The Expanse, Party Animals and Other Notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was solid as we had a good pace of completing interviews, even if some folks were more 'mental' than others. Gives me hope that Friday is going to be a good day.

Tonight's stream opened with episode 5 of The Expanse: A TellTale Series, and I realized what this game was... it's a glorified tech demo, and I'm real curious if the fault lies with TellTale Games or Deck Nine Games, as both companies were involved. When compared to games that both companies have worked on and  released previously, The Expanse is a shallow experience. Sure it looks great, but there is nothing of substance there. I firmly believe this is the worst game I played here in 2023. Doesn't help that Episode 5 was less than a gig in size, making it the smallest of all 5 chapters, and boy did that really show as it was barely 40 minutes in length.

We loaded up Killer Instinct and saw that its story mode was basically the arcade mode. We did a quick run through as Orchid. Interesting a number of achievements popped from when I last played it back in August. I checked to see if anything popped in Resident Evil 6 and the answer was nope.

We also checked out Party Animals... and that game is basically a violent form of Fall Guys, it is down right hilarious and can be frustrating as the controls are pretty loose. There are a fair variety of game modes, and the fact you can choose your animal is pretty cool. If you liked Fall Guys, give Party Animals a whirl.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Heal Thy Medic: Help Virgil overcome his panic attack
• Brother's Reaper: Rayen kills Arlen
• Oyedeng, Kopengs: Complete Episode 5 of The Expanse
• Miraculous Maya: Keep Maya alive
• Khan's Revenge: Keep Khan alive
• Bosmang: Complete all Episodes of The Expanse
• Data Archivist: Complete Episode 5 with all Data Logs

Killer Instinct Achievements

• Sadira's Web Trap: A web trap hit an opponent, while in Instinct Mode with Sadira
• Glacius' Armor: You absorbed a hit with Glacius' Ice armor while in Instinct Mode
• Orchid Novice: You have reached 30 Fight Challenges with Orchid!
• Competitive Hisako: You have won a ranked match as Hisako!
• Astral Assistance: You completed a Shadow Lords mission with a Guardian equipped!

Party Animals Achievements

• Welcome To The Party: Finish the Tutorial
• First Strike: Win 1 match in the Quick Match
• Sportsmanship: Knock out 1 player during the podium moment
• Immortal Kombat: In Into The Game, knock out opponent playing arcade 3 times in one game (Quick Match)

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern (assuming there is work) over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature Horizon Zero Dawn, we'll bounce from quest to quest based on distance.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/misscammi316 who was playing Smite

So I posted an older short story based on The Last of Us over on Ao3 and boy, the Joel apologists were in full force, I'm really tempted to write a follow up just to piss them off even more.

Speaking of stories, knocked out one WWE commission request and started on another. It is funny considering an earlier commissioned story involved Emma's return to the promotion earlier this year... and she was let go today.

Those will be all of my notes for tonight, have a good one folks!

Resident Evil 6's First Campaign Is Finished

Hi everyone,

Work was alright yesterday, getting one interview completed along with being able to pace out the script so I wasn't tripping over words.

Got some writing done on the Mass Effect short story commission and I'm looking to finish it this afternoon before work. I could've finished it yesterday but I got distracted with stuff.

Last night's stream saw Iceman and I finish Leon's campaign in Resident Evil 6, and boy did things get very silly as it relates to the villain known as Simmons. Chapters 4 and 5 were a real fun romp in my opinion just getting from point A to point B. Now technically I was in the sidekick role as Helena, so with the next campaign for Chris, I'll play the lead character. Apparently that campaign is a lot like Resident Evil 5.

Now having finished the first campaign, I'm really  curious how much Michael Bay films inspired the creative direction and set pieces I saw so far in the game remind me of stuff that would be seen in his films when it comes to big leaps and explosions.

We also played some Fall Guys in our quest for getting 20 first places finishes in races, picking up two via squad shows. The new Season Pass has some nice cosmetics

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Big Trouble in China: Complete Chapter 4 in Leon's campaign.
• The Trouble with Women: Complete Chapter 5 in Leon's campaign

For the raid we dropped in on misscammi316 who was playing Conan Exiles over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

You know what's weird? When I switched to Fall Guys, Twitch didn't update the category. Also had a weird moment where we lost partial connection on the upstream.

The new season of Overwatch has some interesting rewards, but the feature of unlocking a D&D campaign that is being played by Tracer, Orisa and others.

Tonight's stream will start at 9:30 PM Eastern with Street Fighter 6, with a big focus on the World Tour mode. we might do some Battle Hub stuff as well.

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

The Offical Push To Finishing Persona 3 Portable Begins

Hi everyone,

Well let's talk about Stream Elements and the fact I created new merchandise, and my order for my own shirts was not delivered to my home, but instead UPS & USPS somehow delivered it to somewhere in Barrington, NJ which is no where near my mailing address! So to say I'm livid is an understatement!

Work was alright, we didn't have the good assignment that I was on the last few shifts, but what I was on only required that we try to get interviews done... and I got one done, so that was good.

We passed December 31 in Persona 3 Portable, which opened up the last block of Tartarus and the final push towards finishing the game. Now the guide I'm using says to wait until January 15th to grind out all the new floors and bosses, but I learned my lesson from last week, instead alternating what nights we go into Tartarus. This helps in regards to level grinding, but it's becoming really clear that I'm going to end up using Aigis and Yukari to finish, with the last spot on the team probably being Akihiko.

