Overwatch and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Overwatch certainly saw more losses than wins, in fact we won only two matches in the last two hours, but we did win the final match of the night. What we ran into was a lot of questionable folks who weren't bothering adjusting to what the opposing team was doing along with not playing their roles correctly. Big thanks to PandaSweet and Odeu for being apart of the fun over all!

Characters that I used included Kiriko, Reinhardt, Orissa, D.va, Junker Queen, Ashe, Tracer, Bastion and others, unfortunately I picked up no plays of the game this week on stream, but I had some particuarly good matches in terms of statistics. But we did get an achievement as Mei.

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Cold Snap: Freeze 4 enemies at once with Mei in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we dropped in on The offical channel for Mystery Science Theater 3000 over at https://www.twitch.tv/mst3k

Made up for the time lost yesterday but writing the Mass Effect short story commission, creating an whole alternate lore for different version of FemShep that fits in with the world of the previous 35 entries in the series. It turned out rather well.

Our next stream is scheduled for Monday night at 9:30 PM Eastern with the continuation of Borderlands. We'll focus on the side quests I picked up, in addition to leaving the option open for people to join in. Of course if there is no work, I might start early, depending on if another story commission comes in.

So it's a light post tonight, so on that note we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Borderlands and other notes

Hi everyone,

So as a lot of folks know tonight's stream didn't start until 8:30 PM, because of reasons beyond my control that could've have been prevented thanks to someone actually being prepared for folks to visit them even though the date was sent a month in advance. We left at around 8:40 AM this morning on a two hour car trip to North Jersey, so it was around 10:45 AM when we got there, and when I'm heard that we should 'drive slower', that already put me in a foul mood and put me on edge the entire time, because I was figuring at the latest we'd be leaving by 4 PM to come back, so I would have enough time to refresh from the two hour car ride... but nope, we didn't leave till 5 PM and I didn't make it back home till right before 7 PM.

And I'm someone who likes to do a bit of prep before the stream, make sure everything is working as it should, have my drinks and snacks ready and those pre-flight checks can take 30 minutes... but since I was coming home after a two hour car ride, I needed much more time.

The stream tonight saw us starting up the Xbox version of Borderlands, and like my Steam play-through several years ago, we're playing as Lilith. But unlike my Steam play-through, I opened up the game to be public, so random people can drop in and out at anytime, which throws off the team balance to a very large degree. I got a fair bit done solo as I was doing all the side quests before we were joined by random folks. I still got several side quests to do in the first area before moving on, but I'm a higher level than I would've been since Sledge is already defeated.

We're going to put Borderlands in the Monday-Tuesday-Thursday slots of the schedule going forward.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition Achievements

• Paid in Fyrestone: Completed 5 missions in the Arid Badlands
• Discovered Skag Gully: Discovered Skag Gully
• Ding! Newbie: Earned level 5
• Truly Outrageous: Killed an enemy with the Siren's action skill
• Pyro: Killed 25 enemies with incendiary weapons
• Ding! Novice: Earned level 10
• Get A Little Blood on the Tires: Killed 25 enemies by ramming them with any vehicle
• And They'll Tell Two Friends: Played with at least two other players.
• Discovered Sledge's Safe House: Discovered Sledge's Safe House
• Fence: Sold 50 guns to a shop
• Discovered Headstone Mine: Discovered Headstone Mine
• Group LF Healer: Rescued a groupmate from death in a co-op game
• Wanted: Sledge: Killed Sledge
• United We Stand: Defeated the Rakk Hive, the Vault Boss, Sledge, Krom, or Flynt in a co-op game
• There are some who call me...Tim: Equipped a class mod for your character

For the raid we dropped in on oldish22 who was featuring Path of Exlie over on twitch.tv/oldish22

Obviously got no writing done at all because of how Saturday went over all, I hope to get a good portion of the Mass Effect short story commission done on Sunday.

In fact I didn't get ANYTHING DONE THAT I HOPED TO DO... as in prep-work was done for meals I was hoping to making for Sunday and Monday.

Sunday's stream will start on time at 7 PM Eastern (unless there is a power our internet outage) an we'll featuring Overwatch, see you then over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

The Last of Us Part II and other notes

Hi everyone,

Friday was a mixed bag on various levels, for one I did some yard work early in the day... and went through three spools for my lawn trimmer just to get the sidewark and part of the yard done. I really need to just dump weed and grass killer on every bit of vegetation around my house to kill it all off.

To top it off, I quick order of some stuff from DoorDash was nearly delivered to the wrong address, and I was super pissed. At least the driver realized their mistake when they drove past my house and saw me waiting for my delivery.

Sadly work got cancelled again, putting a huge dent in things as I was counting on my next pay check to basically cover half the cost of a new fridge.

On a more positive note, we did start The Last of Us Part 2, and the first four hours alone are so much better than the entire run of the first game which I played last year. The controls are so much better, and the fact that I can customize them to negate some of the terrible button combinations and actions is very helpful.

I particularly love that Joel basically get his comeuppance for his actions at the end of the first game, setting up a interesting revenge plot for Ellie, while we also see things from the antagonist's Abby's point of view as well.  The achievements are much more manageable and fair  when compared to the first game as well.

I'm actually looking forward to playing The Last of Us Part 2 again next Friday, which is a feeling I didn't really have with the first game last year.

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Apprentice: Learn a player upgrade
• Tinkerer: Upgrade a weapon
• Starter Set: Find 5 trading cards
• So Great and Small: Find the Engraved Ring

For the raid we dropped in on marslag who was also playing The Last of Us Part 2 over on twitch.tv/marslag

Picked up another commission request for a Mass Effect short story to somehow have MaleShep and FemShep interact as siblings. An interesting challenge to say the least

Heading up to North Jersey today with my brother and his family to visit my aunt. and her family. The plan is leave early in the morning, hopefully get up their around 10 or 11 AM, and then making it back up by 4 or 5 PM. Really hoping everyone is considerate of that fact. 

