Highlight for the Week of May 2, 2021

Here are highlights of all the games featured over on http://twitch.tv/fredcasden for the week of May 2, 2021. This week we featured Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise, Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger, MLB The Show 21, Tom Clancy's The Division, Monster Hunter Rise, Star Trek Online, ECW Anarchy Rulz, Virginia and ESPN Major League Baseball!

Today's Notes 5/5/21

Good morning everybody,

Lost power twice yesterday, one at a little 2:30 PM and the second at about 4:15-4:20 PM, which was related to the original power outage. That's two weeks in a row on a Tuesday this has happened, makes me wonder what is going on with PSE&G.

Last night's stream featured MLB The Show 21 on the Xbox Series S console, and we did a little bit of everything last night, an online match against another player which I lost, a couple of Road to the Show games, one March to October Segment, some home run derbies, Retro Mode... even tried the franchise mode. And man, the franchise mode is way to in-depth for a console game, because what's involved with managing the team would work better on PC games. Did managed to unlock some achievements which were the following:

1. Pitch Collector: During any plate appearance, see ten or more pitches (Excludes local multiplayer and practice).
2. All About Hustle: Collect four hits or more within a game with a single player (Excludes local multiplayer, practice). 
3. Free Ticket To 1st: Draw a walk with the first batter of an inning (Excludes local multiplayer, franchise and practice).
   

All three of these were done through retro mode which has that old score arcade style of gameplay!

Twitch Clip: First Major League Hit

Twitch Clip: I got caught in a run down....

Twitch Clip: I told him not to swing

Now last night's stream wasn't without incident, as the Xbox Series S mysteriously shut down randomly with the light on the controller flashing, and I wasn't able to determine the reason why. Maybe it over heated but  it has clear space for all three vents, and the thing is, the console hasn't seen heavy use, in fact it was quite a few days since it was last in use. This is why I haven't gotten read of the Xbox One S.

After the stream I finally started messing around with Mortal Kombat 11, and gameplay wise, it's fine, but boy did they micro-transactioned the hell out of it in terms of the Krypt, which makes chasing some achievements damn near impossible to do. Still with it now installed, it means we'll be streaming the story mode at some point in the near future. Also unlocked a handful of achievements for it last night as well.

1. Thank You For Being A Fan: Reach The Kredits
2. Klassic: Komplete a Novice, Warrior, or Champion Klassic Tower once
3. Enough Already: Hit the Gong in the Krypt

Today's Fitness Boxing session was about 30 minutes, nothing to intense other than me still not feeling comfortable performing right weaves from the orthodox stance. Didn't have any misses, but the timing of some of my punches that were just 'okay' could've been better.

 

Tonight we'll be focused on the Division, as I'll first be starting with finding collectables in the area of the map Iceman and I covered last week, before moving on to deal with missions in the next 'designated area'. Iceman may probably join in on the fun as well, so it could get pretty silly. 

 

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

 

 

Today's Notes 5/4/21

Good morning everybody, 

Last night's stream of Nancy Drew Dossier: Resorting to Danger, was surprisingly a lot of fun, with it being a lot more straight forward in terms of its puzzles and mini-games than Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights Cameras Curses, which we played last year. The facial mini-games were probably the most interesting as it required a lot of realizing of what layers should go where to create the various patterns, and I did enjoy the combining of letters and molecule colors puzzles, as that involved more outside the box thinking. There was just one small portion of the game, a dialog sequence about 1/2 way through that gave me trouble because I didn't realize what a clue was indicating right before hand. 

Twitch Clip: Facial Treatment Things

Twitch Clip: Come Here You Flea Bitten Varmint!

Also disappointed to find out that the teased third game in the series, Nancy Drew Dossier: Ship of Shadows was never released... because it looked pretty interesting.

Went through more stuff last night, added a bunch of things to the 'to be shredded pile', and placed a bunch of loose photos into photo albums. Yes its 2021 and I still have photo albums! Granted a lot of these pictures were probably duplicates, but hey, they are all safe and secure where they blond.

