Lego Batman: The Video Game is finished

Good morning everyone,

Last night we wrapped up Lego Batman: The Video Game, covering Episodes 3 for both the Hero and Villain side of the story. I can safely say a few puzzles certainly were clever, and forced me to think a bit, but a couple of things actually forced me to look up the solutions. I did find it increasingly eye rolling of how more blatantly obvious 'Free Play' mode was going to be necessary to find the mini-kits to even have an outside shot of 100% completion... so I'm going to settle for 86%... and I think I'll gradually work on the 'Free Play' version of the levels. There are a couple of smaller achievements I can possibly get as well... that aren't notoriously glitched. Of course with all the achievements we knocked out, my Xbox Gamer Score is 80,000.

 

LEGO Batman Achievements

• Kill-a moth.: Defeat Killer Moth.
• The Most Dangerous Man on Earth.: Defeat Joker, Two-Face, Riddler and Catwoman as Batman.
• Crusader.: Complete the third episode - Hero.
• Smash Gordon.: Defeat Commissioner Gordon with Harley Quinn's Hammer.
• It's the car, right?: Unlock all Vehicles (Hero/Villain).
• Scare Tactics.: Scare 5 enemies with Scarecrow.
• Oh, I got a live one here!: Shock 30 people with Joker's hand buzzer.
• Cobblepot School of Driving.: Smash all the cars in the robot level.
• Crime Lord.: Complete the third episode - Villain.
• Be a Hero.: Super Hero on every level.
• Start of something wonderful.: Shock the Joker with the Joker.
• The Destroyer of Worlds: Destroy 12 objects at once with Bat Bombs.

Twitch Clips

• Kick His Backside Harley!
• Defeating The Joker 
• Bonk Them On The Head!
  

During the stream we had a raid from Jakey1908 who was also playing Lego Batman: The Video game over on twitch.tv/jakey1908!

For the raid last night we dropped in on YrGamerBunni who was playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!  

Happy Birthday to PandaSweet!

Played a fairly quick Assault match in Smite last night, playing Kukulkan, nothing memorable but we picked up the win.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2  daily workout featured Beginner Combo #1, Body Uppercut Combo, Body Hook Combo and Body Straight Combo. Set a new personal best on Body Uppercut Combo since that was set to No Mercy difficulty.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise Stats For May 2022

• Punches Thrown: 49,041
  
• Estimated Calories Burned: 19847.68 kcal
  
• Sophie' Contender Progress: 17/30 (56% Completed)
  
• King EX Fighter Progress: 93%
  

Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau introduced a bill to prevent the buying and selling of handguns in Canada, this two years after banning assault style weapons. Why can't American leadership be like that? Oh right, our political leaders, particularly Republicans are gutless wimps,

I can confirm the Game Lobby and match making for the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters does indeed work. Reason why I was checking is that we'll feature that version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game in next week's lineup of games.

Played some ranked Overwatch matches, and went 4-1 in the 5 placement matches for tank, giving me a rank of 2047. I am a bit frustrated because I could've gone undefeated if it wasn't for my team being too aggressive. 

Got another fan fiction commission request this morning, this time based around the trio of AJ Styles, Finn Balor and Liv Morgan who have been apparently allied on WWE TV as of late.I think I can come up with something based on a couple of clips I saw.

For tonight's stream we're going to do some random stuff I think, but I'm not 100% sure. But you know I'll be up to something, so we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Life is Strange Remastered's Huge Save Glitch

Good morning everyone,

Well I can safely say as to why Life is Strange: Remastered was delayed from it's September 2021 release date to February of 2022... the audio bugs, rendering issues and flat out no-saving really plague episodes 4 and 5.

Now last night's stream was intended to see both episodes finished, I was expected it to be about 6 hours, give or take, depending on how deep a dive I would do going into a lot of the dialog with the side characters and trying different stuff out. We cleared episode four, as you can see by the achievement list below, and you will see that half of the optional photo achievements for episode 5 were done as well.

The biggest indication that something is wrong with the audio of Life is Strange: Remastered is when there are  transitions of when photos are dissolving and new ones appear, in the original version of Life is Strange there is audio that is supposed to play... I know this because I streamed that version of the game last year! 

When I noticed the save file wasn't working was after the big emotional scene with Max tells Chloe about the alternate time line, in the very next scene right before the 'nightmare' part of Episode 5, there was no audio at all. I exited the episode, went back in, no episode. I closed the game out, relaunched, and then I see that the save file is for when Max and Chloe are entering the Dark Room in Episode 4.

Proof of this can be found here: Deck Nine's Epic Failure: Life is Strange Remastered Didn't Save Anything From Episode 5

Needless to say, this was rather annoying, I did jump back into the game to just re-do the final portion of Episode 4 (The Vortex Club Party), I finished the episode and everything looked as if it was saved. The icon showing a save in progress... I looked at the episode screen seen that episode 5 was ready to go. I exited the game, relaunched it... and episode 5 says to finish episode 4. So it's going to have to be a straight run.

