Reaffirmed My Believe That Disney Speedstorm is

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Disney Speedstorm certainly proved the Pay to Win aspect of the game, as to get various things accomplished is certain game modes you need level up characters, but the only way to level up characters is to get character shards... and the majority of folks are paying for those the lock boxes to try and get the shards. This becomes Pay to Win because those upgrades carry over to the Ranked Races. Yes, you can earn those upgrades in-game, but it's quite clear the real drive is to frustrate players into purchasing the upgrades to try and keep pace.

Anyway, I did win a single Regulated Ranked Race as Donald in dominating fashion,  and banged out quite a few levels in the Season Pass, along with unlocking a few characters (Mike & Sully from Monsters Inc, and Megara from Hercules). I think I'm going to consider Disney Speedstorm a throw too game, like on a night I'm just bounce from game to game or if I need to change plans, it's something to do.

Disney Speedstorm Achievements

• EXTRA BOOST: Boost for a total of 3,600 seconds
• ROOKIE: Collect 50 Medals from the Maps

For the raid we dropped in on averagesharkgaming who was also playing Disney Speedstorm over at twitch.tv/averagesharkgaming

For tonight's stream, we're starting the City Never Sleeps's DLC for Spider-Man on the PS4, seeing how things have changed, and hopefully putting us in a position to try and unlocked the remaining costumes in game.

Looking ahead, here's what I have planned for upcoming streams:

4/28/23 - Marvel's Spider-Man The City Never Sleeps DLC
4/29/23 - Elder Scrolls Online Or Something Random
4/30/23 - Overwatch 2
5/1/23 - Persona 3 Portable
5/2/23 - Persona 3 Portable
5/3/23 - Fall Guys & Resident Evil 5
5/4/23 - My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure & Disney Speedstorm 

Obviously the big news is that I'm finally going to play Persona 3 Portable, outside of Persona 3 Dancing In Moonlight and the two Persona 4 Arena games, I have no knowledge of the story of Persona 3, so this is going to be cool.

Now why bring back My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure? Simple, easy completion on the Xbox side of things, plus it does give me an excuse to do part of a stream focused on Disney Speedstorm. Also I did say we would play it again because the first stream was hampered by internet issues.

Found an old snow sled in a closet, I think it belonged to my dad, I'll have to dust it off to make sure.

Got about 200 CDs broken down from their jewel cases and put into binders, and I still need to get another binder, biggest issue is multi-disc box sets, plus I'm keeping the liner notes for a lot of these CDs so that takes up extra space. 

Did do some more Rock Band stuff, the default song list is, not exactly sure what achievements are exactly possible on just the singing side of things

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• Don't Even Need It: Finished a song with a full Overdrive bar.

I FINALLY got the finally got the final achievement in Hades this morning! Took 96 hours to do, but this was due to the fact I was waiting for Megara to appear in certain places between runs.

Hades Achievements

• Complete Set: Earn all Chthonic Companions

Work has... slowed down to a crawl, and the down time has allowed me to try and find another job, but also has given way to much time to think and feel depressed about not having mom around.

I have gained weight, I'm back up to to about 242 pounds... ugh.

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

 

Fall Guys, Singing On Twitch and RE5

Good morning everyone,

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

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

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

Let's Sing 2023 Achievements

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

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

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

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

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

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

Rock Band 4 Achievements

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

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

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

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

American McGee's Alice Needs A Remake

Good morning everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

American McGee's Alice Achievements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finished Alice: Madness Returns,

Good morning everyone,

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

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

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

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

Alice: Madness Returns Achievements

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

Hades Achievements

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

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Achievements

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

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

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

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

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

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

I forgot How Long the 5th Chapter if Alice Madness Returns Is

Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday was another rough day for me mentally in regards just feeling motivated about stuff in general. But on a positive note finally got that second box of contractor bags, along with the storage contains to help with all the additional vinyl records. Want to store them a specific way so I can repurpose the trunk they are in.

Last night's stream of Alice: Madness Returns saw us finishing up the back half of  Chapter 3 and all of Chapter 4 in fairly short order. Completely forgot about the awesome segment when Alice gets to go giant size and stomp on everything! Now I thought we could finish the game last night as we were making fairly good progress in Chapter 5...

