Closing in on the end of Spider-Man

Good afternoon everyone

Work yesterday was an hour shorter than anticipated but was productive as I got two interviews done and set up several for next week. 

I did have a rough start to today, as I basically woke up several hours ago, but just laid in bed and kept thinking about how much I'm failing at trying to do things the way mom would've done them.

Last night's stream of Spider-Man finally saw us finish Act 2 of the story, because I did so much side-content all I had were the last side-missions before doing a series of main story quests. Was rather surprised on the twist that Doctor Octavious was the one who orchestrated the big break out of Rykers Island and The Raft, which turns the in-game world into Saints Row The Third when all hell breaks loose.

Potentially I could finish Spider-Man next week, based on how quickly I find and deal with all the remaining Sable and Prisoner Crimes and Camps (already completed them in three sectors already), and then there's there is basically a blitz of the main story and doing everything associated with it.

The entire quarantine situation that happens in Act 3 does remind me of Tom Clancy's The Division and of course the real world parallel with Covid. Wonder how many other games that came out before 2020 involved more mass quarantine plot-lines.

Now there is no chance in hell I'm going to Platinum Spider-Man, because getting all the costumes is going to be too much of a pain in the ass to deal with, and it's not worth it. I'll be glad to get every other achievement however.

Marvel's Spider-Man Trophies

• Tombstone Takedown: Defeat Tombstone
• Schooled: Complete all of the Corrupted Student missions
• A Bit of a Fixer-Upper: Complete all optional projects in the lab
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Complete all Side Missions
• The Six Assemble: Complete Act 2
• Overdrive: Complete 10 Vehicle Takedowns

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood during their stream when they were playing Mega Man Battle Network over at twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

The plan for tonight's stream is of course, Elder Scrolls Online, continuing our adventures with Striker! 

For the first time I watched Duck Soup, one of the legendary films starring the Marx Brothers... it is as good as I always heard it was.

Did a few runs of Hades following last night's stream, and managed to successfully get the Thorn of Thanatos achievement, using the spear and building around Poseidon and Zeus. So with this achievement unlocked, I have only two left to get!

Hades Achievements

• Thorn of Thanatos: Get 30% bonus damage with the Pierced Butterfly

Here are this week's Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star Stats

• Punches Thrown: 7560
  
• Estimated Calories Burned 2958.24 kcal
  
• Fitness Age: 18
  
• Achievements Unlocked: 66%

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

The Plan Is To Move Stuff

 Good morning everyone,

Today my brother is coming over today and with luck we'll be getting a few things out of the dining room area of my home along with the deep freezer from the basement (finally),

With yesterday being a non-work day that I had scheduled myself to work, I took advantage and did another run of Hades (currently have a streak of 151 clears I think). I do feel like I could get 5 out of the 6 remaining achievements will little trouble, but the one called Thorn of Thanatos will give me the most trouble because it involves not taking damage in 15 room to build up a 30% damage boost. Sounds easy, until you realize that I tend to be super aggressive with my approach to playing this game

Hades Achievements

• Infernal Arms: Unlock all Weapon Aspects 
• Harsh Conditions: Fulfill the 'Harsh Conditions' Prophecy
• End to Torment: Fulfill the 'End to Torment' Prophecy
  

Last night's stream of Elder Scrolls Online saw me getting lost a lot, but thanks to Striker I was able to stay on track as we cleared out a lot of side quests and started up the main quest in High Isle, which will be our focus for the next time we play it next Saturday. If there is one complaint I do have about ESO its the placement of mountains to make each area seem bigger than it really is, because one thing I enjoyed about Fallout 76 is how I could get everywhere with little trouble.

Yes the soup you saw me eating was indeed very salty... I haven't had much salt on anything since my mom passed away, and it certainly was a jolt to the system. 

Last night's raid went to MissCammi316 who was playing Smite. They stream at twitch.tv/MissCammi316 

The plan for tonight is to continue Marvel's Spider-Man on the PlayStation 4, and I actually forgot if I'm opening with side-content or the next main story quest. Either way we'll be getting things done!

Phillies won their home-opener yesterday, much to my surprise. 

This week's Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star stats are as follows

• Punches Thrown: 7976
  
• Estimated Calories Burned: 2968.75
  
• Fitness Age: 18
• Achievements Unlocked: 63%
  

Watched Paul Rodriguez Live from San Quinton, which originally aired on HBO back in 1995. It's one of the many weird DVDs I have in my collection, which I got in either 2001 or 2002.

Did some work on the Mass Effect short story commission, I should have that done before tonight's stream. 

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

We Finished Hades! Woo-Hoo!

 Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was really meh... was not at all thrilled being stuck on this one assignment while also being plagued with the system not recording my call backs correctly. And I know today is also going to be meh since I'm going to be by myself on a similar assignment.

Last night's stream on the other hand... well you can tell by the title of today's post, we finished Hades, I needed only two clears... I got three done. We got to the end credits, Persephone has returned to the underworld and now ones attention could turn to the 'post game', which features a lot of extended content to resolve the issue between Hades, Persephone and the Olympian Gods. That will require finding a lot of nectar and generally a lot of grinding.

Still, Hades is a game I can easily go back to, I know how to play it, because outside of some of the early runs, every run attempted and successful escape run took about half and hour, with me getting to the Hades fight more often than not. Now hours after the stream I did do another run of Hades and picked up the Something From Everyone achievement to go along with the seven I earned during the stream.

Now the question is, what will replace it in the line up next Thursday? I'm not particularly sure, we could go with an game from the Xbox 360 era? There are a number of quality contenders for that spot of the week!