For the raid, we sent everyone over to RoseMaryShorn who was playing Pokemon Legends: Arceus!

Life is Strange Remastered Achievements

• Ambient: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Time-Lapsed: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Balance: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Rangefinder: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Gamma Value: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Dioptric Power: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Fisheye: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Manually Exposed: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Tripod: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Slideshow: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Shutterbug: Take all optional photos in Episode 4: Dark Room
• Dark Room: Finish Episode 4: Dark Room
• Incandescent: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 5: Polarized
• Night Vision: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 5: Polarized
• Framed: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 5: Polarized
• Camera Obscura: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 5: Polarized
• Blowup: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 5: Polarized

Twitch Clip Links

1.  We were over due for an achievement
2.  It's Owl Johnson
3.  How did that get on the roof

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured a 31 minute workout with Body Straight Combo, Triple Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 435 kcal. 

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw all Main Story Quest progress made from 'No Job to Small' up through 'Bonds of 'Adamant(ite)' which saw quite a lot of running around Sharlayan Hamlet , Aporia and surrounding areas as the Adamanite was being gathered by every major NPC ally we made during the course of the game. So what's next is clear... a show down with Hydaelyn in the quest 'Her Children, One and All'... which featured an interesting Dungeon 'The Aitiascope' that finally sees the end of Fandaniel... but then the Trial, 'The MotherCrystral' is a whole other matter. I did try it using the Trust system because it was around 3 AM when I reached that point... and I kind of understand the mechanics, but there are some cheap one hit kill things in that really have me baffled. Will have to do this with a random group and hope for the best... which is normally the case with me in Final Fantasy XIV!

Was pitched a concept for a WWE Fan fiction commission involving the characters of Jack Swagger and Rosa Mendes, which has peaked my interest to test an idea I have about re-working segments to use as set up for more unique scenarios. 

For tonight's stream, well the original plan was to feature Final Fantasy XIV, but instead it will be to wrap up Life is Strange: Remastered... which means I'll probably push off Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Remastered until next week.

Anyway, see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Toy Story Of Kingdom Hearts III

Good morning everyone,

Three solid days of work, I can't complain about that, even if the questions I ask in interviews are poorly worded and were clearly intended to be asked at the end of 2021 and not the start of 2022.

Anyway, last night's stream of Kingdom Hearts III certainly was... odd, and it's a damn good thing any game I play on stream I play on a casual setting, because I may have made it harder on myself by choosing to do the Toy Story world first, instead of the world that ties in with Tangled. If it was set at a higher difficulty, I would've been dead repeatedly... in addition to then number of times I got lost.

For how Toy Story was represented, I thought it was fairly good, the acting for Woody and Buzz Lightyear was pretty solid, Rex got annoying and Hamm was a ham. The Toy Story world, titled 'Toy Box' certainly took some inspiration from Toy Story 2 in terms of having a good chunk of aciton taking place in a toy store, plus the relationship the toys have with Andy is certainly used well... even if Buzz has to be a bit out of character in terms of his heart faltering when things seem dire.

As for the world itself, boy is it real easy to get lost on the toy store portion, again the open areas are just huge so trying to explore seems like a good idea... until the enemies start re-spawning, which placed me on the back foot. The idea of piloting a toy-sized mech certainly was a cool idea, and I'm starting to see some trends that the developers really over thought a lot of stuff with the 3rd main line installment of the franchise.

Now there was something that made me chuckle and thwat was a cut scene between Kairi and Lea (aka Axel), in what Kairi was writing in a letter to Sora, making it sound like she found someone better. From a fan fiction writer's point of view, the shipping of Kairi and Axel just makes sense based on what is actually in the game.

For the raid, we sent the fun over to Hawleigh who was playing Jackbox Party Pack games! She streams over at twitch.tv/hawleigh!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Knight: Defeat 1,000 enemies.
• Inseparable Friends: Adventure through Toy Box and complete the story.

Twitch Clip Links

1.  I'd knew he'd say that
2.  Well that was something
3.  This is a thing
4.  It's Go Time!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Hook Combo, Body Uppercut Combo and Uppercut Combo #2 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 436 kcal. Today we completed the requirements for the Honored Stamper EX achievement, which is to acquire 400 stamps. This is tied to do doing the daily workouts with one stamp per day. We now stand at 87% completion of the EX achievements, the remaining ones all all tied to hour spent using each trainer.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Honored Stamper: Acquire 400 Stamps
  

Fitness Boxing 2 Statistics for the week of January 9 to 15, 2022

• Punches Thrown: 9,571
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 3952.80 kcal.
  

Think I figured out an exploit or two as it relates to the grind heavy achievements of the Capcom Arcade Stadium, the plan being get to the final boss of Final Fight, save, finish the game, reload and repeat in that order.