Update on the Washer and Dryer fiasco from last week, the washer needs a new motor, and the dryer needs out right replacing. When it rains it pours 

There was a nice little Nintendo Switch games sale happening earlier, and catching a few top titles at 50% off seems like a good idea.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was okay, granted at 35 minutes I got pretty loose and built up a good sweat, but my timing was off when doing left jabs, resulting in me blowing several combos in a row. Certainly feels weird when I miss that many. Still today was literally half of yesterday's total workout, so it works out considering I start work 20 minutes after writing this.

Not completely sure what we're doing tonight, yes it's May the Fourth and I do have Star Wars games, but I really don't feel like messing around with them. The leading candidate for tonight is MLB the Show 21, probably mess around with some online games and home run derbies.

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

Today's Notes 4/27/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune introduced an element that I was not so keen to deal with: The jet ski. Now I get it in terms of a big action adventure game you need vehicle sections or something that breaks up the monotony of all the cover-base shooting that takes place, but the controls for the jet ski were just awful, where (as I discovered) need to hold down X and R2 just to speed up. Why? Why was that a thing? And this is not even getting into the fact the placement of enemies meant that both sections turned into 'remember where the bad guys are' and to pick them off at a distance. As I said last week, I enjoy the puzzles, the story and the characters.... but the action game-play is just a chore to get through.

That said we did make it to the start of chapter 16 last night, and so there is a possibility we may may finished Uncharted: Drake's Fortune tonight. 

Following the stream I did load up MLB The Show 21 to chase after the Winning In Style achievement, which involves "Win a game on any walk-off" (i.e. winning during the bottom of the last inning). Thankfully this can be a quick achievement to turn, just set up an exhibition game with three innings, play at the home team, keep the away team from scoring and then score in the bottom of the third (or extra innings). 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was solid, did a good half-hour for the daily, and since I had a little extra time did an extra set to make progress on Bernardo's free training achievement. I do have to say, the voice acting for Bernardo is rather good and pretty even with no really awkward phrasing or tone through out. That said, his character model's upper body seems too large for his lower body. 

On the collector's front , may have come across a trio of Star Trek games two for the PS2 and one for the PS3. Star Trek Shattered Universe, Star Trek Encounters and Star Trek (2013). Shattered Universe from what I understand is more a fighter-pilot type game involving Captain Sulu and the Mirror Universe, Encounters is kind of like the bastard cousin of Star Trek Legacy, where you get to use ships from different eras but there isn't an connected story to drive home the plot, and Star Trek (2013) is the game set between the first two films JJ-Trek Universe, and a game which I played using the steam version a couple of years ago. If I'm right, hopefully we'll add these games to my collection in the near future.

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

Today's Notes 4/26/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's Overwatch stream was a lot of fun as we messed around mostly with the Archive missions, getting the new Mercy skin for the event. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining on the chaos, as we made sure to get her the skin as well! I've really come to enjoy using Dva in the trio of Archive missions, as I've gotten the timing down on when to use her abilities down to an exact science.

Following the stream I did messed around a bit with MLB The Show 21, going after the Friendly Gesture achievement, which is to use Pinpoint pitching and, strike out 3 batters within an inning. The Pinpoint Pitching is not only just aiming with the right analog stick, but using the left analog stick to do a motion / design representing the pitch which is just weird. Also tried out the March to October and while pitching won't be a problem, hitting will be so that will be slow progress.

In a case of when it rains it pours, having issues with both the washer and dryer at about the same time. Fucking weird how things like that can happen.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed as it is every Monday as we did an extended session. There were a few humorous moments, such as me doing a jump when it was time to switch boxing stances, as well as not so humorous when I totally blanked on throwing a punch. Since we did extra in addition to the daily exercises, I've managed to equal the time duration of this past Saturday. Also April is my best month of burning calories since September of last year

Tonight's stream will be the continuation of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, as we'll be picking up with the start of Chapter 8. With my understanding that there are 22 chapters in the game, that means we're about a third of the way through it, but my concern is going to be in regards to how many waves of enemies am I going to have to slog my way through.