We also tackled several of the optional boss fights related to Margaret wanting to challenge the P3-Protagonist, and while the ones I've done so far are just harder versions of the full moon shadow fights involving the use of specific party members, which in some ways puts me at a disadvantage. These are the first fights that saw me the use of the 'retry' mechanic. Most certainly these are going to get tougher and more tedious, but we're making a go for it.

No achievements were earned, as the last story related ones are tied to defeating Nyx, and the others are related to doing specific things that we're doing to accomplish during this playthrough that we're not ready for yet.

That said, by my match we should finish Persona 3 Portable on Tuesday's stream since there's not many side things out side of Tartaturs to do beyond the Empress, Aeon and hopefully Strength social links.

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood who was playing the demo for Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

As announced in my Discord, we're bringing back the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy starting on Saturday. Last time we played the games in that collection was back in December of 2019. We will be using a guide for it, because... why not?

Plan for Wednesday's stream is that it'll start at 9:30 PM Eastern with Iceman and I continuing our adventures in Resident Evil 6, then in the second half, it'll be Fall Guys as I work towards that final achievements.

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

An Okay Day

Hi everyone,

Well the air quality sure was interesting today thanks to the fires up in Canada and the air particles making their way down to South Jersey, I will admit, I didn't smell them till probably about 9 PM Eastern.

Work was alright, getting the hours I could snag, getting one interview completed made me feel productive, which is also nice.

Started to go through some of my mom's dresser drawers to throw out obvious stuff like undergarments and socks, really was the first time in months I spent more than a couple of minutes in what was her room. It was... tough to say the least, as I fought the urge to cry.

The stream opened with Resident Evil 6, with Iceman along for the fun following a few difficulties in getting the party invite to work. We knocked out all of Leon's Campaign Chapter 3 in about an hour and the first two big sections of Chapter 4 (the airplane and the tyrant like thing). Since I'm playing as Helena, it means I get to do all the stuff the A.I. would do, which is kind of fun. 

Now we did have a few deaths,as being in the catacombs certainly leads to a lot of 'what the hell do we do' now moments. I could've done without the swimming section. The giant fish creature was kind of cool to deal with. We did discuss how RE6 was a bit to ambitious for its own good, but with how silly it can get, I'm really enjoying it.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Zombie Massacre: Defeat 500 zombies.
• Get on the Plane: Complete Chapter 3 in Leon's campaign.

After we were done Resident Evil 6, I jumped into Fall Guys in pursuite of the final achievement I need to get in that game, and if I understand some achievement guides correctly, if a Duo or Squad finishes in first place in race rounds via points it counts to the 20 first place finishes needed to get the final achievement unlocked. Here's hoping, as we were apart of a couple of squads that did finish in first place!

For the raid we dropped everyone off with tokushoutsu during the marathone of Ultraman 80 over at twitch.tv/tokushoutsu

The plan for Thursday night's stream is to finish Mass Effect, we have the back end of Noveria to do, and then it'll be off to Illos to the final push to wrap up this play through of the Xbox 360 version of the game.

So on that note we'll see you at 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Tartarus Grind In Persona 3 Portable Is Grindy!

Hi everyone,

As I get what hours of work I can get, I was able to feel productive getting two interviews done, however the clunky nature and trying to probe for answers with a script that limits what I can say certainly was a problem. Still at least we'll pick up some more hours this evening which leads to tonight's stream starting at 9:30 PM

Tuesday's Night stream of Persona 3 Portable most certainly was a grind as we spent several long grueling hours in Tartartus covering floors 164 to 214 for a total of 50 floors.... and the entire 5th block. This would not have been so bad if the floors didn't get huge, which meant I ended up just scrambling to find the stairs so that we could reach our designated goal. This also lead to five boss fights, and me trying to predict match ups while trying to level up all the companions equally... not to mention getting various fusions done to complete as much of the Compendium as possible.

Now despite all that grind, we did had another goal of reaching level 69 (nice) so that we could fuse Gabriel to boost him to get a needed skill to then try and go through a series of fusions to pass it to where it can be used in a fusion to create Lilith. Since we have a lot 'open night's' in game, this could end up being easy to do as far as grinding to get added levels, as all my remaining social links are all during the day.

We have reached the point in the story where Aigis is questioning the validity of her existence, so with no 'shadows' expected on the next Full Moon I suspect this will be the big push into the final arc of the game's disjointed story. 

Funny enough, this stream was the first Persona 3 Portable stream where no achievements were earned! I'm pretty shocked about that, but we have 26 of the 36 achievements, so we can't be too mad about that.

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood who was featuring Street Fighter 6 over at twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

The plan for tonight's stream, which again will start at 9:30 PM Eastern, is to play Resident Evil 6 with Iceman, knocking out Chapter 3 of Leon's campaign and then doing some Fall Guys to work towards the final achievement in that game.

So hope to see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Resident Evil 6 Progress, Achievements in Fall Guys!

Good morning everyone,

Another late shift of work yesterday, but I got another interview done and thus felt productive once again. 

Also made some pasta the previous night... and it's edible, so I have left overs for today. There is a big difference in knowing how to cook and 'knowing how to cook;.

