characters. I did kind of ending up straying from the guide a bit but things seem to proceed at their own pace anyway.I like the idea of the Mementos area for level grinding and finding items, seems like it would be a great way to balance out day-to-day streams when there is no Palace to deal with

On a side note, there were some pop culture reference I found real cute, such as The X-Folders as an in-game reference to the X-Files, Bubbly Hills 90210 (aka Beverly Hills 90210) and Guy McVer (aka MacGyver. Wonder how many more I'll be able to find

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Tokyo Tourist: Went to a hangout spot with someone.
• Punch That Clock!: Worked a part-time job.
• Castle of Lust: Seized: Completed the castle Palace.
• Phantom Thieves: Assemble!: Established your own squad of thieves.
• Leblanc Buffer: Cleaned up in Leblanc.
• One Step at a Time: Completed a Mementos request.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Finishing Kamoshida!
2. What?! WHAT?! 
3. Take Him Down Fully!
   

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Packs with their community over on twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Block Combo and Hook Combo #1. With the extra bits I was doing, I set a new personal best for Sway Back Combo on No Mercy Difficulty.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats 2/26 to 3/5/2022

• Punches  Thrown: 11,193
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4629.24
• Hiro's Champion Progress: 48 out of 50 hours trained
  

Extended my current Xbox Achievement streak by once again focusing on things in Forza Horizon 4... and of the seven achievements I accomplished last night, the biggest pain the ass was 'Record Breaker' which was to nail a speed trap at 258 MPH in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Keeping in mind that car could get to near 267 MPH, so one would assume that would be easy. But the problem is, there is really only one stretch of road in Forza Horizon 4 that can be done, and that's the M68... and there are 'NPC' cars on the road, which means they got in my way... repeatedly, which resulted in constant rewinding and resting on multiple attempts. It took me 30 minutes to accomplish it when I was going for it. The good new is, as of 4:45 AM Eastern, only 1.2% of Xbox players have accomplished that feat, so yay me!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Purple Split!: In Rivals, beat a Rival without receiving a "dirty time" penalty.
• Hatch Me If You Can: Complete the Festival Drag Strip in a Hot Hatch in under 25 seconds.
• Reaping the Rewards: Complete a race of 3 or more laps at The Goliath in a Forza Edition Car.
• First-Time Adventurer: Complete your first Team Adventure.
• Record Breaker: Get 258mph on a Speed Trap in the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.
• Never Tell Me the Odds: Win a race in the Peel P50.
• A Race in the Crowd: Complete 3 Blueprint Events created by other players

On a side note, with those seven achievements, I now have a combined gamer score of over 1000, which is roughly the equal to a full standalone game. 

People are still complaining about Overwatch 2 not being released yet, but at the same time, don't realize that the development time for a video game takes quite a while. Afterall, OW2 was only announced in November 2019, and let's keep in mind the Covid-19 Pandemic and all of Blizzard's own nonsense certainly caused delays.

Might try to track down physical copies of the WWE games released on the Xbox One prior to WWE 2K20 that can't be found digitally, easy achievement hunting there even if the online part doesn't work. Not too worried about lost DLC

For tonight's stream I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I'll make up my mind at some point! 

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

A Night of Multiplayer In Gears 5

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream saw me deep diving into the Multiplayer content of Gears 5 that has nothing to do with the campaign, as we played Horde Frenzy, Escape and several other multiplayer modes and had a damn good time doing it. Perhaps the most fun was the second Horde Frenzy which was set to Advance Difficulty and how cheap some of the deaths were.

Now here's the funny thing we manage to knock out several achievements because of it, which shocked me because I certainty am not playing Gears 5's multiplayer mode off stream, so the fact we ranked up to the point of hitting Corporal and Sergeant during the stream says a lot to some degree. Sure we have the boosts from when I started messing with Gears 5 back in December, but c'mon they certainnly can't be helping that much.

We did use the Xavier Woods skin for the entire stream, and I figured out how to do the in-match emotes and phrases for the character I''m using, it involves holding down the right analog stick and pressing a direction button that an emote or phrase is assigned to. 

The question becomes will we keep going back to Gears 5 every now and then just for the Multiplayer? Well, yeah, for me it now becomes like Forza Horizon 4, a game where we can go to to mess around with it and make progress. And since I have a good idea of how to make progress to move up the ranks to some degree,

Huge thanks to DaemonsW0lf for the huge raid following their stream of Hunt: Showdown over on twitch.tv/daemonsW0lf!  