Hades Achievements

• Nyx's Mirror: Have at least one rank in each Mirror of Night Talent
• The Family Secret: Complete the main quest in the story
• Day-or-Night Trader: Trade 20 times with the Wretched Broker
• Master of Arms: Fulfill the 'Master of Arms' Prophecy
• The Useless Trinket: Earn the first of Skelly's prizes
• Skelly's Last Lamentations: Earn the second of Skelly's prizes
• Champion of Elysium: Clear Elysium with the 'Extreme Measures' Condition
• Something From Everyone: Unlock each standard Keepsake
  

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was a featured streamer for Stream Raiders! They were also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal

Of course the plan for tonight's stream is Spider-Man, as we'll be picking up after defeating Shocker... I think I had another set of side activities unlocked beside labs  

Recorded another DVD inventory video for my YouTube channel... and safe to say I could not 'show' every DVD I had in one of the two containers I went through because they 'ahem', fall under a more mature rating

Donald Trump was finally indicted... here's hoping he's arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced harshly 

Did an extended workout in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star.... because I didn't realize I was selecting the wrong difficulty to chase one in-game achievement!

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

Understanding the controls of Resident Evil 5

 Good morning everyone,

Had a hard time sleeping last night, not sure as to why, so now things just feel weird today.

Work yesterday was alright, a combination of two different assignment certainly was weird but we were productive.

Did some light grocery shopping, getting two loafs of bread and other items. Found a decent toilet bowl cleanser. I do need a new toilet bowl brush, since I somehow broke the handle of the one I had.... yeah that was weird folks.

Last night's stream started with Fall Guys, and we made it to the final round twice in regards to solo shows, but I certainly didn't have a good night overall, as I felt cheated on a few of my jumps and dives... then there were the grieffers and trolls who join Duos and Squads to either not attempt to try and just being AFK. Still there were some hilarious moments.

After the break we switched over to Resident Evil 5 and we were joined by Iceman, but he was running a bit late, which allowed me to check out the Mercenary mode and learn how to use the Type D controls, which are RE5's default controls... and I was able to get a better idea of how to actually play. When Iceman was able to join we cleared out the back end of Chapter 2, dealing with two big boss fights with us only dying once.

One thing I did like regarding Mercenary mode was that I got to see what different weapons fired like, and I love the kit that Rebeccs Chambers has. Hopefully her gear can be found in the main story mode!

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Exploding Heads: Pull off 20 headshots.
• Fireworks: Shoot an enemy Molotov cocktail, dynamite stick, or hand grenade.
• Completed Chapter 2 - 2: Complete Chapter 2 - 2 on any difficulty setting.
• Completed Chapter 2 - 3: Complete Chapter 2 - 3 on any difficulty setting.

And yes that food at I had after the break was stuff my Aunt Grace made, and it was delicious!

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

The plan for tonight's stream is to play Hades, and we need two escapes to complete the main story quest. Once we get the ninth clear, I plan for the 10th run to be the most difficult with many of the Pacts of Punishment turned on. The goal is to try and get as many achievements on that 10th escape because I know Hades is not fought at the very end of it.

Didn't do any writing yesterday, but I did get a few minor things done around the house. Need to figure out which of the grass trimmers work since the grass is starting to grow.

I really should cash out my earnings so far from subscribestar, but that the same time, having it there does serve as a nice backup.

The MLB Season starts today, and it's going to be weird not having the option to watch any Phillies games, but I should be able to turn in for the radio broadcasts.

Found out who the hidden trainer is in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star... and it's Yuria, Kenshiro's beloved. I was not expecting that based on who would make the most sense from what I know of Fist of the North. 

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

We Finished Hi-Fi Rush!

Good morning everyone,

Had another rough start to my day, waking up a bit before 6 AM but feeling not doing anything... but this is why I give myself little daily goals.

Work yesterday was good, sure I was not thrilled with the assignment but hey, two complete interviews are two complete interviews.

Last night we did finish Hi-Fi Rush, granted I did delay things by going after the achievement for completing all the combos in the Training Room. Once that was done, it was a straight forward thing getting through the final level and dealing with the final bosses. I really liked how the game ended one the 'there's more to do', but at the same time I kind of wished going back to find things in various levels didn't involve all the cut scenes... but oh well.

Out of the games 61 achievements, I managed to knock out 31 one of them, with quite a few being diamond. There is certainly a lot of things for people to do who want to get every achievement for completion, but several achievements involve having to do multiple runs of the game on various difficulties... which is certainly asking a lot of gamers who just chase 1,000 Gamer Score.

Now the next game to take over on Mondays & Tuesdays will be New Tales From The Borderlands. A normal playthrough is estimated to only take 9 hours or so, so that seems doable to me for a new night stretch next week

Hi-Fi RUSH Achievements

• OK, I THINK I know what I'm doing now: Successfully pull off every combo and attack in the Training Room.
• I play my own way!: Purchase and equip your first Special Attack.
• You must like calling me in, Chai: Destroy 50 barriers by calling in Peppermint.
• Time to pay up!: Settle the bill with the head of Finance.
• Easy Listening: Finish the game completing every level on the Easy difficulty.
• Who's the boss now?: Take it up with the CEO, and come out on top.
• Wanna hear my playlist?: Change the background music in the hideout.
• That's a lot of junk metal…: Destroy 500 Vandelay security robots.
• Chip-tuned: Increase your chip slots to the maximum capacity.
• Out in a puff of smoke: Put out 10 fires in battle with Korsica. (Enemies included.)

For the raid we dropped in on misscammi316 while they were playing Grand Theft Auto V over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

The plan for tonight's stream is of course Fall Guys & Resident Evil 5... who hilarious things will happen to me this week in both games.