Well we'll find that out later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

Today's Notes 4/24/21

Good evening everybody,

Yup I totally slept in today, granted I didn't hit the sack till about 4:30 AM, and didn't get up till 3 PM, but hey I'm here aren't I? 

Anyway last night's stream was focused on games from the PlayStation One era and obviously these were games I have not played in probably 15-17 years.

First up was Rival Schools: United By Fate, as we went through the arcade mode on Disc 1 with Sakura and Hinata, and we did not get the good ending because I didn't realize you need to get through Raizo and his partner by using a team up super. We then messed around with the stuff on Disc 2 (or the Evolution Disc) which included a variety of different game modes and I still had my original save file so trying to to beat my old high scores was an interesting challenge.

Next up with Knockout Kings, EA Sports first venture into boxing video games, and we messed around with fights in all three weight classes (Heavyweight, Middleweight and Lightweight) as well as the slugfest mode. I ended up winning the first two fights using Muhammad Ali and Oscar De La Hoya in their respective weight classes, but lost as Floyd Mayweather and Butterbean (in the slugfest mode). I did find myself trying to use the combos I often see as apart of Fitness Boxing 2 with all the button presses, but I can safely say Knockout Kings was very unresponsive at times.

Lastly, and the real highlight from last night, we messed around with Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, a game which I have never beaten, even on its easiest setting. But the stars were aligned, as I made up my mind I was going to 'get good', picked Android 18 and we went through the 1P vs COM mode, beating every other character in the game. It may have taken me an hour to do so, because I took my share of loses, but we got through it and best part is I got footage to prove it. Since there are no unlockable victory endings, I'm counting Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 as a finished game for this years tour.

Following the stream I messed around with MLB The Show 21 and got the call up from Triple H to join the Phillies main roster, earning the Welcome To The Show Achievement. Since I was playing nightly after the streams, and playing every game I was starting, it took me about a week from the when the game went live last Friday for pre-order purchasers. A lot of folks have done it faster by simulating seasons, which is a cop out I think.

Todays Fitness Boxing 2 Daily workout was only 38 minutes.... so I did an extra 30 minutes in Free Training and boy do my legs feel it! It paid off as we're up to 99 points for the Sophie's Best Friend achievement, which we'll get tomorrow, so we'll have a new trainer starting with Monday's session. I also set new personal bests today with punches thrown (2802), estimated calorie burn (1147.05) and exercise duration (1 hour 9 minutes 14 seconds)

Added Legends of Wrestling II for the PlayStation 2 to my collection today, I did have this game years ago, but traded it in and tracking down a copy at a fair price took awhile. Also found a copy of the manual for ECW Anarchy Rulz, too bad I couldn't find the original jewel case with the back cover. Ah well.

For tonight's stream we'll be wrapping up the 2004 season in ESPN Major League Baseball, playing the Saturday Night games of each week. We'll get started with this at about 7 PM EST because I want to get a shower and have dinner first!

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

Today's Notes 4/22/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of The Division was solid, as most of it was spent with me wandering around the first few areas, finding collectables and doing side missions and stuff, while trying to avoid getting killed. We were joined by Iceman in the later half of the stream, with him using a secondary character so I wouldn't be downed too many times due to the game's infamous armor scaling bug. Probably next Wednesday's stream will be more of the same when it comes to progression with this game.

Found a copy of ECW Anarchy Rulz for the PlayStation One, and while it didn't come with the original instruction booklet, I probably remember how to play it because I did have it at one point, but traded it in when that was a thing to do. I already had ECW Hardcore Revolution in my collection, so adding Anarchy Rulz was just to complete the set. Maybe I can steal an idea from legendary YouTuber MaxamillionDood and do a character legacy, maybe using Tommy Dreamer in all the games I have that he appears in, which are just six games (the 2 ECW games, WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2008-10 and RetroMania).

