A Random Night of Old Games

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream had a wide amount of variety with games from the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 era. We lead off with Legends of Wrestling, which arrived in the mail mid-afternoon, and outside of the unlock all the wrestlers code not working, it was just as mediocre as I remember. Mainly I added it for the purpose of having the completely trilogy of the series. Something of note is that my stream had a few resets which I suspect was due to an issue with Comcast.

Second game was Rocky Legends, which in many ways is the older version of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions which we played last year... just a little less arcade like. It does have a full story mode, with various unlockables that can be earned... but Rocky Legends is a lot more grind heavy. Also of note is that the music from the Rocky films is worked in quite nicely through the game with some musical cues kicking in depending on how a round is going.

We then switched to the PlayStation 3 and checked out Golden Axe: Beast Rider... and from what I experienced, it seemed like a good game The controls are a little over thought out, and the riding of the dragon seemed a little clunky, but beyond that the game looked, sounded and played pretty well in my opinion. Would I dedicate it to a full attempt to beat it... who knows.Still, I did find it to be better than something like Bloodborne.

Marvel vs Capcom: Origins was the next game, which has the full arcade port of Marvel vs Capcom... now i played the EX Edition recently, but going back into the 2v2 style certainly was screwy, as I felt a lot of my timing was way off in regard to what I was able to do. Not to mention the Arcade port A.I. is much more brutal than the PlayStation variant. We closed the night out with a quick look at Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which was the version of SSF2T that had the more modern look that no one really liked. If I started earlier in the night I probably would have dedicate more time to actually brute force my way through it, but hey that's a challenge for another day!

Twitch Clips

•  The Dramatic Camera!
•  Knocked Him Down!
•  A Big Dude On A Bridge
•  Shinku Hadoken
•  You Win
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on CallMeMsGalaxy who was playing Overwatch over on twitch.tv/callmemsgalaxy! 

Speaking of Overwatch, I did my 5 placement matches for Support... and went 2-3, getting placed at Silver 1724

I would be shocked by all the drama surrounding Star Wars, but lets be honest, at this point, most people are taking the roles in that franchise just to bait trolls.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Triple Combo #1, Double Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Advanced Combo #2. Triple Combo #1 was set to No Mercy Difficulty, and managed to score a new personal best on it.

Started work on the commission request for a WWE story involving Finn Balor, AJ Styles and Liv Morgan, I got the general opening set, and I figure if I don't over complemented I can knock it out gradually over the next few days

Feeling old yet...  rumors are starting to pop up regarding what may be happening for the Power Rangers 30th Anniversary. Although I believe Jason David Frank is done with the franchise because of how his tattoos need to be constantly covered, and of course there is issues with Austin St. John that could result in him spending 20 years in prison due to committing fraud with the PPP loans.

For tonight's stream, Iceman will be unable to join us, so we'll be taking a break from Fallout 76 and focus on something else for to the evening! Thus I think we'll place the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters on tonight's stream.

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

Just Covering More Ground In The MSQ In Final Fantasy XIV!

Good afternoon everybody, 

It's a good thing I've been playing Final Fantasy XIV nightly post-stream, because if I wasn't, oh boy we wouldn't get anywhere on stream when I choose to stream it once a week!

Last night's stream was most certainly focused on the Main Story Quest, covering everything from In Darkness the Magatama Dreams up through Daughter of the Deep, and featured one big fight against a Primal, and to much dismay it was Susano... of course it had to be Susano, because I haven't t see references to that particular legend and myth enough over the years in other media! I would say that of the more recent Primal fights I've seen, the battle against Susano is almost unfair... then again I had the misfortune of being revived only to be killed against instantly twice because of where the mage was standing.

Story rise, catching up with Yugiri in Doma certainly raised the stakes as the pattern of Final Fantasy XIV's story of arrive in a new area, talk to folks gave me a good idea of how the Empire is treating the people they conquered. There is that constant vibe of 'this is how it is,we're use to it' vibe plaguing the  Stormblood expansion when it when comes various NPCs which makes one question 'why are even trying to help these people. 

Still where we left off  on stream was about one-third of the way through the level 64-65 content, and I'm starting to notice that enemies out in the field are now starting to be able to attack me a bit for being within 10 levels of them, so the level scaling is starting to even out a bit.  Off-stream however, I continued things up to 'A Season for War' and this is when I noticed something about Final Fantasy XIV's MSQ as far as the Stormblood content is concerned.

It seems to me that every new area I go to, it's all about introducing the life style and culture of the local residents in a repeating pattern of 'Arrive, Talk To Locals, Do Tasks For Random Locals', so now I'm curious as to what the reaction to Stormbblood was when it was first released, because I have to think it was mixed. I mean compared to Heavensward, Stormblood is kind of a slog to get through.

Also out of no where, I started singing Desi Anraz's 'Santiago, Chile' when commenting on it feeling a bit chilly last night, so

Big thanks to Foxy_Melly, InsanityInc and Redneck_23 for resubscribing during the stream tonight! That was awesome!.  