Last night's stream opened with Resident Evil 6 which saw Iceman and I knock out Chapter 2 of Leon's campaign.. and since I'm playing as Helena, it certainly has lead to some unique moments and mechanics within the game, such as carrying Deborah and being its target during the boss fight. Now since the chapters are so long, Iceman and I are approaching of doing one chapter per week. So with five chapters per campaign and four campaigns in total... we'll be with this a lot in the coming weeks and months on Wednesdays.

Once chapter two of RE6 was done, and after a break, I loaded up Fall Guys with the intent of testing out an exploit to get the achievement for 5 wins in a row. Currently, if you do one of the short 'special' fan made races that are currently an option, you just have to finish it, doesn't matter the placement. Now do it four more times, and you got the achievement. Also managed to get the achievement for doing an emote before finishing in first place. Now that just leaves coming in 1st place 20 times in races... just wish I knew how many I had done already.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Lifesaver: Help or rescue your partner ten times.
• Buried Secrets: Complete Chapter 2 in Leon's campaign.

Fall Guys Achievements

• Big Tease: Perform an emote just before coming first in a race round
• Infallible: Win 5 Episodes in a row

On a side note, my current Xbox achievement stands at 12 days and 50 achievements earned, some of which I didn't make mention of here in the blog.

For the raid we dropped in on TracyDoll who was playing Dead by Daylight over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

The plan for tonight's stream is more Mass Effect, and we'll be opening with three side quests with the hope we can get the achievement for doing the majority of the game with Alenko in the squad. If we get that achievement, we'll do Virmire before Noveria just for a change of pace 

Also finished the Mass Effect short story yesterday, so the commission slots are now open.

SO on that note we'll see you later tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and the stream will be starting around 9:30 PM Eastern.

 

Well So Much For Getting Back To Normal

Good morning everyone,

Well right before I was about to start work yesterday, I got a call saying the shift was cancelled, and now I'm back picking up spare hours on the evening shift, which means tonight's stream will start at 9:30 PM.

Anyway, last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and shockingly, I was able to win a squad show being the last 'bean standing', I've certainly lucked out a fair amount, and we came close to winning a solo show as well. 

We also checked out PowerWash Simulator, and I can see why that game is both addicting and frustrating, because when it gets down to like a few percent points left, you end up wondering where to look to find the last few things to spray. At least there is an indicator of when something is clean before moving on.

But the main event of course was Resident Evil 6, and with Iceman along for the ride, we covered the first chapter of Leon's campaign. Now it turns out Iceman's difficulty is locked in on normal, while my difficultly is at amateur. The pace of play being faster than Resident Evil 5 is a huge plus, along with being able to do melee attacks. Now I did say during the stream we're playing it for shits and giggles, and there were plenty of both, and I'm really looking forward to next Wednesday's stream for more of the same!

 PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Starting Out: Earn 5 Stars in Career Mode
• Soap Connoisseur: Own all cleaning liquids at the same time
• Fully Equipped: Own the Prime Vista 1500 and three of its attachments

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• The Longest Night: Complete the tutorial.
• Gone to Hell: Complete Chapter 1 in Leon's campaign.
• One Is Better Than None: Purchase one skill.

We had two raids during the streams, one from Taffe316 (twitch.tv/taffe316) and from Edheldisrien (twitch.tv/Edheldisrien), thank you so much for bringing your communities on over!

For our own  raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Smite over at twitch.tv/sweetlindir

The latest short story commission request on the books is for another Mass Effect tale, and I have some ideas of what to reference during it in regards to Mass Effect 3, since it's taking place after the Cerberus invasion of the Citadel and involves the Virmire Survivor. 

Speaking of Mass Effect, that is the plan for tonight's stream, we'll hang out on Pinnacle Station to try and get closer to a couple of achievements before we move on to other areas in search for any side quests. We'll try to delay advancing the plot as much as possible.

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

Reached Mid-September in Persona 3 Portable

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was about as expected in terms of just being a bland day thanks to being limited by the script we have to stick too, but hey, it kept my mind focus. Unfortunately, I just got a call saying day shift for today was cancelled at the last minute...

Last night's stream of Persona 3 Portable saw about two hours spent in Tartarus as we made it floor 114, getting a lot of things done in regards to quests and trying to keep everyone's levels even proved to be tough considering how I try to always go for the advantage in fights, using the proper elemental attacks to go for Knock downs and All out Attacks as often as possible.That said, one thing is for certain that even with a guided playthrough I did screw up on keeping things timed correctly, so I'm behind on some social links and attributes.

In terms of the the story of Persona 3, Junpei actually getting character development due to his interactions with Chidori is actually adorable, because it's quite clear that he's the first person Chidori met that cares for her well being. The whole Strega story arc as an evil group of Persona users is interesting and I wonder if it's more fleshed out in the original version of Persona 3, or is just 'mid game' filler story that just acts as opposition because Persona 3's overall plot with the Full Moon battles not really having much justification for them other than they need to happen.

Next time we play Persona 3 Portable on Monday will see us reach the point we can fuse four and five personas at a time and basically march towards the next bit trip into Tartarus, which will probably be split over two nights, depending on the number of floors I need to reach.

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• Paulownia Mall Power Control: Defeat the Hermit.