But then the puzzles and timing segments happened and of course my bad timing and needing multiple attempts to succeed at stuff, not to mention trying to get various collectables slowed me down in a huge way. Near as I can tell, there are only four segments left in the game, but how long it'll take me toget through them is a real question.

So the plan for tonight is too finished Alice: Madness Returns, and we'll probably play some Smite or Hades, as I do have both games installed on the Xbox One.

Alice: Madness Returns Achievements

• Nothing Like the Smell of Bacon: Pepper All Snouts in a Chapter
• Just peachy: Collect all Peaches in the Scroll of Destiny
• When Worlds Collide: Complete Wonderland Chapter 3
• More than a Mouthful: Fully upgrade a weapon
• Grandmaster: Complete a Chess Puzzle without failing
• 52 Pick-Up: Defeat 52 Card Guards
• Tea Party: Destroy 10 Ruin Barriers
• The Harder They Fall: Complete Wonderland Chapter 4
• Armed to the Teeth: Fully upgrade all weapons

Big thanks to Kalenal for the raid following their stream of Pokemon Scarlett over on twitch.tv/kalenal

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Daymare: 1998 at twitch.tv/powerthumbz

Started work on the latest commission request for a short story based on those who were presenting at the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Rewards. It's probably going to barely hit 1500 words.

 Looking at the work assignment for today, I can already tell it's going to be a long afternoon in terms of how beaten up the call sample is.

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

A new week begins

 Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday was mostly a chill day, as I spent a lot of time thinking about how overwhelmed I feel.

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 saw us having a lot of fun with BangBangBang and PandaSweet being apart of the action. There was a number of times I questioned the mental capacity of a lot of the random teammates we got saddle with, like who would play Widowmaker on attack after they realize the opposing team also as a Windowmaker and an Ana that can focus their fire on you. There is also an unusual tendency for players to over extend, which ends up making defense harder than it needs to be.

Picked up one play of the game last night as Moira, other characters used were Reinhardt, Ana, Brigitte, Tracers, Bastion and several others.

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal during their birthday stream of Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal

The plan for tonight's stream is resume Alice: Madness Returns, picking up in the middle of Chapter 3. If things go right we could try and knock out

Finished the Star Trek story as an exclusive for my subscribestar followers, now I ponder what will be the next story I write on the side. Did pick up another commission request, based on the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, I think I'll keep it mostly generic.

Threw together an odd combination of items for dinner last night involving beats, corn and tuna fish. It was serviceable.  

Picked up a fresh box of contractor bags, because while a good portion of things were already dealt with there is still more stuff I need to make decisions on either keeping or throwing out. 

I am curious over how many play through of Hades I'm going to need to do to get the final two achievements since they are tied to character relationship progression.  

Recorded another video going through DVDs, the eighth in that series of videos for my YouTube channel, it features a lot of wrestling DVDs as well as a quite a few movies

I have been contemplating figuring out some sort of Karaoke gimmick to do on stream, and I've seen some limited options. Question is if there are USB microphones that work with consoles.

Watched Highlander following last night's stream, because I wanted to watch something, and it was the best option available without me thinking too hard! .Plus some of the Amazon Prime suggestions I was getting were very suspect.

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

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

It's a day indeed

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was solid, got two complete interviews done... one by appealing the person's tenure in their industry. Turns out a lot of companies switching to automation is losing them business with retailers selling their product.

Last night's stream of Alice Madness Returns saw us doing the second half of Chapter Two and the first half of Chapter Three (if my estimation was correct). A huge part of why it's taking me so long to get through chapters is that I'm trying to find everything, and I'm constantly checking every area I can find. Good thing we're moving A:MR to Mondays & Tuesdays. 

That said, one thing I love about the third chapter is the overal change in theme is present to reflect the fact it's influence of the Victorian mythos China, and the fact that it's mostly bright and colorful, as opposed to the dark and dreary first and second chapters that were more industrial and underwater.

Next time we'll be placing A:MR of course will be on Monday!