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Daemonsw0lf who was playing Warframe over at twitch.tv/Daemonsw0lf! For those who don't know Daemonsw0lf  has done nearly the artwork for my channel! 

Twitch Clips Links

• Another Dungeon Conquered
• Finally past the The Pool of Tribute 
• In Santiago, Chile... Ain’t chilly anymore

A new week begins which means it's time for the Twitch Bits! This past week we played Overwatch, Tomb Raider, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Gears of War: Judgment, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, ESPN NHL 2K5, Jump Force and Final Fantasy XIV!

Kind of excited to play Rise of the Tomb Raider starting tomorrow night, and I've heard a lot about it over the years... but I wonder how much off an ability reset Lara is going to get considering where she was as a capable one-woman army she became at the end of Tomb Raider? Guess we'll find out tomorrow then won't we? And Speaking of Tomb Raider, I went back to it to pick up four more achievements bringing the total to 29 out of 50

Tomb Raider - Definitive Edition Achievements

1.  Feather Duster: 10 flying animals killed and looted.
2.  Widowmaker: 40 enemies killed with the shotgun.
3.  No Stone Left Unturned: All documents, relics, and GPS caches found.
4.  The Professional: All weapons fully modded and completely upgraded.

Watched The Golden Child last night, always liked that movie since I first saw it as a kid on a VHS tape back in the 80s. I do see why it under performed, but so much of it holds up as just a fun little adventure and Eddie Murphy is rather likeable in it.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 470 kcal.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Overwatch as we do every Sunday, and we'll get in as many matches as possible to make sure we get the new Cassidy skin!

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

Closing the book on Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions... For Now

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream certainly went long... that's what I get for once again trying to go for 100% completion on something that is beyond my skill level.

Last night's stream of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions had simple goal get through as many of the remaining characters' arcade towers as possible... and we were keeping a good pace to the point I thought, we'll try and get the achievement for beating an arcade tower on the hardest difficulty using the last character... Apollo Creed.

Things in that regard started off well, getting through Diaz, Bashir and Rocky with a fair amount of difficulty... but then came Erling and his bullshit combo that takes off 25% health. Don't get me wrong, I knew playing BRB:CC on it's hardest difficulty meant I would have to deal with some real horse shit, but Erling is pain in the ass to deal with on the lowest difficulty setting. Now I know he can be beaten, hell only 75 people have done based on who is registered over at www.truetrophies.com... which means if I want to get the Go The Distance achievement, I'm going to have to remember whose path was the most straight forward. 

Still, with 42 out of 43 achievements unlocked, I think that is a fair place to leave it, I mean we saw everyone's story, unlocked all the alternate attires, did all the special challenge requirements regarding different defensive and offensive actions, so last night closed the book on Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. We might revisit it next year at some point as like an 'Unfinished Business' feature, setting it on a Friday night to go that last achievement.

There is a question regarding how does Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions fit in with the rest of the Rocky & Creed films... well if anything it does establish title lineage going back before Apollo, so the title history goes from Vick Rivera' to Asif  Bashi to Apollo Creed to Rocky Balboa in Rocky II to Clubber Lang  in Rocky III to Rocky Balboa also in Rocky III to Union Cain in Rocky V to Tommy Gunn also in Rocky V. There is a big question of the title history from after Gunn to Union Cain in Rocky Balboa, and of course the Creed films title history can be a bit murky as well.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to long time friend of the channel Felkimchi who was playing The Walking Dead over on twitch.tv/felkimchi!

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Trophies

1. Dude, Where Are My Keys?: Beat Danny "Stuntman" Wheeler's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
2. That's Not Canon!: Beat an Arcade Tower in an alternate costume
3. Going Back For Reshoots: Beat Duane "Showstopper" Reynolds' Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Going Out On Top: Beat Asif "The Basher" Bashir's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
5. Punk Goes Pow: Beat Hector "Anarchy" Del Rosario's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
6. Leif Erik's Day: Beat Erik "The Norseman" Erling's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
7. Nashy Smashy: Beat Bobby "The Operator" Nash's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Wanna' Lotta' Mo': Beat James "Clubber" Lang's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
9. A Couple Of Hats: Unlock all Outfits
10. Rise To Glory: Beat all Arcade Towers on Any Difficulty
11. Livin' (On) In America: Beat Apollo "The Prince of Punch" Creed's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty

Twitch Clip Links

• Clubber Told Him To Run 
• Finish Him!
• One More Round... Here It Comes!
  

Over in the realm of  Final Fantasy XIV, I began work on the Stormblood quest line, meeting with the Ala Mhigan Resistance and knocking out the quests associated with M'naago to basically get the resistance on board with working with the Alliance. Once again we're gonna have to find the Aether Currents and related quests so that we can fly around without hindrance, but the map is split in two halves with only one half accessible at the start. Still progress was made.... next time I play my focus will be on Meffrid and his quests, since they have to be done in order to progress the story... of course if I find any plus sign quests I'll knock them out too!

