First Fallout 76 Experience, Fitness Boxing 2 Totals For March

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 was interesting, and it's a little quirky in a few ways. First the biggest issues I have is when using the PipBoy device because on almost every other game, to navigate menus it's pressing LB and RB... that is not the case with this game, and so it's going to take getting use to. Also I'm playing it in 3rd person mode, because it does allow to see things from different points of view.

That said, we really took our time getting started, roaming around and finding things to get a feel for the in-game world... where other players can attack you. I was aware of this, but since I have no intention of dealing with any PVP nonsense, I'll just leave the pacifist mode on to avoid that. We did see an example of this because Iceman joined in, and accidentally became wanted... and resulted in a higher level player coming along to get the bounty.

The game and story itself is pretty much open ended as to what approach one should take, but I think managing the hunger and hydration is going to be the biggest issues for me to contend with. Still the game itself does make a for a fun time to mess around with buddies while making casual progress towards getting things done.

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Reclamation Day!: Leave Vault 76
• A Fighting Chance: Craft a Weapon
• Tested Mettle: Complete 5 Challenges
• Happy C.A.M.P.er: Build a C.A.M.P.
• A Real Challenger: Complete 20 Challenges
• Second Skin: Craft 5 Pieces of Armor
• Junker Funk: Gather 200 Pieces of Junk

Twitch Clip Links

• The first achievement 
• He lost his head!
• We're doing the murder 
• Iceman was getting attack... he was wanted
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x  who was playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain over on twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive Combo #1, Double Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2. With the extra free training I did today, I set a new personal best for Biceps Shape Focus Combo set to No Mercy, with the results of all 832 actions being 823 Perfect and 9 Okay.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats For March 2022

• Punches thrown: 56,922
• Punches thrown for March 2021: 43,985
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 24271.95 kcal
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn For Match 2021 : 19008.94 kcal
  

The totals I hit this month set a new best for a complete month, breaking the records I set for myself in May of last year when I three 56,436 punches and had an estimated calorie burn of 23,967.58 kcal. Funny enough, or tragically, the reason for the extra amount of workout time was because work got slow.

Since Peacock is included with my Cable and Internet service through Comcast Xfinity, Let me say this, the TV interface sucks, and the Web browser variate is only marginally better. One does not really realize who limited the Universal Film and TV Library is until you start looking through what is on Peacock. I checked out the WWE Network stuff, watch a random episode of WCW Thunder, and episode of the Broken Skull Sessions.  

Speaking of WWE stuff, my progress in the MyCareer mode of 2K15 continued to where I had a run in with the Shield. It was a nice little story, but I wonder if the limit of being on 'three big events' actually is a hindrance or if of just waiting for major story lines while grinding out various matches.

My Xbox achievement streak continued to today by knock out two achievements in Aaero last night, which extended the streak to 49 days..

Aaero Achievements

• No brakes: Complete 'I Can't Stop' on Normal
• 25 Normal Stars: Earn 25 stars on Normal

I am disappointed that Twitch is discontinuing the Desktop App, I found it to be a very useful tool when it came to watching other people stream while I was working on other things.

For tonight's stream we'll be having a nice casual night of Final Fantasy XIV, a raid or two, some level grinding on different stuff, but you know we'll be keeping it chill.

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

The Loyalty Of The Thief And The Mercenary

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 was focused on every not associated with the main story of the game, as we went to nearly every system we could and put in a good deal of time on things associated with the game's DLC. I'll get the Firewalker content out of the way first, I'm not a fan of the Hammerhead vehicle, but having played Mass Effect 2 enough times I can basically tear though its missions rather quickly to get it out of the way.

Zaaed's mission of revenge is probably the one where I can easily flip flop on saving the refinery workers or just getting Zaaed to Santiago so that he can have some closure. Granted the later has the awesome sight of Zaaed walking away from an explosion like a total bad ass.Which was the choice we made.

Kasumi's mission is probably a lot more convoluted than it needed to be, it certain has a lot more combat than Zaaed's by a large margin, and is more difficult because instead of having a squad of three, it's you as Shepard and Kasumi. The issue of the Gray Box is certainly debatable when it comes to choosing to destroy it or let Kasumi keep it. We went with letting her keep it.

Beyond that, we found a couple of side missions. located the Normandy crash site and just held off on picking up Jack, Grunt and Morden. Way I figure by picking up Jack and Grunt first, then Morden, that should allow me to deal with Project: Overlord before Horizon colony. At least that's the theory I have based on how I am looking to pace things out.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Merciless: Make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire
• Head Hunter: Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets
• Agent: Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds
• Broke, Blind and Bedlam: Gain the loyalty of the thief
• Revenge!: Gain the loyalty of the mercenary

Twitch Clip Links

1. This Is Mandatory
2. Shepard Meets The Press 
3. Head Hunter
   

For the raid, we dropped in on Redneck_23 who was doing things with Farming Simulator 22 over at twitch.tv/redneck_23!   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1. Also set a new personal best by scoring a perfect on Advanced Combo #2 set on Low.