Alice: Madness Returns Achievements

• Cold Arms, Cold Heart: Defeat the Drowned Sailor without taking any damage
• Shooting the Moon: Collect 4 Jars of Rose Paint
• Grim Folly: Complete Wonderland Chapter 2
• Death by Darjeeling: Acquire the Teapot Cannon

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal during their stream of Final Fantasy XIV at twitch.tv/kalenal!  

The plan for tonight is to continue Spider-Man, and I know we're nearing the half way point of the main campaign, since we've covered a lot of the side content that would be association with Mr. Negative's thugs. Actually, from what I can a large part of what's left in the game will me main story outside of a handful of side-missions and tracking down all the major thug events.

Completed the requirements for the Epilogue in Hades last night, so now my main goal is to deal with the Achilles and Megara story arcs which would result in two more achievements, but the grind for both will take a good while.

Hades Achievements

• Friends Forever: Max-rank each standard Keepsake
• One for the Ages: Reach the epilogue of the story

Trying to keep track of bills is easy... making sure they actually take the money when I pay them, that is oddly difficulty in some cases!

Nearly finished writing the latest Mass Effect short story commission, just need to wrap up the finishing details.

The Phillies have once again regressed to a sometimes all and mostly nothing team based on their performance this week. 

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

Shower Drains And Overwatch

 Good morning everyone,

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

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

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

Overwatch 2 Achievements

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Return of Alice: Madness Returns

 Good morning everyone,

Yes I forgot to post yesterday's blog until the afternoon... my bad.

Work yesterday was great, with three completed interviews... but on the flip side, no work today because of Good Friday. I swear if I got paid for every time work was put off because of a day that is not a federal holiday, I would be in good shape. Oh well...

Last night's stream saw me starting up Alice: Madness Returns, and I can't remember exactly when I played the PC before, but it was a few years ago, so going through the tutorial was great to remember how to play. I am impressed with how responsive the controls are, and for the most part I can zip around and avoid most damage I would take... but my bad game play skills and not remember how some enemies attack or defend. Take the tea pot enemies, I have to use the Pepper Grinder to stun them before diving in and using the Blade to break them... but remembering and re-learning the timing took a few attempts.

Now while there are only five chapters in the game... they are long chapters. In fact we only covered the entire first chapter and about half of the second chapter during the stream. Granted a big reason for the time it was taking for me to finish the first chapter was due to me trying to find all the collectables... and I'm rather perplexed on how I missed the ones I did. 

I also have to say I love the art style of Alice: Madness Returns, despite being released in 2011, it still holds up extremely well.

I was asked by Striker if I played the original American McGee's Alice which was released in 2000, and the answer is... nope. But I do know the Xbox 360 version of Alice: Madness Returns includes the original game, so maybe after I finish A:MR we'll play AM:A.

Alice: Madness Returns Achievements

• No Happy Returns: Back to Wonderland
• Snicker-snack!: Acquire the Vorpal Blade
• Ground Pork: Acquire the Pepper Grinder
• Strike a Deal: Upgrade a Weapon
• End of Innocence: Complete Vale of Tears
• Hatter's Demise: Complete Wonderland Chapter 1
• Strange Hobby: Acquire the Hobby Horse
• Weapon Schizo: Hobby Horse to Vorpal Blade to Hobby Horse Combo
• No quarter! No mercy!: Defeat 100 Ruin Enemies
• Dress-Ups: Equip a Different Domain Dress

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing some board games during their stream at twitch.tv/SweetLindir

The plan for tonight is not to play Spider-Man, but instead Elder Scrolls Online. The reason is because Striker will not be available on Saturday for the normal ESO night, so this week ESO is tonight, and Spider-Man will be tomorrow.

Watched a few movies last night Rocky Balboa, The Replacements & The Big Tease.... and also did some more writing on the Mass Effect short story commission, I figure it's about 60% complete at this point. And also did several runs of Hades, earning more achievements and knocking out various in-game objectives.

Hades Achievements

• War-God's Bloodlust: Fulfill the 'War-God's Bloodlust' Prophecy
• Rare Collectible: Equip a Chthonic Companion
• Musician and Muse: Fulfill the 'Musician and Muse' Prophecy
• Dark Reflections: Fulfill the 'Dark Reflections' Prophecy

Oh and I now have a 12 day streak of Xbox achievements, earring 83 over that time frame. It's not often I get a streak of more than a few days so that's pretty cool

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

Finished New Tales From The Borderlands... Now What

Good morning everyone,

Work was rather bleh... the sample we're having to work with is horrible, whoever put it together did a horrible job in my not so humble opinion.