Bandai Namco announced that the servers for Jump Force will shut down in August of 2022... which means I finally have an excuse to play it... which does mean I can put off playing Dragon Ball: Kakarot just to make sure I get achievements for Jump Force done that involve online play

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout had Uppercut Combo #2, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Hook Combo as the exercises for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of421 kcal. Missed two straights, one off of a great combo which pushed the Fitness Age up to 23... damn it!

For tonight's stream we're leading off with Street Fighter iII: Third Strike to see if we can beat the final game of the Street Fighter III trilogy... and it's more Gears of War Judgement fun with Iceman as we play the Aftermath story that ties in directly with Gears of War 3!

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

The Sun Queen's Tomb Was Raided!

Good morning everybody,

Safe to say last night's stream ran long as I went searching for stuff... which is funny considering we finished Tomb Raider at about 9:50 PM Eastern.

Now the run to finish the actual story wasn't so bad, as I actually remembered the solutions for a lot of the puzzles I came across, which meant things were a lot more straight forward. This also also applies to the the final two tombs... but if I didn't remember the solutions, safe to say it would've been just to finish the game out right. There were some deaths that were more my fault than anything by mistiming key button presses or misjudging distances and assuming Lara can either make a jump or survive a fall.

If  there is one thing that bothers me about Tomb Raider's game play, it's that last battle with Mathias which is more of a quick time event and sure, it's the big moment when Lara finally gets to wield two pistols at once, but when you figure in that before it you're facing an Oni, which requires a bit of a strategy to beat, it makes the big show down with the main villain a little... I don't know, underwhelming... unless of course you screw up the button presses, then it becomes unintentionally hilarious.

What extended the stream till past 12:30 AM Eastern was going back to find documents, relics and GPS tags, as well as trying to knockout various other achievements along the way, finishing up with 25 of the 50 achievements. Granted of the remaining 50, most of those involve the online multiplayer which no one is really doing in 2021... so that really leaves just a couple to get for the single player... which means looking up how to reach certain points because I believe some routes become locked off due to how the story progresses.

Chances are we'll tackle Rise of the Tomb Raider as the next big game, which I have not played before, so it would be a new experience for sure!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming where Sw33ts_Gaming was playing some Smite!

Tomb Raider - Definitive Edition Achievements

1. Intellectually Superior: All optional tombs completed.
2. Now We're Getting Serious: One weapon fully modded and completely upgraded.
3. Tastes Like Chicken!: 10 small animals killed and looted.
4. Gunslinger: 35 enemies killed with the pistol.
5. Historian: 75% of all documents found.
6. A Survivor Is Born: Game completed.
7. Archaeologist: 75% of all relics collected.
8. Equalizer: 75 enemies killed with the rifle.
9. Bag Full O' Cache: 75% of all GPS caches found.
10. Lethal: Purchased all skills in all categories.

Twitch Clip Links

• Put The Bunny Back In The Box
• Lara Croft Wins... Fatality 
• I thought it was a cinematic!
• Not Saying It's Obvious But.... Loading In Rear 
• Have a nice trip! See you next fall dude! Bye!
  

I've finally reached the end of Heavansward, and probably the biggest revelation is that Yda isn't Yda, but instead her younger sister Lyse... and I kind of wish there was more foreshadowing leading up to the revelation other than someone who knew her older sister recognizing Yda's mask to catch Lyse off guard with dialog of 'hey remember this that and other'. That said, I'm not too keen on Lyse's design without the mask, but at the very least, everything does lead toward liberating Ala Mhigo... or at least going there to see what all the hype is about.

I also stumbled across another 'epic side story' called Warring Triad, which sees three primals being waken up for to good deeds... and one of them is named Sephirot... sure the spelling is difference, but the musical arrangement for part of the fight is clearly out of Final Fantasy VII... but near as I can tell the creature is based on something from Final Fantasy VI, at least based on the design style. Just my opinion. That said, the amount of back tracking to the Rising Stones and getting back to the Flagship is a real pain in the ass even with a flying Chocobo.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout exercises were Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo 31 and Hook Combo #2 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 438 kcal

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, as we continue to go through the arcade mode to unlock achievements and alternate attires for remaining characters. There are 8 left, so if the pacing goes well, we'll try and tackle them all... if not, we'll split the difference

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

ESPN NHL 2K5 Still Holds Up As A Great Game!

Good afternoon everybody,

First let me say that I  totally forgot about daylight saving time ending at 2 AM last night... I got caught up in playing a lot of Final Fantasy XIV, and we'll talk about that later... but first we had Hockey action yo!

Obviously inspired by the fact that the National Hockey League returned to ESPN last month, hooking up the PlayStation 2 to play the last ESPN branded NHL game (ESPN NHL 2K5) made a lot of sense in the world... and since I'm from the Philadelphia area, it meant the games I played was of course going to feature the Philadelphia Flyers because I remember a lot of the players on that team. 

Now the last time I played ESPN NHL 2K5 would've been 2005, because I do have NHL 2K6, now don't be fooled by that, because much like the various sports games published by EA Sports, Sega Sports and later 2K Sports went with listing their games by having the follow year indicated on the title. This was actually a game I would play with my younger brother from time to time, and he isn't a hockey fan at all, but the big hits and fast action of it was appealing to him since he enjoyed football and basketball video games.