Spoke with my brother and the big plan is get a lot of large stuff out of the house on Saturday, April 8th. This way I can finish the basement and start getting a handle on things up in what is supposed to be the dining room.

Got some writing done for the Mass Effect short story commission, and I would dare say it's already about 30% complete. Yay me! Have not figured what the next SubscribeStar Exclusive story will be, I'm leaning Star Trek again...

Watched the Top Gear Vietnam special last night, and that still holds up as one of the better road trips Clarkson, Hammond and May went on.

I was having a question regarding what is going towards earning stars on Regular and Hard versions of exercises in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star... and I just realized it only counts if I haven't done an exercise on that setting yet.

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

 

 

Another Saturday In ESO

Good morning everyone,

God a small bit of writing done yesterday, a lot less than I planned because I got caught up with some things around the house, laundry, dishes and other stuff. Oh well.

Did have a hard time getting the stream started last night, as my Internet speeds were way down from what I'm now paying. It sorted itself out, but again it proves to me Comcast can really be a pain in my ass at the wrong times!

Last night's stream of Elder Scrolls Online was a lot of fun, as Striker and I got a lot of side quests done. Striker went ahead earlier in the day to find a lot of the fast travel points which cut down on travel time. The story in Vvardenfell is getting pretty good as it turns out the cause of the living god's depleting power is caused by a dude named Chode... not really his name, but I call him Chode. The in-game wanted level is certainly a hindrance, and I can imagine if you don't have a Soul Gem to revive where you die it gets even worse. I mean I get why it's such a thing, but the time it takes to deplete just acts as a real deterrent of going into the towns for quest progression

Anyway, I really did enjoy the side quest for the Scarlet Judge, and love that we were awarded with the attire of the in-game vigilante to wear as a costume.

For the raid we dropped in on Hawleigh who was doing a Food and Drink stream over at twitch.tv/hawleigh

It's Sunday which means tonight's stream will be featuring Overwatch 2! Voice chat will be in my Discord!

Expecting a visit from my Aunt Grace and Cousin Frances this afternoon, which will be really cool 

Something I forgot to get when I did a small bit of grocery shopping the other day was getting some moon pies... I mean come on, they go great with RC Cola! (Yes I prefer RC Cola to Coke and Pepsi)  

Really looking forward to getting some things out of the Basement, it'll really open up things up and I can make it look nicer on camera.

My NCAA tournament brackets are already invalid...  then again I just made picks at random, so I'm not surprised at all!

So I unlocked Advanced Combo #2 in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star and talk about a nightmare and is probably the most difficult combination of motions I've seen in the Fitness Boxing games so far, because it involves Sways,Blocking Motions and Body Hooks. Doing it on Hard Difficulty and at a Fast pace was just brutal!

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

Spider-Man for the PS4 Is Pretty Fun

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was another solid day, but they called shift early because not enough people want to work the final hour on a Friday afternoon. Still it was a productive day and I like that

Did some light grocery shopping to supplement some things, adding a couple to provide some variety to what I've been eating. 

Last night's stream of Marvel's Spider-Man was a lot of fun, we're playing it on Friendly difficulty, and I could take it or leave it with the combat, while trying to keep track with a lot of enemies. I do struggle with larger enemies, to the point the Kalenal pointed out that I should try not getting hit (good advice by the way). Still, I did enjoy a lot of the game mechanics when it came to web slinging and went about getting all of the Backpacks collected and fixing all of the towers. 

Basically I'm taking the same approach I had with Saints Row '22, in doing every new task first before advancing the main story. It's how I get the most out of open world games, plus it keeps me from having to think to much in regards to keeping various game gimmicks in mind.

I did run into one notable issue with Spider-Man, and that's the lack of foresight when it came to quips he says after finishing off a group of villains around the city. In fact I could swear I heard the same line three times in less than five minutes,

Marvel's Spider-Man Trophies

• Knocking Down Kingpin: Defeat Fisk
• Lost and Found: Collect 5 Backpacks
• Spider-Sensible: Perfect Dodge 10 attacks
• Amazing Coverage: All Surveillance Towers activated
• And Stay Down!: Complete a level 1 Combat Benchmark
• King of Swing: Complete a level 1 Traversal Benchmark
• Wing It: Traverse across the city rooftops
• Backpacker: Collect all Backpacks
• The Scientific Method: Craft your first Upgrade

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood as their stream was getting started, they took a look at the King trailer for Tekken 8 and tried out a randomizer for Resident Evil 2 Remake. You can check them out at twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

The plan for tonight's stream is to play Elder Scrolls Online, if things fall through we got several alternatives that we can play instead

I will not be surprised if Square Enix ends up being bought out by Sony within the next two years. Not because Sony wants to keep it out of Microsoft's hands, but because Square Enix has been and is making some of the stupidest decisions possible

On Monday, my brother and I are going to try and get a few things out of the basement through the rear doors. For sure an exercise bike and the old couch that used to be featured on my streams is getting tossed. But I need to literally clear a path to get this huge TV out of here as well. Safe to say tonight's stream will look different as a result.

Here is this weeks stats for Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star

• Punches Thrown: 8224
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 3296 kcal
• Fitness Age: 18
• 41% of Achievements Unlocked
  

Didn't do any writing last night due to the moving of furniture and stuff , but I intend to work on the Daria commission request this afternoon.

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

Final Fantasy VII Remake is Finished

Good afternoon everyone,

Song of the Day: Love Potion #9 by The Coasters

Work yesterday was good, got two complete interviews done, and nearly had a third, but the respondent had to go. But hey, I felt productive and I'm happy about that.

