Beyond Two Souls Certainly Has It's Choices

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream ended at 12:50 AM, and if you're wondering why so early, it's because we had a normal start time thanks to the July 4th holiday on Tuesday giving me a 5 day weekend. Now we finished Beyond: Two Souls and I have some mixed feelings on it, as the story certainly takes some leaps in logic to make it a standard hypocritical United States military plot which kind of takes away from the overall game.

See way I figure, Beyond: Two Souls peaks with the Navajo chapter which is the last chapter that has Jodie actually helping people with her abilities, and it, along with the Homeless chapters are where Beyond: Two Souls shines... and anything involving the CIA is where this game becomes dull and stereotypical. In fact the second Jodie finds a kid in 'The Mission', you can basically see the tragedy that's going to happen and it really takes the wind out of the sails of the game.Then there is the whole invading a Chinese base, the Condenser problems and Dawkins going insane to be with his deceased family again... in my opinion Beyond Two Souls's story falls apart in its third act.

Gameplay wise I do feel it's better than Heavy Rain in someways, but doesn't have as good camera angles. Will I play it again? Yes, because a) I need to do a co-op play through at some point and b)  there are more trophies to unlocked. I finished with 40% of the trophies unlocked, so at least two more play throughs are needed.

On a side note it was nice having a stream start and end at a reasonable time!

Beyond: Two Souls Trophies

• Sorry: Forgave Jodie's father.
• Not Just Sand: Ran from the sandstorm and took less than 3 hits.
• Medicine Girl: Successfully performed the entire ritual.
• Never Alone: Started at least one romance.
• In Love with Ryan: Slept with Ryan.
• Stealth Master: Made it to the cathedral without being spotted.
• Eye for an Eye: Didn't speak during the interrogation.
• Almost Too Easy: Went to the containment shield with the General.
• The End: One possible reality has been uncovered...
• Black Sun Down: Deactivated the Black Sun.
• Chose Life: Stayed in reality.

For the raid we dropped in on ZoneSama who was playing Sonic Origins over on twitch.tv/zonesama

Got in touch with Kristi who helped my buddy Dax write a massive story which was really good.

As far as my writing goes, since I don't follow modern-day WWE I have to go with a very generic route and tie it in with some tropes that I've used. It's a commission request from a consistent client so i have to push it through

Our next stream on Saturday, will star around 6 PM or 7 PM Eastern as we'll focus on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy to finish the first game in the saga. I forget how long the fifth episode of the first game, because I know the cases that weren't in the original versions of the games end up being real long.

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

Beyond Two Souls is Really Good

Hi everyone,

We wrapped up the stream about 1:30 AM, and I'm really enjoying Beyond Two Souls. Way I figure we reached the half way point of the game, and despite the wonky controls as it relates to having the use the motion axis of the PS4 controller, I'm glad there is a setting for things to be forgiving regarding the quick time events.

I have to say, Elliot Page does a fantastic job portraying the character of Jodie, really making me feel invested in the seemingly random order of the game's chapters. While there is an option to play the game in chronological order, the original intent was to have things jump around, to really show just how wild Jodie's life is, which actually work for this game's benefit. 

Now, Beyond Two Souls was released in 2013... and I wonder how much of an influence it was on Stranger Things, because there are some major parallels and tone that makes me think the creators of Stranger Things was adapted from the game, particular in regards Jodie and Eleven's powers.

I'm really looking forward to finishing our first play through next Friday (June 30th)!

 Beyond: Two Souls Trophies

• Somebody Else?: Played as Aiden for the first time.
• Obedience: Stopped the experiment voluntarily.
• Clean Job: Shut down the monitor and finished the mission using only Aiden.
• Perfect Soldier: Completed most of the physical training successfully.
• Fight Apprentice: Won every fight whilst taking less than 5 hits.
• Stealth Apprentice: Completed all stealth training without being spotted
• Catch Me if You Can: Escaped the train without being arrested.
• Portal Shutdown: Successfully shut down the condenser portal.
• Money to Eat: Earned enough money to have some chocolate during dinner.
• Miracles: Looked after Tuesday's baby, healed Jimmy and channeled Stan.
• Smart Thief: Deactivated the supermarket's camera.
• Entities Master: Was victorious in every battle with the evil entities.
• Entities Apprentice: Vanquished the entities with Aiden.

For the raid we dropped in randomly on xlunagoddess who was also playing Beyond Two Souls over on twitch.tv/xlunagoddess

Work yesterday was really good, and hopefully the assignment was closed out. Speaking of work, Monday to Friday's streams will all start at 9:30 PM Eastern because I'm picking up extra hours on Monday.

Our next stream later today is scheduled to begin at 7 PM and we got Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy on the docket. We might start early depending on when I have dinner and how much writing I get done.

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

We Finished The World Tour mode in Street Fighter 6

Hi everyone,

Well I was feeling the after effects from Wednesday's adventure yesterday as my ankles and knees were sore as hell, and I nearly had a panic attack because of Instacart's way of doing a holding a charge when doing orders on a holiday, but hey, work was incredible and I was in high spirits heading into tonight's stream.