Spoke with the FnDanteSavage during the day just to see how he was doing, and turns out as much turmoil as I'm going through, he had his own misadventures this summer, but I'm glad to know he and his family is doing well.

So Saturday's stream, as far as I'm concerned is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern, and I want to experiment with maybe featuring something from Game Pass to get footage for an idea for content for my YouTube channel.

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

The Expanse, Street Fighter 6, Gears 5 and other notes...

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream featured The Expanse: A TellTale Series... and I was impressed with how great the game looked, the voice acting, the dialog choices and the controls... everything was so immersive that I was caught off guard with the the first episode only ended after about 70 minutes. This basically proved the fundamental problem with TellTale Game's episodic release style, because for streamers and content creators, a 70 minute 'episode' just isn't good enough. Hell I could and have gotten close to two hours of play time out of each episode of the TellTale Walking Dead Season 1. 

The release of  the Expanse, does prove that the company's being Life is Strange: True Colors and Star Trek:Resurgence had it right by releasing the full game day one and letting players go at their own pace. A shame The Expanse is tainted by a archaic gimmick. Add on to that that you cannot access the options menus when starting the game and this not fully a positive experience.

So since the Expanse was so short, we played some Street Fighter 6, getting ranked placements as Juri and Ryu. We tried to do some Avatar fights, but couldn't find anyone to match up with in the Battle Hub.

Lastly, we loaded up Gears 5 for the first time in a while, doing an Escape, a couple of Horde runs and a PVE. We managed to complete a horde run, which was pretty cool, and picked up an achievement during an escape. 

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Captain Drummer: Complete Episode 1 of The Expanse

Gears 5 Achievements

• Buying Time: Used the Scrubber Room to slow down the Venom in Escape

For the raid we dropped in on daworstgamerever25 who was playing Rocket League and showing off their sound mixing skills over at twitch.tv/daworstgamerever25

Work was cancelled again, and while I'm partially covered for this week, going forward I'm in dangerous territory. Also doesn't help but I think one of the job I was applying far was blatantly misleading applicants with the address I was given not being for the company listed. 

Wrote a bonus story for my SubscribeStar followers based on Hellsing, which ended up being over 3000 words. It was something different based on what I know regarding the character of Heinkel Wulf.

Our next stream is schedule for Friday night at 9:30 PM Eastern with the start of The Last of Us Part 2... if work gets cancelled again, then we'll start early, since I do have to be up before 8 AM to prep for a trip up to North Jersey.

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

Resident Evil 6. Power Wash Simulator and other notes

Hi everyone,

Finished the short story commission related to Mass Effect first thing this morning, I was particularly inspired by some ideas I had for it. So at the moment commission slots are open.

Work got cancelled at the last minute, but I was told we should have an assignment starting on Thursday, which I hope gives us many hours of work.

Update on the Fridge, because it's so old, all possible replacement parts (Part # WR9X405) for it were discontinued... so I certainly have to look into getting a new fridge a lot sooner than I expected.

Tonight's stream opened with Resident Evil 6, which saw Iceman and I clear Chapters 2 and 3 of the Jake and Sherry campaign, along with the opening few sections of Chapter 4. There was quite a few deaths in Chapter Two as we tried to figure out how to escape the cave, along with getting hung up in searching for stuff in what was supposed to be a stealth section in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 saw us reach the point where Jake and Sherry run into Chris and Pierce in China, which some wild sequences involving a motorcycle and seeing the helicopter battle from a different angle.

For the second half of the stream I dived into PowerWash Simulator, clearing a couple of jobs in pretty straight forward fashion. 

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• A Revolting Development: Complete Chapter 2 in Jake's campaign.
• Silent Killer: Use a stealth attack to take down five enemies.
• Let's Blow This Joint: Complete Chapter 3 in Jake's campaign.

PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Sole Task: Complete the sole of the Shoe House last

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Sea of Thieves over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Got some Miscellaneous groceries, some snacks, bread, drinks and things like that. Nothing major.

Realized I needed ink for my printer... because I haven't had to use my printer in probably five years.

Our next stream is scheduled for Thursday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, and we're going to feature episode one of The Expanse, the first major release from the revived TellTale Games. Sadly they are doing episodic releases for all five chapters, So we'll bounce to it on all the major release days.

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

 

Friday the 13th and other notes

 Hi everyone,

We had work tonight, not a full shift, but nearly full, and I had three interviews so it was a positive evening before the stream. 

Also had a job interview, but it turned out the job wasn't as advertised based on the job listing, which meant I didn't know how to answer the questions.

Tonight's stream of Friday the 13th was a lot of fun, we were joined by BangBangBang for several matches, and I made progress towards a few generic achievements, but it does appear the counting stat ones are real glitchy, because I know I played as more than a handful of the counselors. We survived a few matches, got killed by Jason several times. There were several instances of matches ending because of the host leaving, server disconnects and other issues.

But this is a game that is shutting down on December 31st of this year, however unlike Gundam Evolution, Friday the 13th The Game has been around for several years and certainly had times when it was massively popular. I probably will do a casual review for my YouTube channel. 

Big thank you to for the subscriptions to my Twitch Channel along with the bits! It's greatly appreciated considering my current struggles!   

I should mention the asshole who came into the chat late who tried to get under my skin, like dude, I know how to deal with trolls, I just let 'em talk for a bit so that they have enough rope to hang themselves with when I report them, block them and ban them.

For the raid we dropped in on elegantlyslays (formally TracyDoll) who was playing Dead by Daylight over on twitch.tv/elegantlyslays

Did a fair bit of writing on the Mass Effect short story commission, I figure it's about 50% finished at this point.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Wednesday night with the the cotinuation of Resident Evil 6 with Iceman! 