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Outbreak over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz

With work back to normal, tonight's stream will open with Fall Guys for the first two hours, and we'll be starting Resident Evil 6 at 10 PM since Iceman won't be getting home until late, so we might toss in a little filler of something as well. It could be a triple header night! 

Finished the Mass Effect short story commission, it's now up on the SubscribeStar page for those who know what that link is. I'll put in some work on the other queued commission requests that is WWE focused... until I get another one that's a lot more interesting.

Heard that Star Trek Resurrgence is great as a Star Trek story... but not quite a good game, guess we'll see for ourselves on Saturday.

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

We Had A Variety Night

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday I did plan to wake up early, but... ended up waking up a lot later than intended, but still got a few things done.

We had a fun stream, as it was a variety night, opening with Fall Guys and running into instances of dudes self sabotaging the team in so many ways, including diving off the platform in Block Party. No wins, but we did make it the final round once.

We switched of Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed after I learned they added some cosmetics from Extreme Ghostbusters, so yeah that caught my attention. We had a couple of victories but mostly got chased out by the ghosts. Didn't really get a good look at the new map but it's nice to see there are stuff still being added.

We played some Smite for the first time in a long time, winning three out of the four matches played (2 in Arena, 1 in Assault), with those victories being as Athena, Terra and Nike respectively. I actually forgot how long Assault matches can feel because of the random nature of who everyone has to use, Still I'll take the wins.

Now all of those games were played on the Xbox Series and Xbox One consoles, because lastly we hooked up the PS3 in probably a year I think, and we played the X-Men arcade game, USA Rom version on Hard, using Dazzler. It was a solid run, and a good test of how it looks and plays on stream after all the hassle I went through to improve the picture quality.

Now I did consider doing an extra night of Persona 3 Portable or Mass Effect, but I figure bouncing from game to game and console to console made for a more unique experience.

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!

Getting back to Mass Effect, did some writing on the short story commission yesterday afternoon, and I figure it's now about 40% done, just need to do the action sequence.

The plan for tonight's stream, well it's Overwatch, even though we are all disappointed in being lied too by the developers of it regarding the PVE content, since they already had a live game to service in place. I will not be surprised if someone files a class action lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over this  

Good thing I ended the stream when it did, because a few minutes afterward, my internet went down!

I continue to mess around more with the Xbox version of Star Trek Online and discovered there is a very noticeable lag when doing anything in the tailor, like tweaking uniforms and so forth. In fact in an upcoming video scheduled for July on my YouTube channel, it takes about 20 minutes just to switch the uniforms of my starting crew from the TOS era to the 2409 uniforms.

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

More Wins In Fall Guys

Good morning everyone,

Finally took care of the long tall grass, and the mower I got was not as ideal as I thought, and it's E-snap on pieces broke off. Still used the lawn trimmer and it got things done. That took up a good chunk of the afternoon.

Last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and the new shorter Fame Pass is a fine gimmick and a change of pace consider how long the last season pass was left hanging around.The new skins are rather cute being themed around Hello Kitty. We picked up two surprise wins in Squads, and came close to winning in both Solo and Duo shows. The new build feature certainly presented new challenges from the demented mind of the players.

We also played the Stanley Parable Deluxe Edition last night, and the comical nature of it certainly, as going off the beaten path quickly reminded me and introduced viewers to all the nuttiness that can occur. We got half of the achievements I believe, of course there are the original infamous ones that involves playing the game for the entirety of a day and the other for not playing the game for 10 years. The new content certainly up to the par, and the fact that you can get the game to launch as The Stanley Parable 2 is a cute twist.

Plus any game that calls me a heartless bastard is awesome.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Achievements

• You Can't Jump: No seriously, we disabled it.
• Get Your First Achievement: Awarded for getting any of the other achievements as your first.
• Beat The Game: Complete The Stanley Parable.
• 8888888888888888: 888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
• Click on door 430 five times: Click on door 430 five times.
• Welcome Back!: Quit the game and then start it again. 
• Settings World Champion Set all settings sliders in the menu to all the available numbers.
  

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Resident Evil 2 Remake over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x

Now the plan for tonight's stream is more Mass Effect, with a focus on finding side missions and avoiding the big story stuff. The reason for this is because I am grinding towards various achievements.

Overwatch's new event is clearly inspired by Star Wars with it being a 4 v 4 Empire vs Rebels theme encounter. I personally think it would've been better as PvE content. In fact, weren't we promised PvE content?!

After the stream I did do some work on the Mass Effect story commission, as I do want to finish it before the weekend.

Had some trouble sleeping, so did a video giving some thoughts on My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure's length in regards to when it was relased. It will be on my YouTube channel this afternoon

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

Social Link Grinding Is A Thing

Good morning everyone,

Finally got some feedback about work, and apparently things really went FUBAR in ways that no one was anticipating, so we're just holding steady... and yeah, finally hearing something made me feel a little better, but it does affect me mentally with a lot of things that have gone wrong this year. Hell I did do some writing yesterday, but then I just slept just to avoid thinking.

Which leads to the job search and seeing jobs that I applied months ago for being posted on job boards again. Like what the fuck?! I know I talked about this yesterday, but it really makes me upset. I know crying doesn't do anything, but it's frustrating as all hell. Then there is the blatant hiding of requirements of needing a car to even consider being hired...

