So we're about half way through FF7-Remake... I think.

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy VII Remake was a lot of fun, picking up right where we left off and getting to where we see Jessie, Biggs and Wedge reside in Sector 7, before we get more insight into things being weird with the timeline with the 'spirits' roaming around. The entire trip to Sector 5's reactor was certainly spaced out to really let the journey take center stage. There is certainly a lot more going into the lore of the Shinra corporation to make them more villainous they they appeared in the original.

That said, I do want to give a little fan theory, and it involves Cloud crash landing in the church... and that he's actually unconscious, and everything he experiences afterward is a full on illusion. I mean it makes sense, particularly in the remake giving the height he falls from is made real clear.

But what about the time manipulation, because Cloud is clearly getting visions of things he shouldn't, namely of Aerith's death scene, and the 'spirits' roaming around basically made sure she didn't get hurt or fall when escaping the church. 

Still near as I can tell, I'm about half way through FF7R, so if things play out as I expect, then we'll probably finish this in a few weeks, which would be really cool, but considering the number of reused assets that I've seen so far, I have to wonder: exactly why was this game in development hell for as long as it was?

Oh an yes... I'd totally ship Cloud & Jessie because as I said last week (either in a blog or on stream), Jessie has the best personality out of her, Tifa and Aerith.

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 who was playing Dead by Daylight over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• Night on the Town: Complete Chapter 4.
• Plan E: Complete Chapter 5.
• Lights Out: Complete Chapter 6.
• In Lockstep: Bypass the delta-level security lock in Mako Reactor 5.
• Trapped like Sewer Rats: Complete Chapter 7.
• Summon Slayer: Defeat a summon in battle.

Finally got in touch with my Uncle Mark, and found out my Aunt Rona is feeling better after catching Covid a few weeks ago. Hopefully I can touch base with him on several things on Sunday.

Got a nice card of condolences from my Cousin Gary and his wife yesterday which was appreciated.

Did a fair bit of writing yesterday afternoon on the Mass Effect short story, and I feel I could finish it today, but for the first time since December, I actually have work. I'm sure to be a bit rusty, but I hope to get back into the swing of things.

This might lead to some stream start times being later than normal depending on what assignments come in. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate COmbo #2, Waist Shape Focus Combo, Uppercut Combo #1 and Hip Shape Focus Combo.

"Dad, did you get a haircut?" "No, I got them all cut!"

Song of the Day: f**k, I'm Lonely by Lauv feat. Anne Marie.

For tonight's stream, we're hooking up the PlayStation 2 and going to mess around with a few different games, no real plans, but we're going to have fun

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

Final Fantasy, the mysery of the clocks solved, and other notes

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was a lot of fun, as we balanced doing side quests and roulette runs, so we got to see dungeons, alliance raids, normal raids, trials and other things. So just about all the main stuff one would do basically. In terms of the side quests, I finally finished all the ones in Radz-at-Han, and will now be focused on Garlemald. Did  Big thank you to BangBangBang for being apart of the fun.

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

A bit of a follow up regarding the heart shape clocks, my Aunt Grace saw the replay of the Wednesday night stream, and since I held the clocks up to show the viewers, it allowed her to see them clearly... and they belonged to my grandparents who lived in Philly! I was actually talking to my brother when I saw the text message Cousin Frances sent me earlier in the day, and he was saying he remembered the clocks but wasn't sure either

Got some writing done on the Mass Effect story commission yesterday afternoon, might be able to finish it today, or get a large chunk done, depending on how I incorporate the requested details the client wants. 

Recorded a new tier list making video for my YT channel with the subject being Rolling Stones studio albums... and it turns out I'm missing four from my collection, 3 UK versions and 1 US version. Oh well. It was fun to make, and is not an hour long! 

I took at look at the Nintendo Direct, and there wasn't anything that grabbed my attention beyond the Metroid Prime Remaster and the long overdue addition of GameBoy and GamBoy Advance era games to the Switch Online and Switch Online Expansion services respectively. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Triple Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2

"What has more letters than the alphabet?" "The post office!"

Song of the Day: Good Days by SZA.

For tonight's stream we are getting back to Final Fantasy VII Remake, and chances are we'll be getting an achievement right at the start if I remembered how well we did in the motorcycle mini-game last week.I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the story progresses.