I'm not surprised at all with how lackluster Sony's updated PlayStation Plus service is going to be in comparison to what folks get with Xbox's GamePass... this is because of Sony's attitude towards older content. Just remember, Sony is the company who had a CEO who insulted those who like to go back and play older games.

So when checking out games, I  checked Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption, which is one of the many Indy-developed platformer that has a bit of Metroid approach to it. While it only took 30 minutes to get all the achievements, I can safely say it is very buggy, as any time I paused or pressed the central button on the controller to check my progress. I can safely say this is a game that is not worth featuring on stream with the issues I had with it.

Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption Achievements

• Opener I: Open 1 door with a key
• Cleaner I: Destroy 25 obstacles
• Hunter I: Kill 6 enemies
• Cleaner II: Destroy 75 obstacles
• Opener II: Open 2 doors with a key
• Clearer I: Die 6 times
• Clearer II: Die 12 times
• Hunter II: Kill 24 enemies
• Cleaner III: Destroy 200 obstacles
• Clearer III: Die 24 times
• Hunter III: Kill 48 enemies
• Opener III: Open 5 doors with a key

For tonight's stream we're going to do something different, we're going to check out Fallout 76.. ad game's whose initial launch was... troubled. But it's been around for a while, which means there was plenty of time for patches and fixes to be applied to it by its developers.

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

The Return Of Mass Effect 2

Good morning everyone 

Last night we started up the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2, which I'm referring to as 'Classic' because we have to make sure folks are aware I'm not playing the Legendary Edition version. That said, the controls do feel a little sluggish in comparison to Legendary Edition, but beyond that it was a good experience as I got to make all the usual jokes such as Shepard's death being Joker's fault, calling the Illusive Man 'Tim', in addition to getting some things out of the way early.

Now there was an issue with the DLC of Mass Effect 2 in that I know I had a lot of it, but apparently not everything was installed before had... I had to go into the game and confirm I wanted what I knew I had and then install it. That really is a clunky interface by any and all measures. Still we'll be able to go through all the DLC content gradually.

For the story, we ended up recruiting Garrus off Omega first, because I really hate that mission, I always die in the large garage portion of the mission because of how quickly the enemies spawn in before the shutters are closed. I also screwed up and forgot to talk to the Blue Suns leader, so I missed some a few things in that mission as well.

I think in terms of pacing we're going to feature Mass Effect 2 twice a week, the way we normally would, on Mondays and Tuesdays. This way Wednesdays can be a variety day with potential team up options with Iceman. Also in case I have to make a tough judgement call regarding my work schedule, it'll be easy to have Mass Effect 2 be the early feature.

By the way, in case you're wondering how I'm getting the screen shots, it's through OBS, which has a way to set a hot-key to screen shot a specific source. 

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Missing in Action: Save your crew from an overwhelming attack
• Fashionista: Personalize your armor in your quarters on the Normandy
• Very Elusive: Return to active duty
• Highly Trained: View all advanced combat training videos at Shepard's private terminal.
• Prospector: Retrieve mineral resources by scanning and probing a planet in the galaxy map
• Operative: Complete a mission discovered by scanning an unexplored world
• Explorer: Visit 100% of the planets in an unexplored cluster
• Scholar: Unlock 15 new Mass Effect 2 codex entries
• The Archangel: Successfully recruit Archangel

Twitch Clip Links

1. You better drink it dude... and well... he dead! 
2. Critical Mission Failure... 
3. Nice! 

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Let me say this, setting up the Id.Me stuff which is mandatory for dealing with any government sits (like irs.gov for example) is such a fucking pain in the ass!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficulty Challenge Combo #3, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1.

Messed around with Smite after the stream last night to play a couple of matches, it went about as well as expected as I just played at a few different characters.

Knocked out another achievement in Aaero last night, and the levels in that are getting harder in terms of recognizing what obstacles are coming and keeping the ship on the light beams, not to mention getting weapons to lock onto enemy ships when they appear. 

Aaero Achievements

• Gone fission: Complete 'Split the Atom' on Normal

As far as my off-stream progress in WWE 2K15 goes, well I unlocked William Regal in the MyCareer mode, but beyond that, no achievements were unlocked. There are a couple associated with this particular mode

For tonight's stream we're going to do another night of Mass Effect 2 as indicated earlier on today's post, and we're not going to go after Mordin right away, instead we'll go around to pick up Jack, Kasumi, Grunt and get other things done!