Also thank you to LvStrikR and DaemonsW0lf for resubscribing, as well as to CuriousTKG for subscribing for the first time, and for the community gift subscriptions! That was awesome!

For the raid we dropped in on LifeWithStan who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

Gears 5 Achievements

• Perky's Revenge!: Got a kill with 3 Perks active in Horde
• Corporal Punishment: Reached the rank of Corporal in a Tour of Duty
• Sergeant at Arms: Reached the rank of Sergeant in Tour of Duty
• Once More From the Top: Re-upped!
• Shutout: Won a match of Gridiron and kept your opponents scoreless
• Take a Look Around: Completed a Versus match on Reactor, Blood Drive & Checkout
• In Total Control: Won a Control and/or KOTH match on 10 different maps

Twitch Clip Links

1. You can do it!
2. The Double In Free For All! 
3. We move the turrent as the doors are closing
   

It appears Capcom is looking to set the ground work of Tournament guidelines for Street Fighter VI to have some more control over how they want their games presented. It makes sense, but a lot of folks are upset about that.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1

Anyone blaming the owners for the lost start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season clearly doesn't realize that the demands of the players makes no sense in either the short term or the long term. Because guess what, only a handful of players will still make 'mega money' in the hundreds of millions because of snake oil salesmen like Scott Boras, who controls the leadership of the players union!

Messed around some with Forza Horizon 4 to try and find the final missing roads I need... but man that is a challenge. Did managed to accomplish a couple of achievements last night that extend my streak through today.

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Antique Restorer: Find and restore 15 Barn Finds.
• Time for an Adventure!: Play your first unranked Free-for-All Adventure.

I am laughing my ass off over Kim Kardashian being declared single and how that must really strike a blow to the ego of Kanye West. Hey if that drama is always on my news feed for whatever reason deemed by the algorithms then you better believe I'm all for anything to causes the most over-rated entertainer of all time. And lets be honest, he hasn't had a true hit song in over a decade with Power.

For tonight's stream we're going to play Final Fantasy XIV, and the focus will first be on the Pandemonium raids, so yes we will be doing all four raids. And depending on how long that takes we'll also do some more Blue Mage and Fishing grinding as well!

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

Far From A Flawless Victory

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream featured the story mode of Mortal Kombat IX, which of course is just known as Mortal Kombat because it was a reboot of the franchise and a re-telling of the story of the first three Mortal Kombat games, introducing a new generations to all the characters... and killing a quarter of them!

I'm not kidding, for all the good that comes with the story of Mortal Kombat IX, they really went out of their way to kill off a good chunk of the 'good aligned' characters. Sure many were brought back in Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11, but the infamous moment when Sindel one shots everyone but Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage in chapter 15 really is a way of saying 'none of these characters matter'. And then there were some of the fights and how wonky the game can be with how block heavy some can be, and Shao Khan can be an absolute monster unless one is spamming certain special moves, but that is what it is. 

Some of the character model designs still look good for a decade old game, while others certainly didn't age that well. The controls are still pretty damn responsive by modern standards, and the impact of every attack sounds really damn good. That said, some of the audio was mixed oddly to suppress the stage music, but Mortal Kombat has never been a franchise known for having good music

Now we also went ahead an unlocked 50% of the Krypt during the stream, getting a good portion of the alternate costumes. And I am considering doing more Mortal Kombat IX stuff associated with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Wednesdays, since we'll be using the Xbox One console for the later when teaming up with Iceman.  The big thing I do want to accomplish with Mortal Kombat IX is 'mastery' of one character, and that would require 24 hours of play time using one character, 100 victories, 100 finisher, 10,000 pints of blood and 100 X-ray attacks done

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Halfway There!: Complete Story Mode 50%
• There Will Be Blood!: Spill 10000 pints of blood
• Cold Fusion: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Cyber Sub-Zero"
• Quan-Tease: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Quan Chi"
• Back In Time...: Complete Story Mode 100%
• Undertaker: Unlock 50% of the Krypt 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Jax has been disarmed
2. Ah his is in the air 
3. Lucky... 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo #1 and Hook Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. But as you can tell with the screenshot we did some extra, which I always try to squeeze in even if I don't documented here on the daily blogs!