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

Thank you to Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring last night's stream

Good afternoon everyone,

Let's begin by thanking the folks behind Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring last night's stream, as it was the first time I played the incredibly popular mobile game. I elected to take the approach of featuring my first experience with the game on stream, going through the full tutorial, seeing how champions are unlocked, leveling up, upgrading gear and going through the the firs two chapters of the campaign, tried out the classic arena mode and dungeons. All in all I was quite impressed with what I experienced, and I can see myself playing it on a casual basis. You can download Raid: Shadow Legends using my link and enjoy the special in-game loots! Raid is free on PC and Mobile. https://strms.net/raid_fredcasden Use my Promo Code: RondaSESP for more perks

Now before the Raid: Shadow Legends portion of the stream, we did open with Fall Guys, and won my 20th Show in a Squad (team of four), which was really cool, and I came fairly close to winning a few other shows as a solo (Namely in the Jump Show special format). There was quite a bit of hilarity.

We did a recap of sorts regarding the Nintendo Direct, nothing major announced caught my interest beyond DONTNOD releasing a new game later in the year.

Also found a way to properly store not just all the VHS tapes I'm going through, but my DVD collection as well. If I can find a place that would buy those tapes I certainly will have an easy type carrying them iin something that has proper handles

For the raid we dropped in on TokuSHOUTsu just as 'Ultraman Ginga S the Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Warriors!' was starting! Got to watch that from the start over on twitch.tv/tokushoutsu

Fall Guys Achievements

• Golden Guy: Win 20 Episodes

Finished writing the Mass Effect short story commission I had started a few days ago, and got another request for another chapter, this time set after the Grissom Academy mission on Mass Effect 3

Spoke with the FnDanteSavage yesterday and got to learn a lot of history about the band he was in and how close they came to touring the east coast! It was really fascinating!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #1, Weaving Combo #2 and Double Combo #2.

The job interview I had yesterday was more of a webinar to 'sell me' on paying for a training course to potential work for them. As the old saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true, then it usually is.

"Where do you learn to make a banana split?" "Sundae school."

Song of the Day: Ransom by Lil Tecca

For tonight's stream, we're playing Final Fantasy XIV, we'll do raids, side quests and maybe treasure maps, we'll see what ends up happening.

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

The Three Amigos In Saints Row, We're Being Sponsored By Raid: Shadow Legends!

Good morning everyone,

Considering the day prior, I really slept in yesterday, but a big highlight was talking to my Aunt Grace and Cousin Frances, as I wasn't sure what would be the best time to reach them. It was a real fun chat, and I'm so incredibly happy just to be able to chat with them. Also found two heart shape clocks that I think belong to Aunt Grace, but I'm not 100% sure. This did lead to a series of hilarious text messages regarding a photo of the clocks I sent to Frances, who thought something looked like Buddha. 

Got an invitation this morning to have my Twitch broadcasts being sponsored by Raid: Shadow Legends, and well that certainly is giving me an excuse to try the game out on the PC side of things, since I don't play any mobile games In fact we'll do that during tonight's stream during the 2nd half. If you want, you can download Raid: Shadow Legends for free using my affiliate link: https://strms.net/raid_fredcasden on either PC or Mobile, and use PromoCode RondaSESP for more perks! https://strms.net/raid_fredcasdenhttps://strms.net/raid_fredcasden

Last night's stream of Saints Row was really focused on completing business ventures and finding all the remaining discoveries, so again there was no story progress. But at this point, only two more ventures need to be placed, then the grind for the skyscraper. After that there would be just the main story missions to do.

On a side note, The Planet Saints missions to obtain trucks was a pain, but I used the helicopter to do it... because I was not going to bother with the wing suit approach the game intended!

That said, I was quite surprised to see a little tribute to the Three Amigos in the game. Now going back to at least Saints Row The Third, the Amigo Salute was a selected emote / taunt, but to see basically a diorama of the Aimgos encountering the Singing Bush in this game caught be by surprise! I know for a fact I still have the VHS tape of the movie in my home, and I watched it a lot as a kid, so this put a smile on my face.

For the raid, we dropped in on PowerThumbz while he was playing Prey over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz. 

Saints Row Achievements

• Community Outreach: Completed 10 districts in Santo Ileso.
• Masters of Santo Ileso: Unlocked Criminal Empire Tier 4.
• Challenge Accepted: Completed 25 challenges.