Last night's stream of New Tales From The Borderlands certainly lasted longer than I thought, because Episodes 4 and 5 had a lot more plot heavy and extended scenes, that matched the timed it took to get through the first three episodes the previous night. That said, I am more than satisfied with it, not to thrilled with Stapleface being killed off for narrative purposes... but the fact that the choices made during the episodes really effect the outcome involving who lives in terms of the main characters certainly warrants future play throughs (at least 4 from what I understand)

Some things I missed were the Vault figures, as I know I missed opportunities to find them and I think one major choices in the 5th episode leads to an option of earning a few. The biggest problem with getting the other endings is that some very specific choices needs to be done.

That said, I think for me the most important aspect was the reveal that Fiona from the original 'Tales From The Borderlands', gets a cameo that sets up future adventures... as one of my biggest disappointments from the character reveals for Borderlands 3 was that Fiona didn't have a cameo of any kind. Still hearing the familiar voice of Laura Bailey certainly was cool.

New Tales from the Borderlands Achievements

• You Poor Now!: Spend the money from Sink or Swim.
• You Got the Goods, Kid: Nail a perfect, sexy dance.
• Mas, Por Favor: Wish for more tacos.
• The Shardmenstration: Complete Episode 4.
• Tale in the Toilet: Reach a Tale Over for the first time.
• Totally Intentional: Fail an action for the first time.
• Those Were the Days...: Win the retro battle.
• And Still Champion...: Win every Vaultlanders battle.
• Super Trusting Friend!: Perform every background check.
• ...To Heroes: Complete Episode 5.
• Hey, Thanks!: Watch the credits after finishing the game.

For the raid we dropped in on PrincessPashley during their music stream over at twitch.tv/PrincessPashley 

The plan for tonight's stream is the usual Wednesday night split between Fall Guys and Resident Evil 5, with the goal of maybe getting chapter 3 done in that with Iceman. We'll see if we have any luck in that regard.

Now question is... what game will replace New Tales From The Borderlands in the line up... well, this Thursday we'll be starting up Alice: Madness Returns. I have played the PC version before, but this time we'll be playing the Xbox 360 version for... you guest it... achievement purposes. Plus its a neat game. Monday and Tuesday's game will be Zorro: The Chronicles... because...why not. It looks like it should take me at least two full streams to play through.  Plus since we got Spider-Man, I really don't want to start up another massive open world game at this point

Unwisely, I did two more runs in Hades last night... did get another achievement which kind of made it worth it.

Hades Achievements

• Slashed Benefits: Fulfill the 'Slashed Benefits' Prophecy

Surprised the Phillies managed to win a game after being smacked around in the first four games of the season. Can already tell it's going to be a long 2023 in South Philly.

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

The Googly Eyes Of Overwatch

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was a lot of fun, with only a handful of matches making me question the intelligence of the teammates I got grouped with. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun. I picked up a few Plays of the Game as Orissa, Reinhardt and Bastion during tonight's matches. Other characters used were Junker Queen, Moira, Ana, Widowmaker, Ashe, Wrecking Ball and others.

With it being the weekend for April Fools, I totally forgot about the googly eyes being on every character in the game... which made for some disturbing visuals depending on the skin. To my surprise, there voice lines for ultimates were also changed, and it was hilarious to hear Moira yell 'Kamehameha!' when doing her ult!

To my surprised, I did end up getting one of Widowmaker's achievement's done last night completely at random. Keeping in mind, and it was an off-chances that I was able to pull it off... because the requirements for the achievement indicates that it should be done at the same time, but I know I didn't get four eliminations with her venom mine. Oh well.

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Did That Sting?: Kill 4 enemies using Widowmaker's Venom Mine during a single Quick or Competitive Play game.