Messed around with SoulCalibur again last night trying to bang out some more achievements and noticed that one that was unlocked a few days ago was finally credited to me (Close Call). Anyway, for as barebones as the game is the achievements are possible to some degree. Anyway with the 'Guardian' achievement that does extent my current streak of Xbox achievements another day, so woo-hoo!

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Close Call: You have triumphed over extreme adversity and defeated an enemy with very little health.
• Guardian: You have learned to counterattack your opponents' repels and parries.

A new week is here, but let's look back at what games we featured on Twitch last week, which were Overwatch, Tell Me Why, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal and Mortal Kombat IX! 

If you think Donald Trump was a good leader, then you are a fucking idiot and you should move to Moscow and kiss the feet of Vladimir Putin you misanthropic nutball.

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is, it's Sunday, which means Overwatch. Currently there is a mini-event called Reaper’s Code of Violence, which is to unlock a new skin, icon and spray for Reaper. So that is our goal for the evening!

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

Roads and Collectables Found

Good morning everyone,

Let me begin this post the same way I started last night's stream by saying that Greg Abbot the governor of Texas has set a dangerous standard by making every family that has a youth who is trans a target for harassment in order to try and save himself politically. He, and anyone who supports him, are clear and present dangers to the American People.

That said, last night's stream opened up with Forza Horizon 4, as I set the goal to try and find every road in the main area of the game.... and some how I haven't discovered the final 3. The map says I've been everywhere, so I have no clue where these short side roads would be at. Still I finally found the final Beauty Spot location in the game to get that achievement.

Iceman joined in for Gears 5 as we set about searching for the final four collectables of the game, having to replay two major parts of the campaign. It did work out rather nicely, as we discovered a unique aspect of of JACK's shield which can stop a pouncer from diving onto a player. We also took Iceman into his first run of an Escape, which was chaotic fun.

We did announce that next Wednesday the Gears of War franchise fun will continue as we're going back to where it began with Gears of War Ultimate.. which was the remaster of the original game. It has an extra section that was exclusive to the PC version, so it should be a lot of fun. For that adventure I'll use the X-Box One for it since it is an older game.

No raid last night, but we did host JustBrootal who was playing Call of Duty: Warzone over on twitch.tv/justbrootal!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Taking the Grand Tour: View every Beauty Spot.

Gears 5 Achievements

• It’s Not Hoarding if Your Stuff is Cool: Collected all Campaign Collectibles

Twitch Clip Links

1. I would create restaurant... 
2. JD... Phrasing
3. The Shield Stopped The Pouncer! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 34 minutes with Difficult Challenge Combo #1, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 for an calorie burn estimate of 647 kcal.

Jumps into Tell Me Why to speed run Episode 3 with all the 'negative' choices to get the final achievement to 100% complete the game. Needless to say skipping over all the context and lore of Mary Ann really takes a lout out of the game, which means going for the 'split' of the Twins is something deliberate one must go for.

Tell Me Why Achievements

• Life Tears Us Apart: Complete the story with the twin's bond weakened
  

Messed around some more with NBA Jam last night as well, wonder how many achievements are actually do-able with it that don't depend on online play.

Back in the 90s my dad did a lot of research into family history, tracing his side of the family back to Belarus on my grandfather's side, and Ukraine on my grandmother's side... so it that later part that has me hoping that the mess caused by the Vladimir Putin gets sorted out quickly. 

It's looking more and more doubtful the 2022 Major League Baseball season will start on time, I meant it ain't that hard to say 'we'll use the old agreement until the new one is agreed upon', but the greed of the players and stubbornness of the owners continues to hold things up 

I have no issue with Machine Gun Kelly being in WWE 2K22, I however do have a problem with yet another WWE video game using licensed songs for the menu screens that cannot be used for custom entrances. It's really a waste of the rights fees 2K has paid to acquire the use of those songs... granted it's a terrible selection regardless.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV, probably do a daily alliance raid, level up blue mage and fishing a few levels!

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

Which Tell Me Why 'Positive' Ending Was Better?

Good morning everyone,

Last night we continued and finished Tell Me Why, and we went the extra mile to see both endings, one where Alyson stays in her and Trevor's mother's house, and one where they left the town to move on with their lives. Now one thing that surprises me is that as of 2/22/22, The 'Lock-Up And Go' ending is the one damn near everyone picks, and so it really makes me wonder why would folks pick it over 'A New Chapter'.