Presentation wise, well the game looks like it's from 2004, but it still holds up nicely enough in how gorgeous everything looks from the character models, to the details of the hockey rink, to the ESPN branded on-screen displays. The sound mix sounds like a television broadcast, and the commentary keeps up with the action of when the puck is passed, poke checks are performed and when goals are prevented. Their isn't much inane chatter from the game's commentary team, nothing comes across as filler, and when details are being given about a player or a replay is being shown, the timing isn't too long and nothing lingers.

The controls were easy for me to relearn, and the game has various camera angles so you're not locked into playing from a particularly perspective, as the two games I played on last night's stream featured the standard overhead look and the side-camera look which is closer to how most NHL games appear on television. 

Also I set the periods to be 20 minutes, and let me tell ya, time just flew by, between penalties, icing and off-side calls, plus every time a goal was score, both games played (one against the Maple Leafs, the other against the Red Wings), each took longer than an hour to finish... but time just flew by because ESPN NHL 2K5 holds up as a great game.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Twitch Clip Links

• That is how you start the 2nd Period!
• Hats on the Ice! 
• A Hat Track For JR In Hockey Town
  

Here are this week's Twitch Bits, which features my favorite moments from the games I featured, which included Overwatch, Tomb Raider, Gears of War: Judgement, Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack!, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Final Fantasy XIV and ESPN NHL 2K5! 

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV progression saw me finally getting into the final raid that was apart of the Alexander story arc, which of course was a trial against Alexander its self, which proved to be quite the challenge, with how it has some targeted instant kill moves. Also the main story quest progressed to where I learned that Minfilia is dead and that her form is now the 'voice of the mother', and got some more lore regarding the villains of the the game and their ambitions.

But that's not all.... with no more side quests wit the plus (for the moment), I dived in deeper into the Main Story Quest, clearing every thing up till the start of Shadows of the First, which meant the second brawl against Nidhogg, which was about as intense as the first encounter... in that I died near the end of the fight,, got resurrected and promptly killed again just as the fight ended. Still, it is nice to see that  Ishgard is on the upswing to bring an end to the Dragonsong War, but with that I'm now clearly at the point where things are setting up for Shadowbringers by bringing Alisaie back into the main story for the first time since she and Alphinaud had a falling out on what was the best way to proceed.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Bisceps Shape Focus Combo, Intermediate Combo #1 and Triple Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 523 kcal.

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which means Overwatch is on deck to kick off the new week! 

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

More Big Rumble Boxing Fun

Good morning everybody,

You know when people call your to ask you something and they know what answer you're going to give them... why do they even call in the first place?

By the way, that's a great screen shot isn't it? Looks like Drago is pointing to where Rocky should go as the Italian Stalion is making a turn.

Anyway last night's stream saw more fun with Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, as we covered five arcade towers, and the more of these I complete, the more I see how BRB:CC is probably adding a ton of lore to the Rocky Universe while giving some filler on what has happened between Creed II and Creed III (if that ever gets made). Perhaps the one arcade tower that has the most consequence was the one for Benji, which basically acts as a set up to Adonis' own towner, which we did on the first night of playing this a few weeks ago.

But in terms of added lore, Ivan Drago's tower certainly adds a lot in terms of his downward spiral, and how he did cross paths with Clubber Lang... and damn near killed him as a result of Drago not being able to get over his loss to Rocky. If the BRR:CC is considered canon, then it certainly fills a big 'what happened to...' aspect when it comes to one of Rocky's more memorable opponents.  

Not all of the actions for Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions happened on stream, as I went back to it off-stream and used a second controller to tackle four achievements, and finally realized what the Unblockable Move is... but holding triangle, a character will throw a punch that will tear through the opponents guard. Since I'm damn near constant offense any way, I didn't realize what it was when I accomplished the 'One Step' achievement!  

Now the way I figure, there are eight more arcade towers to tackle... so if I split them four and four we can get two more streams out of BRB:CC... and I tackle one at Champion Difficulty and use an alternate attire when using Wheeler, we could 100% complete the game. Then again, I might make the Champion Difficulty attempt it's own separate stream using either Rocky or Scraps. Who knows.

Anyway... following the stream we sent the fun over to Juwan313 who was also playing Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions over at twitch.tv/juwan313!

 Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Achievements

1. Nothing But Bums: Unlock all Boxers
2. Oh Mama: Beat Vick "Underground" Rivera's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
3. Honor To Beat You: Beat Leo "The Lion" Sporino's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Redemption Arc: Beat "Pretty" Ricky Conlan's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
5. End of the Beginning: Beat Benjamin "Benji" Reid's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
6. Broken Man: Beat Ivan Drago's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
7. Pound For Pound: Win a match without using Basic Attacks
8. I Didn't Hear No Bell...: Win a match after being 3 Knockdowns behind
9. One Punch: Pierce an opponent's Guard with an Unblockable Move 10 times
10. One Round At A Time: Pierce an opponent's Guard with an Unblockable Move 20 times 

Twitch Clip Links

•  Don't Think He Can Go Past That 
•  Apollo Is Alive?! Out... It's a Cut Out.... 
•  Just Like The Movie! 
•  Big Uppercut From Clubber... Is Not As Big As This! 
•  Countered And Knocked Him Out!
  