However, last night's stream of Persona 3 Portable was very positive, as we rescued Fuuka and covered a ton of the slice of life content that leads up into the evening of July 5, which will be our next extended trip into Tartarus. We got a number of social links up to Rank 5, with at least one at Rank 8, that being Chihiro who seems to be the obvious best girl of the Persona 3 cast of characters.

One thing I do appreciate was the whole Full Moon cycle, which does allow for getting so many things done in a short amount of time, but the whore sick/tired gimmick is certainly annoying to manage, but I got the Courage attributed maxed out so I can pretty much ignore it going forward.

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• That Special Someone: Enter a special relationship with someone.
• A New Persona-User: Defeat the Emperor and Empress.
• Granter of Your Desires: Buy 5 things from Tanaka's Amazing Commodities.

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz during their stream of Outbreak over on twitch.tv/powerthumbz

The plan for tonight's stream will included Fall Guys, however, Iceman won't be able to join us this week for Resident Evil 5, so we'll either dedicate the whole night to Fall Guys are include something else on the agenda, and I'm leaning towards The Stanley Parable

So Donald Truml's verdict regarding of of his many crimes is finally what is getting some of the psychos who voted for him to question his validity as a candidate? Fuck these people...

To be honest not much is really on my mind at the time I'm writing this to pad this out.

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

We Finished Resident Evil 5!

Good morning everyone,

Had a bit of a slight scare yesterday related to the lack of work that thankfully got sorted, and picked up a few supplemental groceries to go with the healthy stuff I have in the fridge and freezer (also to keep me from ordering take-out!)

Last night's stream opened up with Fall Guys and we picked up a solo win in grand fashion. It was so grand that final round came down to me and two other players, so it was good time to be had! We came real close to winning both Duo and Squad shows as well, but had some bad luck in key situations.  Still it was solid!

When I switched over to Resident Evil 5, first I focused on knocking out achievements related to specific weapons (the Gatling gun, stun baton and longbow), all of which was done in mercenary mode, but the fact that the achievements didn't pop when I expected should've been a first sign indicator something was a bit off.

Because when we were joined by Iceman, neither of us could send invites to get a co-op session started as Xbox had number of issues last night that didn't get resolved until very late. So we had to risk doing an open session and hoping he could join in. Thankfully that worked out and we proceed through Chapters 6-2 and 6-3. 6-2 didn't give us too much trouble.... but chapter 6-3, namely the battle against Wesker was real adventure. In fact from the minute we started the fight against Wesker to the second the credits rolled about 66 minutes, with 11 deaths, most due to the cut scenes and quick time events. We did do some bolder punching which was awesome, if not a little bit silly.

Now we're not done with Resident Evil 5 because there is still the DLC content to do, which we will start on next Wednesday's stream!

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Crowd Control: Defeat 30 enemies with the Gatling gun.
• Cattle Prod: Defeat 30 enemies with the Stun rod.
• Bull's-eye: Defeat 30 enemies with the Longbow.
• Completed Chapter 6 - 2: Complete Chapter 6 - 2 on any difficulty setting.
• Recruit: Complete all chapters on Amateur.
• Completed Chapter 6 - 3: Complete Chapter 6 - 3 on any difficulty setting.

Big thank you to MissCammi316 for the raid following their stream of Missing Children over on twitch.tv/misscammi316

For our own raid we dropped in on Tracy Doll who was playing Resident Evil 4 over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

For tonight's stream, we're revisiting My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure, and hopefully we'll have none of the issues that plagued the stream that occurred last year. Following that we'll either do Disney Speedstorm or something Star Wars related since today is May the Fourth.

Messed around with Rock Band some more trying to get a good feel for where I have to be vocally to even do songs on normal... and boy I'm no where near as good as I was with Twitch Sings.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• It's All for the Fans Turned down 3 encores or requests in a row.

Didn't do anything writing yesterday, but got another video recorded focused on my DVDs, which will be live on my YouTube Channel on May 24th. I plan to do two more videos in that series.

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

So easy to make mistakes in P3P

Good morning everyone,

We didn't have any work yesterday, but I did get my firs accumulated payout from SubscribeStar which helps cover a week's worth of normal income. Speaking of that, did more work on the Mass Effect short story, but I feel like I'm going to re-write a good portion of what I did yesterday as it didn't come across right.

Last night's stream of Persona 3 Portable saw a lot of grinding being done in Tartarus, but then I realized how easy it is to be derailed by status effects not lasting as long as I would like to follow a guide of when various things would be done. Now that wasn't so bad because I did do the monorail boss fight, but I screwed up the day after, instead of progressing the Hermit social link, I went to the velvet room, and then learned about going back to the dorm progresses time forward. So sticking to the guide is pretty damn important!

Basically I had to redo everything after 5/6 and continued up to the evening of 5/11, so a couple of minor things saw progressed. At the very least, next time we play Persona 3 Portable there will not be a replay of the Monorail encounter!

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• Tactical Fighter: Exploit enemy weaknesses 100 times.
• Monorail Inspection Complete: Defeat the Priestess.

For the raid we dropped in on misscammi316 who was playing Missing Children, which is some sort of horror game over on twitch.tv/misscammi316! 

The goal for tonight's stream is to play Fall Guys to open things up, then after 9 PM we'll switch to Resident Evil 5 as Iceman and I will try to finish it!