Probably the first reason is that most folks would want to see the twins basically putting everything behind them, and since Alyson does have some issues needing to sort through it's more of a happy ending... and the other with her staying behind, it does seem to set her up for many of the same issues her mother did. On the other hand, with Alyson staying behind allows her to basically forge her own path and do what's best for her and probably do something with all the Goblin stories that played a huge part of the game.

It's really a tough call... but what wasn't a tough call was making sure Trevor and Michael end up as a couple, and doing every single puzzle which certainly adds a lot of lore and back story to make everything makes sense. If you have not done every puzzle in the loft, you should because it really opens up a lot of details.

Now with last night's stream, we have every achievement for episode three except for one... and that involves making sure Alyson and Trevor lose their power of communication telepathically with one another. So after doing a little Final Fantasy XIV, I loaded Tell Me Why back up and basically did a speed run of Episode 1 and 2 making every 'negative' choice when it came to memories and conversation possible... which basically shows how 10 years apart can really divide how people view things.

Anyway, we had some extra time so we loaded up NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, which was released way back in 2011. Rather surprised the NBA Jam brand has been left dormant again for so long, but considering EA hasn't made a basketball game in what seems like forever I'm not surprised. Still managed to knock out an achievement for it which was a nice little bonus.

For the raid, we dropped in on SeverOmega who was playing Apex Legends over on twitch.tv/severomega!

Tell Me Why Achievements

• Mailbox Bandit: Found out who the Mailbox Bandit really was
• Just One Fix: Helped Sam fix the engine
• Are You My Daddy?: Learned the truth about Sam's relationship to the twins
• Fish all the Fish: Caught all the fish with Michael
• The Princess' Lost Treasure: Uncovered the princess' lost treasure
• And Everything In Its Place: Placed all collectibles in the attic
• Twins4life: Completed the story with the twins strongly bound together
• A New Chapter: Started writing a new chapter with Alyson
• Lock-Up And Go: Locked-up and left the Ronan house with Tyler

NBA JAM: On Fire Edition Achievements

• Jam Sesh: Participate in 5 JAM Now games.

Twitch Clip Links

1. This is how legends begin 
2. Make The Move
3. Everything in its place 
4. Dawkins Is On Fire!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Sway Back Combo, Hip Shape Focus Combo and Straight Combo #2 resulting in an estimated calorie burn of 462 kcal. I am closing in on 600 consecutive days since I started the original Fitness Boxing in the summer of of 2020.

So with Tell Me Why finished, what will be the next game dedicated to Mondays & Tuesdays? As of right now I have not made up my mind yet, but there are a number of possibilities on the X-Box side of things that I'm considering. Current contender include Dragon Ball Kakarot and Game of the Thrones: The Tell-Tale Series (which I have a physical copy of).

At the time I'm writing this it's 64 degrees outside, which is nice, but the forecast is to see it drop down to the mid 30s tomorrow. Welcome to the wacky weather of later February in New Jersey

For tonight's stream, we'll lead off with more roaming around in Forza Horizon 4, then we'll load up Gears 5 to find the last four collectables needed to it an achievement!

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

Flies, Hockey and Paladins

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream was a triple header of sorts, which lead off with Life of Fly 2, followed by NHL 94 Rewind and closed out with Paladins.

First, let's talk about Life of Fly 2; the sequel to Life of Fly that we featured one month ago to lead off a stream. In many ways Life of Fly 2 is just an continuation of the original game, flying to check points to get the next part of the story... but the big difference between the two games is that the areas are bigger, the sound mix is better and the little stories are more thought provoking... as they deal with some things as different kinds of love, the issue of why people hate one another, the worry about death. In terms of play time it took me about 90 minutes. I would recommend to wait to catch it on sale or to see if its on Game Pass.

Next we dabbled with NHL 94 Rewind, which was EA's attempt of nostalgia by placing modern players into their classic hockey game from the mid 90s. We did two games, one to get familiar with the controls, losing horribly 6-2 to the Colorado Avalanche , then winning 6-5 in Overtime against the New Jersey Devils. Of Course In both games I played as the Philadelphia Flyers. In terms of finding good paths to score and playing defense, it certainly does not feel comfortable for me to play, but it was fun to get hyped when things worked in my favor. There are a couple of achievements in this that I feel I might be able to get... granted I would be relying on more than luck than skill.