Watched RoboCop 3 last night... and it's not that bad a movie, in fact some of its themes actually hold up a lot better than RoboCop 2! No really, you have major corporations looking to push people out of their neighborhoods with no compensation, police caught in the middle... and RoboCop has a jet pack!

For tonight's stream we're going to mess around with some different games, check and see what works and what doesn't. In short it's a variety night!

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

Shifting Gears On A Horizon

Good afternoon everyone,

First, woke up to learn that Angel Little, the day manager at the gig where I work passed away yesterday. With work being slow, this was a real kick in the head.

Last night's stream was a double header that went long because of the unique nature of how Gears 5, can be installed. Now for that portion of the stream we were joined by Iceman and LvStkr to being a three-person campaign run, however, while Iceman had the game installed on his console from when it came out, all the updates that came afterward weren't installed. So we delayed a bit with me messing around with Escape and Horde daily challenges.

Thankfully the install of the updates didn't take too long, and thus the plan of playing Act I of Gears 5 was achieved. Following a great recap of the events of Gears of War 4, Gears 5 takes place with JD, Marcus, Del and Kait enlisted in the COG which seemed surprising, but of course stuff starts going down following an attempt to get the Hammer of Dawn back online. JD went from being a bland hero, to being a real try hard, and the mystery regarding Kait's lineage is played up a bit more as the story becomes more about her in Act II... but we'll see more about that.

It was super fun to play with two folks on this, and the gimmick of the third person being Jack is a unique twist. I also get why the change for the chainsaw was made, with the grenade launcher variant of the Lancer.

Of course I am ahead of myself here, as that was the second half of the stream. The first half was focused on Forza Horizon 4 and it turned out I was able to bang out some achievements while messing around. Found the 'Insurance' story, and those were pretty fun to go through... even though the Racing Truck had zero-grip off road!

Big thanks to Hawleigh for the raid during the stream, in which they were playing Horizon Zero Dawn! You can check Hawleigh out over at twitch.tv/hawleigh! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Dont_Run_x who was playing Jump Force! You can check their stream out at twitch.tv/dont_run_x! 

Gears 5 Achievements

1. On the Razor's Edge: Got 5 kills while inside Hivebuster Venom
2. One, Two, Three Sorties: Completed 3 Objectives for Tour of Duty in a day
3. Not There to Buy a Timeshare: Launched the Rocket
4. And… He's All Yours: Upgraded Del's New Best Friend
5. Now I Gotta Get Up Again: Reinforced Carmine at the Plaza
6. I Was Born in a Crossfire Hurricane: Used Jack's Flash ability to stun 3 enemies at once in Campaign
7. A Mouthful of Boom: Headshot the Swarmak at the theatre
8. It Takes Three to Make a Thing Go Right: Completed an Act of Campaign in 3-player co-op
9. You've Got a Friend in Me: Made a new Ally in Gears Allies

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

1. Muddied: Reach Round 10 in the Horizon Dirt Racing Series.
2. The Wonderful World of Car Insurance: Complete the first chapter of ''The Car Files''.
3. Simples!: Complete ten chapters of ''The Car Files''.

Twitch Clip Links

• Yee-Haw!
• Ultimate Speed!!!!
• The Spoiler Came Off... 
• Things I got to do to rescue some one!
• The Subtitles: 'Low Displeased Growl' 
• At least they run toward ya!
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hip Shape Focus Combo, Sway Back Combo and Straight Combo #2 for 31 minutes and a calorie burn of 454 kcal.

Did try to knock off two classic Street Fighter games off my list of things to do last night, one being the original version of Street Fighter II and the other being the original Street Fighter game itself. I was only 50% successful in those goals.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. World Warrior: Beat Street Fighter II: World Warrior
   

Still with that one achievement I was able to to at least complete 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge set over at www.trueachievements.com, which is more than I thought I would be able to do. Also messed around with the Microsoft Solitaire Collection.

Microsoft Solitaire Collection (UWP) Achievements

1.  Grandmastering the Art?: Won a Grandmaster difficulty game in any of the 5 classic games

Made some progress on a commissioned fan fic that was requested based around an episode of WWE's RAW from 2019... and if you think my writing when it comes to this blog is bad, you should see how bad it gets when I'm trying to reach a 'desired' word count.

Because of how late the stream ended, I did not play any Final Fantasy XIV last night,but considering how salty I am still about the whole G-Warrior mech battle, I needed more time to cool off from that.

Which brings me to what's on tap for for tonight's stream and  I'm not 100% sure of what we're going to feature, Ironically Final Fantasy XIV is the leading candidate but I'm not sure at the time I'm writing this.

Regardless we will see you later today over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Finding Even More Minigames In Fist Of The North Star

Good afternoon everyone,

Well, looks like things might be slow until after the New Year's Holiday, so I guess I better work on a commission fan fic or two. Well already started on the one that's already in the pipeline.