Also, forgot to give a big thank you to LvStrkr for resubscribing to my Twitch channel. He's been subbed to the channel for 31 months! Big thanks dude!

Speaking of my twitch channel, followers now have access to five free emotes just for following the channel... and if they just do a basic subscription to the channel (Tier 1), they get access to 5 more!  

There was an issue regarding how banning works on Twitch, in for a brief period, it was removing people from following the channel if they were banned. I don't see the problem with that, as that's how it's supposed to work in my view... but there are real idiots out there who've been using the Banned function as a meme... like someone can request someone else to be banned as a joke, which undermines the purpose for banning someone! On my twitch channel, the only people who get banned are those who break the rules I have set!.

My off-stream progress for Final Fantasy XIV saw more progress on side stories than the main story quest, as I had a number of raids and dungeons to do that were open in my journal. I have to say that I still struggle with noticing random tagged AOEs from enemies in the raids, and recognizing what happens when is a bit of bother on those times I do get tips or insight on what's happened. That I am digging the Sky Pirates story arc as it has me primed with a show down with Diablos, and the Alexander quests seem to be a series of mini-raids from what I can tell.... which makes me think their is one huge one that links them all together coming at some point.   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout had Sway Back Combo, Hip Shape Focus Combo and Straight Combo #2 as the workouts for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of465 kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be putting a focus on Final Fantasy XIV, as we're going to do whatever we come across... it might be raids and big battles, but depends on what quests need to be fulfilled!

So on that not we'll see you over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Street Fighters, Judgment and a Fitness Boxing 2 Patch Update?

Good morning everybody,

Don't you just love it when you're first told there isn't work, then get a call asking if you can work, but when you're trying to start work the system doesn't work, and thus you lose time that you could spend working? Yeah that was my day yesterday!

Anyway, last night's stream lead off with Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact: Giant Attack, and we had three successful arcade runs that involved multiple continues being used... as we cleared it with Ryu, Ibuki and Ken. In comparison to Street Fighter III: New Generation, 2nd Impact is much harder because of the A.I. input reading, so combos and that should be landing are blocked out right. That said, I did have fun with it, even if my own endurance for going up against an A.I. in a fighting game was starting to deplete to where I was going just destroyed by Hugo.

Speaking of which, Hugo, along with Akuma and Urien are added to the roster, while Yun and Yang are separated, so they aren't sharing the same character slot. Something is real obvious with Urien who is Gill's brother... and that's the fact they share quite a few of the same animations/ So I kind of suspect, Capcom wanted to make Gill playable but not want to nerf him, so they created a new character instead.

Half way through the stream Iceman joined in as we continued Gears of War: Judgement, knocking out Acts V and VI of the main campaign, which was quite entertaining in terms of the hordes of enemies we had to deal with along with the numerous ways we got killed. Managed to get Iceman a collectable he was missing late in the game which was pretty cool. The final end boss for GoW:J is rather.. underwhelming in terms of its design, but it certain packs a mean punch.

The more arcade like nature of GoW:J really shines through more in the final two acts of the campaign, as every possible enemy is on your tail, and there is a real possibility of running out of ammo, but at the same time it is a lot of fun.

Now I"m not counting Gears of War: Judgement as being finished yet because we still have the Aftermath mission to do, which we'll cover as part of next Wednesday's stream. So one more round of fun with us as Baird and Cole, then of course Gears of War 4 will be on the agenda!

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. Make an Impact: Beat Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact - Giant Attack.

Gears of War: Judgment Achievements

1. Rising Star: Attained 50 Stars on at least Casual Difficulty
2. Veteran Remembrance: Recovered 25 COG Tags during the Campaign
3. I Told You: Completed Downtown Halvo Bay
4. This One's Not Over: Completed Courthouse
5. Determined: Completed all Campaign Chapters on at least Casual difficulty
6. Blood Brothers: Completed all Campaign Chapters in Co-op
7. Proud Wearer: Equipped your first Medal

Twitch Clip Links

• 2nd Impact: Shutting Down Gill!
• Hugo was not impressed with my attempt to win.... 
• Got 'Em!
• Getting that one collectable Iceman needs
• Hello... HELLO Mister Fancy Pants!
• I'm being chased

I didn't make much headway Final Fantasy XIV's Main Story Quest last night, but I did turned my attention to some of the side quests that required doing certain Primal battles (The Diabolical Bismark and Thok Around The Clock), plus a dungeon involing saving Tonberries (Not Easy Being Green). I'm glad I picked up the boost to 70 once I was level 69, as the gear that comes with it certainly has me hanging in fights a lot longer than I normally would have. Also my clueless nature certainly showed  when I was doing The Minstrel's Ballad: Thordan's Reign... as it gave me fits in trying to figure out the pattern of the attacks that were incoming.

