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!

Raids, Leveling and Fishing

Good morning everyone,

The end of another week is here, woo-hoo! Anyway last night's stream was a lot more fun than even I was anticipating, because we were joined for a bit by Kalenal to help with power leveling Blue Mage and to get an understanding of the Ocean Fishing aspect of Final Fantasy XIV! Kalenal, of course, streams over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

A big part of the stream last night did focus on the Pandemonium raids, doing all four in a single night, which worked out quite nicely in terms of getting the things I need to get the best possible gear I intend to go after. The raids themselves were mostly okay, thought I did struggle more in the Fourth Circle than I normally do. Thing that did surprise me was the wait times being a lot longer for the First and Second Circle.

Also hit the mark in Final Fantasy XIV that unlocked the Tantalus Attire for having an active account for 150 days. Now I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Tantalus was the main character of Final Fantasy IX, but having not played it I'm not sure, but the attire for FF14 does look similar in design from what I remember.

Apparently there is apparently another Final Fantasy XIV live letter scheduled for today, so I'll check those notes after the stream to give my thoughts on them with tomorrow's blog post!

Big thank you to FnDanteSavage for popping in with the Twitch Prime subscription last night! He is a gentleman and a scholar!

For the raid, we dropped in on DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/DaemonsW0lf!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Oh wonderful....
2.  When a fate spawns when you're fishing
3.  A Little Level Boosting

Did some more Forza Horizon 4 off-stream achievement hunting last night, finally found a small stretch of road to get the Noisy Cartographer achievement, and finally did some co-op races as well... I may be terrible, but hell it got me another achievement! I will admit the achievement popped at 529 roads, but there are 531, so I really wonder where those two little strips of pavement are, but I'm not going to go hunting for them.

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Test your Might: Complete The Trial.
• The Noisy Cartographer: Drive down every road in Britain.
• Jolly Cooperation: Complete 5 Horizon Life Co-op Races.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Beginner Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #2. Since I've been doing little extra sets on top of the daily, I think there is an outside chance I can complete the requirements for Hiro's Champion by Monday or Tuesday... keeping in my mind original guess to complete that was to be around the 12th of March.

Look, I liked Samuel L. Jackson's performance in Pulp Fiction, but there was a snowball's chance in hell of winning Best Supporting Oscar for it back in 1995, because I don't think his performance was better than Paul Scofield's performance in Quiz Show, who I believe should have won the Oscar.

Picked up In Darkness On Fire Book One: Flames of Alexandrite by Kate Flemming off of Amazon and it's a pretty good book. Since it's told from a first person perspective, you really get into the head of the main character Alexander in just how conflicted he is about his wants and desires. It's actually a pretty breezy read considering the subject matter.  

Also nabbed a few cheap things on the Xbox side of things, Haunted Halloween '86, #SincuaAttack, What Remains of Edith Finch and SSX. The first three games are for potential easily 100% completion purposes, but when it comes to SSX it's to see if I workaround related to the EA terms and conditions for online play related to NBA Jam: On Fire Edition works.

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Persona 5 Royal, which is our long-term Friday night game! 

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