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!

Duke Nukem Forever is... interesting

 Hi everyone,

So update on my ankle first, near as I can tell its certainly a sprain as I feel it from the left side of left foot up to the top of my foot. I have iced it down and soaked it in cold water periodically through out the day.

Work was really bleh... and with my ankle and left foot bothering me, I certainly was distracted to say the least.

Anyway, tonight's stream ended at 1:30 AM, as we started up Duke Nukem Forever, and the call backs to Duke Nukem 3D is great, I can really get a feel for just how chaotic and idiotic the trip through development hell was, because there are some game play elements that mesh together. I do appreciate the humor, even if it's was dated by 2011... but hell I'm old, and Duke Nukem was a character I was familiar with in the early 90s. I was surprised the number of actual puzzles through out the game so far, Near as I can, we reached the halfway point of the game if a look at the chapters list is any indications, as the last major thing we did was defeated the Queen Bitch segment..

So I was debating on if we'll continue the game next week, and we will, playing it on the lowest possible difficulty and with the number of times I died and seeing how the check point system works means as long as I learn from my mistakes we can make progress.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• Turd Burglar: Find and steal a piece of poo
• Drawrings: Doodle something on the whiteboard in SP
• Sunday, Black Sunday: Shoot down the blimp above the stadium
• One-Eyed Freak: Defeat the Cycloid
• Nobody Likes a Whiner: Knock out the talent at the talk show
• Flagon of Chuckles: Drink a beer in SP
• Juiced: Take steroids in SP
• Substance Abuser: Drink beer while on steroids or vice versa in SP
• Extermination: Kill 50 aliens
• Annihilation: Kill 100 aliens
• Sticky Bomb Like You!: Put a Trip Mine on a live alien
• Natural Disaster 3x: Kill 3 aliens at once
• Pit Champion: Defeat the Battlelord in Las Vegas
• Dead Useful: Kill 10 aliens with environmental explosives
• Nuclear Devastation: Kill 250 aliens
• Trapper: Kill 10 aliens with Trip Mines
• FBT: Get knocked down 10 times
• Not Bad for a Human: Defeat the Alien Queen

For the raid we dropped in on tracydoll during their stream of Friday the 13th: The Game over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

Got some writing done on the next commission request... sure it's a WWE related one, but hey at least I got it started!

Our next stream will be Friday night we a schculed started time of 9:30 PM Eastern, as we'll be starting up Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales!

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

Somehow I sprained my ankle

 Hi Everyone,

You know, I'm not sure, but I sprained my left ankle, I don't remember taking any weird steps over at all yesterday, but clearly I did. Might have been I was going through a few things to throw out with this week's garbage.

Tonight's stream ended at about 1:36 AM, as we had the late night start due to work, but it was fully of wild and crazy things as Iceman and I tackled Chapter 3 of Chris's campaign in Resident Evil 6... and I ended up dying 22 times, most of which in the part where you're trying to escape a helicopter. That part was just awful! But on the plus side it was hilarious, even if I was getting a little frustrated with it. So the goal of getting through two chapters certainly did not happen, but we had fun and I do like how we reached apart of Chris's campaign that was overlapping with key moments of Leon's campaign.

On the other hand, Chris Redfield is certainly not a likeable character at all, not that he ever was, but he really comes across as more generic when compared to how he was in Resident Evil 5. His entire PTSD shtick doesn't make him compelling when compared to the over the top tone of the action set pieces.

We also did some Forza Horizon 5 getting a few achievements done while working towards a few achievements and making some progress towards in-game objectives. The Goliath race taking a solid 15 minutes was certainly a marathon race to complete.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

1. After Her!: Complete Chapter 3 in Chris' campaign.

Forza Horizon 5 Achievements

• Album Cover: Take a photo of the 2021 Mercedes-AMG One for Horizon Promo
• Long Gone: Win the Goliath Race Event
• Icebreaker: Participate in a Horizon Arcade event

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood during their stream of Street Fighter 6 over on twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

Our next stream for Thursday night will be start at 9:30 PM Eastern and we're finally going to check out Duken Nukem Forever because... why not? We're going to take our usual casual approach to it to see if we can work around a lot of the game's issues at the lower possible difficulty.

Work yesterday was pretty good, got one complete interview... granted coming off a five day weekend, means I only have shifts for Thursday and Friday this week, but that's the nature of having major holiday weekends in close proximity.

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

The Delivery Moogle Quests

Good morning everyone,

So last week I discovered the Delivery Moogle Quests, in which the player gets roped into being a postman in Final Fantasy XIV, and all the quests certainly do a nice bit of world building when it comes to the Realm Reborn era of the game. However, the plot twist that the reason we were duped is because the Deputy PostMoogle crashed into a Windmill and can't do their deliveries. That was a clever way of giving a reason for it. Plus their was a nice touch of being 'promoted' to a full carrier made it kind of neat. But I still have seven more quests to do to complete it, which will results in my character having a PostMoogle hat... which is like the first decent piece of a head-wear I've seen in the game

We also did a couple of Random Roulette, and it's been quite a while since I've done a few so it was a slight struggle remembering the mechanics of the ones that did pop up. Did manage to get a perfect level 3 Limit Break off to cap the stream.