Added Requiem From The Darkness: Eternal Rest (aka volume 4 of the set) to my anime DVD collection, and I now have all four volumes of the series. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout had Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1 as the exercises for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 472 kcal

Fitness Boxing 2 also released a new patch update, it is now version 1.1.0.and here are thew updates

• New Instructor
  
  1. A brand-new instructor, Guy, has been added
• Voice Languages for Instructors
  
  1. Guy and Janice now have Korean voice options
  2. You can now set individual voice languages for each instructor by going to the Change Instructor in the Instructor section of the Lounge
  3. Voice Language has now been removed as an option from the Instructor section of the Settings Menu

Guy's personality makes him sound like a jerk... so I'm in no rush to use him as a trainer, as no achievements are associated with him, but is inclusion does balance the number of trainers out a bit more between male and female.. As far as the Voice Language setting changes go, it doesn't really effect me since I do everything in English, but for those who want to mix and match different languages for different trainers.

For tonight's stream we'll be hooking up the PlayStation 4 to continue unlocking stuff in Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions! Hopefully the characters I'll be using are easy to figure out quick combos and patterns.

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

Dragons With A Side Of Quests

Happy Halloween everybody,

Extracted Tooth Healing Update... keeping foot bits out of the closing gum where the tooth was is at times easy and other times hard...

Anyway last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was kind of slow paced at first as I wanted to focus on finding all those quests that had plus signs, which indicated it unlocks something, like access to Beastman quests, extra dungeons, harder versions of major boss battles, extra types of skill sets (Blue Mage, Gunbreaker) or various features (like a stylish).

And we ended up doing a few dungeon runs that were kind of cool... but then there was that hour spent attempting to deal with 'The Striking Tree' which is the Extreme version of the battle against Ramuh (aka the primal with the epic beard)... and one thing I realized is that the FFXIV level scales every thing, so abilities I was learning above level 50 can't be used in the fight. We came very close to beating him twice in tn that hour... and I feel like I learned enough to get an idea of how to stay out of danger... just as long as there is a good shot caller!

In terms of the Main Story Quest, well I wrapped up the remaining level 54-55 quests from "A General Summons" to "The Song Begins" which basically ends the big Dragon war on Ishgard with the defeat of Nidhogg where some big plots points were revealed. One being that the mortals betrayed the dragons was the true history of events, Two being that Nidhogg was blinded during those events when was seeking revenge, Third, Nidhogg's eye was that Hraesvelgr... which raises the question... if Nidhogg was blinded in both eyes, and one of the eyes is with Estinien ... where is Nidhogg's other eye?

In terms of off-stream progression following the stream, things continued to The Vault dungeon, and the introduction of Hilda who has a very cool design... and it has become real obvious a good portion of Heavansward story line is actually a different version of the tried and true JRPG 'go after religion leaders' trope. Which makes sense, because just look at the world today, religion is often the thing keeping people apart in many instances... at least that's how it always seems to me.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Twitch Clip Links

• I got nuked! We came so close!
  
• That is Hudson... My Chocobo
• Defeat The Krakken!
• Putting Down Nidhogg! 
  

After over 15 years finally got a lead on Requiem From the Darkness Volume 4. The series was a bit of a Horror anthology, and the DVDs are really tough to find. Would be nice to complete the entire set.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Double Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Advanced Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 550 kcal.

It's Sunday which means it's time for this week's Twitch Bits... and this past week we featured Overwatch, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, Gears of War: Judgement, Street Fighter III: New Generation, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Final Fantasy XIV, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, Devil May Cry & Resident Evil CODE Veronica X!

For tonight's stream, and with it being Sunday, Overwatch is on deck, as we celebrate Halloween for the third and final week of the Halloween Terror Event. I still need 9 points to get the Roadhog skin, so that will be my focus for sure!

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

A New Generation Of Street Fighter Is The Judgement For Gears of War

Good morning everybody,

Well, how's the tooth extraction healing? Well I've been feeling a little sore in the spot, kind of like a pressure dull pain... nothing too bad, but enough to say, let me go pop in a couple of Tylenol. Talking felt weird at times which made work a bit interesting.

Last night's stream lead off with Street Fighter III: New Generation as part of the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. Originally released in arcades way back in 1997, it got.... a mixed reaction. Now I never played it in the arcades, so to dedicate serious time to playing to see if I could figure some stuff out was interesting. Standard arcade mode, beat six opponents randomly selected from the limited roster before facing the boss... the two-toned Gill. 

Since it's set after the events of Street Fighter V, Street Fighter III: New Generation was intended to be the launching point for a new set of fighters, hence why only Ken and Ryu are in the game... but no one liked the fact that know of the old favorite weren't there, Too me, the small roster gives off some Street Fighter Alpha vibes minus an actual story element. 

Clearing the arcade mode took some effort, as my first run was to use only Ryu... but ended up switching to Ken to defeating Gill out right. Second run was as Ibuki and managed to get through it without feeling the need to switch, as Ibuki felt almost like Sakura in terms of how I like to play Capcom Fighting games. Third run featured a few different characters through out it to try different stuff before clearing it with Ryu... so it all went full circle.

