Tomb Raider... Or Lara Croft Falls Down A Lot!

Good morning everybody,

We're a day into November and some old concerns have popped up, a few of which are related to some local government decisions here in New Jersey... and funny enough it's election day... with Phil Murphy hoping to get another term as Governor. Considering his challenger is a Trump support, I'm pretty sure Murphy is going to win... even though a decision he made has put a lot of us in a bind.

Anyway, last night's stream featured the start of Tomb Raider, not the original from the late 90s, but the 2013 game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. I have played it before, in particular, I played the version on Steam, once in 2017 and again in 2018, both play through were streamed on Twitch. This run is using a console, namely the X-Box Series S, since it hasn't been used much as of late. 

One huge difference I feel between the console and PC versions is the fact the controls feel fighter on console. Sure I had a few deaths during the stream, but I feel they were more my fault as opposed to the game not reading inputs... so I'm a little more open to exploring and finding collectables than I was the first two times.

Graphically, Tomb Raider still holds up nicely, and I didn't waste time putting Lara in the 1930s Aviator attire to give her a look that makes sense for the adventure she's on... plus I think whenever she is shivering, it looks even colder if she's actually wearing a jacket! I do find it fun at how she can be covered in cuts, blood, mud and scrapes... then is totally clean moments later. I get why no game has really gone with the realistic wear and tear on clothing for games like this, just about every game with a female lead would be rated M for mature.

Let me also address the title of today's blog, because I joked about how Tomb Raider is basically Lara Croft falling down a lot, or as some of my regulars called 'Lara just get the shit kicked out of her'. There are quite a number of instances where Lara is falling from a great height, tumbling down a hill and so forth... and this is not even counting missed jumps or failed Quick Time Events or failed combat situations. Since the developers wanted to show Lara toughening up, safe to say that happens quite a bit.

In terms of where we left off, it's at the start of the Chasm Monastery, so a little less than half way through the game, but I do remember there are a lot of big action set pieces in the second half of the game, so I don't think we'll finish it in two nights. 

Huge thanks to Kalenal for the raid during the stream! They were playing Tales of Vesperia on Monday night over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Following the stream the fun was sent over to LifeWithStan who was playing Dark Souls III over on twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Achievements

1. One Smart Cookie: One optional tomb completed.
2. Big Game Hunter: 10 large animals killed and looted.
3. Unfinished Business: One challenge completed.
4. Predator: 50 enemies killed with the bow.
5. Bookworm: 25% of all documents found.

Twitch Clip Links

• And that is gonna hurt even more!
• Lara 1 Deer 0
• We're The Predator!
  
• Dude you're finished! 
• We glitched through the floor! 

Volume 6 of Gungrave and Volume 7 of Chrono Crusade arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon, meaning 17 years after I picked up volume 1 of both series I finally have the complete DVD sets. Always nice to be able to fill in gaps in the collection.

A good portion of my off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures involved side quests associated with Idyllshire, a city that was abandoned but is now thriving (sort of) under goblins who took it over, and are gradually setting up a community... meaning a lot of quests involved running around, making deliveries, taking out monsters and such. It is a charming little series of side quests, even if when one is done three more pop up... but that is why they are side quests!  

Anyway, I did progress the Main Story Quest up to The First Flight of the Excelsior, and I have to say the apparent death of Iceheart aka Shiva was glorious, but very ambiguous since she fell to her death providing covers for everyone heading to Azys Lla, which is the next huge major chunk of the story.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 490 kcal. As of today we now have 80% of the EX achievements unlocked.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 4: Reach a total punch count of 450,000 HITs 
   

Oddly enough the requirements for Monster weight Puncher Lv. 5 is only to reach 495,000 HITs, I wonder why it isn't an even 500,000.

For tonight's stream we'll continue Tomb Raider using the X-Box Series S console as we work our way through the island!

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

May Buffy Slay Evil Vampire Residents That Make The Devil Cry

 Good afternoon everybody,

Well last night's stream was all over the place... in what turned out to be a triple header of PlayStation 2 games.