When it came to Paladins, I was surprised to see there were two siege modes, one that uses a more traditional level system where you choose one item at each level... which I kind of like. It took some of the guess work out of trying to figure what would work best for a long match. I mostly used Viktor in his new Rambo skin because why wouldn't I, and had some good moments. In terms of wins and losses.... well it's tough to judge a defeat when you notice players staying in the spawn or that they disconnected from the match. Also folks, nothing pisses off a solo-tank more than being stuck on a team with two flanks and seeing that neither of them is capable of taking out the supports of the other team.

Big thanks to Kalenal who dropped in with a raid after their stream of Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

For our raid, we dropped in on BangBangBang713 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/bangbangbang713!

Life of Fly 2 Achievements

• The Philosopher: Finish Chapter 1
• Love: Finish Chapter 2
• The Mundane Side of Life: Finish Chapter 3
• Technology: Finish Chapter 4
• Hygiene: Finish Chapter 5
• Creativity: Finish Chapter 6
• Heroes we worship: Finish Chapter 7
• Another Me: Finish Chapter 8
• The King: Finish Chapter 9
• Travel: Finish Chapter 10
• Hate: Finish Chapter 11
• What is Real?: Finish Chapter 12
• Death: Finish Chapter 13

NHL 94 Rewind Achievements

• He shoots, he scores!: Score a goal against the computer
• One for the record books: Record a win in user records
• Going the distance: Win a 20-minute game against the computer

Twitch Clip Links

1. We are denied!!!!
2. We give one up... but we get it back! 
3. We're unstoppable! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 31 minutes with Advanced Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for a calorie burn estimated to be 500 kcal.

I did notice after the stream part of the boom arm was visible, so I re-cropped the web cam box on the game screen for the future. The reason why the boom arm was visible in the first place was because I recently moved it and I'm still getting use to it being to my left.

Messed around a bit with a game called Band of Bugs, which is a turn based strategy game that came out in the X-Box 360 era. It has a little charm to it, not sure if this will be something we would dedicate an entire stream to, but it could be used as light filler.

Band of Bugs Achievements

• Recruit: Completed the Tutorial

Really need to empty the inventory in Final Fantasy XIV, but it is often tough to decide what to keep and what to scrap!

A new week begins, which means we'll take a look back at all the games featured which included: Overwatch, Kingdom Hearts III, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Life of Fly 2, NHL 94 Rewind & Paladins!  

For tonight's stream, it's Overwatch! There are no events going on so it's straight up Quick Play matches!

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

 

 

 

An Easy Going Night Of Just Messing Around

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream was super casual, as we opened things up with Forza Horizon 4, and spent the first chunk of time on Fortune Island, going around finding all the roads, doing a few challenges and making progress on it's story of working our way up the ranks. Really finding simple and easy achievements in Forza has given it a nice life as a weekly feature on my Twitch channel.

Then Iceman joined in as we switched things to Gears 5 to do some collectable hunting, using a guide and jumping to the chapters where we missed stuff. Some were more obvious than others in retrospect, but still we've foudn everything except for four that are located in Act III Chapter 3, which look like they will be out in the open world. Thankfully we were able to skip cut scenes and things went pretty quick for the most part.

For the raid we sent the fun over to x9abenonymous9x who was playing We Were Here with FN_Dante_Savage over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

1. Made the Cut: Reach Round Two of the Island Conqueror.
2. Not Just Straight-line Speed: Earn at least 1 star at a Trailblazer Gate.
3. Paved with Gold: Drive every Road in Fortune Island.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Not Just Straight-line Speed
2. We Solved The Riddle! 
3. I Fell Through The Map! 

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 28 minutes with Body Hook Combo, Body Uppercut Combo and Uppercut Combo #2, estimated calorie burn was 435 kcal.

Went back into both Kingdom Hearts III and Battleoads to knock out a couple of achievements in each that I felt I could do in fairly short order. The achievements for Kingdom Hearts III are for the ReMind DLC content and a lot of grinding, heavy searching and getting really lucky. For Battletoads, what's left involves achievements focused on luck as well as multiplayer Co-Op. Both games have been uninstalled from my X-Box One, with the possibility of re-installing Kingdom Hearts III down the road to do the aforementioned DLC content.

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Flanmeister: Complete all of the Flantastic Seven missions.
• Dreadnought: Fully power up the Leviathan.