We did do a bit of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix last night as well, in an attempt to grab a few achievements, but came up short. I had a hell of a shot of clearing the Arcade Mode without using a continue but lost my focus when facing Akuma. We'll give it another shot down the road.

Iceman joined in at the half-way point as we continued Gears of War: Judgement, clearing Acts III and IV with plenty of things going wrong at various points. The developers certainly put in a bit of effort trying to keep the game fresh, where you have different ways to attack enemies and how they want you to approach each situation. Finding the COG tags turned out to be quite solid, finding 13 out of 14 in the act... granted I pulled up a guide, but hey, the odd placement of the tags means it counted for something!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. Support the Super Arts: Beat Street Fighter III: New Generation.

Gears of War: Judgment Achievements 

1. Never Forgotten: Recovered 10 COG Tags during the Campaign
2. The Real Thing: Completed Seahorse Hills
3. The Aftermath: Unlocked Aftermath
4. Level 10: Reached level 10
5. Take Back This City: Completed Onyx Point

Twitch Clip Links

• First Time Beating Gill in Street Fighter III: New Generation! 
• Winning with Ibuki's Super Art!
• I was on the receiving end of that... but it was cool! 
• We got that epic finish! It Needed to be 20% cooler! 
• What's Big Ugly And Goes Boom? 
• Thought it was still the cinematic! 
• You keep saying you're on my side but you keep running into my line of fire!
  

My own off-stream Final Fantasy XIV game play continued as I knocked out the remaining level 50-51 main story quests for Heavansward, where we learned about the history between the dragons and man, why there is bad blood, and that one dragon is lost to madness. Also trying to figure out the fucking Aether Currents to fly is a real pain in the ass. I find them and did quests to sync with them but I'm just not getting it. Apparently everything associated with them has to be done which makes zero sense... I get SquareEnix may have wanted to slow down players travel time, but c'mon man! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 423 kcal.

For tonight's stream I'm not completely sure what we're doing, I thought about maybe continuing big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions or loading up a larger game. We'll see, you know me I always make up my mind at some point!

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

 

Rumbling With A Missing Tooth

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday we took the day off of work to let the extracted tooth area heal, no blood or anything, have some general soreness that Tylenol helps with if it gets too bad, the real test will be today with work.

Last night's stream of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions certainly was good in terms of knocking out achievements, as we picked up nine... but getting through the arcade ladders was rather difficult... with at least one fighter, that being Andy 'Mad Dog' Pono, who is clearly a slugger and whose punches should pack more impact, but man I just had so much trouble getting a groove using him during his story. On the flip side, David 'Solo' Nez was really easy to use as he has some natural combos that will shove an opponent into the ropes and into the corners, certainly makes him the most comfortable fighter to use in the game. 

I'm seriously considering if I unlock every achievement except the one that requires completing an arcade ladder on Champion difficulty, we'll dedicate a night to it to go for 100% completion. Granted some achievements would need to be done off-stream because of the need of a second player, and while I have two controllers, I do not have anyone that would be able to come over to knock out the ones that require it. 

Still... I think in regards to this year's tour, I'll count the game as being finish once all Arcade tuns for every character is done with every alternate costume unlocked, which seems fair in my view.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Achievements

1. And Keep Moving Forward: Armor through a Basic Attack 30 times
2. Insecurity: Beat Andy "Mad Dog" Pono's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
3. Silent But Deadly: Beat Viktor Drago's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Defy The Odds: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 10 times
5. Broke Your Nose Again: Knock an opponent into the turnbuckle 3 times in a single match
6. Defy Logic: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 20 times
7. Lone Rider: Beat David "Solo" Nez's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Fight Club: Play a Versus match with adjusted Match Options
9. Fulfill An Incredible Dream: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 30 times
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Thank Goodness He Stayed Down!
• He's Dead! 
• The Big K.O.!
  

Following the stream as ya'll saw, I did jump in to help PowerThumbz and Iceman with the 'Hunting The Hunters' gimmick for The Division 2... which lets be honest wasn't all that interesting in terms of the set up for it, run around shoot things at designated in-game times... which is just... plain idiotic. It was fun to play with them, but come on, it splitting it between in-game day and night cycles is annoying. It was not all pointless, as I did pick up an in-game achievement during it.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Achievements

1. Arrow to the Knee: Shoot 10 enemies in the leg with a crossbow.
   

Over in my adventures off-stream with Final Fantasy XIV, I finished up A Realm Reborn, and began Heavnsward, which introduces new areas and plots to the game... with every other member of the Scions missing except for my character, Tataru and Alphinaud. The new area of Ishgard is certainly styled around a castle and a church, but is pretty vacant, at least compared to the first major city-states I've seen. I only saw one of the major open field areas, and it was certainly a challenge to navigate as it appears to be a series of floating islands, with weird ramps and not really a lot of room to maneuver in case of enemies being on the more narrow parts. Still I am looking forward to see the next phase of the story play out!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises Triple Combo 32, Intermediate Combo 31 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a estimated calorie burn of 503 kcal.

