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