For the raid we dropped in on TracyDoll during their stream of Resident Evil 4 Remake over at twitch.tv/tracydoll

For tonight's stream we're starting up New Tales From The Borderlands, and I figure we should be able to finish it in two nights, based on my history with other episodic games of a similar nature

Got mom's portrait hanging on the wall by the entrance to the kitchen. It's kind of straight... more or less

Did a fair amount of writing done yesterday afternoon for the latest Mass Effect short story commission, with luck it will not take a week to finish writing it. Wait didn't I say that last week regarding the last story story?!

Played some more Hades last night and knocked out two more achievements.

Hades Achievements

• Grown Close: Forge a bond with any character
• Well Versed: Fully Unlock the Olympians' Codex entries

People mocking the DLC road map for Saints Row '22 clearly didn't play it, because as I recently proved, it's not a bad game and I was doing every single thing in it that I considered possible on stream! 

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

We finished a main story in ESO!

Good morning everyone,

Well yesterday started with me calling my dad back after he called me late the previous night. Surprisingly civil conversation. Do know he's heading to Indiana next week, for what I do not know.

Did find an exterior plug which explains how my mom used the lawn trimmer, so I can easily deal with the grass without having to worry about leaving the front door open for an extension cord.

Last night's stream of Elder Scrolls Online saw Striker and I finish the main story quest, and it was pretty cool in terms of wrapping up the story with Lord Vivic. There are still a lot of side quests to cover in the Vvardenfell, and I'll like to get those done before we move into other areas of the game. Was pleased to see by completing a main story quest resulted in earning an achievement. 

Of course the next time we play it will be on Friday, flipping it with Spider-Man this week because Striker will be unavailable on Saturday

The Elder Scrolls Online Achievements

• Champion of Vivec: Restore Lord Vivec's lost power, save Vivec City, and be named Champion of Vivec.

 For the raid we dropped in on Felkimchi while they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/felkimchi

And since we have a new week, that means tonight we're playing Overwatch! What carnage shall happen tonight? We'll just have to wait and see.

Finished The Mass Effect story common request and got the go-ahead to continue on with the next chapter of it. Also began writing the next installment of my Star Trek: Yar series which be based on the season one episode The Naked Now.

One thing on the agenda for today is laundry. You may ask why because I never go anywhere. But thing is while I do have a large stash of t-shirts, other garment I do not have much of. Figure doing laundry once every two weeks is about average.

Ended up watching Born in East LA last night following the stream... and I'm surprise my DVD copy had an aspect ratio of 4:3... still a funny movie if some of its jokes don't age well.

Also did more grinding in Hades last night as well clearing out several achievements. At this point I have 32 of the games 49 achievements. Does surprise me that I got good enough with this game's gimmicks to bang out successful runs

Hades Achievements

• Had to Happen: Fulfill any 15 Prophecies
• Tools of the Architect: Choose 50 different Daedalus Hammer enchantments
• Hold the Onions: Clear an Erebus Gate without taking damage
• Weapon of Fate: Clear an escape attempt with a hidden Weapon Aspect
• Bad Call: Use an Olympian's Greater Call against them in a Trial

So 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

Big night of Overwatch

Good morning everyone, 

Last night's stream got off  to a rough start as my mic wasn't quite working correctly, warranting a stream restart. First time that's ever happened.

Once that was sorted, we got down to playing Oveewatch 2, big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun. We certainly were hampered by some noobs who clearly had no clue of what they were doing, but we did won a lot more than we lost. I picked up four plays of the game (1 as Moira, 2 as Reinhardt and 1 as Junker Queen), which means this months collection of Plays of the Game for March is at 18 (assuming I don't get one in an off-stream session).

Other characters used were Orisa, Wrecking Ball, Ana, Mei, Junkrat, and a handful of others.

Did discover that the analog stick on my Xbox One controller does have some drift, mostly moving in an upward direction. So will have to track down a back up wireless controller for it at some point if it get worse. 

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was doing a voice acting stream of the visual novel Hotoful Boyfriend over at twitch.tv/flint_locke

The plan for tonight's stream is of course Hi-Fi Rush, picking up at Chapter 4 I believe, and if things go right we could knock out a huge chunk of the game tonight. Yes we are looking for the possibility of finishing Hi-Fi Rush this week, and what we do tonight will determine that.