Fun fact about the Xbox version of Rock Band 4, is that it will recongized DLC purchases from earlier installments of the game, but you managed to find new physical copies of some of the earlier expansion packs, like say the one AC/DC, you can use the digital codes to get those songs added to your RB4 library. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be done on the PlayStation side because Sony is a terrible to its consumer base.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• Wingin' It: Earned three "Freestyle!" vocal phrase scores in a single song.

My oldest niece Makayla celebrated their 11th birthday earlier this week, and I forgot to make note of that here on my blog and to acknowledge on stream. I'm really terrible about stuff like that.

Got two full trash bags full of jewel cases of all the CDs I've put into binders over the last few weeks, so glad to have that project done!

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

Fall Guys, Singing On Twitch and RE5

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and we ran into the old problem of being put on teams that only have three members, which was really annoying. But we did win back to back shows, in one instance I had a dude pinned near the ledge and needed a teammate's help to push them off for the win, and in the other myself and a teammate were the final two in Jump Club, so that was awesome.

For the first time since the end of Twitch Sings we did some singing on Twitch via Let's Sing2023, which is available on several platforms. Picked up a cheap USB mic to plug into the back of the Xbox One, and it was fun to belt out some songs. It's too back Let's Sing has such a small song library and none of the features Twitch Sings had in terms of putting together parties online, but it is what it is.  On top of that, the game itself is poorly programmed in terms of picking up notes of what is singing (more on this below when I talk about Rock Band 4)

Iceman and I cleared Chapters 5-3 and 6-1 of Resident Evil 5 tonight, putting us in a great spot to finish the game next Wednesday. We got several achievements along the way, and for the most part stayed on our feet the entire time. I am convinced that if RE5 was given a remake with controls similar to Gears of War, it would be incredible fun.

Let's Sing 2023 Achievements

• Early evening: You got a bronze record
• The family is growing: You won 3 avatars
• Internet talent: You won 5 matches in WORLD CONTEST
• Eclectic: You sang 15 different songs
• Early days: You got 5 gold records

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Egg Hunt: Find all 4 types of eggs.
• Masters of Removing: Work together to save someone special.
• Completed Chapter 5 - 3: Complete Chapter 5 - 3 on any difficulty setting.
• Completed Chapter 6 - 1: Complete Chapter 6 - 1 on any difficulty setting.

For the raid we dropped in on DR_JB_JOVI who was playing Resident Evil 4 over at twitch.tv//DR_JB_JOVI, the raid was recommended by BangBangBang713 who redeemed the guide the raid reward!

The plan for tonight's stream is doing another session of Disney Speedstorm, mostly to see what the game is liked after people exploit the pay to win mechanics. 

I was told (after the stream) that Rock Band 4 is a much better singing option than Let's Sing 2023, so I did give that whirl this morning, and I can safely say it is far superior to Let's Sing 2023 in regards to being able to sing without having to push my vocal beyond reason. It will take a long time to actually build up a decent list of songs however.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• Give It a Rest: As a Singer, used Overdrive at least 4 times in a single song.
• Seeing Stars: Earned 5 Stars on a song in Quickplay mode.
• One More Song: Played an encore in "Play a Show" mode.
• Tune Up: Calibrated your audio/video setup.

My fantasy baseball team is doing well this week, problems my opponents team is doing better.

Still need to come up with a way to get the television and what's left of another TV taken away.

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

American McGee's Alice Needs A Remake

Good morning everyone,

Today got off to a good start as a local junk collector came and asked if they could take some of the things I was looking to get rid of. Paid them a little extra to take a lot more than what they were wanting. But hey it's one less thing I have to worry about.

Last night's stream of American McGee's Alice went right up to midnight because the platform jumping and two boss fights took a while and multiple attempts to deal with. The Jabberwocky fight was just a nightmare to get through because of how it just stayed on me with its fire breath. Then there was the Demon Queen boss fight, in which I could barely see a damn thing. I did make liberal and frequent uses of the quick save options, which kind of spoiled the pace of the fight, but when I have doubt that I was actually making progress, I had to make sure things fell into place.

All that said, American McGee's Alice does deserve a remake, if it had the game play of it's sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, it certainly would have made things a lot more fun. At the very least it implement a better weapon switch option, because cycling through the weapons in tough situations really got old,I did find that the Ice wand to be the best overall weapon, as it can be used on a group of enemies. 

Some other notes, I enjoyed seeing the originals of the March Hare and Dormouse's appearances, not to mention their justified hatred towards The Mad Hater. The swimming sections were awful. For the most part I didn't need a guide to find my way, but I did end up using one because some things were exactly clear on what to do late in the game. 

Would I play it again? Probably not, since I got all of the achievements associated with it, and there is no incentive for wanting to go through it again at a harder difficulty setting

American McGee's Alice Achievements

• Dead Hatter: In American McGee’s Alice, Complete Behind the Looking Glass
• Royal Approach: In American McGee’s Alice, Complete Queen of Heartsland
• Full Recovery: In American McGee’s Alice, Complete the Game

For the raid we dropped in on pradoxgamerau as they were playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

The plan for tonight's stream is to play Fall Guys and Resident Evil 5, with the goal in RE5 to get through chapters 5-3 and 6-1. Hopefully Iceman and I have some good luck.