Made a good impact on the Mass Effect short story commission, it's relying on what I can think of regarding Diana Allers and her role in Mass Effect 3, but I think it's coming together nicely.

With the Overwatch 2 Season 3 update, I see they brought back being able to commentate players on the opposing team, because quite frankly as some have seen on stream, if I feel no one was worth of getting a commendation, then I'm not giving one. Not completely sold on a number of the changes on various characters, but the developers are always trying to make changes to break existing 'pro approved' teams.

Had a job 'interview' this morning, and it was more of the company trying to sell me on paying for a training course to work for them, and it raised more questions than answers.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #1, Body Hook Combo and Beginner Combo #1

"What does a sprinter eat before a race?" "Nothing, they fast!" 

Song of the Day: Want to Want Me by Jason Derulo.

On tonight's stream, we'll be playing Fall Guys for sure, but Fallout 76 will not be on the agenda, as Iceman will not be able to join us this week.So for the second half of the stream, we'll be featuring Raid: Shadow Legends! 

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

New Water Heater and More Saints Row

Good afternoon everyone,

We begin by saying thank you to my brother Leo, his friend Macho and Macho's father for all their help in getting a new water heater installed with little to no trouble, and for half the cost PSE&G wanted. It's one less stressful thing to worry about in what has been a dramatic few weeks. For the record, it turns out the previous water heater was installed in 2003, so it did its job and then some. I recall mom wanted to replace it a few years ago, but then COVID hit and other things too priority around the house.

Last night's stream of Saints Row was entirely focused on finding Discoveries and expanding the Saints Empire, as I refuse to fully advance the main story until I do everything that is considered side content. This meant a lot of roaming around, flying, gliding, getting into scraps and actually having to try things multiple times because of critical mission failures (aka I fought, I died, I respawned). The biggest main in the ass is calling out Marshall and it's 'mini-boss' being an enemy that is invulnerable unless you let it overheat, then shoot its tanks and then wear it down, rinse and repeat until it's defeated. Ended up reducing all the difficulty settings to the lowest possible just to get through it!

That saint tonight's stream will be more of the same, looking to continue expanding The Saints empire and finding all the goodies across the map.

Thank you to Kalenal for the raid following their stream of Pokemon Scarlett over on twitch.tv/kalenal

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU, during their stream they were playing World of Warcraft and RimWorld over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Saints Row Achievements

• Tourist: Completed the photo scavenger hunt.
• Picking Fights: Defeated a miniboss from each faction.

I didn't get any writing done on the 20th Mass Effect story commission request I've received, so I hope to put a dent into that today if certain things aren't an option for the afternoon.

I still have a hard time going to the living room of my home unless I have to do something... I miss mom more and more each day.

Recorded another Box with VHS Tapes video, which will go live on my YouTube Channel on Friday.

Going forward with Overwatch 2, I'm going to focus on just the first 80 levels of the battle pass and forego the titles. Mostly because I want to write more.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out featured Advanced Combo #2, Hook Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo.

"What's the best thing about Switzerland?" "I don't know, but the flag is a big plus."

Song of the Day: Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran

For tonight's stream, well you know it's Saints Row... muhahahha! So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Getting the ball rolling on a new week

Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday was a good day, spoke to Bianca, who is my mom's niece, and had a nice chat about different things. Also spoke with my brother regarding the water heater situation, so we have a few options, we'll see what's its like through PSE&G before making a final decision in that regard.

Also something that came up in conversation with my brother were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as he was playing the Cowabunga Collection with his family the other night... and it reminded me of the nearly forgotten games based on the 2003 series. Now despite one PS2 refusing to send a signal (as seen on Saturday night), I hooked up the other PS2 (the slim one), so on Saturday we'll take a look at one of the TMNT games from the PS2 era, in addition to doing other things.

Did get some positive news this morning, granted I had to wake up at 7 AM to place request for a call back just see what the hold up was on some things!

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was a lot of fun, we were joined by PandaSweet for nearly never single match, and we had a pretty good balance of wins and losses. I picked up one Play of the Game as Junkrat, also used characters like Junker Queen, Orisa, Ana, Mei, Solider 76, Torbjourn, and several others.