Of course we focused on finishing the World Tour mode of Street Fighter 6 and it took the entire stream which ended at about 2 AM, because of A) being attacked by random goons, b) my tendency to do side quests, c) there were main story quests that involved tracking down specific items and d) the fights became longer and more drawn out while being forced to play a certain way. It made for a hell of a night, and thankfully I was stock piling healing and buff items, because some of the final fights in World Tour (namely against Bosch in his Cardboard Combatant disguise and JP) were really bull shit in the amount of damage they were dissing out. For anyone who reads this, I highly suggest leveling your created character to be above level 60 to make those fights less reliant on having to constantly heal yourself.

Now the big question is where does the story go from where it ends, as the player avatar basically continues on their path of strength, so the future depends on expanded DLC with story and lore. I can imagine Street Fighter 6 can have a very long life span in regards to how much Capcom can do with the World Tour going forward by adding new locations. I can imagine Capcom doing what NRS did with Mortal Kombat 11 and do a huge additional story, because there is so much potential

Now what's left for me in terms of achievements in Street Fighter 6 are the three achievements associated with Tournaments, and I'm not going to worry about those, because paying attention to the calendar to try and take part is too much of a headache, plus years from now I can see those achievements being discontinued.

Street Fighter 6 Achievements

• At Journey's End: Finished World Tour, did you? Congratulations are in order. I hope it was somehow meaningful to you.

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood who was also playing Street Fighter 6 over on twitch.tv/maximilian_dood! 

Now with finishing two big games this week, we now have gaps to fill in the weekly line up, so Mondays & Tuesday will be dedicated to playing Terminator: Resistance which came out in 2019,  and Thursday will feature DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace. Now that game in theory should only take a few hours to beat, so we'll pair it with Street Fighter 6.

Got very little writing done yesterday, had a bit of writer's block unfortunately

Anyway the plan for Friday night's stream is to start Beyond Two Souls on the PlayStation 4, and the stream will start at around 9:30 PM Eastern.

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

Finished Heavy Rain

Hi everyone,

We just finished our second night of Heavy Rain, finishing the story at around 1 AM, and needless to say, I enjoyed the second half of the game a lot more than the first half, since there was seemingly less need for the motion controls, since Heavy Rain was designed with the PlayStation Move controller in mind. Now we ended up saving Shaun and keeping three of the characters alive when we finished the story at 1 AM and the initial credits rolled (Jayden, Ethan and Scott), with Madison biting it when I made a wrong choice in the burning apartment. At that point we had 24 trophies unlocked.

Then I discovered we could replay chapters specifically, and since Madison in the apartment is the next to last chapter of the game, we re did it and went for the creative Indiana Jones solution (as in get in the fridge), which led to her telling Ethan were Shaun was leading to getting all four main characters to the ending in one piece, which also made the final chapter and sequence of events a lot more wild with all the cuts back and forth between Ethan, Jayden and Madison. Also meant we got the super happy ending.

Now going into it, I was aware of that Scott was the true villain, but there was certainly a lot of reasons to believe he wasn't it... unless one forgets that the box Ethan gets has the same items that Scott is picking up at various locations.

Will I want to play this again? Yes, but probably to go for the Perfect Crime ending, which would mean letting various things happen that I avoided in this play through. We'll save that for next year (assuming I can keep my head above water, find a consistent part time job and don't end up destitute which would please my father immensely)

I'll have a video commentary review on my YouTube channel in a few weeks, since I want to get into the habit of talking about games I finish as part of a casual review series.

Heavy Rain Trophies

• Fugitive: Fugitive - Manage to escape Blake in the subway station
• Detox: Jayden Blues - Resist Triptocaine
• I'm not a Killer!: The Shark - Do not kill the Drug Dealer
• Smart Girl: The Doc - Do not drink the Doc's beverage
• Queen of Ropes: The Doc - Escape before the Doc returns
• The Chef: Eureka - Prepare a good omelette on time
• Pride Saved: Sexy Girl - Take off no more than one item of clothing during the strip-tease
• Lover Boy: On the Loose - Forgive Madison
• Escape Master: On the Loose - Escape the police at the motel
• Kind Hearted: Face to Face - Give Kramer his medicine
• Invincible Scott: Face to Face - Do not get shot in Kramer's villa
• Nerd: Find all clues using ARI (Crime scene + Mad Jack + Fish tank) and find the Origami Killer
• Saved the Kid: Save Shaun
• HEAVY RAIN™ Hero: Finish HEAVY RAIN™
• Simple Mind: The Old Warehouse - Save the Origami Killer before he falls, with Jayden or Madison
• Cold as Ice: Killer's Place - Survive the explosion by hiding in the fridge
• Four Heroes: Complete the story with four characters alive

For the raid we dropped in on zonesama who was playing We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie over at twitch.tv/zonesama, for those who don't know zonesama is best known for making certain Flash animations that fall under Rule 34, they are incredibly talented, and their community is rather welcoming

Work was alright, got one completed interview in a casual paced night.

Also picked up another Mass Effect short story commission request based on the Omega DLC mission for Mass Effect 3. 

So what's the next game we're going to play on PlayStation Fridays? I'm leaning towards Beyond Two Souls which features Elliot Page, which could be another interesting two-stream style game. Either that or Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. We'll see.

On the agenda for Saturday night's stream is the beginning of the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy. Since I have played the Steam version before, I'm going to use my notes from 2019 for this play through on the Xbox One.

So on that note we'll see you about 7 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden, I might start earlier, depends on how I'm feeling.