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

 

Gundam Evolution: So Much Wasted Potential

Hi everyone

First an update on the fridge, turns out I kind of resolved the matter myself when I turned off the fridge last Monday when it stopped cooling by turning up the settings to get it kick on its motor, so the PSE&G said what we need is a cold control that would do that automatically so I don't have to worry. I did ask if there was any way he could tell how old the fridge was and from what he could see, the fridge was made in 1987... so yeah, have to get a new fridge at some point anyway.

There was an apparent screw up with the work schedules so the Supervisor who was overseeing Night Shift wasn't aware I was supposed to be on for the second time in a row. Regardless there was very limited work even though I was told new assignments would be starting. 

I do got a job interview on August 1st for a hybrid position, so hopefully that could lead to a more stability.

Now we did play Gundam Evolution for tonight's stream, and it was quite interesting, because we lost more than we won, but we got a lot of insight over the history of the game from it's release in the fall of 2022 to the announcement of its cancellation from someone who put in over500 hours into the game. Big thank you to Bacon_Apocalypse for all the notes, which I'm going to use for an extra video on my Casual Review series over on my YouTube channel.

Now as for my own experience, I've gotten comfortable using the Gun Tank mech, it has enough mobility for me to do different things and it's not as gimmicky as some of the other choices to play as. I found the map variety to be almost too similar, despite being 12 maps, but the lack of any real mode besides PVP, there was a lot left on the table with Gundam Evolution's potential.

Gundam Evolution Achievements

• Nice Cover: Recover 10 allies total and reach (Casual/Ranked) Match Results

 For the raid we dropped in on misscammi316 who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/misscammi316 

Did get in some writing on the latest commission request for a Mass Effect short story focused on EDI, and I'm certainly packing the lore into it for my warped take on the franchise.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Tuesday over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and out focus will be on Friday the 13th: The Game for the full stream. We'll be playing the Xbox version of course and the goal is to get a variety of footage from matches for archive purposes.

So on that note, we'll see you later!

So I Binged Watched Star Trek Prodigy

 Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun as always thanks to PandaSweet being apart of the insanity, along with Odeu! We won a fair bit more than we lost overall, but there were a couple of matches where out teammates let us down. Didn't get any achievements, but picked up four plays of the game (2 as Reinhardt, 1 as Ashe and 1 as Junker Queen). Funny thing is I felt I had betters plays in those matches than what was considered to be the best moment of the match. Other characters used were D.va, Moira, Ana, Kiriko, Doomfist, Tracer, Mei, Orissa and a few others.

For the raid we dropped in on oldish22 during their stream of Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/oldish22

SO during the day, I binged watched all 20 episodes of Star Trek Prodigy, after nagging the entire season for $3 on Amazon Prime (it was on sale for $10 and I had a $7 digital credit), so I spent the late morning and afternoon watching it... and now having seen it, I can appreciate the references that were included in Star Trek Prodogiy: Supernova when I played that last year. While clearly aimed at a younger audience as an introduction to Star Trek, it really tells a nice over arching story, takes the time to give reasons to care about every character and actually wraps up rather neatly with it s final episode. 

Seeing how the series was cancelled after production of Season 2 was announced, I can see the series continuing in other media like comics, web shorts and the like, but if it doesn't, then one can simply see that the one season was to put the main characters where they belonged.

Have to wake up super early for a PSE&G tech to check out to the fridge, I haven't had any issues since Monday of last week, but better safe than sorry.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern and we're going to dedicate the stream to Gundam Evolution, a game that launched in November of 2022... that is shutting down in November of 2023. Yeah you heard that right, so I want to get footage of the game to review it for my YouTube channel to see what went wrong with it.

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

Playing Gotham Knights As Only Batgirl Was Worth It

 Hi everyone,

So on back to back streams we finished up big open world super hero games, as we finished Gotham Knights and to my amazement, we knocked out 85% of the game's base achievements, which does leave me wondering if I should go the extra mile to get the remaining achievements, some of which involves searching all over Gotham for collectables, problem is that searching for them will involve referring to maps and stuff on a second screen.

Anyway, the build up to the reveal that Talia Al Guhl was using a Lazarus Pit to revive Bruce Wayne was pretty obvious to an extent, but it basically serves how far Bat Family has come since Batman's death to surpass him in a one on one fight. I do kind of feel the plot pacing falls apart once the raid on Kane Tower, since everything feels kind of rushed to an extent. 

Now since I did the entire play through as Batgirl, it meant we saw her character evolve from her doubts and concerns to being confident and declaring herself to the new Knight of Gotham. This really shows off in the end credits, where all the costumes I elected to have her wear was shown during key story moments. It actually makes the choice of sticking with one character matter in terms of the adventure from start to finish.

Gotham Knights Achievements

• Voiceless: Complete Case File 06: JACOB KANE
• Expert Crime Fighter: Prevent 250 crimes in Gotham City
• Out of Their League: Defeat 45 League of Shadows Assassins and 30 Rocketeers
• Drone You Out: Defeat 30 Regulator Drone Masters
• Family Meeting: Defeat 30 Mob Godmothers
• Seeking Asylum: Complete Case File 07: THE LEAGUE OF SHADOWS
• A Momentum Occasion: Unlock all Momentum Abilities as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood
• Bat Out of Hell: Complete every Batcycle time trial
• Gotham Knight: Complete Case File 08: HEAD OF THE DEMON
• Practice Makes Perfect: Complete all 16 Training Area exercises
• Dressed to Impress: Craft a complete set of Legendary equipment (Suit, Melee Weapon, Ranged Weapon)
• The Man-Bat Family: Defeat 10 Man-Bats in Gotham City

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Not completely sure what the next major game is going to be on the Xbox side, but with two live service game scheduled for de-listing just to get the footage of them. We'll see what ends up happening.

Ordered some take out from Checkers... and they screwed up my drink order... again...

Since I played Star Trek Prodigy Supernova last year, I made sure to grab the entire first season digitally on Amazon. Would be nice to watch the series and actually understand the general relationship between the main cast. 