Battletoads Achievements

• Pacifist: Survived the first space battle for 45 seconds without shooting.
• B-B-B-BLOCK BREAKER!!: Smashed through 50 enemy block attempts.

I am not at all surprised that the second AWE's Money Mark (aka Tony Khan) became the head of creative, stripping Cody Rhodes of the role of booker that Cody would end up leaving the promotion that he basically started to go crawling back to the WWE

Speaking of the WWE... if Stone Cold Steve Austin actually has a match at WrestleMania I... will not watch it. Quite frankly, it would take more than a guy who was already deteriorating as a performer in 1998, let alone one who has not taken a bump in 20 years  to spark my interest as a wayward wrestling fan.

Had a better time of stuff in Final Fantasy XIV last night than the previous night, no questionable approaches seen during the one dungeon I did. Still need to tackle a few things to finish up the Wondrous Tales for this week.

For tonight's stream we are going to hang out and do stuff in Final Fantasy XIV, probably a few raids, daily challenge, level up Blue Mage and Fishing some too. Just a chill out night.

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

We Finished Kingdom Hearts III

Good morning everyone,

Last night we finally finished Kingdom Hearts III... and boy did the pacing of the final act of the game had so many issues, everything little thing having a cut scene to try and time up as many of the loose ends as possible while setting things up for the future of the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of the game play, as fighting the hordes of Heartless and getting to see the Train attraction in action was a real treat. Donald Duck's epic solar flare was really bad ass, as was the return of Xion being the trigger to solve the issue with Roxas being stuck in Sora's Heart. 

But my goodness, every member of Organization XIII getting a send off with the cut scenes of you defeat basically interrupting the fight is just completely asinine. I get it, they wanted to give these characters closure to various degrees and this was a problem caused by having an uneven number of Warriors of Darkness and Light. The pacing issue is all over the place, where you enter an area have a cut scene, walk to another area, have another cut scene. It really bogged things down. Last night's stream was about 4.5 hours... I think 2 hours were just cut scenes.

Now the question becomes would I willingly want to play Kingdom Hearts III again... no, absolutely not for two reasons. the first being pacing issue as mention before. The other reason is I don't trust Tetsuya Nomura when he's both the writer and director of a project... and all the pacing issues seen in Kingdom Hearts III's final act falls on his shoulders.I mentioned this yesterday, but the fact there are lines of dialog in the game talking about how overly complicated the plot is is a tell-tale sign Nomura has bogged down the franchise with too much stuff. Hell when I think about it, all the Disney worlds in KH3 could've been swapped out for almost anything else and would've worked the same way, they were just window dressing.

This brings me to the future... and the fact that Sora will still be the lead character going forward... eand Kingdom Hearts III went out of its way to set it in tone that he's a fucking idiot. I believe the next main installment must have a new lead character. That's not going to happen, but it should considering there are close to a dozen characters that could step into Sora's place as the lead.

For the raid, we dropped everyone off over with JonnieTortilla who was playing Minecraft over at twitch.tv/jonnietortilla!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Rook: Defeat 5,000 enemies.
• No Matter What: Reunite with Kairi.
• The Battle to End All: Begin the final confrontation with Master Xehanort.
• Another Chapter Closed: Finish the game and view the ending.

Twitch Clip Links

1. CHOO CHOO!!!!!!
2. Clutch! That Was Clutch! 
3. Finish Him... Or Did That Go Wrong?!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 28 minutes with Front-Back Step Combo, Hook Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 as the exercises for a calorie burn of 450 kcal.

So I made it official, Friday's going forward until the game is finished will feature Persona 5 on the PlayStation 4. This will start this week! I'm both excited and dreading what this will be like considering how nuts the Persona 5 community can be. 

So for the first time ever during my time playing Final Fantasy XIV I grew frustrated with what I was seeing, namely being stuck with a trio that were clearly grouped together that had no intention of actually accomplishing the task in question. The fact that the one who was Astrologian said that they didn't feel like playing was a first sign indicator, which clearly was the attitude of the other two folks they were playing with, and for the first time in any MMO that I've played, resulted me intentionally quitting the dungeon. I'd rather have that 30 minute penalty to put up with that nonsense

Swapped all the skins for there characters in Overwatch to basic legendary skins for each character, not that I use everyone, but it's a good just in case..

For tonight's stream, we're going to lead off with Forza Horizon 4 and then try and do some collectable hunting in Gears 5!