Anyway, last night's stream of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise may have seemed not very productive because I only accomplished one achievement (aka trophy), but considering all the side content and how I"m figuring various things out to maximize the rewards, it seems to be for the best.

Perhaps that one thing that took up the most time was discovering the Doctor Kenshiro mini-game, where one must time button presses in sequence to the music to heal patients and eliminate thugs, and it's a madcap bit of fun. Managed to get a B-Rank or higher on mostly every track, the Turkish March is particularly maddening. Still, the idea of Kenshiro as a doctor, and hey, I get to make 'turn your head and cough' and 'Time to check the prostate' jokes every time I play that mini game

Also unlocked the racing mini-game, and I didn't really dive to deep into it as it appears that it will require getting to various points for the races. It might be worth seeing how difficult the races become. Unlocked two harder difficulties for the 'batting practice' mini game, and kind of gained a bit of understanding as it relates to the Club Manager Ken stuff

In terms of the actual plot, we found Xsana's father alive and well, but he's keeping his distance considering actions he did that Xsana isn't too fond of, and we also found Yuria, so for all intents and purposes Kenshiro has reason to stay in Eden. Also the next big bad roll in to set up Chapter 7, so at the very least the next time we play Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise we are leading off with some action.!

After the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke who was doing a music stream! You can find them over at twitch.tv/flint_locke!  

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Trophies

1. The Man who Reclaimed: Completed Chapter 6.

Twitch Clip Links

•  The Doctor Is In
•  You Are Already Drunk
•  We were not even touched!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Block Combo and Waist Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and a calorie burn of 477 kcal

Did a little achievement hunting last night as well... actually managed to trigger Akuma in Super Street Fighter II Turbo in the 30th Anniversary Collect. Also surprised at how much nonsense is involved with Street Fighter IV's achievements.

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. The Devil is in the Details: Discovered Akuma in Super Street Fighter II Turbo to prove your worth.

Super Street Fighter IV Achievements

1. Special Movement: Do a Special Move 100 times! If you're a true student of the Rindo-kan dojo, it's your duty!
2. EXtra! EXtra!: Battle requires courage! Train by using your EX Gauge to successfully land 100 EX Moves!
   

Well I finally found something in a quest line in Final Fantasy XIV which I hate, and that is the G-Warrior, which is apart of the The Sorrow of Werlyt Quests. I can totally understand playing as the companion characters... it's a stupid gimmick, but it kind of makes sense to some degree. But to introduce a concept that is clearly ripping from Gundum Wing and Super Sentai with no rhyme or reason other than someone at Square Enix was clearly high as fuck to think it was a good idea. 

I get it, that Neon Genesis Evagelion, the most over-rated anime and manga of all time, still has some influence, but for fucks stake, if that was the case, don't make a cumbersome, sluggish gimmick! It took me an hour to get through the fight that is within the quest 'Sleep Now in Sapphire', and while the story and plot going forward are intriguing the entire episode left a very sour taste in my mouth.

For tonight's stream, it's going to be split with Forza Horizon 4 in the first half and Gears 5 in the second half. Now the plan is for both Iceman and LvStkR to be apart of the Gears 5 shenanigans, so this should be a lot of fun.

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

Well Happy Birthday To Me

Good afternoon everybody,

I have leveled up today, as its my birthday... I am now 39 Years Old. Most would say I'm just wasting my life... they are probably right, but hell, to each their own.

Anyway, last night's stream certainly had no plan as I didn't want to start up anything major or risk finishing a game, so we revisited some old favorites and checked out something I'm considering as a game to feature in 2022.

First up, was the return of The Grand Tour Game, which involved a delay in me doing any gaming during the stream because I had to wait for it to finish installing. It was a great revisit to just doing the first episode. Took me a while to remember how to do things correctly, as I did earned gold medals on every event back in 2020. But something funny happened when I was porting over last night's stream, apparently Amazon doesn't want any footage of the game to exist, and thus blocked the entire stream... so the segment of The Grand Tour Game will be edited out.

Next was Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, this was mostly just trying the score attack. Trying to earn an S Rank in this is not easy, as tracking the ghosts when we get the power pellet is a major weakness. Still managed to get a clutch 'A' Rank, so that's something.

We checked out Battletoads, which game out last year as an X-Box exclusive... and boy the all important aspect of online co-op not being a thing is a major downer. Still it is a game that looks great, is pretty easy to learn the basics of and has some nice humor to it. This is a game we will stream in 2022, which means the save file I've started will be deleted.Still we earned about eight achievements, so that was cool

Finally we jumped back into Jump Force, and I was hoping to get some S-Ranks on Hard Missions to get another achievement and get a step closer to 100% completion, but things did no shake out the way I was hoping in terms of finishing with Awaken Abilities. I did dive back into Jump Force after the stream and was able to knock out the two achievements I want to do... one part thanks to an 'character' event where using One Piece and Yu-gi-Oh character lead to a multiple of two to various mission rewards.

