Good morning everyone,
It's Friday, the weekend is here, and it's going to be a cold one as we are expecting some snow down where I live. Hopefully just a dusting.
Now, for the first time since October for the Halloween content, Star Trek Online was featured last night on my stream as we took at look at the 'Shadows Advance' content, whcih featured new mission called 'Red Shit' and a new Task Force Operation called 'Iuppiter Iratus'. Before I dive into them, let me point out that the audio mixing of in-game music to sound effects and voice overs in STO has gotten incredibly bad since October, keeping. It's so loud at 25% when the others are set at 100%.
Anyway, 'Red Shift' sees us going to Jupiter Station following an incursion from the Terran Empire, and we are being briefed by Admiral Janeway and her mirror counter-part, Marshal Janeway, who was left behind after they were betrayed by The Inquisitor (aka the Player's evil doppelganger, complete with voiced lines), Tilly and Kuumaarke who kidnapped Ilia... or rather the Ilia who became the V'ger probe in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Now as far as that plot twist goes, it's creative, as no one would have expected a tie to that film... however, V'ger has been referenced in Star Trek Online for nearly a decade, as the Unimatrix Borg vessels make V'ger like sounds when engaged in Red Alerts.
As for the mission, I love the fact that the evil version of my character has a voice box, it adds an extra bit of sweetness to the cut-scenes. There was some nice comedic moments with the bickering between Tilly and Kuumaark. Marshall Janeway seemingly being a liberated Borg adds a unique twist for the mission's boss battle as she turned downed enemies into drones. The mission is really combat heavy, with numerous waves of Starfleet enemies in various places. It was an enjoyable experience.
'Iuppiter Iratus' is your typical Task Force Operation, broken down into three major segments, fend off the initial enemies, defend various objects and then tackle a boss encounter. It's a space TFO which means if you're objective focused like me the last thing you want to see is people dicking around and going off to a far part of the map, leaving you in an impossible situation. That said, 'Iuppiter Iratus' is really bland, and probably takes to long to get things resolved because.
Overall, I'd say the 'Shadows Advance' content is just okay, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 mostly for what 'Red Shift' brought to the table.
Of course the entire stream wasn't just Star Trek Online, I did include Final Fantasy XIV as well, as I actually spent time leveling up as a Fisherman, did one Alliance raid and featured the combat portion of the Main Story Quest 'A Frosty Reception'. I'm still not a fan of having to play as the Scions as their abilities and quirks are not something I'd use in combat within the context of the game.
I did more with FFXIV off-stream as well. knocking out the main story quests of 'Tracks in the Snow', which was just awful, 'How the Mighty Are Fallen' and 'At the End of the Trail'. Now if wanting to make sure that the player has no sympathy for the citizens of the Garlean Empire was the intent, then the developers did a good job of having me think they are not worth saving. That said, the Garlemald zone was a nice change of space of being a big open are where I could explore and find all the Aether Currents not tied to quests while scouting out the entire map.
For the raid, we sent things over to Oldish22 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/oldish22!
Twitch Clip Links
- Holy Cow my character has voiced dialog
- Wanted By Section 31
- It's V'ger... Lt. Ilia
- Catching a big fish
- Wha...what... RUDE!
- That will clear the field
Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured a 31 minute workout with Uppercut Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Triple Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 432 kcal. Forgot to grab the screenshot however.
If I time things right with the Capcom Arcade Stadium grind to 100 hours, we might feature the last leg of that journey on stream sometime next week. Really depends on how the auto-grinding goes.
For tonight's stream, we shall be returning to Kingdom Hearts III to take on the next world, whatever it may be!
So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!
