Xfinity replaced the lines and the modem...

 Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday afternoon the senior tech as Xfinity who has been monitoring my issues came out to replace the line that leads to the modem and the modem itself, I can say I did see a mark improvement in terms of latency in Overwatch. While we did have the modem go down fully suddenly, I was aware of the possibility because I was told it may resent randomly due to installing various firmware updates. The modem was changed from an XB7 to an XB8... and one big difference between the two models is the XB8's light can actually be seen from different angles.

 I was also told that this point if I continue to have issues the culprit is either going to be my ethernet card is going bad which is unlikely because the same issues I had were also on the Xbox One and Series consoles.. or the issue is going to be with the 'plant' that serves the area. They also used a howler to test to see if any noise is being ingested into the lines and they came up negative, which again narrows things down to two possibilities.

As for the Overwatch fun, well we had a solid night on all fronts when it comes of matches. We of course were joined by PandaSweet for a lot of fun, and I picked up two plays of the game as Moira and Mei. Other characters used included D.va, Reinhardt, and Ashe. 

I also learned that all Overwatch accounts are being merged with the launch of Overwatch 2, and that cross progression will be a thing with skins and achievements, which is means on the console side we'll get the achievement boost as well!

Twitch Clips

• Surrender to my will!
• Shutting Down Reaper's Ultimate 
• Quad Kill!... So Mean Honestly! 
  

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was trying to finish Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Chapter 8 - Matsuribayashi over at twitch.tv/flint_locke!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Hip Shape Focus Combo and Straight Combo #2 for 28 minutes..

Was able to catch FnDanteSavage streaming today, great to see him back as he was one of the first people I started following on Twitch. He was playing Tormented Souls over at twitch.tv/fndantesavage!

What concert is worth just 45 cents? 50 Cent and Nickelback.

Why can't a hand be 12 inches long? Because then it'd be a foot. 

Song of the Day:  All the Kids are Depressed by Jeremy Zucker!

Phillies totally blew their chances to make headway towards the Playoffs with how badly they lost to the Mets this weekend. Again, I predicted this last week.

Also my fantasy baseball teams completely had terrible weeks...so there is a good chance I will not make the playoffs in either fantasy league.

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, the goal is focused on the Citadel DLC and hanging out with the crew of hte Normandy as well as the party. Following that, the assault on the Cerberus Base and Earth will be the next big things.

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

Mystery Heroes and A Mostly Stable Stream

Good afternoon everyone, 

So update on the Xfinity situation, the Senior Tech gave me an update that they were able to capture a system issues on the outside and they contacted a maintenance supervisor to send out a line tech, I was waiting for an update, but the tool they were using to monitor my connection was under maintenance so he could not see any logs from the tech to get an idea of what was done. I logged into the catway to see a number of things about the eRouter being administrativley disabled then enabled as Dual Stack, plus Missing Required Options 82 and 24. At least I'm being kept up to date on this.

Now last night's stream did see one instance of the stream being held up, and several minor instances of frame drops of Overwatch itself indicating a weak connection at times. That said, we had fun, we played a mix of Quick Play and Mystery Heroes. We were joined by PandaSweet for a good portion of the night which is always a treat! I picked up two plays of the game as Dva using her new skin. Other characters used were Moira, Mei, Torb and several others.

On a side note, a bit disappointed that this turn of the ReMix event does not give us any PVE options like the first two volumes of the ReMix. What we'll see on Sundays are Winter Brawls and different Lunar Jump variants on some match types.

Twitch Clips

• Holding the line!
• That's Two... But Where Did The 3rd One Go?! 
• A Wild Finish!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Chapter 8 - Matsuribayashi over at twitch.tv/flint_locke! Flint is a very talented singer and does some Dungeons & Dragon streams every now and then.  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #2 for 28 minutes.

Finished the commission request for a WWE story yesterday afternoon, and got another one based around Avatar The Last Airbender. I'm not too familiar with that show, in fact I've only ever played the Legend of Korra video game a couple of years ago! So some research will be involved!. 

What did the left butt cheek say to the right butt cheek? "You crack me up!"

What do you call someone who points out the obvious? Someone who points out the obvious. 

Song of the Day: Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John! 

My main Fantasy Baseball team that I have been directly trying to keep tabs on is sitting in 4th place in the its league, while my secondary team is sitting in 3rd. If all goes right, both teams could hit the playoffs. 

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 playing Mass Effect 3, with the focus being on the Quarian and Geth part of the story, which should be pretty straight forward! Also last night I put in quite a bit of time playing the Multiplayer mode, getting a Volus and Turian to level 20... and I learned the hard way that Turians can't roll. I'm only 1700 kills to the Veteran achievement, which we should put a fair dent into tonight... maybe... hopefully lol/

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

A New Week Starts

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch saw the usual Sunday night shenanigans and thankfully without any issues from Xfinity. Big shout out and thanks to Tokidoki and PandaSweet for being apart of the fun, we ended up going 5-5 in out final ten matches, but two of those wins were rather epic in how hard fought they were. In fact one match saw all three of us get post-match cards based on our individual performances.