There's a great video of YouTube as Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett break down Will Smith's attack on Chris Rock, with the suspicion that it's all a work, and that it was pre-planned as if was a wrestling angle. 

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

Overwatch On A Night Where Will Smith Goes Insane

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was interesting as I picked up three plays of the game, two as D.va and one as Junkrat, and got in matches as them as well as Mercy, Anna, Symmetra.I'd say we'd probably had about a 50-50 split in terms of wins and losses, at least by what I remember based on when I'm writing this.

Now that said, I do believe both the Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony Maps need to be brought back to Overwatch for a couple of reasons, one being no one can justify their removal when their are similar maps still in the games, and two, being that there are a few tricks I can do on both maps as D.va and Moira that I miss doing. 

Particularly on the Paris maps while being on Attack, as D.va I can hop over a wall that really only she can get over and not instantly die if their is a turret other other side, and on the same map, with Moira I can use her Fade to  almost do the same thing to get past the first choke to get behind the enemy team by going to the right, or just going for the point to get their attention which allows my team to push through the choke (if my teammates have any brains on realizing what the situation was... which was only the case 20% of the time) 

Ah well, hopefully both maps will be in Overwatch 2 when that officially launches.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Call Mech, Ult, Get Get Mech, Use Pistol!
2. Quad Kill! 
3. A Quick Push
   

For last night's raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was continuing their voice acting streams of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Minagoroshi over on twitch.tv/flint_locke!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo

So Will Smith smacked the shit out of Chris Rock for a joke that involved his wife and a supposed sequel to G.I. Jane. Now I've seen the clip, and well, Smith should've known better... and the night he wins an Oscar for Best Actor will forever be known as the night he threw a hissy fit over an unfunny joke. But to be fair, Chris Rock hasn't been funny since his small part in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. That said, Smith is clearly in the wrong here, there is no logical way anyone can take his side and under any other circumstances, Smith probably would have been ejected. For better or worse, Rock did his job as a comedian and was a professional... and while many disagree about him choosing not to press charges, Rock proved to be the bigger man.

Messed around more with Aaero, managing to clear another stage in it , and also put in more time with the MyCareer mode of WWE 2K15, picking up two achievements with that.

Aaero Achievements

• Sequenz abgeschlossen: Complete 'Sequenz' on Normal

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Hard worker: MyCAREER - Have 5 attributes reach a value of 80 or higher.
• The next big thing: MyCAREER - Reach SmackDown.

For tonight's stream we're going to start up the classic Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2. As you know, I've played the PC / Origin version, and I've played the Legendary Edition last year. So it was a matter of time of playing the 360 version.

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

The Fifth Element... Is Not A Completely Terrible Game

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream did indeed open with The Fifth Element, and perhaps, from what I've seen, it doesn't deserve it's reputation for being a terrible video game. Don't get me wrong it's a good game, just an... average one for the era it came out in (1998 on the original PlayStation) where the camera can be either a help or a hindrance, particularly if you realize you can use the analog sticks! See if you accidentally move the camera to be anywhere from being behind you and don't set it back, you basically will screw yourself  in not being able to see enemies in front of you. Sure that doesn't help when it comes to the fact enemies can shoot you at range when they haven't even spawned fully, but once I realized how to work the camera to my advantage, things worked out a bit.

Now the controls are a little wonky and take some getting use to, particularly with Korbin... but with Leeloo, they make a little more sense since she has more of a move set for exploration. Her combat hit dedication takes some getting use to, and it seems running might be a better in some situations than others. Visually, the game is pretty good looking for its time, both of the character models for Korbin and Leeloo look close their movie counterparts. The sound mix is pretty decent in terms of how the music and sound effects are presented. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the use of footage from the movie, where careful care was taken to not show Bruce Willis's face... however Milla Jovovich was on full display... and I do mean full. Since the movie was being adapted to a game, there was some re-working of the plot to make it fit a video game, such as the first level is Korbin going to activate Leeloo, then level two and three is Leeloo looking to bust Korbin out of jail and escape. 

Also, with this being an older game, there are cheat codes... and activating infinite lives is almost a must for this game, mostly because of how much perfect timing is needed to make various jumps. Good news is that when you die, enemies you have dealt with are not re-spawned, which is just awesome. 

Now we didn't spent the entire stream with The Fifth Element, we switched over to the PlayStation 2 to mess around with WWF Just Bring It... and I'm surprised that I don't have a save file for it on either of my older memory cards. I can't imagine as to why or when I would have deleted the older save file, but it was disappointing to realize that I would at some point need to do 'story mode' runs to unlock everything. Well it gives us an excuse to dedicate serious time to in the future. That said, the arcade style game play still holds up once one remembers what the controls are. Also, I'm surprised there were intergender matches possible. But of course everyone remembers this game for the terrible commentary provided by Michael Cole and Tazz with how some words have more emphasis than others.