Finished the Mass Effect short story commission, and got the go ahead to do another one this time featuring EDI in the spotlight, which was something that was being built towards.

Out next stream is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern on Sunday night, with Overwatch 2! So on that note, we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Just A Bad. Embarrassing Day

Hi everyone,

Friday was certainly a day I'd rather forget, I woke up really early and I figure I'd  get a lot done, which I did in terms of writing the Mass Effect short story commission, got three video made for YouTube and worked on my job search (found out I got rejected by another job), plus my daily work out.

Then around 11 AM I just felt like laying down for a bit... and I didn't wake up again until 6:30 PM... meaning I missed work started at 5 PM. I was so confused that that when I saw the clock that I questioned myself on if it was AM or PM before seeing my phone and that one of my supervisors tried to contact me out of concern because A) I haven't missed a day of work willingly since I had a tooth extraction and B) when I do miss work, I never no-call. They assured me everything was alright and they were more concerned for my well being

Needless to say I cried for nearly two hours, and really resisted the urged to punish myself for this... I can't think of the last time something like that has happened to me.

This is also why the stream to finish Spider-Man Miles Morales didn't start till 9:30 PM, because if I missed work there was no way I was going to justify starting the stream early. We wrapped the game up in fairly standard fashion, the boss fights against the Prowler, Rhino and the Tinkerer were all unique and varied, plus we cleaned up a fair amount of the side objectives that don't involve a second play through. 

Overall, I don't feel Spider-Man Miles Morales is as good as the prior Spider-Man game, while it has its own unique style and feels more grounded, I don't think it makes as good use of the space of the map as the earlier game. Plus having things locked behind having to do a New Game Plus run is just poor decision making.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• Veloci-Skates: Chase Tinkerer through the city
• Never Give Up: Pay respects at Jefferson Davis' grave in Harlem
• Deep Cuts: Collect all Sound Samples and recreate the Davis Brothers Mix
• Exploding Bulldozer: Defeat Roxxon Rhino
• Family Drama: Defeat Prowler
• Competitive Spirit: Beat Phin at the rocket launch mini-game
• Shared History: Walk through Miles and Phin's past
• Ultimate Sacrifice: Save Harlem
• Memory Lane: Collect all Postcards
• A New Home: 100% complete all districts
• Socially Acceptable: Scroll through the entire Social Feed at the end of the story
• Best Fries in Town: Pay your respects to a legend in the Upper West Side
• Crime Master: Complete all Bonus Objectives for every crime type

For the raid we dropped in on bangbangbang713 who was playing Diablo IV over on twitch.tv/bangbangbang713

I made up my mind, the next PlayStation 4 game for Friday nights will be The Last of Us Part 2... it can't be as terrible as the first game right? RIGHT?!

I saw the list of guest characters for Mortal Kombat 1... and I'm not impressed, and I just know there are going to be a lot of bitter wrestling fans wanting to do every fatality to Peachmaker, since the character model is John Cena. 

Our next stream for Saturday night is slated to start at 7 PM Eastern, and we'll get back to Gotham Knights, so we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Fridge is holding on, GooD night in Gotham Knights

Hi everyone,

So my fridge is still holding on with its settings set to max in order to keep things in it cool, which has the added effect of over freezing everything in my freezer... but hopefully when the PSE&G tech comes on Monday morning they can fix the problem so I can set it back to normal, or give me an idea of how long it'll last before I have to get a new one.

Work was solid, getting more interviews done... folks were not as friendly as they were the previous night.

Tonight's stream of Gotham Knights saw big progression on the story, and I'm at the point to where I can justify ignoring doing all the random stuff around the city and just do the main story, as the next major thing to do involves taking on Jacob Kane in order to bring him to justice. Part of why I'm considering that approach is because we hit the maximum level one could do in a single play through (30), and to hit maximum leve l(40), that requires a second play through.

Now I did managed to successfully complete one of the major side quests which was to protect Bruce Wayne's identity, and that proved to be interesting with a number of the puzzles to plant the files. The reward being a clip of Bruce acting a fool was worth it.

I am giving heavy consideration of playing Gotham Knights for Saturday's stream, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

Gotham Knights Achievements

• A Worthy Successor: Unlock all Knighthood Abilities for any member of the Batman Family
• From Inside Gotham's Walls: Complete Case File 05: THE COURT OF OWLS
• Solid Alibi: Successfully protect Batman's secret identity

For the raid we visited pradoxgamerau who was playing X4: Foundation over on twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Something I realized is that the achievement for completing the first chapter of Jake's campaign in Resident Evil 6 didn't pop for me. Which is really weird on so many levels.

Didn't do any writing yesterday, so after this blog is posted I'll be working on the Mass Effect short story commission.

Our next stream is slated for Friday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, with the focus being on Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and there is a probability we could finish the game! We'll see.

So on that we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

 

Half Way Finished with RE6

Hi everyone,

We had work today, which meant the stream didn't start until after 9:30 PM, and the work assignment was interesting as it focused on Wellness and Fitness Centers to see what draw people towards them. It's a short study with a high production rate requirement, but for now I'll just take the hours. Even though I had 5 completed interviews.

The parts from PSE&G for the fridge arrived today, but now the fridge is acting normal after I cranked up the internal dial from 5 to 9 on Monday. I scheduled the appointment for the tech to come and install these parts on Monday to be between 7 AM & 9 AM, which is going to suck.

As far as the stream goes, Iceman and I finished Chris' campaign, and a lot of the suddenly weird camera angle changes for various sequences pretty much sucked. It took us an hour to get through Chapter 5 of that campaign, and then we jumped into Jake's campaign, which has less of the frantic action heavy vibe. For the run of Jake's campaign, I'm playing as Sherry, which has lead to some hilarious moments.