Big thanks as always to Kalenal for the raid during the stream. Last night they were featuring Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Super People over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming. From what I can tell Super People is just your typical battle royal game.

Battletoads Achievements

1. Dodgebrawl Champion: Finished a fight without taking damage.
2. Brawling… With Style!: Earned your first 'S' Rank from an encounter.
3. Toads in a Hole: Escaped from the simulation bunker.
4. It Begins…: Got your first collectable.
5. Road Rash: Went in search of the evil Dark Queen.
6. Into the Third Dimension: Used your tongue to reach the background.
7. Battlemaniacs: Defeated 100 enemies.
8. Parks & Recreational Violence: Battled through a creepy amusement park.

Jump Force Achievements

1. Reliable Companions: Raised ten support characters above level 70 through battle.
2. A Master Warrior: Got S rank 10 or more times on Hard Free Missions.
   

Twitch Clip Links

• More Power!!!!
• There's a Finish! 
• Brawlin... With Style!
• Just Kick It Up A Notch! 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Beginner Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 454 kcal.

I can safely say that the rest of this week will feature different games on Friday and Saturday, I might go back to Rise of the Tomb Raider to work on some achievements associated with that on Friday. Would be rather interesting if I go that route. This would mean both Fist of the North Star and Pokemon Shining Pearl being saved for next week.

Managed to finish a fan fic commission based around the WWE in 2010... and got paid for it promptly. Always nice when that happens. Might consider doing another one for the same client. .

For my birthday stream, I will be playing Final Fantasy XIV, and my focus will mostly be with the Eden side quests that were apart of Shadowbringers. We might do other trials and dungeons and stuff as well.

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

The Jump Force Grind Is Real As Are The Gears Of War

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was so cold I actually grabbed a sweater to put it on, well it's kind of like a sweater vest... but hell, folks know I don't normally wear long sleeves! 

Anyway last night's stream lead off with Jump Force as we put the grind on towards knocking off some achievements. Actually a couple of matches, even if I was going through the motion but folks could tell I was making an effort to try and win. The end result was my Rank being D1, which is just below the C-tier. So I assume there are S-Tier for the very top players... because I've seen B-Tier and A-Tier players. Anyway, near as I can tell (because the X-Box servers were having some issues), I should need only about 15 matches to get the achievement for playing 100 online matches. That would leave only the achievement for challenging other players 10 times to be done, but I don't think that's really possible.

The second half of last night's stream saw Iceman join in as we tackled ACT IV of Gears of War 4, and there was silliness to be had, with some accidental deaths, a few well time moments and lots of guts and gore. We'll actually wrap up Gears of War 4 on next Wednesday's stream with the fifth and final act. depending on how long that takes, we'll also check out the horde mode as well.

Now I did mention the X-Box servers were having some issues, a lot of it pertained to tracking of achievements, as they are not fully updating despite progress being made. Good thing I remember what achievements did pop for me, because as it relates to Jump Force, I would hate to lose the fact we did a bunch of matches for no gain!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to ErikaMonky who was doing a Just Chatting session over on twitch.tv/erikamonky!  

Jump Force Achievements

1. J-Skill Master: Obtained 50 or more J-Skills

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. Triple Threat: Upgrade 3 skill cards
2. Gone With The Windflare: Kill 15 enemies using the environment during a windflare
   

Twitch Clip Links

•  Just Back and Forth!
•  Somehow We Won
•  Let's Try Not To Disturb Anything... Ooops!
•  I'm going to wait before going forward...

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for a duration of 34 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 634 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5: Reach a total punch count of 495,000 HITs
   

The next tier of Weight Puncher is called 'Immortal Weight Puncher', with the next objective being to reach 540,000 HITs, at the moment I'm at 496,239. That said, I should have the One Year's Hard Work achievement unlocked on Saturday

Work was really weird, start on one assignment, but it was basically a production killer, then switch to its variant 1/2 way through the shift and things pick up. It's a conspiracy I tell you! 

Figured out what to get my nieces for Christmas, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain and L.O.L. Surprise! Movie Night.... of the two games, the first would be something I would figure I would get for myself at some point.

Got in some Final Fantasy XIV last night, covering the everything from A Visit to the Nu Mou up through The Wheel Turns, which meant The Dancing Plague Trial was done. If there was something I learned is that one does not fuck with the Fae folk. It certainly was eventful. So now I will be entering the level 74-75 quests, and looking ahead, I only see one Dungeon... which means there are probably a lot of solo combat stuff to deal with.

My buddy Dax has been busy with his fan fic writing as he's been knocking out a few commission pieces as of late. I'm still waiting on the outline of what someone is wanting me to write.

For tonight's stream we're probably going to chill with something casual, Mario Golf Super Rush is a strong possibility but at this time I'm not 100% sure. 