Twitch Clips

• I didn't need any help...
• No Pressure 
• Perfect Limit Break Usage
  

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 as they were playing Pokemon Scarlet over on twitch.tv/oldish22!  

With Clippy being weird, I switch the BRB screen during streams to show the artwork I commissioned from DaemonsW0lf, and using the music from Duke Nukem II as a place filler. 

Work was rather... bleh yesterday, sure I set up possible interviews for next week, but compared to the prior couple of days, yesterday just blew.

I'll say it now, Aaron Judge isn't worth $300 Million over eight years, because a) he's already 30, and b) despite last season and his rookie season, he's a .280, 25 Hoomer, 80 RBI guy. Solid but not worth $300 Million

Started work on the first of two back to back commission requests based on the WWE, both of which have the same damn premise. Oh well. With luck I can knock out the first one in a couple of short sessions

Played some more Persona 4: Dancing All Night last night, grinding things out to unlock another trophy. Near as I can tell, some of the fever time duets have to be seen in the story mode first then performed in Free Dancing mode. Still at this point we got half the costumes for Free Dancing as well.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night Trophies

• Best Dressed: Bought half of all costumes

Since I know on Tuesday the plan is to play Episode 3 & 4 of Game of Thrones, A TellTale Series, I figure instead of revisiting Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, why not revisit a game from the early 90s that was on PC with Commander Keen in Keen Dreams. The Definitive Edition is pretty damn cheap, and it will make for nice little laugh. Played a little last night to test it out, since it is a platform that has some wonky physics to get a feel for it... and yeah it's one of those games I'd consider to be filler to pad out a stream.

Commander Keen in Keen Dreams Definitive Edition Achievements

• Novice: Beat your first level in Keen Dreams.

Also snagged up one achievement in Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, and it would be awesome if I could find folks willing to play it, as it's not a bad little twin stick shooter.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Achievements

• TEAM OF FOUR: Play with each character.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #2, Intermediate Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2 for 31 minutes.

Wait, you don't want to hear a joke about potassium? K.

Song of the Day:Down With The Sickness by Disturbed

For tonight's stream we're getting back to Persona 4: Dancing All Night, with the plan being to do Chapters 3 and 4 of the story mode, plus a fair amount of free dancing.

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

Well we played Apocalypse last night

Good afternoon everyone,

Well last night's stream featured Apocalypse, and it wasn't until I want to say the third level where the platforming starting to become more of a hindrance forced me to go to the good old cheat code, but that actually just enhanced the experience. Sure it made the combat easier, but the platforming is what kills me, particularly when in some battles you're having to run towards the camera (such as during the famous Sonic / Kill Whale segments in the Sonic Adventure games) .

That said, I thought the game looked and sounded great, the inclusion of a few licensed songs were injected quite nicely into the game where you didn't really noticed they were there and they only show up in one part of the game.  Bruce Willis' performance, while limited did more than serviceable job of keeping things moving, like Duke Nukem. Also the controls were really tight, with the use of the analog sticks and being able to shoot in eight different directions it certainly helped prevent getting surrounded. And since this game was a twin stick shooter, the use of the two bumper and two trigger buttons was really well done when it came to selecting weapons, using smart bombs, dodging and jumping.

I will admit I was not a fan of the ending, but it does make sense when it comes to the entire Apocalypse prophecy, since before every level there is a quote that basically tells you the 'theme' of what you're going to be experiencing . So I have to give kudos on making things fit together in a nice little package.

We also messed around with Die Hard Trilogy, in particular the Die Harder (aka Die Hard 2) portion of it, which had the theme of a 'light gun' shooter. We went through the whole campaign and it was a nice look back at what was the best part of the Die Hard Trilogy game. Now my question is this, how come there were so many civilians around?! Maybe we'lll go back and do the Die Hard and With A Vengeance sections at some point

As revealed the start of the stream, we do have a new item in the collection, the jumbo sized Ranch plush based on MasakoX's Dragon Ball What If Raditz Turned Good series. The oversized head does make it a bit hard to place to have it sitting without something else propping it up, but hey, there were only 238 made, so I'm glad I contributed to the campaign!

Twitch Clip Links:

• Oh I am liking this! 
• It's Time To Jam
• Die Harder 
• Only 238 Made...
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on CirceCroft who was playing Silent Hill 2 over on twitch.tv/circecroft! We actually found them over on Hover. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo. The daily workout was perfect as in all 1492 actions were done without one OK or one miss. Of course I did put in some extra Free Training as well.