After the mid-stream break, I switched over to Forza Horizon 5, and we managed to get quite a few achievements knocked out. Of course because I haven't stream this late in a while, I was spacing out a bit towards the end.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Duty Calls: Complete Chapter 5 in Chris' campaign.
• J'avo Genocide: Defeat 500 J'avo.

Forza Horizon 5 Achievements

• Seasoned Veteran: Complete a Festival Playlist activity in every season
• Tourist Attraction: Complete your first Horizon Tour Race Event
• Points Mean Prizes: Complete any Seasonal Activity in Hot Wheels Park
• Welcome to Sierra Nueva: Arrived at the Horizon Badlands Outpost
• Unlimited Rally: Crossed your first Split-Gate in a Horizon Rally event
• Rouen: Won your first Horizon Rally event
• That Time of Year: Completed a Seasonal Activity in Sierra Nueva
• It's Rally Time!: Joined the Horizon Raptors Team

For the raid we dropped in on holodevil13 who was also playing Resident Evil 6 over on twitch.tv/holodevil13

Got some writing done on the Mass Effect short story commission featuring Tali'Zorah, as setting thing up for it taking place on Rannoch is a bit tough without going line for line from the game. 

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Thursday, and we're going to continue Gotham Knights, making our big push on wrapping that up. 

So with that said, we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Job Hunts, Wonky Fridge and Just Being Batgirl

 Hi everyone,

Applied for a lot of job yesterday, about 20 or so, so hopefully one of them leads to something. Trying to find places I can get do with duties that I can perform or feel confident that I can learn quickly is not easy.

My refigerator is barely holding on, having turned its internal settings to max just to keep it cool, there is some water dripping from the freezer down into the fridge so maybe there is excess ice build up, but I don't know. The parts PSE&G are sending should be here between 10 AM and 3 PM on Wednesday.

Work was cancelled today again, was told worst case we might not have work until Thursday... I'm covered, but this is rather odd considering the heavy lack of work this year in compared to previous years. 

Tonight's stream of Gotham Knights started early-ish as a result and we did a big focus on the side stories involving Mr. Freeze, Clayface and Harley Quinn, as well as making some progress in regards of the main story and other side activities. The boss battles involving the three iconic villains were pretty cool, with Harley's being the most normal, while Mr. Freeze and Clayface's battles making me glad I refuse to play games on anything harder than I intend to, because the bat-cycle section of the Clayface fight took three attempts to clear.

In terms of the main story, the conflict of the League of Assassins and Court of Owls is building, but I have noticed that the more we do in the game, the most positive the citizens of Gotham are to seeing our heroes popping up at different points in time. 

We also experienced some co-op game play tonight, and that there is unique dialog depending on the pairing of characters and who gets to the cut-scene parts first.

 Gotham Knights Achievements

• Working Hard or Harley Working?: Interrupt a presentation at the Monarch Theater
• The Show Mud Go On: Crash a film set and anger the director
• Quartzer Life Crisis: Investigate the disruption at Quartz Labs
• Snow Problem: Keep your cool and survive the storm at Elliot Center
• Unstoppable Force: Unlock all four Momentum bars as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood
• Bad Apples in Every Orchard: Complete Case File 04: THE MASQUERADE
• Universal Health Scare: Go to Gotham City General Hospital after visiting hours
• Shock Til They Drop: Defeat 45 Regulator Shockers
• Cooldown: Put an inmate back behind Blackgate's bars
• Fusion Expert: Acquire 50 Modchips via mod fusion
• End of an Era: Complete all Villain Case Files
• Rock and a Hard Place: Crack the case at Gotham Reservoir

For the raid we dropped in on hawleigh during their stream of Hogwarts Legacy over on twitch.tv/hawleigh

As I waited for the commission request to come in I started writing a non-commission story based around Hellsing, it's a bit dialog heavy at first and will need a rewrite. Still I'll shelve this story for now as I did get a commission request for another Mass Effect story.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Wednesday, and even with work being doubtful, I probably won't start the stream early just for the sake of keeping the Resident Evil 6 stuff featured without having to fully highlight it out and losing footage of anything done before hand.

But of course if I do start early because of no work, I'll do the highlight way of archiving the Resident Evil 6 content.

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

 

Fridge Broken, Work Cancelled, Depressed...

Hi everyone,

Today was an awful day... as my refrigerator is partially malfunctioning, it's not cooling anything, it resulted in milk I just bought being spoiled and eggs being ruined. Thankfully I'm covered for repairs through PSE&G... but I have to wait for the parts to arrive and then schedule an appoint right away for a tech to come visit. There is not telling on when I can get it fixed. In the mean time, I have to be real considerate about opening the freezer, since it works and anything perishable is currently within it. I'm going to try avoid ordering takeout if possible since I do have some pantry stuff.

On top of that work was cancelled so on top of the fridge issues, I'm really super depressed... and you could tell things were wrong during my stream tonight.

We got a fair bit done in Gotham Knights, getting a chapter three done as well as part of chapter four, plus going around doing all the side activities. We're being pretty thorough, and thankfully so, because it has kept me from thinking about the problems of the day. I also realized that the side stories involving Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze and Clayface have to be launched from the Belfry, so we could try and progress those stories on the next session of Gotham Knights.

Gotham Knights Achievements

• Something in the Clay: Unearth a Villain who shouldn't be in Gotham City
• Lock and Key: Complete Case File 03: IN THE SHADOWS
• Bulldozed: Defeat 30 Freaks Bulldozers
• otham City Confidential: Find all of Bruce Wayne's hidden audio recordings
• Protector of Gotham: Complete 50 Challenges

For the raid we dropped in on princesspashley who was playing Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom over on twitch.tv/princesspashley!

I got a commission request for a NFL/WWE crossover story, with yaoi content, which I'm comfortable writing... however, I need person submitting the quest to send me any notes on things they want me to use along agreeing to my terms for a non-Subscribestar commission request.

I might take this opportunity to work stories I started until another commission request from one of my regular clients pops up.