First was Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds, originally released in 2003 to fairly-good reviews, it is a third-person beat-em up with puzzle elements. You get to play as Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike plus Sid the Dummy, and there are various behind the scene unlockables like interviews with the members of the cast that actually did voice work for the game... of which Sarah Michelle Gellar is not one of them. The likenesses are pretty on point, a fact James Masters pointed out with him being pleased with how Spike looked. The controls are responsive when brawling but the use of long range weapons like a crossbow and the wonky camera makes it a chore to get through.Now the plan was to play this the entire stream... however the PS2 had some issues and I was not about to go through the entire 2nd level again!

So the second game we played with the PS2 version of Resident Evil: CODE Veronica X. Originally released on the Dreamcast in 2000, it is the TRUE Resident Evil 3... for those who don't know, Sony bitched to Capcom about wanting a numbered game as the next Resident Evil game on the PlayStation.... so what became Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was slapped together using a lot of assets from Resident Evil 2. The PS2 port came out in 2001... and one could say it's been a good 20 years since I first played it... and re-learning to use the tank controls took a lot of effort. Now I'd liked to think I was making progress but a puzzle just stumped me and I was wasting ammo taking out enemies that spawned back into areas I covered already trying to find a solution for the Hawk Medal. and I refused to look up the solution for it after trying everything I could think of and rechecking areas several times for items I have missed!

The final game we checked out was Devil May Cry, originally released on the PS2 in 2001... and it was originally intended to be a game in the Resident Evil series, but it's mechanics for gameplay was so different it got turned into its own things. There is a bit of a learning curve with reading the enemies tactics to realize how to counter, and there are Resident Evil like puzzles and camera angles which. Since I was playing the PS2 version, I have to say it's visual still hold up nicely when compared to it's HD counterpart on Dteam.

How would I know that?

Well after the stream we sent the fun over to spacepiratezod who was playing the Steam version of Devil May Cry over at twitch.tv/spacepiratezod!

Twitch Clip Links

• Well we're dead... 
• What the Puckery Is This?!
• According to Buffy... Just what a girl needs... 
• That Did Not Take Long...
• Get Off Me!
• Open The Shutters 
• We Done Did The Thing... Poorly 
• Am I Supposed To Just Run? 
• Strike A Pose Dante! I Have The Power!

 I did notice looking at clips that the game audio was being captured and displayed a few seconds ahead of the footage... for me the audio was in real time to what I was seeing while playing    which wasn't noticeable on the clips from Wednesday night.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises: Uppercut Combo #2, Body Uppercut Combo & Body Hook Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 420 kcal. My weight is currently at 245 lbs.

Managed to find a copy of Gungrave volume 7... still need to find volume 6 though.

Actually started to plan out a schedule for what games to feature on which days for this week, Sunday night Overwatch, Monday & Tuesday Night: Tomb Raider Definitive Edition, Wednesday night Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact & Gears of War: Judgement, Thursday Night Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, with Friday and Saturday still up in the air, one of those nights will be for Final Fantasy XIV.

Let's talk about work, on Thursday Night I was asked if I could start earlier than normal since it was expected to be a short shift... so with that in mind, I figured things would be done by like 1 or 2 PM... nope... I still ended getting in the full hours in because we got real close to closing out an assignment. Thing is, with how the day went I could've started at my usual time and worked till my usual time because of how things were going.

Last night's off-stream Final Fantasy XIV progress saw a focus on advancing the plot to A General Summons which sees a return to the focus on the issues in Ul'dah after a lot of major revelations was revealed regarding why the dragons are on a rampage and why there will be no peace, plus explaining an instance from earlier in the game where one enemy turned into a dragon. Also started putting my attention onto the Quest Plus stuff to unlock content and features... why means at some point I'm gonna have to do things on 'extreme' difficulty.... five buck says folks like Kalenal will get a kick out of me trying to keep up with the props on things like facing Shiva. 