I went looking to see if I could find a decent looking DVD / CD tower, and fuck me, the only things I find are the wired styled slot in ones, awkward wall mounted versions and things that require more assembly that a Lego set. This is why I miss places like Tower Records, could just go and pick something like that up no problem.

Did some more MLB The Show 21's Road to the Show off stream last night, finishing up my first season stuck in Triple A and without simulating anything, and getting the 'invite' to be at Spring Training for the Phillies. If my player can make the club out of Spring Training, I'll have the final achievement unlocked for the Road to the Show campaign.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was pretty good, the Sophie's Best Friend achievement is up to 91 points, so if that keeps pace with 3 points a day, it should wrap up by Sunday. Granted last time I said that I ended up having to use Hiro on a Monday. Also, going by the length of the workouts, I should just about match the output I did last week overall. Of course it all depends on what tomorrow's session has involved, as the week of Fitness Boxing 2 run Saturdays to Fridays.

Tonight's stream will be split between Star Trek Online and Hades, the reason being, as you know, is that STO just doesn't have the content for me to justify a full stream, as the Task Force Operations are just not fun to do, and Space Combat just get down right boring if done so much. Hades will be brought in for the second half of the stream.

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

Today's Notes 4/21/21

 Good morning everybody,

Last night we started playing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on the PlayStation 3, making it through the first 7 chapters... with a lot of deaths along the way. My initial impressions of the game is this, I like the story, I like the puzzles, I like the characters... but I do not like the combat, mostly because the control layout on what button does what is so counter-intuitive based on many other games I've played. Getting into and out of cover is often a pain in the ass, as is aiming with several weapons to try and conserve ammo where possible. Some of this is due to how the PlayStation 3 Dual Shock controller is designed. 

So I read into it... apparently the issues with PlayStation controllers and shooter games in the PS2 and PS3 era was because they wanted to keep things uniform with the original PlayStation controllers where when holding that controller, the index fingers rested between the L1 L2 and R1 And R2 buttons. So when the Dual Shock controllers were first designed, they made it comfortable to hold because of L2 and R2 placements in order to keep things in-line with the original controller design. Goes to show Sony was anti-gamer way back in the day.

After the stream I did progressed some more with MLB the Show 21's road to the show, since I've been playing every game my player starts, the way I figure I won't get a call up until the next 'season'. That said, the MLB Network commentary videos on how my player is doing does appear to have a limited number of videos, as I seen one involving Cliff Floyd at least twice about him being a former Minor League player of the year.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session lasted about 35 minutes, solid work out, and we're up to 88 points on Sophie's Best Friend Achievement. Nearly had a completely flawless session but one missed uppercut and a few badly timed punches doomed that in.

Tonight we'll be back to Tom Clancy's The Division on the Xbox One, we'll see if the map layout hold true that there will be areas of lower level enemies I can deal with on my own. Don't know if we'll be joined by Iceman or PowerThumbz, but we'll have fun regardless.

Since work has been steady, I've formally adjusted my Twitch schedule to have s start time of 6:30 PM EST Mondays to Fridays, of course I tend to start before that, but as I said, work has been steady. Granted, I now expect to be told there won't be day shift and I'll have to switch back to 9:30 PM starts.

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

 

Todays Notes 4/19/21

 Good evening everybody,

You know for whatever reason I totally spaced on writing today's blog post.

Anyway, Sunday Night's stream was awesome as I tackled the challenge variations of the Overwatch Archive missions, getting the three I needed to get done... and the one that I never want to do ever again is Bulletproof Barriers, because getting a team that would make smart selections was getting frustrating. Granted I was using Dva but I discovered that Dva can eat a lot of damage. Also we helped PandaSweet get the 2nd week skin for Zenyatta, so all in all it was a good night last night.

This morning we did do a Fitness Boxing 2 stream, it went about an hour (when factoring in the small breaks between sets), and involved a lot of stepping, the portion of the workout that counted for the daily lasted 47 minutes, but with the extra bit we did, it ended up keeping on pace with the big three days of the week.