Since I know have GamePass, I realized I can pad my gamer score with the Walking Dead Telltale games since they were released multiple time under different packaging, so we got that going for us.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Tuesday with more Gotham Knights, hopefully we'll have work tomorrow night... but if work is cancelled, we'll start earlier.

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

A Muggy Day

Hi everyone,

We just wrapped up tonight's stream of Overwatch 2, and by and large we had a lot more wins than losses, Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of lot of the fun tonight, as there were certainly matches she carried while playing Support roles! I ended up with four plays of the game as Junker Queen, Moira, Mei and Winston, while also playing as Brigitte, Ana, Lucio, Tracer, Ashe, Torbjourn, Reinhardt and Wrecking Ball.

We even picked up an achievement as Ashe in the final match of the night, a match which looked like was going to be awful, but somehow turned into a victory. So it was a real positive way to close things out

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Short Fuse: Kill an enemy by shooting Ashe’s Dynamite from at least 30 meters away in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we dropped in on tracydoll who was playing Friday the 13th over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

 Microsoft announced at Xbox Gold is shutting down and everything will be through Game Pass going forward, so I went ahead and converted my remaining Xbox Gold time over now to Game Pass Ultimate. At the very least this basically frees up any gaming budget going forward. Unless I start something that gets pulled from Game Pass.

Pretty muched finished the Mass Effect shot story commission and I'm really happy with how it turned out, as I was able to put in a lot of lore related to the Quarians and the Geth. Just need to do some final touches before throwing it onto the SubscribeStar page.

Our next stream is slated for Monday night with the continuation of Gotham Knights, with a start time after 9:30 PM Eastern. If the stream starts before 9:30 PM Eastern then something really went wrong.

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

Finished Duke Nukem Forever

Hi everyone,

Xfinity came by and discovered there was a neighborhood issue effected two different taps on the block, which just proves that I knew something was seriously wrong with my internet service.

Tonight's stream saw us finish Duke Nukem Forever, and it took about two hours to clear the final few chapters, and I had the most trouble with the Blowing the Dam chapter since it was underwater and having to realize where the air bubbles were. Overall it was a very straight forward, with some puzzles and realizing where the hell I needed to go. The ending is a bit odd as apparently Duke is killed, but I made sure to grab the General's arm as quick as possible... oh well.

Now I know there is DLC for Duke Nukem Forever, but I really have no interest in it at this time (doesn't help that I paid both August and November's property taxes for my house today, so the wallet is really thin at the moment). I did go back in after the stream to pick up a few achievements, which actually helps continue a current streak I'm on

With Duke Nukem finished, we went on to play Smite, winning one out of three arena matches and losing both assault matches, one of which was completely winnable. Oh well, at least I have another survey from Hi-Rez to look forward too.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• I Need a Towel: Get hit by 10 Pregnator bombs
• Beating the One-Eyed Worm: Defeat the Energy Leech
• Piece of Cake: Complete the SP campaign on Easy Difficulty
• Special Thanks: Watch the credits all the way through
• Party Animal: Drink all of the beers in the strip club
• Lots of Whacking: Win a game of Alien Abortion in the strip club
• Noms: Eat 10 pieces of food during the SP campaign

For the raid we visited misscammi316 who was also playing Smite over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

So the question becomes, do I put something new on Thursdays, or do I just continue with Gotham Knights and try to finish that as quickly as possible giving it three nights in a week as opposed to two? I mean I did consider BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend going into the Thursday slot, as well as the next game in the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy. We'll see what I end up decreeing. 

Did get some writing done, and I'm pleased with the opening in using the Quarians hatred towards the Geth as justification for them pursuing Shepard.

Our next stream on SUnday night will feature Overwatch 2, just the usual grind for weekly challenges. I did play some Overwatch on PC this week, so I'm in a good spot to knock out quite a few.

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

Friday could've been a lot better...

 Hi everyone,

Friday just sucked in so many ways, sure I got some compression socks because I'm at the age I need them apparently... but I ended up losing the entire afternoon because I just fell asleep after finding out work was cancelled, so that is now four days to make up. Sure I was told things should be better with more focus group work coming in... but that isn't till early or mid August.

Then there was when I woke up at 6:30 PM... and discovering my internet was bugging out again, lots of Upstream Power Levels dropping below 40 with the channels becoming unlocked... so I have another Comcast tech coming out between 4 and 6 PM on Satirday. Was so frustrated ended up ordering some takeout.

So the stream ended up starting a little after 8 PM and we went all out in regards to side-questing and doing things in Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales, finding another cat, seeing Miles crossing paths with the King Pin, knocking out various achievement / trophies, while also seeing how much ground work is being laid to integrate people unfamiliar with Miles to his world, which is a lot more down to earth in various ways when compared to Peter Parker. This is probably best seen in how much of the game revolves around Harlem, considering the most side quests take place in that portion of the map and how littler there is to do every place else. 

That said, if we go all out we can finish Spider-Man Miles Morales the next time we play since everything left revolves around side quests and the main story, plus stray trophies such as finding specific locations. It does seem like some trophies are tied to a New-Game Plus run, which (a costume, three abilities and 4 gadget upgrades) which is rather disappointing.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• I'm On A Boat: Ride the derelict boat in southern Chinatown
• Urban Explorers: Collect all Time Capsules
• 100x Combo!!!: Perform a 100x Combo
• Five Star Review: Complete all FNSM app requests
• The Core of the Problem: Investigate Roxxon's underground lab
• Invisible Spider: Defeat 50 enemies while Camouflaged
• True Deception: Complete the vault sequence in Underground Undercover
• From Downtown: Use Venom Dash to throw an enemy into a group of three or more
• Kitbash: Craft 10 Upgrades
• Overcharge: Defeat 100 enemies with Venom attacks
• Under Their Noses: Shut down all Roxxon Labs
• Salvager: Open all Underground Caches
• Underground Undone: Shut down all Underground Hideouts
• Up and Over: Perform a Venom Jump, then a Venom Dash on a single enemy
• Come at the King: Unravel a criminal conspiracy in Harlem

We didn't do a raid this evening, but I went o ver to hang out on BestiBunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni 

Did do some writing before finding out work was cancelled, so there was that positive, and used some funds I marked aside for entertainment to take advantage of the Xbox sale to pick up a few things. Tried to look for co-op stuff to do locally.