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy VII Remake went over seven hours because we played from Chapter 15 all the way through to the end of the game. And boy did they add a ton of extra padding to the game to draw things out a bit to ensure some iconic moments from the original version of Final Fantasy VII was represented. And let me tell you that padding certainly felt real during the Expressway escape sequence in, there was little reason for it to be as long as it was.

Something that did occur to me, particularly in the final boss fights in Chapter 18 against Sephiroth is that the mechanics of Final Fantasy VII Remake is very much influenced by Kingdom Hearts. There were a handful of battles I found difficult to get a read on what I had to do, but the Sephiroth fight was text book Kingdom Hearts. 

I do love the fact that the finishing hit was Sephiroth being squashed by a the Fat Chocobo summon.

Now would I play this again... probably not, and my only real excuse to revisit it on stream would be to eventually get a PS5 in order to play the Intergrade story. 

Question now becomes what do I play next on the PS4, I do have plenty of options in terms of games that are exclusive to it. I'll have to mull it over for a few days before making up my mind. Contenders include Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghosts of Tsushima

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• The Pizza in the Sky: Complete Chapter 15.
• No Appointment Needed: Complete Chapter 16.
• Emerging from Chaos: Complete Chapter 17.
• Destiny's Crossroads: Complete Chapter 18.

Thank to Oldish22 for the raid following their stream of Last Epoch over on twitch.tv/oldish22

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 as they were playing Smite over on twitch.tv/MissCammi316

The plan for tonight's stream is more Elder Scrolls Online, continuing the various quests that were picked up and just roaming around while being completely lost on how to easily navigate from point A to point B. However this is a possibility my brother could be dropping by as well to join in for some local co-op gaming.

This week's Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Stats are as follows

• Punches Thrown: 7,861
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 3120.82 kcal
• Fitness Age: 20
• 29% of Achievements Unlocked
  

Did not start on the next commission request, but I am getting some ideas for it since it's based on Dragon Ball Z when Vegeta and Trunks are in the hyperbolic time chamber. Trunks does strike me as the one to take whatever's given in that scenario.

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

 

 

From The Fist of the North Star to Hades

Good morning everyone,

Due to circumstances allowing it, we did two streams yesterday, the first was in the afternoon to feature Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. This stream was about two hours, and featured a full 40+ minute workout plus all the Shin related battles in the Battle mode. We did unlock 10% of the achievements as well, and it does appear FB:FotNS will have a lot of the same achievements that Fitness Boxing 2 did in regards to reaching various goals.

Will I occasionally due bonus streams featuring Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star? Maybe, really depends on what I have going on any particular day and what I need to accomplish.

Oh today;s Fitness Boxing workout featured Hook Combo #2, Hook Combo #1, Beginner Combo #1 and Straight Combo #2.

Last night's stream of Hades got off to a very good start, as we finally cleared an escape attempt on the first run of the night. We actually made it to Hades a couple of times but ended up coming short due to my lack of ability and just some bad luck in some of the boons found. Still, I also made some things harder for myself in terms of my button mash approach along with having the parch of punishment bounties enabled.

Now would I want to attempt to do 9 full escape attempts on Hades to see if I could get to the hidden ending, and probably the make efforts towards the epilogue? Maybe. At the very least, trying to unlock various things seems like a good goal  as an excuse of keeping Hades in the weekly line up for the time being.

For the raid we dropped in on BangBangBang713 who was playing Hogwarts Legacy over at twitch.tv/bangbangbang713! 

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Get A Grip: Learn to hold the Joy-Con controolers
• Get Ready: Learn the Basic Stance
• Get the Idea: Learn the Basic Rules
• First Stamp: Acquire your first Stamp
• Set 'Em Up: Check your Daily Workout settings
• Know Yourself: Check your Date
• Exercise Checker: Check Actions in Basic Training
• Champion Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 stars during (regular) workouts
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 500 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 1,000 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 1,500 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 2,000 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 3,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared Lv. 3 - Complete Shin's Stage (hard)
• KO Puncher Lv. 1 - Defeat a total of 30 outlaws
• Kenshiro's Acquaintance - Work out with Kenshiro
• Kenshiro's Embrace - Receive a raiting of 7 starts from Kenshiro during a workout
• Meeting Mamiya - Acquire Mamiya
• MEasure Up  - Enter your height data
• On your Weight - Enter your weight data
• Calm Hitter - Throw 500 perfect punches
• Breeezy Hitter - Throw 1,000 perfect punches
• Windy Hitter - Throw 2,000 perfect Punches
• High Windy Hitter - Throw 3,000 perfect punches
• Rising Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 starts during (light) workouts)
• Champion Star Lv. 2 - Get a total of 24 stars during (regular) workouts
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 4,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared L.v 1 - Complete Shin's Stage (light)
• KO Puncher Lv. 2 - Defeat a total of 150 outlaws
• Strong Windy Hitter - Throw 4,000 perfect punches
• Kenshiro's Coordinato Lv. 1 - Acquire Kenshiro's outfit
• Kenshiro's Coordinator Lv. 2 - Change Kenshiro's outfit
• One Weigh or Another - Enter two days' worth of weight data
  

Hades Achievements

• Escaped Elysium: Clear Elysium
• Is There No Escape?: Clear an escape attempt

The folks at TellTale Games have pulled a 3D Realms by changing game engines and starting over on developing The Wolf Among Us 2... this has of course brought back memories of endless development hell Duke Nukem Forever was stuck in.