Tonight's stream we played and finished Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, and I was reminded of two bugs, one being when the Harvesters invaded Voyager, sometimes the lift to escape the cargo hold does not activate, and also when using God Mode in the Forge, when Biesman dies, it will deactivate. Still it was a good to have that game finished. As people saw with how the enemies swarm you, there is no way to keep up with the action on normal difficulty.

Because we finished that at about 9 PM, we did some bonus gaming, and I thought about doing some Star Trek Online, but instead we played NHL Face-Off for the PlayStation. And It was my first time playing it, it took me a few minutes to get use to using the D-Pad and to figure out what controls did what. We played three games, winning only one of them.

Did some MLB The Show 21 off-stream to advance the Road to the Show stuff, where I basically had to force my player to become a starting pitcher. A few other tweaks has resulted in him becoming a AA All-Star, throwing a perfect game and pitching like Fernando Valenzuela.

Sony announced they are going to keep the PS3 / Vita stores online because a) they like money and b) they know they will have a major lawsuit on their hands regarding denying people access to what they purchased/ The stupidity Sony has when it comes to refusing to accept that there are some people who enjoy playing older games in addition to newer ones just confounds me.!

Tomorrow night, more than likely we'll be starting up Uncharted on the PlayStation 3, giving the Xbox One a rest since it saw heavy duty with Dragon Age Inquisition. 

Which means tomorrow morning's blog post will be rather short, unless something inspires me.

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

Highlights for the Week of 4/11/21

 Here are highlights from my twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of April 11, 2021 which featured  Overwatch, Dragon Age Inquisition, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise, Tom Clancy's The Division, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, MLB The Show 21 and ESPN Major League Baseball.

 

Today's Notes 4/17/21

 Good morning everybody, 

Well we were up early once again, as PSE&G came out to remove the old gas pipe, having to leave the elbow that connected it to the outside because the only way that can be removed is if they basically dig up the street and part of my yard. But they sealed it so no water leakage should occur.

Last night's stream featured MLB The Show 21, where we played a few games, did a couple of Home Run derbies, unlocked several achievements, started Road to the Show where I made the shortest, fattest dude possible... looks like a mini Bartolo Colon. The two-way player nonsense is something I'm not keen on, even if I have a better understand of the hitting mechanics in the game. Still we had fun with it.

We added three things to my collections, Dead of Alive 5: Ultimate and Vanquish for the PlayStation 3, and Chrono Cross for the PlayStation One. Those who have seen my collection know I had Chrono Cross already, but the version I picked up is the Greatest Hits version that had the Square Enix logo print on it, instead of the SquareSoft logo which was on the original release. As I mention, if you know where to look on Amazon you can find some cheap older games that will eventually become harder to find. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was 1 hour 5 minutes, but only 41 minutes were for the daily work out, the reason for the extra time is of course on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays I try to do longer sessions, and today ended up being my longest duration for exercising to date. Granted these extra sessions often are around the 1 hour 5 minute mark, so it comes down to just a matter of seconds. In regards to the Sophie's Best Friend achievement, we're up to 74 points, needing 26 more to complete it. Also stepped on the scale and I gained a little to be up around 251-252.

(Note: Twitter was down, so I could not retrieve the screen shot of today's results at the time  this was posted)

Tonight's stream will be focused on ESPN Major League Baseball for the PlayStation 2, as I'll probably simulate several games, and if our lead in the NL East begins to shrink we'll then take it more seriously, this way we can get to the end of the season quicker.

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

Today's Notes 4/16/21

 Good morning everybody,

Well last night I certainly did not play Star Trek Online, and the reason was, I didn't feel like just doing another stream of just doing Task Force Operations and doing needless grinding.