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

 

More Shadows Fewer Tombs Raided

Good morning everybody,

Near as I can tell the dropped frames that I experienced during last night's stream was due to the weather, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Anyway, we resumed Shadow of the Tomb Raider as we did a bunch of side quests and pushed the story forward so we're out of the Hidden City and are now in a Mission of San Juan. At this point I have no clue how many chapters of major set pieces are left in the game, as any wikis and guides I'm seeing aren't making it clear, but with my tendency of going off the beaten path and searching for Tombs and Crypts, plus wanting to do the side missions, I could be making the game a lot longer than it needs to be!  

Still there were some awesome moments, the shot of Lara coming up from the water with the fire behind her was just bad ass, and clear indication that Lara wants to stick Roark's head on a pike is a great call back of how she was on a rampage in the 2013 game when she made a make-shift grenade launcher and screaming she's coming for them all. There was a fake out of Jonah possible being killed off, but as Iceman said, if Jonah dies a lot of people stop caring about Tomb Raider.

This does raise a question about when we will see the next game from the franchise and which direction it would go. I can't imagine re-doing the original game as that was done in with Tomb Raider Legend I think.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf!  

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Zoologist: Collect 20 critters
2. Thread the Past: Restore 5 vestige outfit pieces
3. Sixth Sense: Hunt and kill 10 enemies while Perception is active
4. I Believe Hakan Fly: Rescue Hakan from the cultists
5. Family Ties: Free Unuratu from prison
6. Stele Hunter: Complete 3 Challenge Tombs
7. Like a Shadow: Stealth takedown 25 enemies
8. Last Known Position: Lose the enemy 10 times
9. Chain Gang: Perform the Serpent's Fury 3 times
10. Playing with Fire: Burn 2 enemies simultaneously
11. Heart of the Serpent: Find the Mission of San Juan
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Llama llama llama....
• You're not dissuading her 
• Timed Puzzle Ends In A Roll
•  Lara goes on a rampage... again
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Block Combo and Waist Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 477 kcal.

Got a request to do a commissioned fan fic based around the WWE... going to consider it since the person wanting me to d a story for them knows when I stopped watching regularly.  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw main story progress from Warrior of Darkness up through A Visit to Nu Mou. I have to say upon arriving in the fourth land of the Shadowbringers content called Il Mheg, I had a hard time seeing because of the Fae cloaking field or whatever, as it was a really bright shade of white that made it really tough to see any damn thing, let alone read the objectives. Beyond that, the story of that we're on our way of slaying the second Lightwarden is pretty cool, considering all out war is going to break out in the World of the First. Urianger being a lot more proactive out in the field is a nice change of pace as well.

So far I have not had to use the 'Trusts' system to get through the Dungeons of Shadowbringers, but Kalenal did say they are work doing because the In-game companions say unique things that tie into the story... so maybe we'll replay any dungeons I do on stream using the Trust system at some point.

For tonight's stream we will be resuming Shadows of the Tomb Raider, as I'll be lead off with doing side quests... we might jump back to the Hidden City to finish one that was in progress that we couldn't get to because we didn't have the knife upgrade.

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

Just Another Fun Night of Overwatch And A Bonus Stream Of Fitness Boxing 2

Good morning everyone,

A new week starts as we have all sorts of things to consider over the coming days of what to feature and when!

Last night we of course played Overwatch, and big thanks as always to PandaSweet for joining in on several matches. We got into a hot stretch where we went 8 and 2 in our final 10 matches of the night. The night did include a couple of Mayhem matches as well, and I picked up 5 Plays of the Game, 4 as D.va and 1 as Junkrat. So a real successful night on Overwatch! Woo-Hoo!

Of course the big Overwatch news is that the Halloween Terror event starts on Tuesday October 12 and will run until November 2, and so far we know that Reinhardt and Roadhog will have new skins. The question now becomes, who else will have new attire? And what new 'achievements' will be tied to Junkenstein's Revenge this year.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to glorifiedthief who was playing Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors over at twitch.tv/glorifiedthief!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Bullseye!
• Caught 'em!
• Scoreboard!
• I got Bob'ed and D.va'ed at the same time
• When I can't get behind Panda's Shield
• Waiting for the right moment for a Quadruple Kill!
• Wild Finish
• That was me falling off a ledge 
• We win 
• Get Ready For A Shock!

Off-stream Final Fantasy XIV stuff is that I'm gradually making progress through the main story, but the placement of NPCs can be really odd. I get and appreciate Square Enix wanting to make it feel like a living world so that you don't find certain characters in the same spot when on a quest... but a way point finder would be useful when NPCs are in a building that is underneath where the map is indicating where they should be standing! That said the off-stream adventures  saw a familiar sight, at least when compared to Final Fantasy XV: Fighting Ifrit and getting a Chocobo, also joined the Twin Adder because well... I started in Gridania.