Our next stream on Saturday is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern, and I figure we'll just go ahead and finish Duke Nukem Forever to clear that game off the dockett.

So with that said, we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Duke Nukem Forever Has A Lot of Logic Puzzles

Hi everyone,

Finally received the paper work in the mail confirming my house is now mine... and this entire situation still terrifies me.

Work was meh, mostly voice mails and having to suspend one solid interview because the respondent couldn't continue.

Anyway our stream tonight ended around 1:30 AM, with making a lot of casual progress in Duke Nuke Forever, reaching Part 2 of the Underground portion. I mostly had trouble against the boss battles, but thankfully I'm playing this game on the lowest possible difficulty. Something that is shocking me is the number of puzzles in the game, mostly revolving around logic and basic physics. This is pretty shocking considering this is a Duke Nukem game. It does make me think even more that this game came out a console generation too late however.

On a side note, the infamous 'driving the monster' truck segments of the game weren't that bad, as all the fuel stops were clearly check points for Duke to get out of the truck to fight enemies on the ground. Also remember, it's a monster truck so it's going to get  terrible mileage... that said, it does get fairly good mileage considering we only put a few gallons of gas into the damn thing! 

We are in pretty good position to finish Duke Nukem Forever next time we stream it, which is pretty cool. That said, I have no interest in the expanded DLC content for it.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• Baron von Nukem: Shoot down 20 alien fighters
• Big Guns, Big Ships: Blow up 5 enemy gunships or dropships
• Hippy-Stomper: Foot stomp 12 aliens
• Road Rage: Kill 15 aliens with the monster truck
• He's Got a Hologram!: Use a Holoduke in SP
• A Good Dam Fight: Defeat the Battlelord on the Hoover Dam
• Judge, Jury, Executioner: Execute 20 aliens
• Freeze Well!: Kill 15 frozen aliens
• Duke Angry, Duke Smash!: Kill 15 aliens with melee attacks while on steroids
• Fork the Pork: Kill 6 aliens with the forklift
• Octacide: Defeat the Octaking

For the raid we dropped in on abbyleveleduup who was playing Overwatch 2 over on twitch.tv/abbyleveleduup

Finished the WWE short story commission and now my attention turns to a Mass Effect short story commission and I want to set it around Admiral Xen trying to get Shepard to give the Legions to the Quarians.

Our next stream is slated for 9:30 PM Eastern on Friday with the continuation of Spider-Man Miles Morales, we're going to go after the a lot of collectables first before progressing the story.

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

 

 

A Bit of Unplanned Variety

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream opened with Resident Evil 6 and yes we were playing with Iceman, as we knocked out Chapter 4 of Chris's campaign... and we could've probably knocked out Chapter 5, but Iceman was unable to continue. But good news is we'll be able to finish the campaign next week and probably start up the Jake/Sherry campaign! Compared to Chapter 3 last week, we had little trouble with Chapter 4.

So with Iceman having to go early, I switched over to Forza Horizon 5, mostly just messing around, grinding towards some achievements. Also tried out the Hot Wheels area, and that is going to be pain to find all the roads in it!

Lastly we jumped into PowerWash Simulator to begin another assignment, nothing major, getting 40% of the detached home done.

All of this resulted in getting achievements across three different games, so that was pretty cool.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• They're ACTION Figures!: Collect 3 figures.
• There's Always Hope: Complete Chapter 4 in Chris' campaign.

Forza Horizon 5 Achievements

• I'll Just Take this Now: Win your first Midnight Battle
• No One Expects the Hot Wheels Expedition: Arrive at the Horizon Hot Wheels Outpost
• The Rookie: Complete the Rookie Qualifier Event
• Icy Roads Ahead: Win any race that includes sections of Hot Wheels Ice Track
• Missions!: Complete 5 Missions

PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Pave the Way: In the Detached House, complete the Pathway, Driveway and Driveway Edges first

Following the stream we raided pradoxgamerau during their stream of World of Warcraft over on twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Did some yard work in the morning, mostly cutting branches that extended over the sidewalk... unfortunately this lead to me taking a nap and losing the afternoo

Work was really good, getting 5 interviews done, but work also ran a bit long because of the final interview, meaning I didn't eat dinner. Oh well.

For our next stream we'll be playing Duke Nukem Forever at around 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden 

So with that we'll see you later!

The Court of Owls...

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Gotham Knights was a bit long because I got side tracked in doing many side activities along with letting dialog and stuff play out. The big plot reveal that the villainous Court of Owls is interesting, and I wonder how much of an influence the TV series Gotham had on them being featured. Also discovered Mr. Freeze is running around and that's a plot that needs to be dealt with but it has no bearing on the main story it seems.

Staying focused on using Batgirl girl has apparently lead to unique character stuff happening, so I wonder if that pertains to Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood as well. Loved that Renee Montoya and the Penguin are being used as allies that provide reoccurring challenges for me to knock out.

The whole 'night' cycle of the game is rather unique and really raises questions regarding how much does Batman get done in one night... but then again I'll worry less about that question going forward because as soon as I learned fast travel was a thing, I unlocked it to make sure we can jump from place to place with little trouble going forward! 

Also managed to experience the co-op drop in feature of Gotham Knights, which ended up being a lot of fun

Gotham Knights Achievements

• To the Victor Go the Spoils: Uncover a new problem at S.T.A.R. Labs
• Get ReQ'd: Discover a sketchy self-help program in Gotham's streets
• Whispered Words: Complete Case File 02: THE RABBIT HOLE

We didn't do a formal raid tonight, instead I just went over to hang out on bestibunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni

Nearly finished the WWE short story commission and I'm already thinking about the one that's next which is a return to Mass Effect

Work was not as good as it was on Monday evening, but it was solid enough to get through.