With the Vinyl 45s now stored properly, my next concern in regards to archived stuff is the Vinyl LPs I have, which are a mixture of things my mom and dad got back in the 60s, 70s & 80s. I know my dad wants to know if I have a particular album that featured local radio personality Jerry Blavat 

Did finish writing the Star Trek story as a subscribstar exclusive for this month, my focus will now turn towards finishing the Daria commission request

"What do you call a poor Santa Claus?" "St. Nickel-less."

Song of the Day:Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd

For tonight's stream we shall continue Final Fantasy VII remake picking up at the start of chapter 14. Depending on the pacing of things, I'm looking to at least get through Chapter 16 so  that we could save the last two chapters for next Friday.

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

Elder Scrolls Online A Learning Experience

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Elder Scrolls Online was an experience, the first being that my old Bethesda Account apparently would not link with my Xbox account, so I had to create a new one. Once we got into the game it was amazing how kind of pick up and play is with the tutorial... as one of my biggest concerns was trying to grasp how a PC MMO would work on console with a whole lot fewer buttons to work with... and it works fine.

Now I do feel it is a lot like Fallout 76 in many ways, with the limits on how much you can carry, but is par for the course I believe. As a replacement for Final Fantasy XIV, it works fine, and as long as I have someone to team up with, it'll be pretty entertaining as I'm kind of going for an ambush style of game play because that seemed the most simple. Oh... and I went with an Wood Elf that uses daggers as weapons... because, why the hell not? 

On a side note, I did feel navigating to be less intuitive than Fallout 76, as the compass shows so many icons on it that it was easy for me to get lost!

As for the audio lag I keep noticing, well... I keep searching for new fixes, and I thought I resolved it before the stream, but nope! Well, here's hoping the fix I found for tonight will work

For the raid we dropped in on TracyDoll who was playing Friday the 13th: The Game over at twitch.tv/tracydoll 

Nearly finished the WWE short story commission, I was hoping to finished it yesterday afternoon, but I ended up getting distracted with a few things around the house.

Did watch Episode 1 of Star Trek Picard's third season and I'm almost tempted to subscribe to see the rest of the season as it did catch my interest.... but... nah!

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

Found out that Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star comes out digitally on March 2nd... a shame it's not getting a physical release in the United States, guess having to import the Japanese version will have to do.... which is funny because that one has the tag line "You Are Already Thin". In fact I recorded a video explaining my history with the Fitness Boxing games while trying out the Demo

"What's the best thing about Switzerland?" "I don't know, but the flag is a big plus."

Song of the Day:"Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price

For tonight's stream, we're playing Overwatch 2, and of course I'll be using the console version, so any voice chat will be done via Discord. Though there may be a way to merge that with Xbox live. We'll might have to test that some day

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

So How Does One Finish The Mayor For A Day Quest In Fallout 76?

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 was an adventure... as the entire first 30 minutes was spent just chatting because we had to wait for the a 63 GB update because of the new 'The Pit' Expansion, which meant I ended up talking about a lot of things at random..Once the game was ready, we set about knocking out many of the daily quests, plus made serious progress in the Sofia's story arc, plus other random main story quests. 

Big shout out to Iceman for being apart of the fun, as we set to work on trying to complete the Mayor for a Day quest which we started last week, and we made it to the last thing that which was to upload the Robo Virus... and the problem is way too many enemies spawned and overwhelmed us. I wonder if because we were grouped it lead to more enemies appearing. I did look into this, and found there is apparently a spot where someone can hide to avoid the enemies and just have to wait for five minutes. I'll test that theory first chance I get.

Did faced down a Scorch Beast as part of the Heart of the Enemy side quest, and that got a little tense to say the least. Was glad to nab the achievement for that! 

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Heart of the Enemy: Complete "Heart of the Enemy"

Twitch Clips

• One V One With A Scorch Beast
• One way or another.... OW! 
• We're going towards the Deathclaw!
• I'm down!  
  

Thank you to the chat for kicking in 100 bits last night! The support is always appreciated!

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing The Evil Within over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x! 

Oh should note that yesterday was completely incident free, if there

I was right yesterday's assignment for work fucking sucked, and best (or worst) part is because a bunch of newbies started interviews but left them in state

Hear about the poor Easter egg who fell off a counter? He dyed!

Did you know the first French fries weren't cooked in France? They were cooked in Greece!

What do carb-loving zombies eat? Graaaaaaaains.

Song of the Day: Everybody Talks by Neon Trees

The Grind to 100 Million CASPO in Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium continued off-stream last night, as I'm up to 22,814,697, knocking out about 10 Million over the course of 2 and a half hours using my save on a perfect run of Super Gem Fighters Mini Mix and taking advantage of the fact that fighting games in this collection get bonus CASPO this week.

Now while I was doing that grind... I watch the Nintendo Direct and Sony State Of Play from earlier this week. The only thing that caught my attention was the Fist of the North Star Fitness Boxing game for the Switch, that looks like it could be awesome. Now it's getting a Japan only release in December... but the World Wide release will be in the spring. 

Oh and Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for 34 minutes.

With the announcement of Tekken 8, it probably would behoove men to finally play Tekken 7 and mess around with that.  Probably at some point should grab the Xbox 360 versions of Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Added the new Saints Row and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection to the digital libray on the Xbox side of things. We'll feature the TMNT collection on Saturday's stream.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream, we're back to looking for more side quests and things in FInal Fantasy XIV!

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

So We Played Teen Titans For The PS2 Last Night

Good morning everyone,

There's a good reason for this being posted before 7 AM... I'll explain when I talk about the Fitness Boxing 2 workout.