The guy who commissioned the two fics I've done last week basked around RWBY and Harry Potter is wanting more, hell he sent a list of stuff for me to consider taking on, but if there is one thing people know about me when it comes to fan fic writing its that I'm not really keen on repeated use of the same themes and characters unless it's something I'm really invested in.

There's been a lot pointed out at how the WWE's Women Division has seen a down turn as of late, and it all goes back to the a lot of the decisions of who was let go back in the spring of this year. The WWE would rather turn the Women's Division back into the bathroom break filler matches it was of the LayCool/Divas Title era than for the women to get equal time for their stories and characters to developer. 

Star Trek Online is kicking off it's Halloween event on Wednesday so for sure we're going to feature that to start of that night's stream, and The Simpsons game will resume on Friday night to finish it's second half.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercise Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1 with the estimated calorie burn of 503.kcal. We also did an extra set featuring Difficult Challenge Combo #1 which added 103 kcal. Total session was 37 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 606 kcal. This session was also streamed as a surprise as I tried use the Xsplit Cam set up.

Since this session was streamed the fun was set over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite this morning over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming!

Bonus Twitch Clip Links

• Intermediate Combo #2
  
• Advanced Combo #1
• Weaving Combo #1
• Difficult Challenge Combo #1
  

Tonight's stream will see focus return to The Walking Dead with Season Two, which takes place a couple of years after the events of Season One, so Clementine is a bit older and is the star of the show. This will be a lot of fun!

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

A Night of Metroids, Plumbers, Apes and Boxers

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream heavily featured the original Metroid, along with three other games from the Nintendo's NES era of the 1980s.

We'll talk about Metroid first, since it was the one game I certainly wanted to feature, and I can safely say this: anyone who finished it without using any of the password / cheat codes, kudos to you, because it was a reminder as to why I normally don't stick with Metroidvania games for more than a night or two. The controls are real easy to learn, and they are responsive to the inputs of the controller (at least the emulated version of Metroid is that is available through the Nintendo Switch's Online NES collection.

My biggest issues with Metroid is there really is no clear cut indication of where to go, the seemingly  randomness of the enemy movement patterns and some of the leaps of logic one must take to figure out how to reacher new areas. Let's address the first issue first, I totally get it that Samus has to find the gear and search all over the place first for the best gear to get the job done, the issue is actually figuring out where to go as the game is set up to make one feel like they are running in circles... and certainly this had me looking for an online guide to cover that. The second issue is randomness of enemy movement patterns, there are numerous instances where the pattern of the enemies changes, making quite a few things impossible to predict, which certainly cost me some time. The final issue relates to some of the games 'puzzles', such as having to go up through a ceiling or down through a floor, there is no way to tell difference as all the textures look the same.

Thankfully I found the guides over on GameFAQs to be rather helpful, but more importantly a map which actually gave me a idea of how to get to the mini-bosses and then to Morther Brain. And I'll straight up admit, we used the NARPASSWORD password / cheat code to push through. Even with these tool it did take me over three over to get though the game. We are counting it for this years tour, which means 54 games have been finished on stream.

Now we didn't end there, we messed around with three other classic Nintendo games: Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Punch Out. Of the three... only Super Mario Bros I had some experience with, but that didn't show as I made numerous careless mistakes. Donkey Kong took some time to figure out but we managed to clear all three of it's stages to get a feel for it, Punch-Out I have played only a handful of times back in the early 90s... and well I'm so bad at that game Glass Joe can knock me down!

Big thanks to Foxy_Melly for re-subscribing to the channel for 22 months in a row! Foxy is also a streamer, broadcasting from the UK and was most recently featuring Destiny 2! You can check out their streamers over a twitch.tv/foxy_melly! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaWorstGamerEver25 (twitch.tv/daworstgamerever25) who was playing American Truck Simulator! I've known him since high school and he's a really good dude! Hope you check him out when you get a chance!

Twitch Clip Links

• The First Of Many Deaths 
• Hey We Found A Thing! 
• Oh Wonderful... What Is This?!
• I want the thing!
• Hey we found another thing!
• We are so screwed...
• Damn it all!
• Ay Dios mio!
• Hey we made it!
• Down Goes Donkey Kong!
• I'm so bad Glass Joe can knock me down! 
• We're dead 

Twitch continues to have issues porting things over to YouTube, in the mean time I am highlighting key things from each stream to be archived at a later date. Hopefully Twitch can fix their issues as soon as possible. I will try to do full downloads and uploads of things featured on stream, but that's a long ass process.

While I was doing my laundry after last night's stream, I sat down to bang out (HA!) the commissioned fic featuring the RWBY characters of Pyrrha, Jaune and Cardin. It's up now over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: advanced Combo #2, Double Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo. Total estimated calorie burn was 563 kcal.  We also did an additional 11 minutes with Uppercut Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 as well for an added estimated calorie burn of 174 kcal. So the compete totals for today were 43 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 738

At this exact moment I'm not completely sure what's on the agenda for tonight's stream, we could dedicate it to Final Fantasy XIV or maybe start The Walking Dead Season 2? I'll make up my mind by this evening that's for sure!

