Today's Notes 5/30/21: Last Night Was A Random Night!

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream was without question a night of many things, as we jumped from game to game.We'll start with the one sour note from last night, which was the fact WCW Vs The World simply would not go past the loading screen after selecting who I wanted to play as and who I wanted to face, so we couldn't get into an actual match. I tried it on the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3, so that was a bit disappointing.

Of course disappointment did not last for long, as our attention turned towards Forsaken, a game whose advertisements in things like GamePro and Eletronic Gaming Monthly gave the impression it was an RPG, but no, it's a pure 360-degree shooter that probably would induce actually motion sickness into soft-heated MOBA players. Forsaken comes across as a game where it feels like the developers were trying to assign everything to a button and couldn't quite grasp how to incorporate analog controls. Still we made it through the first level at least.

Twitch Clip: Hey We're Making Progress!

Next up was Gex, a game that originally was on the 3DO, but perhaps the version I'm most familiar with was the PC port. Gex is your typical plat-former video game of the 90s, and it's most memorable trait was perhaps that Gex made pop culture references and could be a little snarky at times. While we didn't get out of the Cemetery section, we did get through several levels, and had a good time with it. Gex actually does hold up pretty well game play wise.

Twitch Clip: I'm Jumped Onto It.... I Jumped Through The Platform?!

Attention then turned to Triple Play 97, and here's a game I played a lot back in the day.... on PC. Graphically, Triple Play 97 does not hold up well regarding how the players look, but the stadiums do look great, and pitching is probably a lot more easy to pick up on than hitting. Taking the opening day 1996 Phillies into the field.... we lost to the Oakland A's in a well paced game. One thing that certainly holds up about Triple Play 97 is the play-by-play commentary of Jim Hughson which is extremely well programmed, there are a couple of minor glitches with it but nothing to distracting.

Twitch Clip: And A Run Will Score

We then jumped into the PlayStation 2 era with Rocky, playing a few fights (Rocky vs Apollo Creed, Apollo vs Ivan Drago, Rocky vs Drago, and Clubber Lang vs Drago). I was stunned at how gorgeous this game looks for being nearly 20 years old, and plays pretty damn smoothly as well. Something that probably would've helped this game would've been some play-by-play commentary as the announcers during the big fights in the Rocky films added a lot to it. Something that clearly stood out was how fucking over-powered Drago was,  As I was all over him, knocking him down three times in two rounds, and then he went nuts and just brutalized me. It was fucking hilarious.

Twitch Clip: I Get Knocked Out By Dragon

The next game to see how it played was 007: From Russia With Love, and this really did surprise me in how it looked, sounded and played. One thing I can say about EA when it had the James Bond license, they certainly did try to make good games, and playing through the first two areas of the game certainly gave me the impression they were really going all out. Sean Connery actually voicing Bond certainly added a lot to the charm, and the work on making many of the characters who appeared in the film look like the actors who portrayed them was incredible for the time. We'll certainly come back to From Russia With Love as a big campaign game to fully finish down the road, starting from the beginning.

Twitch Clip: Okay That Was Cool 

Now during the stream, the United States Postal Service made a very late delivery at 7:38 PM EST, and I've never seen actual mail be delivered that late in my neighborhood. But what arrived was Mortal Kombat 4 (with it's strategy guide) for the original PlayStation. So we placed it into the the PS2 to see if it worked and yup it did. I have not played MK4 since probably 2001, but one thing remained true... Liu Kang's button inputs for special moves. We did not clear a tower, but for a quick look to see how it played we could get a lot of fun out of it, particularly if I take a nigh to get all the character endings.

Twitch Clip: Flying Kicks In Multiple Directions

Following last night's stream, I went achievement hunting as I was trying out Capcom Arcade Stadium, and this collection of classic Capcom games gives me mixed feelings. On one hand it's a great collection of Capcom's games that could be found in Arcades in the 80s and early 90s, but on the other hand, there is no on-line co-op despite that being a huge reason why people got the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle & Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collections! That said, we did get a lot of achievements last night but a lot of the remaining ones require 'time' being put into playing the games. FOr example one requires 100 hours total play time, and to put that into perspective, Final Fight from beginning to end takes about 50 minutes. Anyway here's the list of achievements from last night

1. Coin Consumer: Insert nine or more coins in one play session.
2. Trend Follower: Play a game that has a bonus campaign in progress.
3. Tempo Conductor: Use the Cycle Speed (Up/Down) or Max./Min. Speed (Hold) feature.
4. If I Could Turn Back Time...: Use the Rewind feature.
5. Welcome to the Stadium: Play a game.
6. First Failure: Get a Game Over screen.
7. Future High Score Lister: Play a game in Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
8. First Taste of Victory: Clear a game.
9. Good Job!: In one play session, gain 10,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
10. Great Job!: In one play session, gain 25,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
11. Amazing Job!: In one play session, gain 50,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
12. Remedial Student: Reach Class 5: Experimenter.
    

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session went 45 minutes, with an estimated calorie burn of 770. We missed 3 actions out of 1984 (A jab and two left hooks were the missed punches). Today's' exercises included Beginner Combo #2 (Set a new personal best for it at the No Mercy difficulty setting), Advance Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1. We're up to 80 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement, if we keep getting 3 points a day we should have it unlocked by next Tuesday (next Wednesday at the latest). 

We have new things in the collection today as well: Final Fantasy Origins for the PlayStation which includes remasters for Final Fantasy 1 and 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga for the PlayStation 2, and for the PlayStation 3 Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan & Fighting Edition which includes SoulCalibur V, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Tekken 6..

Since it's Sunday tonight we will be playing Overwatch, mostly to get in the matches needed to get the Echo skin that is part of the Anniversary Event that is currently taking place. And on that note we'll see yo

Highlights for the week of May 23, 2021

 Here are highlights from http://twitch.tv/fredcasden for the of week of May 23, 2021. This week featured Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercises, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Mortal Kombat 11, 007: From Russia With Love, Forsaken, Gex, Mortal Kombat 4, Rocky & Triple Play 97!