Good afternoon everybody,
First let me say that I totally forgot about daylight saving time ending at 2 AM last night... I got caught up in playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV, and we'll talk about that later... but first we had Hockey action yo!
Obviously inspired by the fact that the National Hockey League returned to ESPN last month, hooking up the PlayStation 2 to play the last ESPN branded NHL game (ESPN NHL 2K5) made a lot of sense in the world... and since I'm from the Philadelphia area, it meant the games I played was of course going to feature the Philadelphia Flyers because I remember a lot of the players on that team.
Now the last time I played ESPN NHL 2K5 would've been 2005, because I do have NHL 2K6, now don't be fooled by that, because much like the various sports games published by EA Sports, Sega Sports and later 2K Sports went with listing their games by having the follow year indicated on the title. This was actually a game I would play with my younger brother from time to time, and he isn't a hockey fan at all, but the big hits and fast action of it was appealing to him since he enjoyed football and basketball video games.
Presentation wise, well the game looks like it's from 2004, but it still holds up nicely enough in how gorgeous everything looks from the character models, to the details of the hockey rink, to the ESPN branded on-screen displays. The sound mix sounds like a television broadcast, and the commentary keeps up with the action of when the puck is passed, poke checks are performed and when goals are prevented. Their isn't much inane chatter from the game's commentary team, nothing comes across as filler, and when details are being given about a player or a replay is being shown, the timing isn't too long and nothing lingers.
The controls were easy for me to relearn, and the game has various camera angles so you're not locked into playing from a particularly perspective, as the two games I played on last night's stream featured the standard overhead look and the side-camera look which is closer to how most NHL games appear on television.
Also I set the periods to be 20 minutes, and let me tell ya, time just flew by, between penalties, icing and off-side calls, plus every time a goal was score, both games played (one against the Maple Leafs, the other against the Red Wings), each took longer than an hour to finish... but time just flew by because ESPN NHL 2K5 holds up as a great game.
Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!
Twitch Clip Links
Here are this week's Twitch Bits, which features my favorite moments
from the games I featured, which included Overwatch, Tomb Raider, Gears
of War: Judgement, Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack!, Big
Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Final Fantasy XIV and ESPN NHL 2K5!
My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV progression saw me finally getting into the final raid that was apart of the Alexander story arc, which of course was a trial against Alexander its self, which proved to be quite the challenge, with how it has some targeted instant kill moves. Also the main story quest progressed to where I learned that Minfilia is dead and that her form is now the 'voice of the mother', and got some more lore regarding the villains of the the game and their ambitions.
But that's not all.... with no more side quests wit the plus (for the moment), I dived in deeper into the Main Story Quest, clearing every thing up till the start of Shadows of the First, which meant the second brawl against Nidhogg, which was about as intense as the first encounter... in that I died near the end of the fight,, got resurrected and promptly killed again just as the fight ended. Still, it is nice to see that Ishgard is on the upswing to bring an end to the Dragonsong War, but with that I'm now clearly at the point where things are setting up for Shadowbringers by bringing Alisaie back into the main story for the first time since she and Alphinaud had a falling out on what was the best way to proceed.
Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Bisceps Shape Focus Combo, Intermediate Combo #1 and Triple Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 523 kcal.
For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which means Overwatch is on deck to kick off the new week!
So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!
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