Foot and ankle feel better, still need to keep it elevated at times, but at least when sitting  it's not feeling feeling hot.

Our next stream is for Wednesday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, and will see Iceman and I continue Resident Evil 6! 

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Batgirl is the Gotham Knight

Hi everyone,

We finished tonight's stream a bit before 2 AM because we started Gotham Knights and I quickly discovered that I'm going to do as much of the side quests as possible because this is clearly an open world adventure. In fact I would dare say that Marvel's Spider-Man clearly had a lot of influence on Gotham Knights in terms of its controls, play style and overall vibe of the story, despite everything being broken up over 'nights'.

As you can tell by the title, I've elected to do this playthrough as Batgirl for a few reasons, one I'm not a fan of The Red Hood, Nightwing comes across as being out of touch and Robin just seems like a terrible protagonist within the context of the game's plot. The overall vibe is something I can gel with.

Now do I regret starting Gotham Knights within the same time frame we're also playing Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Not really, the Miles Morales game is a lot shorter from what I can tell and it has all the collectables noted to be easily to find. 

We shall continue Gotham Nights on our Tuesday night stream!

Gotham Knights Achievements

• First Step Into the Knight: Unlock an Ability for the first time
• The Batman Family: Play as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood
• Not On My Watch: Successfully stop all Premeditated Crimes in a single night
• Har, Har, Har, Very Funny: Visit an unlikely source at Blackgate Penitentiary
• Knighthood: Reach Knighthood with Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood
• Loose Ends: Complete Case File 01: BATMAN'S LAST CASE 

For the raid we visited SweetLindir who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Work was really good on Monday night, getting six full interviews done, putting me two over on the production quota for the night. Granted no one knew I was scheduled for Monday, but hey, they rather have me on than most people!

Got a fair bit of writing done on the latest WWE commission request, I plan to knock out a good portion during the afternoon.

Also need to record the next episode of my reaction to Hellsing Ultimate Abridge

Anyway, we'll see you around 9:30 over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

The New Week Is Underway

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream ended well over an hour ago at the time I'm writing this, and we had a fun night of Overwatch 2, with PandaSweet being in a big part of the fun. Of course we had numerous instances of highly questionable teammates doing odd things that lead to the majority of our losses. Picked up two plays of the game as Reinhardt and D.va, giving us a total of four plays of the game for the month of July so far. Other characters used were Sigma, Moria, Ana, Lucio, Echo, Tracter, Orissa and Junker Queen.

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 who was also playing Overwatch 2 over a twitch.tv/misscammi316 

Watched Terminator Salvation during the afternoon and it was alright, but it really does call into question exactly how old is the character of Kyle Reese is. Also got a chuckle out of the 'US Government / Military' is a complete bunch of idiots troupe being used. 

The swelling on my ankle and foot became a lot less notable today, it still looks odd but at least all the noticeable pain and inflammation feeling has faded so I don't have to take any Aspirin to mask the pain.

After this blog is posted I'm jumping right into work on the WWE short story commission to get as much of that done as possible before I go to sleep. I would have work on it during the day, but Comcast Xfinity set a tech out to try and resolve some of the issues that have cropped up, directly hooking up internet connection to the main line and dropping the splitter... did have to spend a lot of time waiting for them to show up.

At the moment, all five weekday streams this week will be at 9:30 PM eastern, I'm just about to give up on day work every returning to my job at this point. Hopefully we get all five days this week!

Speaking of which our Monday night stream will see us starting up Gotham Knights, a game where Batman is killed off, which is a really good concept. 

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

Awesome Stream With Family For The First Time Ever!

 Hi everyone,

Today was a good day the pain in my left ankle is certainly fading and now I have to monitor the remaining swelling and hope is dissipates over the next few days.

Of course today was incredibly as my Cousin Frances and Aunt Grace came over, bringing some food to help ease my mind in terms of me cooking, but this also turned into a pizza party and most exciting a co-op gaming session with my cousin! Last time we played any video games together had to be when they were living in Collingswood back in the 90s, so this was great!

The game we ended up playing because I was totally undecided was Lego The Hobbit, and we both saw exactly why it got some real mix reviews with some bad camera angles, finicky pixel perfect issues when it came to interacting with objects and an hub world that takes too long to navigate! On top of that Several achievements associated with completing several chapters did not pop, because the last thing we completed was Over Hill and Under Hill! Hopefully they'll pop if I randomly load the game up another day.

Now I'm not going to play Lego The Hobbit with out my cousin, since we started it together and with all the unique quirks I listed, it is most certainly a game best played in co-op! Hopefully we can make arrangement for another Saturday night of shenanigans real soon!

On a side note, exposed Frances to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.... it went well (I think lol)

We also included some Street Fighter 6 after my family departed for the evening, doing my placement matches as Cammy and actually ended up being placed in the Silver tier!

LEGO The Hobbit Achievements

• Someone to share in an adventure: Played a level in co-op
• A city turned to ash: Completed "Greatest Kingdom in Middle-earth"

For the raid we dropped in on Felkimchi over at twitch.tv/felkimchi while they were playing Doomsday: Last Survivors!

Got some writing done on the latest commission request and got a fair bit done, while also picking up another request for a Mass Effect story. So we have two stories in the queue.

The more and more I see of Mortal Kombat 1... the less interested I become, the announced roster has no one I'm interested in playing as, and the leaked / rumored roster is even less compelling. I did not have this view point when it when game to Mortal Kombat 9, X or 11 or even Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

Our next stream for Sunday night will feature Overwatch 2, it'll be a mix of playing quick play and knocking out challenges. Hopefully we'll have some good random match up pairings!

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