Got some writing done on the latest WWE commission short story request. I figure it's about 25% finished.

Still plugging along with Hades to get Megara's story to progress in order to get the final achievement.

I'm seriously looking into a way to do a karaoke stream, it's been a while since I've done any singing on stream. Would mean that stream could not be archived however... and would probably involve two microphones.

Recorded the 9th video in my series of vlogs going through my DVD collection, and goes over about 95% of my wrestling collection. It will be on my YouTube channel on May 17.

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

Chaos In Resident Evil 5's fifth chapter

 Good morning everyone,

Well there was no-work because the assignment got down because they want to understand why it's not doing well... but as I said, a major problem is that the sample we have to work with includes businesses that have nothing to do with the topic on hand!

Heard my Cousin Frances was under the weather, and here's hoping she gets well soon!

Anyway last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and we were joined by FelKimchi, and while we didn't win any shows, we did make it to the final round several times, coming very close to winning on two occasions.

After the break it was back to Resident Evil 5 with Iceman, as we cleared Chapters 5-1 and 5-2. I was warned about the boss fights in it, and we were able to through the Ouroboros one with the flamethrower on a first attempt. We're not at the part of the game where more monsters are scene like the Lickers and Reapers, the later of which is what killed me when we considered trying to do Chapter 5-3.

The way I figure we could be finished with the base game of RE5 in two weeks time, then of course we'll try and do its expanded content

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Completed Chapter 5 - 1: Complete Chapter 5 - 1 on any difficulty setting.
• Baptism by Fire: Defeat 3 Majini at once with a drum or gas tank explosion.
• Completed Chapter 5 - 2: Complete Chapter 5 - 2 on any difficulty setting.

For the raid we sent the fun over to x9abenonymous9x who was playing the 1998 version of Resident Evil 2 over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

For tonight's stream we're going to play the Breakers Collection, and we'll see just how frustrating that game is when I have the pressure of an audience watching!

Got some writing done, so the latest commission short story request is about 20% completed.

Recorded part 3 of my series of finding vinyl albums on Spotify and building a playlist on the albums top songs. Changed my rules a bit as it relates to compilation records. Also got every vinyl record storied in a container of some sort, so the trunk that we discovered can be used for other things.

Also recorded an video going through a bag of actions figures that my mom had put aside.The bag's contents were mostly my brothers, based on when I was able to place the release of some figures. 

Both videos will be up on my YouTube channel in a couple of weeks, not due to editing, but when I have scheduled them to go live.  

Moved a bookcase and a dresser in my basement, and I totally forgot that I have extra storage space underneath the stairs that lead up into the kitchen!.

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

Finished Alice: Madness Returns,

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday just sucked, if we're supposed to be interviewing people who work in one line of work, then why is the sample including individuals who have nothing to do with the topic! Then we're told the assignment is being downed to try and figure out what the problem is... I mean I can't imagine what could be wrong about contain businesses who does drapery and plant design when the question are about kitchen & bath remodeling!

Last night's stream saw us finish Alice: Madness Returns... and the last portion took maybe a little less 40 minutes... in fact I could have finished it the previous if I wanted to stay up an extra 30+ minutes. In fact, if I really were to consider things, I probably could have one-shotted the final boss of the game with the Tea Pot cannon. Still, since we finished it, we'll continue the fun with Alice in American McGee's Alice starting on Monday!

Now we did do some other things last night, we did a few runs in Hades in an effort to an achievement tied to Achilles's story arc within the game, and we were able to pull that off with no trouble. I still have one more achievement to go in this game to get the full gamer score of 1000.

We also played some Sonic & ALl-Stars Racing Transformed, going one Grand Prix run (beating FnDanteSavage's time by two minutes), then we did some speed runs, and while I'm not quite good enough to get expert times,coming close in a couple of instances... we did discover that some of the top times were straight up cheaters. When the expert time to get around a course is 32 seconds and folks did it in less than 12, then something was clearly screwy.

Alice: Madness Returns Achievements

• The End of Daze: Complete Wonderland Chapter 5
• The Strong Survive: Complete the Game on Easy Difficulty

Hades Achievements

• Divided by Death: Fulfill the 'Divided by Death' Prophecy

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Achievements

• SUMO Wrestled: Beat your first Staff Ghost in Time Attack
• Mega Jet: Did a Reckless Boost

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz once again as they were playing Daymare: 1998 over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz

The plan for tonight is to play Fall Guys in the first half and continue Resident Evil 5 with Iceman, as we'll be picking up in Chapter 5

Have a slight case of writer's block in regards to the latest commission request, mostly trying to deiced if I want to write it more focused on one character with the other just being used as a prop.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits was highly recommended to me as a game to feature on the PlayStation side of game, I will see about making that the game that follows Marvel's Spider-Man when we are fully done with that.

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

Yahoo and Fall Guys Having Issues, Progress in RE5

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was pretty solid on all front, getting a few interviews done. I will not understand why the higher ups think this one assignment should be doing better than it does when historically it's always been hit or miss depending on the day.

Yahoo had a fuck ton of problems last night, being unable to log in or check my e-mail, which considering some of the things I work on requires email communication! 

Speaking of problems, as much as I enjoy Fall Guys, I really hate it when matches are started with teams in duos or squads being given an unfair disadvantage. About five times last night I was either solo in duos, or on a team of three in squads, We did win a show, so we have a streak of managing to win or be apart of winning teams in Fall Guys.