For tonight's stream, it will be split with things being played on the Xbox One side, the first half of the stream will feature something random, then at around 9 PM Eastern, Iceman will be joining in as we continue Gears of War Judgement, picking up on Act III!

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

Clementine's Journey Comes To An End

Good afternoon everyone...

Well last night's stream went way longer than I expected, but we covered all four episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season in one play through... I probably should have split it into two streams, but with the removal of a tooth scheduled for Monday, so I made the choice to play it how we played.

So the Final Season takes place three years after the events of New Frontier, and Clementine has recovered AJ from where David Garcia sent him. Because we kept Clem with Kenny at the end of season two, the fact that Clem can drive a stick shift makes a lot more sense. A big premise of The Final Season is tied to the fact that Clementine is now 'Lee' in that she is trying to raise AJ the right way, so every decision and choice matters to determine how he'll be in the end.

The Final Season also sees where Clementine has two potential love interests in the form of Violet and Louis, and shock of shock, we rolled Clem with Violet on the simple grounds of Louis not knowing when to shut up, a fact that leads to him getting his tongue cut out when he and others are captured by Lily, who turns up like a bad penny. That said, with Violet it comes across as two people who has gone through a lot of trauma finding each other in the most screwed up of circumstances... plus if you save Louis instead of Violet, she turns against you on Lily's boat

The reappearance of Lily is reminder of the selfish nature of humanity, and the 'me first' attitude as it expands on a few things that was already hinted at in A New Frontier, in that different settlements and factions are going to war with each other. We learn that Richmond, where Javier and Kate were, was a war zone by the time Clem found AJ. The other thing regarding Lily is that it is a strong call back to the first season and the idealistic differences between her and everyone else.

Of course the fact that Clementine gets bitten and her fate pretty much is left in the hands of AJ (she lives regardless) is really not needed, because when you look at the circumstances, Clementine could have avoided getting her foot sliced open that left her vunerable... I know why the developers had it happen, for the drama and to set up Clementine being Lee in telling AJ to either kill her or to run away... but considering Clem's streak of getting out of trouble, I kind of feel having it being a determining factor based on player's reaction time would've been better. Maybe having the time to react being shorter than every other instance, making it a near impossibility unless you act quickly enough would've meant Clem doesn't part of her leg.

Maybe I'm too hard on that aspect of the game with it being fresh in my mind at the time I'm writing this, but when you consider the dream Clementine has when she is talking to Lee to get some reassurance about her choices, which is even more heart breaking to watch...because you know Lee would've been proud of how Clem turned out, that everything he did in season one mattered. Add into the fact that for my play through of all the games, we kept the ties strong with the first season, siding with Kenny in every way possible in Season Two, plus bringing up Lee when we could as someone who meant the world to Clementine.

In my opinions, The Final Season was a great way for the TellTale series of Walking Dead games to end, as it ends with Clementine in a good place... however, I do have my concerns considering that the folks at Skybox have decided to continue Clementine's story in a comic book format. Now if they were doing the full series of games in a comic book format from start to end and then continuing the story from there, that would be cool, it would put it in the same realm as comic adaption of The Wolf Among Us... but a straight up continuation, where Clementine leaves AJ  behind just feels... wrong... 

Big thanks to long time friend of the channel Refoxukcov for using Twitch Prime to sub to my channel! The support is always appreciated!

Anyway Following the stream we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was playing House Flipper over at twitch.tv/ggvexy! 

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Achievements

1. Protector: Completed The Final Season Episode 1
2. Defender: Completed The Final Season Episode 2
3. Leader: Completed The Final Season Episode 3
4. Savior: Completed The Final Season Episode 4

Twitch Clip Links

• That's Romantic 
• You're Slipping Into The Boat! 
  
• Clem Gets Bit
• Clementine AXing Questions 
• Recovering Clem's Hat
  

So if the stream went 9 hours what time did I get to bed... late... or early... depends on how you look at 4 AM when you factor in all the post-stream stuff I do! Hell most people know these blogs are mostly written after each stream, which is when I put together the Facebook Highlight reels (along with the Twitch Bits following the Saturday streams). I really should consider starting Saturday and Sunday streams earlier...

It's time for this weeks Twitch Bits video, collecting clips which features moments from Overwatch, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. Final Fantasy XIV, Gears of War: Judgement, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions & The Walking Dead: The Final Season! 

Of stream Final Fantasy XIV stuff, I did some playing yesterday afternoon, completing the series of Guildhests to have them available for the daily duty finder, plus knocking out the first two quests of the Dreams of Ice story arc, Traitor in the Midst and Back and Fourth, Even tried my hand at FF14's PVP content... which was a confusing mess!

By the way when it comes to archiving streams, things are being ported over to YouTube early, but they don't become viewable until a day or two later, depending on what's being sent over with scheduled 'going live' times of 9 AM.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Hook Combo #1, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Block Combo for an estimate calorie burn of 470 Kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Overwatch because it is Sunday! We'll handle it as we did last week, mix of Junkenstein's Revenge and Quick Play matches!

So see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!