We also jumped to the Xbox One to mess around with Space Invaders Infinity Gene, which I talked about on yesterday's blog. Didn't get a screen shot of it, but we did unlock a few weapons options and the ability to start with 5 lives instead of 3, so that should make a couple of things easier. Probably... maybe not. 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Good Platform Jumping Followed By Plummeting To My Death 
2. Oh... wow....
3. Molly Wins! 
4. Wow That Was Quick! 
5. Dealing with Invaders... From Space 

For last night's raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! In particularly they were doing alternate job leveling as well as mentor roulettes!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Hook Combo #1 and Block Combo. Having reached 30+ hours for the Evan's Contender achievement, I switched to having Martina as the trainer. With Martina, I'm already at 17 hours out of 30 for her Contender related achievement. I also set a new personal best on Advanced Combo #1 on No Mercy Difficulty. out of 748 actions, 745 were perfect 13 were only okay.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Evan's Contender: Train with Evan for over 30 hours.
• King EX Fighter Progress: 90% of all EX Achievement Acquired
  

My off-stream gaming last night saw more progress made in WWE 2K15's my career mode, got my character up to the 'Main Event' level of shows and gradually working towards a few other achievements. Speaking of which, knock out one in Aaero and one in Gears of War 3, so the achievement streak managed to continue!

Aaero Achievements

• Brightness: Complete 'Pure Sunlight' on Normal

Gears of War 3 Achievements

• Welcome to Versus: Killed 10 enemies in Team Deathmatch.

It's the start of a new week, but let's look back at all the stuff we featured over the past seven days which included: Overwatch, Contrast, Gears 5, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, Paladins, WWE 2K15, #SincuaAttack, Dead or Alive 1 Ultimate, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, The Fifth Element and WWF SmackDown Just Bring It! 

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday so you know Overwatch is on deck!

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

A Whole Lot Of Plot Build Up

Good afternoon everyone, 

You know what can and is very frustrating is when you're told something will last till a certain time and then 15 minutes after you start, the rug is pulled out from under you. That happened to me yesterday afternoon...

Anyway, last night's stream of Persona 5 Royal went rather well in terms of actual trophies being earned, but also in terms of getting a lot of plot and exposition done regarding various characters... or rather the confidants. Granted there is a lot of unease when it comes to Kawakami being a 'sexy maid', with half of her dialog just coming off as really weird, and the scene where Morgana and Ryuji were apparently trying to look up Ann's skirt during the 'party' on June 11th, there was some great insight being given.

During the stream there was more direct interaction with Makoto, whose obvious 'stalking' tactics involved pretending to read an upside down Manga which I had some questions about. There was also now having to take the Wardens out around town, such as the burger place and the movie theater, and also coming across various in game activities such as the 'Darts' mini game which seems to be a bit interesting in terms of trying to hit targets.

I should talk about Goro Akechi, who really comes across an arrogant jerk as well as someone we're going to have on the team at some point. Much like Yusuke, his personally just grates me on first impressions. 

On a side note, after 30 hours of game time, Persona 5 Royal is certainly a lot more 'straight forward' than one would assume, and it's really clear that if one isn't careful, missing various things becomes really apparent. Yes I'm using a guide, but even with it, one screw up can throw everything off.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Museum of Vanity: Repossessed: Completed the museum Palace.
• Easy Money: Won the lottery.
• Dartslinger: Played a game of darts.
• A Hustler's Journey: Played a game of billiards.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Cake Man Rises
2. What the hell is Makoto Pretending to Read? 
3. I Feel A Murderous Intent!
4. The hell are they doing?! 
   

For the raid we dropped in on Redneck_23, who is a long time friend of the channel! He was featuring Farming Simulator 22 over on twitch.tv/redneck_23!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. I am surprised we didn't unlock the Evan's Contender achievement today But we have an excellent shot of doing it tomorrow

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For The Week of  3/20 to 3/26/2022

• 29/30 hours trained with Evan for 'Evan's Contender' (EX Achievement)
• Punches Thrown 12,454
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 5622.57
  

Checked out  Aaero last night, and it's an odd little twin stick and apparently one button shooter that is to the 'beat' of a lot of techno, heavy bass style music. It's unique for what it is, I figure we'll check it out on stream this upcoming week.. In theory there are a lot of possible achievements to get in this game... I say in theory because there is a lot of memorizing, needing quick reflexes and getting use to what each level is like. I'll also have to check the sound settings for this game, because damn the music is loud!

Aaero Achievements

• Kicking It: Complete 'Bass Cannon' on Normal
• No points for you!: Fail a track

I did try to go for what would seem like an 'easy' achievement in Gears of War 3, titled 'Welcome to the Big Leagues', and it didn't pop after doing a few matches in it. Could try to show case during this week as well. 