Anyway, last night, randomly I decided to play Teen Titans for the PlayStation 2. Released after season four of the original show that aired on Cartoon Network (Since there was promos for a DVD and Season 5), the game itself has the story where the Titans (Raven, Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire) slowly realizing they are within a video game,  It is a 'dungeon crawler' style beat-em-up, similar in some regards to Marvel Ultimate Alliance in that you clear out an area of enemies and move onto the next. Boss battles typically involve a few different mechanics, but most end up having to set up for a 'team super attack', which is just silly because Beast Boy doesn't have a beam attack.

You are not locked into just one character, you can between all five titans, but I found myself mostly using Starfire towards the end for two reasons, her charge attacks are a lot easier to position than the others and two, her projectiles have the best range. Now there are 'screen clear' attacks, and Raven has the best one on the grounds that she screams 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos!'. Beast Boy, for me is the worst character simply because his combo inputs are not as fluid as the others.

In terms of how it looks, it looks fine for a game from 2006, the character models are nice 3D renders of what was seen on the show, and all the voice actors who worked on the show were featured in the game. The music is pretty generic outside of the Teen Titans theme performed by Puffy AmiYumi. Controls are pretty good as well. I do like how the game breaks the fourth wall fully once you beat the final boss, it's something that was also seen at the end of The Simpsons game with Ralph Wiggum. 

Beyond the main game there is a 'Master of Games' mode which is basically a fighting game, inspired byt the episode 'Winner Takes All', and I'm not sure the main game mechanics works for a fighting game format, but I bet it is meant to be played with four people instead of one on one against the A.I. .

I will say that that Teen Titans joins Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise as games that surprised me for being a completely fun experience. That is what I look for in most games I play.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The battle against Gizmo 
2. Where is that little (bleep) at! 
3. I didn't do a damn thing! 

For last night's raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal! 

It's Sunday which means, time to take a look back at all the games we played last which with a highlight reel! Last week we featured Overwatch, Paladins, SSX, What Remains of Edith Finch, WWF SmackDown 2: Know Your Role, Gears of War: Ultimate Editions, Ugly American Apocalysegeddon, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal and Teen Titans!

My Xbox achievement streak continued with two more achievement knocked out in the SNK 40th Anniversary collection. The streak stand at 31 days. Yes I am aware I could easily have cheesed out all the achievements for this game in less than an hour, but by spreading them out we extend the streak.

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection Achievements

• Rescue Me: Beat the Arcade version of Ikari III.
• Tread on Them: Beat Iron Tank.

I totally spaced out that today was the day we set our clocks forward... so I went ahead and did my daily workout before dawn because when I thought it was 5 AM it was actually 6 AM and I said fuck it, let me do it before going to bed. It still counts! Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Straight Combo, Uppercut Combo #1 and Triple Combo #1. I also set a new personal best with Difficulty Challenge Combo #3 on No Mercy difficulty, out of 704 actions, 698 were perfect and 6 were okay.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Overwatch, and you know it'll be the usual quick play nonsense!

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

That's right we played Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe last night!

Good afternoon everyone,

If there is any proof that I will feature some random nonsense on my Twitch channel last night proved it.

And yes as you can tell we played Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe last night, and it's a game I haven't fully touched in a very long time. I think maybe we took a quick look at the PS3 one last year at some point, but for me to sit down and play it for several hours I feel the last time I did that was maybe 10 years ago. For the stream, we used the digital 360 version that is on the list of X-Box's backwards compatible games

For those who don't know, MKvDC was like Midway's last gasp before they were bought out by Warner Brothers and became Nether Realm Studios, and is the rather unusual crossover between Mortal Kombat and DC Comics. The story is Shao Khan and Darkseid are merged into one being because at the same time Superman and Raiden try to stop them as they were teleporting away, and now the two universes are merging.

Gameplay wise... it's the 3D arena style that Midway was using for the Mortal Kombat series through out the PlayStation 2 era, and needless to say, while I can handle that in things like Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter or even Tekken, it never felt right for the Mortal Kombat series. MKvDC also has probably some of the most wonky A.I. I've ever seen, regardless of difficulty setting, it will suddenly have a spike where the game will beat your ass down. Graphically, it holds up fairly well, there are some weirdness where some stuff looks more like body paint than actual clothing, and some designs are rather odd out right,

But probably the thing that most people remember most about MKvDC is the story mode, as it is the game that basically launched the trend of every fighting game having a cinematic tale where you play as the majority of the roster. MKvDC is unique in that you can see the story from two different points of view, the Mortal Kombat side, and the DC Universe side... which is the one we did for the stream. Some of the story details are goofy, but then again the entire concept of the game itself is goofy.

We will be revisiting Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe again to do the Mortal Kombat side of the story, more than likely that will be next Saturday's stream

For the raid, we sent everyone over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Achievements

• Free Fallin': Perform a Free-Fall Transition
• The Pugilist: Perform Klose Kombat
• Heroic Brutality!: Perform a Heroic Brutality!
• Fatality!: Perform a Fatality!
• Combo Champion: Perform a 10-hit combo in Arcade Mode
• Mortal Kombat Champion: Finish arcade mode with an MK character
• Strange Forces: Complete Chapter 1 - DC Universe
• Invasion: Complete Chapter 3 - DC Universe
• Unlikely Alliance: Complete Chapter 5 - DC Universe
• Universe Reborn: Complete DC Universe Story
• Super Hero: Finish arcade mode with a DC character

Twitch Clip Links

1. Heroic Brutality
2. Sonya Blade versus Dark Khan 
3. These are not the Bees Knees!
4. Fatality 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #2, Biceps Shape Focus Combo and Intermediate Combo #1 for 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 540 kcal

Played some Final Fantasy XIV last night off-stream, focused on the Main Story Quest, in particular the quests "For Thavnair Bound",  "On Low Tide" & "A Fisherman's Friend" which introduces a new open area and loads of ground to cover. I did like the NPC called Kytte who seems like a quirky genius who might end up getting someone killed with their experiments. Also discovered that some enemies are going to spawn at level 90... which means I'm going to be using my Chocobo companion quite a lot in the field

Also put in more of the grind towards completing all the achievements for Capcom Arcade Stadium while watching The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. At this point I have only one more class related achievement to reach.... but as I mentioned previously, it's to get 100,000,000 CASPO which will give the Class 20 rank, it'll take some serious grinding but it's reachable.