In terms of how I did solo, I picked up two plays of the game as Moira this week which is always nice. Other characters used were D.va, Orissa, Reinhardt, Brigitte and Anna. I didn't really get an opportunity to do any DPS roles on this week's stream. Ah well.

Twitch Clips 

• Wheee!!!
• Cleaning Up The Mess 
• Trying TO Keep Them Boxed In!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Chapter 8 - Matsuribayashi over at twitch.tv/flint_locke!

Did mess around some with Overwatch 2 last night, mostly to try and figure out some timing with Moira's new kit, and I think I figured out some things... but it does appear her new 'damage orb' can be blocked by enemy shields. Also in a 1v1 against Brigitte, Moira no longer has an advantage as far as I can tell.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #1, Hook Combo #1 and Waist Shape Focus Combo for 31 minutes

Finished writing the latest commission request featuring WWE's Xia Li yesterday afternoon, and it turned out fairly alright I think. Though some complained I did not include Gifs or Pictures to add flavor to it, to which I say there are far too many writers who basically use Gifs and Pictures as ways not to write out various details.

So I'm thinking a head ot Saturday's stream, and I do have NFL Game Day '98 in my collection... maybe we'll check that out?

Had issues with Amazon yesterday in that the delivery person lied on exactly where the placed my package. And trying to lodge a complaint certainly was not possible. Still, we now have The Quarry and Life Is Strange Volume #6 which collects the final issues of the series published by Titan Comics. The plan for the Quarry is for it to be apart of the Spooky Stuff in October

Staying on Life is Strange though, the final issues kind of save the series which certainly went out of its way to try and make the trio of Max-Rachel-Chloe work, but it was quite clear early on that it was not going to be something that really worked, so the final issues being about getting back to normal really ends the series on a high note, in my opinion.

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 the plan is to wrap up the final chapters of Persona 4 Arena's Story Mode and do arcade runs with various characters. With luck we'll be able to get several instant death moves performed for various characters as well.

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

A Solid Night Of Overwatch

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch saw the usual break down as mostly matches in the flex role (which meant Tank and Support) before dedicating the final hour to playing Damage role characters. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun. Picked up three plays of the game last night as D.va, Reinhardt and Torbjourn. Other characters used were Junkrat, Mei. Wrecking Ball, Ashe & Moira. Think in our last 10 matches we went like 5-5... not 100% sure but I'm not about to go check. 

On a side note we did have a brief issues with Xfinity, my internet service provided during the stream... where it didn't go down fully, but it certainly interfered with the strength of signal to Twitch.

Twitch Clips

• The Focus Is Real
• Where Did She Go... COME HERE!!! 
• There goes my 12 kill streak...
  

During the stream we had a raid from YrGamerBunni who was playing Halo: Infinite over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Chapter 8 - Matsuribayashi over at twitch.tv/flint_locke! 

I mentioned it last night during the stream, but one has to admire the balls of Capcom to be putting out two compilations of arcade games that have some of the same games in both collections within a month of each other and charging the same amount for both. Of course I would go for the Capcom Fighting Colleciton first because that can and will be a streak of featuring the games in that collection... and then grab Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium down the road.

Disney is doing another live-action remake with Hercules... and unlike with most of their live action efforts, this one makes sense because there is little chance they will screw up the casting... oh wait... this is Disney... and they picked Will Smith to step into the role of the Genie for Aladdin...

Played a couple of matches of Assault in Smite last night, winning one of the two. Always nice to be able to split the difference.

Today's FItness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive COmbo #1, Double Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #2 for 28 minutes.

Shaved off my beard... I'm now a lot less fuzzy on the face.

Watched the first episode of Stargate SG-1 for the first time in a long time, it's amazing how much Richard Dean Anderson brings to the role of Jack O'Neil right off the bat.

Finished the WWE commissioned fan fic featuring Cody Rhodes & Brandi yesterday afternoon... and thank goodness I used the post-match promo he did at WrestleMania because it served as a great framing device. Ended up getting another commission request, again WWE related, this time to do something involving Brock Lesnar.

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, well we're going to wrap up Persona 5 Royal... we started it as a Friday Night Exclusive back in mid-February, and outside of one week where we also did a Saturday night stream, we kept to that. But with not much left to the game we'll take out time in finishing the remaining days with one final trip to Mementos, then give the Calling Card to Maruki, kick his sorry butt then it's just the time skip that occurs to Valentine's Day and then White Day to close it out.

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

Overwatch On A Night Where Will Smith Goes Insane

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was interesting as I picked up three plays of the game, two as D.va and one as Junkrat, and got in matches as them as well as Mercy, Anna, Symmetra.I'd say we'd probably had about a 50-50 split in terms of wins and losses, at least by what I remember based on when I'm writing this.

Now that said, I do believe both the Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony Maps need to be brought back to Overwatch for a couple of reasons, one being no one can justify their removal when their are similar maps still in the games, and two, being that there are a few tricks I can do on both maps as D.va and Moira that I miss doing. 