And speaking of things we could also take a look at, how about Space Invaders, with a game called Space Invaders: IG... the IG standing for Infinity Gene. This is a real oddity as it takes the concept of Space Invaders and then gradually turns it into a bullet hell type game. Again it is quite odd. 

Put in some time with the MyCareer mode in WWE 2K15, and during the course of unlocked the Ringmaster achievement... which I was attempt to do the previous night. Sometimes with these things are best not to 'try' and just let things happen naturally. At the moment my character is in the 'Superstars' phase of the mode.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Ringmaster: Strike or wrench an opponent in 5 different chain hold positions. (Single play)

For tonight's stream we're going to hook the original PlayStation up and we're going to check out a few games, starting with The Fifth Element.

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

How chill can a FFXIV stream get?

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was pretty damned chilled if I do say so myself. Sure we did the fourth circle Pandemonium raid to start... we basically focused on Botany and Fishing for a large part of the stream before putting some attention in on the Blue Mage spell hunting. I had no luck finding a party to go into the Dungeon for Glower, but I did have luck getting into a different dungeon as well as a Trial, namely the Battle of the Big Keep, so I now have missile in the arsenal of powers for my Blue Mage.Also had a surprising amount of success finding some spells out in the open world,  so all in all it was a pretty productive stream.

Now we'll probably be getting back to 'new content' with Final Fantasy XIV in April, since the first big Post-Endwalker content will be released next month. So new raids and things to look forward to. But I'm more interested in when Data Center Visits will become a thing because then folks who I know who are on different servers can team up!

Also full disclaimer: I nearly forgot to set a screenshot aside for the blog, but thankfully O put one in my discord first before I started writing today's entry.

Twitch Clips Links

1. Figures! EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!!!
2. Electrogenesis learned 
3. We learned Northerlies
   

For the raid we sent the fun over to x_lumineee who was playing Final Fantasy X HD Remaster over at twitch.tv/x_lumineee! I personally haven't played FFX since the early 2000s, I still have my save file on a PlayStation 2 memory card!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 & Advanced Combo #1.. In terms of the extra Free Training I managed to work in, I finally scored a Perfect score on Difficult Challenge Combo #1 set at 'Low Difficulty'. Total work out was about 43 minutes, so you can I slept in a little today.

Managed to pick up another Xbox achievement in SSX, which I surprised worked considering the online servers for the game have long since shut down. To successfully get the 'I Am A Ghost' achievement, you need to do a survival race, you don't have to win it, but once it's finished the achievement popped up

SSX Achievements

• I Am A Ghost: Upload your first personal ghost

Went after some achievements in WWE 2K15... I wanted to go for a third one, but the timing needed for the Ringmaster achievement is really finicky depending on the A.I.. Also discovered a weird slow down issue with the Xbox One version of this game in a six-man tag where if you leave someone in the ring too long the game would just come to a slog until you managed to tag someone else in. I don't recall that being an issue with the Steam version.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• That's Justice: Perform The Shield's triple powerbomb. (Single play/Exhibition)
• Change the tides: Successfully perform a hot tag during a tag match. (Single play)

Now there is something cool when it comes to these older games and achievement hunting, since most people haven't play them in years... it means I getting to place my name as the 'last person' to unlock the achievement in question. Since being the first to do such a thing is impossible because of my approach when it comes to playing game, might as well be last.

Is anyone else sick of the dog and pony show that is the Republicans nonsense when it comes to the Supreme Court... Mitch McConnell shoved everyone he could through during Trump's disgraceful tenure in the White House, but now he wants to stand in the way of progress. The sooner McConnell and people like him kick the bucket the better. 

Had an issue with my Keyboard tray this morning a couple of screws came loose on the left side with one ending up on the right side of my chair. So having to deal with that was not pleasant. That's the problem with some things that require assembly.

For tonight's stream we shall be continuing Persona 5 Royal! Since we did the Museum Palace last week we' can focus on all the sub-stories this week!  

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

A Night of DOA, Sinuca and Gears

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream ended up being a triple header with Dead or Alive 1 Ultimate, #SinucaAttack and Gears of War 5: Ultimate Edition.

Now last year at one point, we played the PlayStation version of Dead or Alive, which was released in 1998 and it surprised me with how smoothly it played. Last night we played Dead or Alive 1: Ultimate... which was released in 2004... and it is inferior to the PlayStation version. How could that be? Dead or Alive Ultimate was a remake right? Well only Dead or Alive 2 saw a remake in that release... Dead or Alive 1: Ultimate is a straight port of the Sega Saturn version, without two characters or some of the extra optimization the PlayStation version had. We mostly played as Tina, but also played as Kasumi as well. On a side note, despite being backwards comparable, the only features for DOA1:Ultimate does not work.