For tonight's stream, I think we're gonna mess around with Final Fantasy XIV, just to get more ground covered as it relates to knocking out side quests and stuff.

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

The Primals And The Crystal Towers

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream was a ton of fun with Final Fantasy XIV taking center stage. Of course we did stream it on Tuesday to finish the original campaign, but the reason we played it last night was because I didn't want to start up something else just yet.

So what did we do during FF14? Well the first big thing was dedicate time to doing the Crystal Tower story quest, which involved two Alliance Raids, since I did the first one off-stream on Thursday night, Both went smoothly... but there is a special place in hell for whoever came up with the ABC stuff for the fight against Cerberus in the 3rd Alliance Raid.

Of course a huge focus was playing the Main Story Quest, and we covered the second half of Through the Maelstrom (Patch 2.2), which saw the big battle against Leviathan, and huge thanks to Kalenal (twitch.tv/Kalenal) for jumping in to be apart of that and to coach me up on what needs to be during it. Then then MSQ content continued into the Defenders of Eorzea story arc  (Patch 2.3) and knocking out over half of it including the battle against Ramuh who truly has an epic beard.

The plot regarding the refugees and how some are treated in comparison to those who just arrived (Yugiri's people) is certainly borderline close to being a parallel to real world issues on immigration and taking care of the poor, to the point that if some of the dialog that didn't have voice acting did have it, it would have a hell of a lot more bite to it.

Also of note, I did knock out the back half of the Patch 2.3. story stuff off stream in the middle of the night as well, mostly because I realized the Guildhest are not just group tutorials but actual mini-dungeons.

Thank you to eltipometroidvania for the follow! I know they stream so you can check them out over on twitch.tv/eltipometroidvania! 

Also thank you to Dango42 for the raid! They were playing Final Fantasy XIV as well over on twitch.tv/Dango42! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to SheepFuzz who was playing Jackbox Party Pack 8 over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!  

Twitch Clip Links

Learning How To Handle The Leviathan Battle

Let The Sun Shine In! 

I comment on the Music... and I get zapped...

Going through my DVD collection, I realize that I may need to add a couple of things to make it complete or look neat... so I'm in the process of tracking down a copy of Sudden Impact starring Clint Eastwood, which is of course apart of the Dirty Harry series of films, as well as Volumes 6 & 7 for both Gungrave and Chrono Crusade, two anime series from the early 2000s. 

Picked up Tales from the Glory Hole by Drace Domino, it is a tie-in to their earlier book Rise of the Battlebitch which was a great read. Also added Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning for the PlayStation 4 to the collection as well.

People are asking if the prop weapons that Alec Baldwin used to accidentally end the life of Filmmaker Halyna Hutchins are dangerous.... gee, let's go ask Brandon Lee who was on the receiving end of a prop malfunction back in 1993! Look if you're using weapons as props for films and if they are not correctly maintained, configured and triple check for safety purposes of course they are going to be fucking dangerous! Could it have been prevented yes, but at the very least this may see the stop of using REAL guns in film making.

There are some character changes in coming for Overwatch. Torbjorn's Overload's cool down is being reduced as is the consumption of ammo used when using the Rivet Gun's alternate fire. McCree's Deadeye is getting a shorter slower damage ramping speed and his combat roll can be used in the air, Moira's Biotic Orbs will have a slower speed when it has a target, and Junkrat is getting a near rework so that he's better at close range to reduce his long-range spam potential 

Speaking of McCree... he's getting a new name, Cole Cassidy... and to which I ask... when is Butch Sundance joining Overwatch? I'm apologizing for that joke, because everyone else picked up on the obvious 'Coal and Ash' because of the character of Ashe... me, I'm going for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reference!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minuets with the following exercises.: Beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 478 kcal... and I'm two months away from turning 39... ugh....

For tonight's stream we'll be playing The Walking Dead: The Final Season to wrap up that series! We'll start early because the goal is to play all four episodes!

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