We were joined by Iceman for more fun in Resident Evil 5, clearing Chapters 3-3, 4-1 & 4-2. I certainly had a rough go of it, getting downed quite a few times during the adventure. Ammo certainly became an issue at times, as was health items. I didn't take any chances as I looked up the solution to the game's infamous mirror puzzles in 4-2. Oddly enough, the achievement for completing 4-2 didn't pop, but next time we play it we'll be starting chapter 5-1. Who knows maybe, the missing achievement will pop next week.

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Completed Chapter 3 - 3: Complete Chapter 3 - 3 on any difficulty setting.
• Completed Chapter 4 - 1: Complete Chapter 4 - 1 on any difficulty setting.

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU right as their stream of X4: Foundations began over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

The plan for tonight is to resume Alice: Madness Returns, picking up somewhere in the second chapter, hopefully we can knock out a fair pit of during tonight's broadcast.

Watched a few episodes of the Super Mario Bros Super Show... but you know what's funny? All of the episodes that featured the Legend of Zelda cartoon from the 80s are not listed on any digital platform!  

I did see clips from this week's episode of Star Trek: Picard and how it basically resurrects the Enterprise-D, which is nice and everything, but tying everything back in with the Borg does seem a little redundant to me without full context of the entire episode.

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

Zorro, Ghostbusters and Unclogged Drains

 Good morning yesterday,

Well work completely sucked yesterday, didn't get a single interview done, one due to the respondent constantly swearing and drawing out their answers, and the other due to a bad connection. Here's hoping for a better day today.

My own plumbing adventures turned out to be a success, as my preferred shower drained rather smoother after I was done with no water coming up from the pipe. I have to remember to hot-link the plumber's snake I ordered, because it was very helpful

Last night's stream of Zorro: The Chronicles saw us finishing the game and surprisingly, the last few stages were massive in terms of getting from one place to another to take care of main objectives. I did play as Ines a few times, and the only real difference between her and Diego is that she has her own Super-KO and has more health, while he can take out up to six enemies at once. Now we did get all the achievements that one could get in a single normal play through.

Which leads to the question: Will I attempt to play the game on hard to go for completion... and the answer is maybe. I already know how to play the game, but I do wonder on if everything I unlocked carries over, or if it's a fresh play through and everything has to be earned all over again.

Now we did do some bonus game, bringing back Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed, playing three games, two as a Ghostbuster and one as a ghost. We were successful in our matches as Ghostbuster, even getting the final trap to win a match!

What will replace Zorro: The Chronicles in the lineup next week will be Alice: Madness Returns as we're moving it from Thursdays to Mondays & Tuesdays..Think of it as promoting the game, and as a way for me to finish it faster! Now I ponder what will be the next Thursday night game.

Zorro: The Chronicles Achievements

• Partner In Crime: As Ines, dance with an enemy as part of a super-KO.
• Multi-Tasking: Defeat 6 enemies with one multi-KO as Diego.
• Justice Served: Complete the game.
• Top of the World: Reach the highest point in Monterey's Heist.
• Master Vigilante: Purchase all skills.

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

The plan for tonight's stream is to play Fall Guys in the first half and then to continue Resident Evil 5 with Iceman picking up in chapter 3-3.

Talked with my Aunt Rosa yesterday, and she's planning a breakfast brunch for later in the month. That shall be cool to go to... hey I like food, it's why I weigh so much

Did some writing last night, and the latest Mass Effect short story commission is about 50% complete.

I tried new Overwatch 2 character 'Lifeweaver', and I'm not a fan at all of his kit... it's too gimmick-heavy for my taste, which is a shame because he does look like a cool character.

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

Shower Drains And Overwatch

 Good morning everyone,

Well yesterday I woke up very late, but considering how tiring Saturday was, you can't blame me. But did discover a new problem with my preferred shower having a slow drain issue... so that is something I have to deal with. At least it doesn't have any standing water (took character of that), so now to invest in a plumber snake and some draino. 

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was a bit of the rough side, in terms of wins and losses (we only won 9 matches all night), and we certainly rain into our fair share of feeders and people not trying. Still on the positive side, we had fun, big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the action. Picked up four plays of the game as Soldier 76, Reaper, Orisa and Bastion (Panda even got one as Bastion too!). Other characters used were Doomfist, Reinhardt, D.va, Moira, Ana, Tracer, Cassidy, and several others. 

Also managed to get one achievement as Doomfist, which actually keeps my current daily achievement streak going at 14 days!

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Power Punch: Slam 3 enemies into a wall with Doomfist's Empowered Rocket Punch in Quick or Competitive Play.

For last night's raid we dropped in on Felkimchi right as their stream of Fall Guys started over on twitch.tv/felkimchi

For tonight's stream we're starting up Zorro: The Chronicles, and near as I can tell, only one other person has streamed it on Twitch. So it'll be something very few people have seen!

Finally finished the one Mass Effect short story commission and got instantly requested to do the next installment in it's series (currently there are 25 chapters).

Couple of the last things I want to do in Hades are certainly locked behind interaction with characters between runs, such as maxing out bonds with the Olmpian Gods, which can only be done once per escape attempt. Was hoping I could quickly grind those out but I was wrong!

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