So instead, we went back... way back.... to 2001 with another Star Trek game, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force for the PlayStation 2. The last time I played it, prior to last night, was September 10, 2008, and keeping in mind I did have a PlayStation 3 at that point, it certainly wasn't capable of playing PS2 games. Now this game is one where you can choose your character to be male or female, and there are subtle differences depending on gender, such as you come across O'Dell in different locations, and some dialog is phrased differently from other NPCs. Now Voyager: Elite Force was originally a PC game ported to the PS2, and thus some (well a lot) of tweaking with the controls is needed as turning and looking up and down can be either too slow or too loose.... which makesGod Mode (when paused hold L1+L2+R1+R2+R3 then press select, you will hear the game say Impressive, when paused, you will see text indicating if its on or off) and almost necessity due to how enemies can and will rush you even on normal difficulty... keeping in mind I have 12+years of rust when t comes to Elite Force.

That all said, because there are a number of puzzles and trying to remember where to go and how to get from point A to point B involved, so we only made it past The Borg cube stage, which leaves 3 stages left. Which would be a good time to mention the following, the load times are frequent, as nearly every section of the game has to be loaded, granted the game runs smoothly, but you will become familiar with the loading screen. Even with god mod on, you can still die from fall damage and stepping into an environmental hazard, and there are several mission critical failures that can happen if you are not careful.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was solid, as I felt pretty god throughout it, missing only one block, and you know how my frustrations when it comes to doing block combos. We're still a long ways away from moving on from Sophie, as we get 3 points per day, and at the moment we're at 69, and so we need 31 more points to wrap up her last related achievement before moving on to the next trainer. Also of note: not as many calories burned this week as compared to last week, but the difference was only like a couple hundred, give or take.

Moving on, after last night's stream I loaded up MLB The Show 21 to give it a test run, and I can safely say the music got real old real fucking quick, so I turned that off within 5 minutes. Control wise, pitching isn't that much different from ESPN Baseball for the PS2 (which we'll be playing tomorrow night), but hitting it a pain in the ass, as it's that zone style / aim type hitting which kind of makes the game not fun to deal with because it forces you to use the strike zone camera (from behind home plate) which is something I hate! Still, I did get a bunch of achievements last night. And we'll be playing this for tonight's stream!

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

Today's Notes 4/15/21

Good morning everybody,

It's Tax Day, well it is under normal circumstances, but because of how FUBAR things with the IRS has been with last minute changes to the tax code and them now having to go back and adjust the returns for everyone who filed before the latest stimulus package bill, Tax season got extended.

Anyway last night we started off The Division, and because of how schedules and stuff work out, the first chunk of the stream I was on my own, struggling but doing alright... but then my buddies PowerThumbz and Iceman joined... and we discovered a rather unique bug, in that while I as a lower level player will scale up to match them in terms of dealing damage, my armor and health does not properly scale. This was a bug discovered within The Division back in 2018, and Ubisoft never fixed it, so I spent the second chunk of the stream getting downed in like 1 or 2 hits, which made for great comedy. Now on the other hand, for Thumbz and Iceman, they were practically immortal... except when it came to one wall on the mission to same Benitez, they were too close to it when it exploded... again great comedy. 

MLB The Show 21 for the Xbox One / Series consoles is available for early download and installation, which I took care of last night, so Friday night's stream will be dedicated to it. And with ESPN Baseball moving to Saturday's that means we'll be doing back to back with baseball this week!

Played a little Forza Horizon 4 off stream, and I noticed that I'm progressing pretty nicely towards some achievements in that, I figure if I focus on races for certain paths I can unlock them pretty quickly.

In my search for older games to add to my collection, the following were added to my collection, all of which are PlayStation (PSOne) era games, NHL Face Off, PGA Tour '96 and WWF WrestleMania The Arcade Game... all of which in their classic long box style cases. With them came WCW/NWO Thunder a game I already had, however this is a much cleaner copy with the jewel case being intact.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was solid, if a little awkward, as I  couldn't quite get the rotation I wanted when doing South Paw right hand upper cuts. I was able to stay in sequence to get ducking and weaving motions down, and the results indicate I did very well, I just don't feel like I was at my best. Ah well, tomorrow's another day.

It's Thursday which means we'll be playing Star Trek Online tonight, and probably means this will the shortest stream of the week.

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