#SinucaAttack obviously is something i messed around with one night prior, and it ended up being featured last night on stream because of my disappointed with DOA1:Ultimate. We started from the beginning and managed to get past where I stopped playing the previous night, and saw that additional gimmicks like a jetpack ends up being introduced into the game.

Lastly, with Iceman's help, we wrapped up Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, getting all the collectables (aka the COG tags), and experiencing the 'additional' part that was not in the original version of the game. There was one particularly moment that featured the Brumak getting way to close to me, and well you don't see me panic much, but that was certainly a time for it!

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Achievements

• Know Place Like Home: Discovered Adam's secret lab
• YEEEEHAAAAA!: Escaped from the Brumak (end of Ch.6)
• Power Up: Restored power to the bridge
• Marcus? Is That You?: Restored communications with Control
• Shock Therapy: Killed the Brumak
• All Aboard! Uh... We're Aboard!: Boarded the Imulsion bound train with the Lightmass Bomb
• For the Fallen: Recovered all 33 COG tags
• I Can't Quit You Dom: Completed all acts in co-op
• Mercenary: Completed all acts on Casual Difficulty
• A Dish Best Served Cold: Defeated General RAAM

So what's next with Iceman and I in what has been weekly adventures going back for nearly two years? Well we're not sure, at some point 'Insane' difficulty runs of the Gears games is something I'd like to attempt. There is some consideration for either Resident Evil 5 and 6, which are also both co-op games. Iceman has said he wants to make sure I do the Keenly College event in The Division 2 at least once, but because that's a random event, it makes it nearly impossible to plan for, having to keep an eye out for it.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Flying Hip Attack
2. That worked! 
3. Rescuing Iceman
4. Found it! Bringing Down The Wall 
5. RUNNING RUNNING!!!!!
6. Defeating Raam! Right through the heart

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

You know what's funny... I forgot to put the highlight video on my Facebook page last night and had to scramble to remake it.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #!, Triple Combo #1 and Body Straight Combo. Even though I had work today, I did work in some extra free training, and set new personal bests for Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #2, scoring perfects on both. Today was also day 626 in a row going back to when I started with the original Fitness Boxing... that means in 40 days it would be... well you can do the math.

Extended my Xbox achievement streak through today by knocking out the last two achievements that I think are possible with SSX that doesn't require 'getting good' at the game. Current streak is at 42 days.

SSX Achievements

• Gear Up!: Make your first Gear Purchase
• I'm Flying!: Deploy your wingsuit for the first time (not achievable in Tutorial)

Tonight's stream will feature Final Fantasy XIV, mostly just relaxing and making light progress on things as we'll be taking it easy!

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

An Unlikely Trio of Games Featured

Good afternoon everyone,

Well you know something is off when there's an afternoon blog in the middle of the week, anyway... last night's stream  featured a trio of games, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, WWE 2K15 and Paladins.

For the Garfield Kart: Furious Racing portion, we mostly focused on featuring every course on 'normal difficulty' and we managed to unlock a few things by managing to finish in first place a handful of times. The A.I. is really brutal with some of the items... and of course I lost a few first place finishes due to not remembering parts of some courses.

The WWE 2K15 portion saw a handful of matches played to make progress towards a few achievements. The big highlight was going wire to wire as The Big Show in the Royal Rumble when I went for the achievement associated with eliminating 12 other individuals. I'm surprised that also was a diamond achievement... like come on folks, how could only 7% of Xbox players have managed that?! There was one particularly hilarious moment that is listed in the clips section below regarding Rob Van Dam.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Over the ropes you go!: Eliminate 12 opponents with the same Superstar in a single Royal Rumble match. (Single play)

The Paladins portion of the stream saw me playing a lot as Dredge to work on the Trials associated with his character... and boy did I see a wonderful array of intentional throwing of matches. The good news is the extra practice of a character I didn't like when they were first added to the game, and I like Dredge's kit even less now. 

Of course the stream went long, and well, there were reasons for that, but hey we had a good night.

Twitch Clip Links 

1. Wheee.... oh... that went wrong
2. You know what... 
3. Getting some big air with Garfield!
4. RVD Picked A Bad Time To Fire Up 
5. Achievement: Over the top rope you go!
6. We ride in to bring the heals 
   

For the raid last night we dropped in on Phoenix_face who I haven't seen streaming in a while, they were playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive over at twitch.tv/phoenix_face!  They said they are intending to stream on Tuesdays, so we'll be able to keep an eye out for them in the future,

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Left Right Step Combo, Advanced Combo #2 and Double Combo #2. We set a new personal best and record with Sway Back Combo set to No Mercy Difficulty, 738 perfect actions performed! Woo-hoo! Anyway since work has been slow yesterday and Today, and I've put in extra time in working out, we're up to 27 out of 30 hours trained for Evan's Contender. Might as well put in the extra effort right?