With the strong possibility of finishing Hades on Thursday, I'll have to consider what to do with the Thursday night streams.

Finished up both the Dragon Ball short story commission and the original idea I had for an All That story. The first is already up on my Subscribestar page and will be posted publicly after the 28th, the later will be exclusive for my Subscribestar followers for the month of April

Ended up doing more organizing of things in the basement, getting the shelves in order mostly as I do want to move away from using crates as make-shift 'bookcases'  

Also ended up watching Space Jam last night, for no real reason, just wanted to watch something silly.

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

We Had THREE Successful Escapes In Hades?!

Good morning everyone, 

Despite how yesterday started, work was incredible with four complete interviews, and the shift nearly went as long as I schedule myself for!

Also spoke with my uncle Abraham yesterday afternoon, talked alot about food... what can I say... in my family, we like to eat!

Last night's stream of Hades got off to a shaky start because of issues caused by a surprise update to the Xbox consoles, but then we pulled off three straight successful escapes, two with the spear, and one with the bow. The plot over how Persephone ended up in the underworld and the possible war that could erupt between the gods is certainly an interesting twist. 

So now I'm up to eight escapes, with a streak of four in a row. I could have gone for a ninth escape last night, but that would mean the single objective for next Thursday would be to just clear one escape to finish the main story. So I ended the stream at about the 4 hour mark to preserve the idea of finishing the game next week.

Hades Achievements

• Back to Work: Earn access to and enter the Administrative Chamber
• Blood Bound: Max any Weapon Aspect
• Thanks, But No Thanks: Purge a Legendary Boon

For the raid we dropped in on caphrine_ while they were playing Apex Legends over at twitch.tv/caphrine_

The plan for tonight's stream is of course, Marvel's Spider-Man on the PS4. I am going to lower the combat difficulty, and first focus on finding all the Kingpin bases through out the city. Yes I am taking the approach I use in every other open world game I've played

Picked up three t-shirts associated with 93.3 WMMR, a local radio station here in the Philadelphia area. Mostly to replace a few shirts that I regularly wear.It's good to retire shirts from time to time, particularly when I rotate through the same 20 shirts

Need to remember to pick up some milk and bread over the weekend.

Finished writing the Daria story to fulfill a commission request, and started work on the next commission request for another Dragon Ball related story. Hopefully that won't take a week to finish

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

Hey... finally played a Resident Evil game on stream!

Good morning everyone,

I will admit today was one of those days where I didn't feel like I getting out of bed, like I heard my alarms going off, but I just didn't feel like moving as I just laid in bed thinking to several hours. This reflected on my Fitness Boxing workout this morning as well, as I only did 18 minutes. 

Anyway, work yesterday was... shorter than expected, but the assignment was interesting, as we were interviewing folks in New York regarding a public official, and its always interesting to see how people answer when asked straight forward questions.

Last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and I was apart of a winning show in a squad. With the double XP on Show points, we were able to gain a lot of shards considering I have the base battle pass completed. I do have to point out that reoccurring problem of Fall Guys just starting duo and squad shows with teams that are at an unfair disadvantage. Squads are supposed to be teams of fours... but if your team only has three people, you're basically screwed from the word go!

We also played Resident Evil 5, and we have to thank Iceman for being apart of the fun on this, as I was certainly struggling in dealing with the controls which aren't as good as I would expect considering the types of enemies running around. Still since it was designed with co-op in mind, having Iceman's help and experience meant we kept the death count fairly down. I think if Capcom designed the game with mobility in mind, it would be a lot more straight forward in being able to handle things.

That said, we did knock all of chapter one and the first half of chapter two... and the boss fights we encountered certainly were more puzzle based than I anticipated. Although one encounter resulted in us both being roasted alive! 

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Completed Chapter 1 - 1: Complete Chapter 1 - 1 on any difficulty setting.
• Completed Chapter 1 - 2: Complete Chapter 1 - 2 on any difficulty setting.
• A Cut Above: Defeat 5 enemies with the Knife.
• Completed Chapter 2 - 1: Complete Chapter 2 - 1 on any difficulty setting.