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

Endwalker, Hivebusters & Horizons

Good morning everyone,

Well, taking advantage of some misfortune to get other things done, and in this case, I finished up Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker yesterday evening before last night's stream. I thought the final dungeon and trial took full advantage of my struggles with being able to back out of AOE areas, and so I got wrecked... a lot.As far as the battle one on one against Zenos goes... well, thankfully since I play Bard, it meant all of his heavy damaging attacks were nearly all close range and there was enough of a tell to keep me from getting downed at all. 

As far as the aftermath goes, I rather liked the post-Zenos battle stuff, with the 'disbanding' of the Scions and everyone going their separate ways knowing that at some point they will be brought back together. I'm going to suspect there will be a time-jump at some point for the next major expansion to have new looks for various characters. I am also looking forward to the first Post-Endwalker content, as it's clear Elidibs' younger-self will be involved in someway.

Overall, I've very much enjoyed Final Fantasy XIV, from when I started playing it back in October, and it took me 377 hours to reach this point... and there is still so much more to do, with all the general side quests I haven't doe yet. I will say I am surprised that Endwalker's story is shorter than the other expansions (not counting post-content), really seems like there was a lot of padding and probably stuff got cut due to COVID. Still we'll be featuring FF14 as back-up content and / or having it have it's own night on stream!

Speaking of streams, last night's stream lead off with Forza Horizon 4, mostly I was grinding for various achievements on things like Speed Traps, Danger Signs and other stuff before finally making my way to Fortune Island which looks like is going to be a fun area to do things in.

The stream also included Gear 5, as Striker and Iceman joined in to finish up Hivebusters, where we got all the collectables, all the item upgrades and got achievements for various other things. Hivebusters is a nice little story that actually explains the whole 'Hivebusters' concept of why the COG is letting themselves get captured in the multi-player mode. Rather surprised Lahni was almost the focus of Hivebusters considering how much lore she has to spout, which kind of made her a bland character. With this done, the plan will be to do chapter jumping to get collectables missed in the campaign.

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Gears 5 Achievements

• Electroblade: Killed 50 enemies using Lahni's Electroblade Ability in the Hivebuster Campaign Expansion as Lahni
• A Breath of Fresh Air: Saved Hana from the Snatcher
• The Spirit Walk: Opened up the Spirit Walk on Pahanu
• Renewed, Not Consumed: Found all Character Ability upgrades in the Hivebusters DLC
• Searching for Answers: Collected all Campaign Collectibles in the Hivebusters DLC
• Face the Creature: Defeated the Wakaatu
• Enter Hivebusters: Completed all Chapters of the Hivebusters DLC (any difficulty)
• Operation: Ride the Snatcher: Completed the Hivebusters DLC in 3-Player Co-Op (Scorpio squad, dupes not allowed)

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• I Feel the Need: Reach Speed Trap Hero level 10.
• Apex Predator: Reach Speed Zone Hero level 10.
• Pilot’s Licence: Reach Danger Sign Hero level 10.
• Whatever Next?: Complete every Showcase Event.
• Welcome to Fortune Island: Set up the Horizon Festival on Fortune Island.
• Hunter Gatherer: Find/Smash your first Treasure Chest.

Twitch Clip Links

1. A New Personal Best and the Achievement!
2. No wonder I didn't see it... 
3. Shoot him in the face!
4. Electroblade! 
5. Vomiting On Me Is So Wrong!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 stream featured a 31 minute workout that involved Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 482 kcal.

Probably the biggest news for me personally out of yesterday's Nintendo Direct was the announcement that Chrono Cross is getting a remastered release on multiple consoles (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Steam, PlayStation 4 & 5), that is coming out in early April. Needless to say despite how dodging some of the upscale renders look, and knowing the legal nightmare that held up Chrono Cross from being re-released after the SquareSoft to Square-Enix relabeling of the Greatest Hits release, I'm just glad it's coming. Plus that means achievements! 

I'm also intrigued by Mario Strikers, as I have had fun with Mario Golf Super Rush, so this could be worth looking at. Then there is Disney Speedstorm... and what is basically a Mario Kart clone which I have to chuckle at how long Disney held off on diving into using their vast library of characters in a combat racer. I'm expecting some sort of Smash clone from Disney in the next year or so based on this.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV, mostly side-quests and things!