Capcom Arcade Stadium Achievements

• Top of the Class: Reach Class 15: Operator.
  

Now getting back to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, the version I watched was the extended cut, which runs three hours... and yeah that's a big long. Still the musical score and the pacing makes it a great watch while casually doing something else. Now yes the movie stars Clint Eastwood... but I think the true star of it is Eli Wallach who plays Tuco... who probably gets the most screen time, we get to learn about him, and by the end of the film one is rooting for Blondie (Eastwood) to shoot him down from the noose he put him in. (as pay back for Tuco getting pay back on him... yeah it's complicated) 

It's a new week, which means the Twitch Bits video is here to showcase all the games we played over the last seven days. This past week we featured Overwatch, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, Life of Fly, Paladins, Kingdom Hearts III & Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

For tonight's stream we'll be featuring Overwatch, as we do every Sunday night.

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

Finished Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise!

Good morning everyone,

You know, I'm not one to consider doing New Game+ runs, however Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise certainly has me considering it.

Last night's stream of said game was basically me messing around at first, going to the final areas of the Wasteland that I have no visited and realizing the enemies there are certainly tougher... and I'm going to guess that maybe bounties take place in those places, because outside of the main story, there is no reason to head south unless one wants to do some level grinding... which can be done in Eden through the Bounty side-quests.

That said the Final Chapter of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise certainly reveals some big plot points that goes out of their way to paint Jagre and Lyra in a bad light, granted they have sort of a change of heart, but the fact they were working with the Tagra for a revenge plot kind of works. The final two big fights, against Nadai and Tagra certainly feel epic, particularly when one actually performs the quick time events correctly, and the gauntlet of enemies between the two certainly builds a lot of anticipation for the game's climax.

There is a bit of a fake out with the ending, as the game appears to end with Kenshirio and Yuria reuniting only to die in a nuclear explosion, but thankfully after the credits roll it's revealed they were saved by Nadai, and the city of Eden gets back to normal while Ken and Yuria drive off to deliver some apples to a kid Ken meets at the beginning of the game.

Now I did start messing around with the Endless Eden mode, and I'm confused by the fact that no roaming enemies and people in need of help are not in the streets. Are those elements really locked to certain chapters of the game? It certainly appears that way, also several of the remaining side stories requires a lot of grinding for materials for the buggy, IDL for Kenshiro's debt and other stuff which means... I can always come back to the Endless Eden mode for chill streams.

For the raid, we sent the fun over to AnnieTalksShow over at twitch.tv/annietalksshow who was playing Words on Stream!

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Trophies

• Drive Backwards Into Hell: Drive backwards in the buggy for a total of 10km.
• The Man of Hokuto: Completed the Final Chapter.
• Overachiever: Completed 50% of the achievements.

Twitch Clip Links

1. That was cool
2. Phantom Channeling Point On The Final Boss
3. Hokuto no Ken: Defeating Shin! 
4. The Burst version of the Hundred Fist Rush
5. Hokuto: Eight Pains Nine Hells! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #1, Weaving Combo #1 and Intermediate Combo #2 for 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of around 499 kcal.

Got curious as to why there has been no news related to Star Trek Online's anniversary, and it turns out Cryptic Studios has been sold again, as Perfect World Entertainment (the overall publisher of not just STO, but numerous other MMOs) is being sold wholesale to another company. This is the second time in Star Trek Online's history when things got shelved because of corporate business, the first was back in 2011 or 2012, when Atari went belly up and many of its studios and projects were sold off.

And staying on this subject... Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard...which considering all the issues at that company in the past few years is a good thing in my opinion. And since Overwatch comes with that deal, I'm sure Microsoft will make good use of it. 

Got asked about doing a commissioned fan fic featuring Peter 'Spider-Man' Parker and Laura 'X-23' Kinney. I know they had a couple of run-ins in the comics, but didn't think they would be something people would want shipped. I have a rough idea for a set up, so hopefully I can piece it together.

Making use of a broken wired X-Box controller (the X button collapsed in on itself), I've been doing some 'automatic' sessions of Capcom Arcade Stadium, since said X button registers as constantly being pressed, that means turbo auto-fire, combined with Invincibility, I can just let the Vulgus run for several hours as I do other stuff to grind towards the 100 hours achievement. Granted because of the Invincibility, only 10% of possibility CAPSO rewards are earned... but hey, one thing at a time.

Off-Stream Final Fantasy XIV progress saw me actually put some effort into the Blue Mage grind, and I managed to find several spells, but it does appear a lot of the good spells require a number of loops to jump through a number of hoops to get into dungeons, raids and trials to make the class worth the hassle.

For tonight's stream, we'll play Final Fantasy XIV, to wrap up the Shadowbringers post-story and probably mess around with some side quests if I choose not to jump into Endwalker straight away

So  well unless something weird happens we'll see you tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Fun With Overwatch And Other Stuff

Good evening everyone,

I forgot to hit publish earlier today!

Anyway last night's stream of Overwatch was all the usual shenanigans! Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of fun. Picked up two Plays of the Game last night, one as D.va and one as Junkrat! Characters that I used were mostly D.va, Junkrat, Mei and Moira.