There was an 8.7 GB update for Smite, and if there is one thing I can say about the developers of that game is that their updates are never small. Speaking of updates, made sure to to update Star Trek Online to see if there was anything I'm missing... nope, just more of the generic 'events' involving daily cycles of a handful of Task Force Ops.

Messed around with #SinucaAttack, which is a puzzle game where you use a pool cue to hit balls into boxes and switches to advance... and before I knew it I had all of the games achievements unlocked. It is a very basic game, but it doesn't fully tell you all the controls, LB is the jump, RB is the charge the cue stick (or a quick tab to give a ball a nudge)... but to aim you have to use the right analog stick, which is not disclosed. For a cheap little game, it's an easy way to boost ones Xbox achievement score. 

#SinucaAttack Achievements

• Ball Hitter I: Hit balls 6 times
• Ball Hitter II: Hit balls 20 times
• Ball Hitter III: Hit balls 40 times
• Level Master I: Beat level 1
• Switch Hero I: Hit switches 2 times.
• Level Master II: Beat level 2
• Level Master III: Beat level 3
• Switch Hero II: Hit switches 6 times.
• Level Master IV: Beat level 4
• Level Master V: Beat level 5
• Level Master VI: Beat level 6
• Switch Hero III: Hit switches 12 times.
• Level Master VII: Beat level 8
• Level Master VIII: Beat level 10
• Level Master IX: Beat level 12

For tonight's stream we'll be looking to finish up Gears of War Ultimate Edition with Iceman while getting all the COG tags, but before that, there will be some random gaming.

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

Contrast is still an awesome game

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream was a lot of fun as we played Contrast, a game that was released originally back in 2013, that saw an Xbox One version released in 2014. Now I first played it back in 2017, in fact it was a game we streamed... however unlike that time when I only unlocked 20 of the 22 achievements with the Steam version, we did a full 100% complete play through... which required a little chapter jumping to find four achievements that I missed. Still my play time was much faster, the first time I played Contrast it took me close to 7 hours to finish it, last night it only took me 4 hours. So hey, I've gotten better at video games over the past five years.

Anyway, Contrast is a gorgeous game, that involves jumping into well light walls to be able to move among the shadows. It is a puzzle platformer, so quite a bit of thinking and planning is involved to see how to get from point A to point B, and even some object moving. The good news is that the game gradually introduces each of its mechanics smoothly, so by the time you reach the final puzzles of the game, all it comes down is just realizing what you can do... and focusing a light beam (seriously I spent a lot of time on one puzzle in Act III because of that).

Best part about Contrast is the story that it tells of a broken family that is brought back together, and the revelation of who Dawn is, as she is the character we play as... and the fact that quite a lot of little details are revealed when one pays attention to all the collectables. Also the kid, DiDi certainly is a charming companion character since it's her story we're seeing, but I wonder how the revelation that her father shares the same powers as Dawn would play out, I don't believe there has ever been a sequel to this game to explore that.

Now we did finish the game a bit after 10 PM, so since I was using the Xbox Series console last night, we loaded up Gears 5 to get in a little extra gaming. No achievements were unlocked during, just a couple of stints of PVE control.

Contrast Achievements

• A New Dimension: Unlocked when the player shifts for the first time.
• Illuminated: Unlocked after the player gets their second luminary.
• To The Heroes Among Us: Unlocked when the player finds the hidden Extra Life 2012 Logo.
• Room 529: Unlocked when the player leaves the Cabaret.
• Now That's Thinking With Shadows: Unlocked when the player clears the Void Jump on their first attempt.
• Punching Bag: Unlocked when the player lets the gangsters beat up Johnny.
• You Broke My Finger!: Unlocked when the player leaves the Cinema.
• Streets Sweeper: Unlocked after the player discovers all collectibles in Act I.
• A Carousel Of Broken Dreams: Unlocked when the player completes Act I.
• The Family Life: Unlocked when the player examines Didi's family pictures.
• This Circus Is A Disaster!: Unlocked when the player goes through the circus tent toward the attractions.
• Just Like Harry: Unlocked when the player makes it over the crocodiles on their first attempt in the Shadow Theater.
• No Backpack Bird Needed: Unlocked when the player jumps into the treasure chest in the Pirate Ride.
• Handy Person: Unlocked when the player repairs the three attractions.
• How'd You Get In?: Unlocked when the player completes the Workshop.
• BookKeeper: Unlocked when the player discovers all collectibles in Act III.
• Let There Be Light: Unlocked when the player completes the Lighthouse.
• FIN: Unlocks when the player completes the game.
• Not That Kind Of Game!: Unlocked when the player tries to enter the XXX door.
• My God, It's Full Of Stars!: Unlocked when the player falls into the void on the way to the Cinema.
• GroundsKeeper: Unlocked when the player discovers all collectibles in Act II.
• The Cyclops' Bottle: Unlocked when the player finds the Cyclops' bottle in the Carousel area.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Too slow at first
2. Just got to untangle the balloon! 
3. That ending...
4. It was bound to happen 
   

For the raid we dropped in on CallMeMsGalasxy who was playing Phasmophobia over on twitch.tv/callmemsgalaxy. Found them though Hover via one of their Overwatch clips. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Uppercut Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo. Of course we did some extra because of other reasons beyond my control.