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

A Square-Enix Kind of Saturday

Good morning everyone,

Well one could say that last night was a Square-Enix kind of Saturday, as we split the stream between Life is Strange Remasterd and Final Fantasy XIV. Why did we do that? Well because I wanted to make sure FFXIV was included in this week's featured content, plus the pacing of Life is Strange would have meant an awkward split-stream on Monday. 

Anyway, Episode 3 of Life is Strange, Chaos Theory, is of course the one episode everyone knows since it features when you gave have Max kiss Chloe, plus the entire pool scene and where Max goes back in time to change history so that Chloe's dad lives... but Chloe ends up being paralyzed. One minor change may result in some positives, but other wise things could get really... really screwy. Since we're going in hard with the Max supporting Chloe route, that did mean basically tearing David down during the breakfast scene.

Of course, there was one thing you would have noticed in that I constantly say most of the stuff that happens to Chloe is her own fault, and that is basically true, because she could have accepted that things happen and to try and cope, but she never does. This fact really gets driven home in Before the Storm, particularly if you try and have Chloe make an effort instead of being the whiny woe-is-me drama queen she actually is. Don't get me wrong, I like the pairing of Max and Chloe... BUT... let's be honest, there's a reason why quite a few people choose Arcadia Bay over her and it is justified. 

As far as the Final Fantasy XIV half of the stream goes, we mostly did things related to Wondrous Tails, doing a couple of big raids, trials and other stuff. I briefly thought about doing MSQ related stuff but decided against it mostly because of how much dead air there would have been because of cut scenes (voiced and non-voiced). Did discover I did not have the Extreme versions of Trials unlocked related to Stormblood, the Resistance Weapons Quests that apparently adds another area to explore, which would make for some interesting content once I'm done with Endwalker. 

For last night's raid we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was doing a Community Appreciation Stream with giveaways while playing Stardew Valley!  They stream over on twitch.tv/ggvexy! 

Life is Strange Remastered Achievements

• Parallax View: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Lenscrafted: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• The Reflex: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Histogrammar: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Bokeh: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Pinholed: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• RAW Strength: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Viewfinder: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Optican: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Flash!: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Camera Eye: Take all optional photos in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Chaos Theory: Finish Episode 3: Chaos Theory

Twitch Clip Links

1. Well Chloe Asked For It
2. He was eating those beans! 
3. That's a Rare Achievement Too?!
4. Just A Little More! 
5. The Big Blow off...
6. Hurting Hermes! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout Featured a 28 minute workout which showcased Body Hook Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Uppercut Combo as the exercises. The estimated calorie burn for this set was 450 kcal. I did an addition 20 minutes to finish off the requirements for Janice's Champion, which mean's progress towards King EX Fighter is at 88%. My attention will now shift to the Hiro's Champion achievement, we already have at least 30 hours with Hiro as the trainer.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Janice's Champion: Train With Janice for Over 50 Hours
  

Now way I figure this week will certainly see the wrap up of a few things, with Life is Strange Remastered finished on Monday's stream with Episode 4 & 5, Gears 5: Hivebusters finished on Wednesday, and then Life is Strange: Before the Storm being featured on Thursday and Saturday with it's 3 episodes plus the bonus Farewell Episode. This will more than likely open the doors for the weekly line up to get back to what it was last year with a more stable lineup of a major feature. We shall see how true that becomes.

Jumped into Battletoads earlier this morning to knock out some achievements, which was nearly every one I could do single player that did not involve finding collectables. 

Battletoads Achievements

• The Dlala Code: Entered the Dlala Code during the credits.
• Blink and You'll Miss It: Defeated 25 pink eyeballs during 'Time For Plan B'.
• Mementoads: Took a picture with Axeley's standee.
• Take This, Axeman!: Used spit to keep Axeley's weapon stuck in the ground.
• Hey, This is a Rental!: Scored 75 near-misses while riding a rented Turbo bike.
• Warped Sense of Humor: Hit the fake 'Warp Wall' during Nightmare Rider.
• Not Just for the Holidays: Landed a streak of 15 hits destroying a totem.

A new week begins, but let's check out my favorite clips from this past week which featured: Overwatch, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Paladins, Capcom Arcade Stadium, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Life is Strange Remastered, Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XIV! 

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is... it's Sunday which means Overwatch! We'll be going after the Auspicious Soldier skin for Soldier 76!

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