In terms of how good the randoms were, well, they were certainly a mixed bag with quite a few making questionable choices. Had a couple of matches where I could read the way things were going that I will admit I phoned it in, but for the most part things were solid with now really solid where I felt every match was evenly fought, regardless of wins or losses.

For the raid, we sent every over to Glorifiedthief who was playing Persona 5 Royal over at twitch.tv/Glorifiedthief!  

Speaking of the raid, anyone who has seen the end of my streams, knows there is an outro that plays, and we got a raid from wifeylovesnerd who also was playing Overwatch! I hope to return the favor to them down the road on their channel over at twitch.tv/wifeylovesnerd!

Twitch Clip Links

•  We dropped The Bomb On Them!
•  A Moira and a Winston Break On Through
•  Getting the Mei Ultimate at the right moment

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Triple Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Uppercut Combo #1 for 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 457 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievement Progress

• 37 out of 50 hours trained with Janice for 'Janice's Champion'
• 87% of EX Achievement Acquired for King EX Fighter
  

One of my favorite content creators, Maximilian_DOOD, hit one million followers last night, and I managed to grab a clip of it while watching. He streams over at twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD!  

• Max hits 1 Million!
  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued off-stream off course, by reaching the Quest 'The Flames of War' and the dungeon, 'Paglth'an' which certainly was a challenge for me to get through in one piece. I really am not a fan of things that makes me have to run for some pillar because of some status effect, as I will not be aware of it on the first time through. Still, near as I can tell, the remaining quests are mostly story and lore, with one major 'level sync' solo duty to close out the gap of events between the end of Shadowbringers and the start of Endwalker.

For tonight's stream, we'll be resuming Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, and there is a possibility we can finish it tonight! 

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

Four Random Games On A Saturday

Good afternoon everyone,

God damn did it get cold! Last night following the stream it was 15 degrees! And I didn't get up till like 3 PM Eastern today... so anyway, last night's stream featured four games, and since that was the case, I'm going to give my thoughts on them here right now.

First, there was Dead of Alive 2: Hardcore, and prior to last night, the only DOA games I played were Dead of Alive 5: Last Round (on Steam and XBox One) and the original Dead of Alive (PlayStation). DOA2:HC certainly holds up, it's character models all look great, the game play is still the same so it was very much a pick up and play for me without having to figure out too much, in fact I was surprised some stuff I would use in DOA5:LR worked in DOA2:HC (such as many of Tina's throws!). The story mode was interesting, in that it just give some extra moments of character interactions, but I'm not to sure how I feel of the Tengu as the 'last boss', with how it distorts the screen and having some really cheap tactics.

Second was Dino Stalker, a spin off of the Dino Crisis games, Dino Stalker sees the hero Mike Wired, getting transported to another dimension where he he ends up having to fight dinosaurs to stop something catastrophic from happening. This is a light gun game, but it can be played with a controller... and outside of instances where I feel I've having to fight the movement controls, it is fairly solid and certainly playable.I made it through the first three levels with only one death and that was due more to me not realizing I can destroy objects to reach new areas, and thus I ran out of time!

Third was Power Rangers; Super Legends... and it's certainly better than Power Rangers: Time Force. Released to celebrate the franchises 15th anniversary, Super Legends is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that does reward exploration to find hidden items and secrets, but it can be a straight forward experience if that is what one prefers. It is an oddly 'quite game' as even at max volume, it certainly didn't sound as loud as say most games from the PlayStation 2 error. We cleared the first couple of levels with a fair amount of difficulty, plus one Mega Zord battle, which was... interesting. 

Lastly, the final game of the night was WWE SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain... and I have always thought this game was overrated. Some of the character models looked okay, but in comparison to Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore which we played earlier in the night, HCTP has not aged well. Here the face of Trish Stratus doesn't even look as if it belonged on her body from some angle. That said, the game play certainly took a lot of getting use to again... and the A.I., even on Normal, can be down right brutal (can't even think how I use to play this on its hardest difficulty setting). Since I still have my memory cards, I had a save file with every thing unlocked, so that was fun at least.

Of course a little detail about last night's stream is that I set up a new scean in OBS to use when playing older games whose aspects ratios were 4:3 (mostly for the original PlayStation and PS2 things in my library), and added a little feature that shows the game title on screen as well. 

Following the stream, for the raid, we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV! They stream three times a week over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Aren't You My Brother? I'm Gonna Kick Your...
2. Panic Shooting! 
3. We've defeated so many enemies!
4. Right in the Kisser! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Advanced Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and a calorie burn of 561 kcal. Normally I would do a little extra on top of the daily, but since my butt didn't get out of bed till the middle of the afternoon, I just stuck with the daily.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw me start up the 5.5 content starting with Unto the Breach, and and I went roaming around unlocking a couple of more 'job' classes with in the game as well, because at some point I will be needing to expand what roles I utilize! Though I am content being the clueless Bard... I just do Damage, so no one expects me to be on point for heals or pulls as a tank! There was a particularly charming moment with Estinien confusing Alisaie for her brother Alphinaud. Sure they are twins, but how can anyone confuse Alisaie for her brother upon first meeting! Their hair parts on different sides and Alisaie carries a rapier! Rather surprised that Alisaie let the Azure Dragoon live after that to be honset.

It's Sunday, which means its Twitch Bits time to highlight all the games we played last week in a little video! This past week we played Overwatch, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Kingdom Hearts III, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore, Dino Stalker, Power Rangers: Super Legends and WWE SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain! 

For tonight's stream, we're playing Overwatch, as we do every Sunday!

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