I did realize that I did not put together the video collecting all of January's Plays of the Games, so I took care of that straight away following the stream. That's in addition to the highlight reel that goes onto the Facebook page

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 as they were playing Dead By Daylight over at twitch.tv/misscammi316. Cammi also shared her condolences regarding mom's recent passing, as she just found out.

Finished writing a new Mass Effect commission request this morning, because I woke up unusually early, and got another request to continue. I can safely say writing the Mass Effect short stories are a lot more fun than writing anything based on WWE.

FNDanteSavage was streaming this morning playing Dead Space, and its always awesome to see him broadcasting when he can over on twitch.tv/fndantesavage

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Straight Combo.

"What did Baby Corn say to Mama Corn?" "Where's Pop Corn?"

Song of the Day: Me Rehuso by Danny Ocean

I did make up my mind that following Saints Row, WWE 2K22 will be the next Monday and Tuesday game. It does have a story mode, but we'll see about getting a number of basic achievements as well. Kind of fitting since WWE 2K23 is about to be released next month, so giving the older game the spotlight seems fitting. 

And speaking of Saints Row, For tonight's stream, we're getting back to it as we'll focus on expanding the Saints control over the town. 

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

Ghostbusting, BioShocking and GoldenEye''ing?

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was mostly a chill day, spoke to my Cousin Raymond for a bit which was cool, learned a few things that I was not aware of, but glad to know he's doing well. Also hoping the best for his daughter who I met at mom's funeral... she too is battling cancer. Also spoke to another family member who we call Lisa Chiquita (mostly to differentiate between her and mom, who used Lisa as a nickname), the conversation was interesting, and makes me grateful that my younger brother is much wiser than I am.

The stream itself opened with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleash, and we had a few issues getting into actual matches... but we did have a several good matches, winning as a Ghost and as a Ghostbuster. The new map is certainly interesting to get around in, has quite a few narrow areas where a skilled ghost player can ambush Ghostbusters easily depending on if they are focused on Rifts and Civilians. I do love the fact that the hair styles from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon are now in the game, makes me wonder of the Extreme Ghostbusters hair styles will be eventually added.

Next was Bioshock Infinite on the PS3 for the first time, and it certainly has style to it, but my dislike for the controls in having to remember the bumpers are for using powers and weapons while the triggers are for swapping said powers and weapons would certainly get me in trouble if I was playing on normal difficulty. Did managed to reach Monument Island, but I think I would want to restart the play through from the beginning.You know what's funny? I thought I had the BioShock collection on Xbox... but turns out I don't... I do have it on Steam.

Of course the reasons we used the PS3 was because for some reason the PS2 was not sending a signal and I don't know why, as I thought I had that figured out months ago. Oh well...

Lastly, we tried out GoldenEye 007, and I never played the N64 version... and boy was trying to understand the controls a bit of an issue at first. Managed to at least get through the first level... and nearly finished the 2nd level before making some bad mistakes. I can see why people loved this game back in the 90s... but how did they play it with just one analog stick on the N64 controller?!  

Also was super cool to see my cousin Frances really getting included in my Twitch community, it really is awesome to have her and also my Aunt Grace watching either live or catching the replays.

For the raid we sent folks over to Tokushoutsu during a marathon of Gekisou Sentai Carranger over at twitch.tv/Tokushoutsu. Carranger is the Sentai series that became Power Rangers Turbo here in the United States.  

BioShock Infinite (PS3) Trophies

• Welcome to Monument Island: Reached Monument Island.
• Written in the Clouds: In the Main Campaign, completed Lighthouse.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Achievements

• Escape Artist: Break free from a 4 Buster tether

GoldenEye 007 Achievements

• RUN!: You completed Dam on any difficulty.

Finally finished the WWE Commission request based on results at the Royal Rumble, nearly forgot what the client wanted for the finish. I do have a commission request to get back to writing the Mass Effect series focused on BroShep, so I'll have to convert the first two 'seasons' into PDFs for the Subscribstar page

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive COmbo #1, Uppercut Combo #2 and Front-Bakc Step Combo

"I asked my dog what's two minus two. He said nothing."

Song of the Day: Broccoli by DRAM feat. Lil Yachty.

For tonight's stream, we're of course playing Overwatch 2, and I believe I'll mostly focus on just the main battle pass going forward, because of time constants,

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