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

Sora In Smash As The Dead Walks

Good morning everyone,

So yesterday the big news of the final character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate was revealed, and I talk about that later in today's posts.

First up, last night's stream featured The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 3 & 4, where things really get screwed up thanks to Ben over the course of two episodes, and a number of folks get 'removed' from the party during what turned out to be a 5+ hour long stream because I couldn't remember everything that needed to be done right away.

First off, episode 3 is where Kenny looses Duck and Katjaa, thanks to a bandit raid that draws walkers to the Motel... and the reason why the bandits raid the motel is because Ben made a deal with them, and was stealing supplies. Once that was discovered, the bandits didn't their goodies and shit hit the fan pretty quick. Things escalated as tension between Lily and Carley boils over with Lily killing Carley, thus forcing Lee's hand to abandon her... and we don't see Lily until 'The Final Season' which takes place several years later. 

Let's point out that Episode 3 is also where Ben's streak of stupid decision starts and really continues into Episode 4 when he puts Clementine in harms way, where he removes a hand-ax from a door that was holding back walkers and where he wanted to confess when said walkers were coming to chomp down on everyone. So letting him go was not exactly a tough choice. Yes having him around in episode 5 might make rescuing Clementine easier... but let's face it, like Duck, Ben was really annoying and served no purpose other than being a plot device to cause tension in the group.

Other big decisions of note: We left Clementine at the house, so she did not go to Crawford, and we had Lee show the Bite he suffered at the end. One could say this has been an Honest-Lee done play through! (HA!) 

So the question becomes when will we play episode 5 and the bonus episode 400 Days? Well  the answer is on Thursday, but for tonight's stream we're back to Gears of War 3. Iceman should be able to join us around 9 PM, so we have a good shot of finishing the game! 

Following the stream, we sent the fun over to Joliet4 who was doing an music stream. Joliet4 is a talented musician and an awesome stream, and is the only partnered streamer I'd ever considered raiding.Also she recently entered a song writing contest at the last minute and was able to put together a song in a few days about a road trip on Mars!  So be sure to check her streams out over at twitch.tv/joliet4!

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Achievements

1. Lend Me Your Ears: Completed Season 1 Episode 3
2. Penultimate: Completed Season 1 Episode 4
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Lee Deaths Count: 3
• Lee Deaths Count: 4
  
• ZOMBIE CLEMENTINE! 
• Lee Deaths Count: 5
• Clem Learns To Shoot 
• Smash Buttons!
• Lee Deaths Count: 6
• We Choose To Leave Clem Behind
• The Got A Little Close
• Clearly Brie Had A Say In This
• Lee Deaths Count: 7
  

So let's talk about the big reveal that Sora from Kingdom Hearts is the last character to be added to the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now there are a bunch of idiots saying it should have been Fortnite getting the final slot, but let's be serious: 99% of people who play Fortnite have not actually played Fortnite's main story mode. I have and while it's good, because of the lack of community support for it, it's impossible to really progress far in it. 

So with that said, Sora in Smash makes sense, since his abilities from the Kingdom Hearts franchise gives him a wide variety of moves, example his glide can be used as a recovery, he has a double jump to reach higher platforms, various magic spells to give him some rang. The only draw back is that he's going to be another 'sword fighter', which is something a lot of folks were complaining about considering the majority of the characters in Smash that represent the Fire Emblem series.

There are some that are saying that Sora's appearance in Smash will actually work to making the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 make sense with how Sora goes missing (I haven't played KH3), and if that's the case it certainly fits when one figures in the various side games that have come out over the years. But what this doesn't do is connect Disney to Smash for the first time... you see Cloud and Sephiroth are Final Fantasy characters already in Smash, and they appeared in Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, so that connection was already formed. 

The big question though is, how much did Nintendo have to shell out for Sora to keep the Mickey Mouse key-chain on the Keyblade? My guess is a lot.

Got an offer to do another commission fan fic, this time based around RWBY and the combination of  Jaune, Pyrrah and Cardin. Started work on it last night with an alternate universe take on some details of Cardin finding out about how Jaune got into Beacon.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises: Defensive Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Double Combo #1. Estimated calorie burn was 441 kcal. The one miss we had was a Left Uppercut during a combo sequence... damn it!. EX Achievement update, we're up to 299/300 for both Ten Months' Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper, which means we'll reach both milestones tomorrow! We're now up to 15/30 for Janice's Contender, so still a long ways to go with that

As noted earlier, tonight we return to Gears of War 3, probably will do some Horde mode stuff first before Iceman joins in to hopefully get through Act V to finish the game!

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