For the raid we dropped in on pradoxgamerau who was playing Stellaris over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

The plan for tonight stream is to continue Hades, We already have five escapes under out belt, and we need five more! If we get can get two done tonight that would be awesome! Of course the success of each run depends on the weapon along with the boons we're able to pick up along the way.

Basically crashed to bed right after the stream, so I didn't get to do any of the writing I had planned, but I will work on the Daria story after tonight's stream. Or even before, depends on if work if cut short again.

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

We're Up To 5 Successful Escapes in Hades

Good morning everyone,

Work yesterday was solid, while not as good as Wednesday, it was still a good day on several fronts.

My brother came by and we now have a good idea of how to get some things out from the basement after I cleared away several things. It'll be a snug fit, but we should be able to get the couch, TV and deep freezer out with hopefully little trouble.

Happy Birthday to my Aunt Grace! Woo-Hoo!

Last night's stream of Hades was awesome, as we escaped a 4th and 5th time... and we nearly had six successful attempts, but came up just a bit short. At this point I'm halfway through the main quest of the game. So we need to get through 5 more runs in order to complete the main story. I'm certainly not going to do the Epilogue grind because that would take forever!

So far,  I have made successful escapes 3 times with the Twin Fists, 1 time with the Heart Seeking Bow and 1 time with the Adamant Rail. Still need to accomplish that with the Stygian Blade, Eternal Spear and Shield of Chaos, but I'm not going to stress over that aspect of the game since I know what works with Twin Fists and certainly Adamant Rail if I get the right combinations of Boons and Hammers.

Hades Achievements

• Blessed by the Gods: Choose 100 different Olympian Boon effects
• Home Makeover: Pay for 50 jobs from the House Contractor
• River Denizens: Catch a fish from each region
• Urge to Sing: Compel Orpheus to sing again

For tonight's stream, we're starting up Marvel's Spider-Man on the PS4, I know... I know, yet another open world game. But hey, have to make use of the PS4 and play the games that are exclusive to it!  We went ahead and installed it last night following the stream. And yes, I do have the Game of the Year edition with all the DLC included

With last' night raid we dropped in on TokuShoutSu during a marathon of Ultraman 80 over at twitch.tv/TokuSHOUTsu  

Was given a random giftsub to a channel ran by Caphrine_ last night, they seemed cool. Check them out over at twitch.tv/caphrine_ and the only thing I know is that they were playing Apex Legends.

I am partially attempted to order take out tonight... I mus resist the temptation, because I am trying to eath healthy... 95% of the time.

Saw the trailer for Persona 5: X which is a spin off game with new characters... and I was intrigued... then I learned it was for a mobile game...! Oh well I do have to play the Xbox versions of Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal! 

Finished writing the Dragon Ball commission request and picked up one for one another Daria story based on the episode 'College Bored'. Already have a huge portion of it written.

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

A Full Night of Fall Guys

Good morning yesterday,

Song of the Day: Strokin' By Clarence Carter

Yesterday was an incredible day of work, one of the best days I've had in quite a while! It was super cool to actually interview people who were interested in the subject matter

Last night's stream of Fall Guys was a lot of fun, as we dedicated the entire night to it. While we didn't win any shows, we did make it the final round several times. And we were joined by Iceman, PandaSweet & FelKimchi for several games. That's right we had an entire squad of players! It certainly lead to a lot of hilarious moments.

We also announced that Resident Evil 5 will be apart of the Wednesday night lines ups starting next week, as that will be the next big co-op adventure game for me and Iceman. It's been a long time since he played it, and I only played it briefly several years ago before I even started streaming. Thank goodness it has an easy mode of sorts!

Following the steam, Iceman and I got to talking about Doctor Who... and while I can recite chapter and verse of the order of the Doctor's regenerations, there was a question over how many the character had with the companions around

The plan for tonight is to continue Hades, as I do want to try and complete seven full escapes to reach the credits to get the 'ending'. Here's hoping we can get a few escapes tonight!

For the raid we dropped in on pradoxgamerau while they were playing Stellaris over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Made another video going through my DVD collection, and this had a big focus on James Bond films. This will be avaliable on my YouTube Channel around April 5th 

Had a talk with my dad this morning... it was interesting... more or less and I'll eave

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