Since Friday night's stream went so long, yesterday afternoon, I messed around with the Xbox 360 version of SoulCalibur II HD Online, to knock out a couple of easy achievements to extended my daily streak to 51 days.

SoulCalibur II HD Online Achievements

• First Trial: First Trial Point Cleared in Weapon Master
• Comeback Kid: Ten Successful Counter Hits 

Now as for today is concerned, I used Gears 5 to keep the streak going for 52 days by picking up a few multiplayer achievements.You know what's funny is that I had to use the LAN party method to get the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship achievement to pop, despite playing a match of arcade several weeks ago!

Gears 5 Achievements

• Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: Played a match of Arcade
• Ring Leader: Won a Match of Arcade Blitz with the most Points earned in a Ring
• Sampler: Completed a Match of Free For All, Arcade Blitz and Gridiron

A new week begins, but here is a recap of last week which featured Overwatch, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Apocalypse, Die Hard Trilogy and some Just Chatting Moments.

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!

Well that was Untangled

Good afternoon everyone,

Boy was yesterday weird, it was like in teens all day... and then things warmed up to the low 20s at night... yes I'm being sarcastic!

Anyway last night's stream featured Kingdom Hearts III, with the big focused on The Kingdom of Corona... (or cheap beer, which was a running gag). Since I have no familiarity with the movie Tangled. I'm not to keen on Flynn's design, but Rapunzel and Gothel had pretty cool looks. The open world when going from Rapunzel's tower to the Kingdom of Corona certainly felt worth of exploring, and the enemy spawn rate wasn't too which meant back tracking or making up for mistakes wasn't as brutal in comparison to Toy Box.

I did like how Rapunzel's long hair was used into exploring the world, as she uses it as way to swing Sora and company over some large gaps. The boss at the end of the world, which was formed from Gothel's cloak after she falls out of a window was unique... but I don't quite kick how or why it was causing sneezing.

In terms of the impressions of Tangled based on what I saw, it certainly seems like it would be good for a casual watch. Nothing really made me say I want to go see it based on the story elements presented... and of course, Rapunzel's realization of who she is by holding a cloth with a sun on it while looking up at the ceiling was too much of a leap, even more... if that is how it plays out in the movie then... wow, that is some 'we need to an emotional trigger moment' style writing.

On a side note, I'm keeping Kingdom Hearts III on Friday nights, which gives a nice end of the week 'feature' vibe... plus it means less things to fight on YouTube for copyright claims.

For the raid, we sent things over to Glorifiedthief who was playing Persona 5 Royal over at twitch.tv/Glorifiedthief!  They are super awesome.!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Happily Ever After: Adventure through the Kingdom of Corona and complete the story.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Tangled Twist?
2. Keep Dancing 
3. Just Beat The Tar Out Of It!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #3, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficult Challenge Combo #2 for a duration of 34 minutes an a calorie burn estimated to be about 653 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2 Totals For Week Of 1/16 to 1/22

• Punches Thrown: 9,017
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4010.75 kcal
  

Wisconsin is full of some really special people... special as in anyone I spoke to in the that state who happened to be a Trump support clearly was on the short bus as a youth. Some folks have their heads so far up their own ass that they totally approve of what happened back on January 6 of 2021...  again, special people... that need to be put in a special place... like a fucking mental asylum. 

Did some long play time of Final Fantasy XIV last night after the stream, knocking out the entire Old Sharlayan Quest chain that sees Alphinaud and Alisaie getting to see their mother and also new clothes. Have to say that getting around Labyrinthos is a pain in the ass because of how it's 'layered', and there is really only one way up and down and that is a long mount ride through a mine. Still there was a great little moment when myself and twins were turn into frogs. Also hit the level cap of 90 for Bard... so now the worry will be about getting gear that kind of equals that!

Some stuff added to the X-Box digital library: Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle, Capcom Arcade Cabinet, Duke Nukem Forever, Tomb Raider Underworld and Saints Row. Wait... Capcom Arcade Cabinet... isn't that the same thing as Capcom Arcade Stadium... well yes and no, think of it as the 360 era version, but with fewer games, actual achievements for the games in the collection... but also some different titles. 

And speaking of Capcom Arcade Stadium... I was up till about 6 AM playing 1942 to get to where I can use the rewind exploit to farm the 10 Million Point Bonus.... which converts to about 38,000 CASPO (Capcom Arcade Stadium Points)... and the end goal is to get 100,000,000 CASPO. Good news is I'm at 10,000.000 CASPO... but the grind is real people... the grind is real!

Capcom Arcade Stadium Achievements

• C Average: Reach Class 10: Jurist.
  

For tonight's stream, I have not made up my mind of what we're going to do yet. I'm learning towards a few things but I do want to save some stuff for weeknight features. I'll figure something out, I always do.

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