There is another COVID variant floating around, BA.2 which appears to be similar to the variant that kicked the crap out of the North East last year. Cases in my home state of New Jersey are up 40% and this just makes me glad I don't go anywhere.

My Xbox achievement streak continued through today as I continued to knock out things in WWE 2K15, a game that is eight years old, but hey there are things we can get out of it to boost the achievement score. At 40 days this is my 2nd longest streak since originally picking up a Xbox One in early 2020.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• One foot in the grave: Win a match by a leverage pin. (Single play)
• Ready for the big leagues: MyCAREER - Complete the NXT part.

So the question will become when will we feature WWE 2K15 on stream since I'm messing around with it so much off-stream. Well how about tonight, we'll open with some Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, then put in some WWE 2K15 and maybe work in a third game too.

That sounds like a plan so on that note, we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

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!

 

The Street Fighter EX Trilogy

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream certainly took an interesting turn as we featured all three games of the Street Fighter EX trilogy. Let's first talk about the two games released on the original PlayStation

The first game, Street Fighter EX Plus was something I have played before 20+ years ago, but I traded my original copy in for something else way back and only recently acquired a 'new' used copy of the game. Playing it again certainly felt good as the game play was solid, the visual looked pretty good and with Sakura in the game, you know I was going to use her first and foremost. I got my ass wrecked by Shin Akuma for the 2nd time in a month, because I unknowingly fulfilled the requirements to face him just like I did with Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. This game certainly has depth to it with a few different game modes, including Survival and Time Trial.

Next, was Street Fighter EX2 Plus... which I have never played before. It is a stunningly good looking game, and perhaps has the smoothest button inputs I have ever experienced, in fact I was able to do things with Chun Li in this game that I struggle to do with in other games she appears in. My only criticism of it, or rather of the Japan version of the game is the lack of game modes. Apparently the North American version had some sort of combo challenges associated with it, that are not in Japan release. That was a tad bit disappointing.

Because of that, I hooked up the PlayStation 2 to play Street Fighter EX3... this is a game I have played before... and boy was I rusty as hell at it, not remembering at all how to do any of the tag team combos that are in the game. The game play for EX3 can be considered weak in comparison to its two predecessors, but compared to other fighting games, it is pretty solid in terms of how it performs and how it looks. Plus it has arguably the best reason to beat the 'Original Mode', with the end credits sequence where you get to beat the crap out of a ton of jobbers.

Something I discovered during the stream is that the developer of the Street Fighter EX trilogy, ARIKA, owns all the original characters and they developed and released a sequel to these games last year called Fighting EX Layer, which I hope had a North America release.

Twitch Clip Links 

1. Getting My Stuff Wrecked By Shin Akuma
2. Taking Down Bison 
3. Trying Out Area
4. Defeating Sagat With Chun Li 
5. Well that worked out
6. Nice way to win 
   

For the raid, we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal, and we also joined in on a trail with Kal as well!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive Combo #2, Double Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #1. And yes I am trying to do extra free trainings every day to knock out the Contender and Champion achievements as quickly as possible!

Continued by Xbox achievement streak via WWE 2K15 last night, and something that surprised me is that The Giant Killer achievement, which involves defeating Big Show using Rey Mysterio on Hard Difficulty was only accomplished by 2% of Xbox players. I mean. come on, it's a pretty standard thing  to do. How I did it, set up an Extreme Rules match with the two, which lead to getting two other achievements as well.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Now that's Hardcore!: Hit an opponent with a foreign object or put them through a table. (Single play)
• Redbox Big Moment: Put your opponent through the announce table via any means. (Single play/Exhibition)
• The Giant killer: Beat Big Show using Rey Mysterio on Hard difficulty. (Single play)
• You're so desperate!: Win a match using a Desperation Pin. (Single play)
• Tap! Tap! Tap!: Make an opponent tap out with a submission that is not a Finisher or Signature move. (Single Play)
• My path starts here: MyCAREER - Complete the tutorial.

It's the start of a new week, so let's look back at all the things we featured over the last seven days which includes Overwatch, Sonic Generations, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Paladins, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Street Fighter EX Plus, Street Fighter EX2 Plus and Street Fighter EX3!  

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which as you know means it's time for Overwatch!

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