Particularly on the Paris maps while being on Attack, as D.va I can hop over a wall that really only she can get over and not instantly die if their is a turret other other side, and on the same map, with Moira I can use her Fade to  almost do the same thing to get past the first choke to get behind the enemy team by going to the right, or just going for the point to get their attention which allows my team to push through the choke (if my teammates have any brains on realizing what the situation was... which was only the case 20% of the time) 

Ah well, hopefully both maps will be in Overwatch 2 when that officially launches.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Call Mech, Ult, Get Get Mech, Use Pistol!
2. Quad Kill! 
3. A Quick Push
   

For last night's raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was continuing their voice acting streams of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Minagoroshi over on twitch.tv/flint_locke!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo

So Will Smith smacked the shit out of Chris Rock for a joke that involved his wife and a supposed sequel to G.I. Jane. Now I've seen the clip, and well, Smith should've known better... and the night he wins an Oscar for Best Actor will forever be known as the night he threw a hissy fit over an unfunny joke. But to be fair, Chris Rock hasn't been funny since his small part in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. That said, Smith is clearly in the wrong here, there is no logical way anyone can take his side and under any other circumstances, Smith probably would have been ejected. For better or worse, Rock did his job as a comedian and was a professional... and while many disagree about him choosing not to press charges, Rock proved to be the bigger man.

Messed around more with Aaero, managing to clear another stage in it , and also put in more time with the MyCareer mode of WWE 2K15, picking up two achievements with that.

Aaero Achievements

• Sequenz abgeschlossen: Complete 'Sequenz' on Normal

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Hard worker: MyCAREER - Have 5 attributes reach a value of 80 or higher.
• The next big thing: MyCAREER - Reach SmackDown.

For tonight's stream we're going to start up the classic Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2. As you know, I've played the PC / Origin version, and I've played the Legendary Edition last year. So it was a matter of time of playing the 360 version.

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

A Nice Night Of Overwatch

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night’s stream of Overwatch was rather interesting, with quite a few people early on finding spots to hide during a match, and I hate to say it, quite few were reported for inactivity and game play sabotage. Still things gradually turned our, as we put in the time to unlock the Porcelain rewards for the final week of the Lunar New Year Event, which means I’ll be going back to switch everyone’s skins to something else until the next Overwatch event probably in late March / Early April.

Big thanks to PandaSweet and BangBangBang for joining in many matches last night, it’s always nice to have other being apart of the chaos and mayhem that is Overwatch on a Sunday evening. Also picked up four plays of the game, all as D.va! Other characters I used were Tracer, Solider 76, Moira and Mei.

For the raid, we visited Flint_Locke over at twitch.tv/flint_locke who was doing a full Voice Acting stream of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Sticking To The Mercy
2. Keeping Them Boxed In 
3. Making The Push Happen! 
   

Sad news, Ivan Reitman, director of such films as Stripes, Dave and Ghostbusters has passed away. This makes his contributions to Ghostbusters: Afterlife all the more special.Funny thing that I learned about Reitman is that he was the executive producer of Mummies Alive!, a syndicated cartoon that aired (where I lived) on weekday afternoons. Goes to show you can learn a few things here and there. 

   Top 5 Favorite Films Directed By Ivan Reitman

1. Ghostbusters (1984)
2. Stripes
3. Dave
4. Kindergarten Cop
5. Ghostbusters II
   

So if you look at that list... you'd probably wonder why Meatballs and Twins are not on it. Well I've never seen Meatballs, despite being aware of it, and as for Twins, well, the whole conspiracy to keep the brothers Benedict (played by Danny DeVito and Arnold Scgwarzenegger) apart from each other their mother (played by Bonnie Barlett) has always bothered me as it didn't make any sense.

 

Today’s Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured a 31 minute workout that had Triple Combo #2, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a calorie burn estimated to be 543 kcal.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures has seen a focus on the dailies, and trying to really push towards boosting my gears score. I do realize that getting the level 90 bow is probably going to be the toughest things to do since that is going to be tied to the Pandemonium raids. Still getting used to doing the daily raids does mean seeing the same things over and over again, but unlike with Star Trek Online, Final Fantasy XIV does not have 20 different in-game currency types to worry about,

PandaSweet noticed there was some crackling ambient audio being picked up by my microphone, turns out it was some sound being heard from my monitors, So I moved my mic to where it's a foot in front of the monitors instead of hanging over them. So things may sound a little different on streams going forward.

For tonight's stream, we're going to move Kingdom Hearts III from Fridays to Mondays, as we'll be looking to deal with the next major world in it while also going after the remaining Lucky Emblems!

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

The Peppermint Bark Is Mine

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was the wrap up of the chase for the three Winter Event skins for 2021, with the goal on unlocking the Peppermint Bark skin for Brigitte. Surprisingly we had quite a few wins and some good matches along the way... with one exception, a match where I had to report five people for game play sabotage. Still we got in matches as D.va, Winston, Reinhardt, Mercy, Brigitte, Moira, Tracer, Bastion and Mei. Actually set a new personal best for freezing people in a round with 18 as Mei so that was pretty cool (Pun intended). Plays of the game were earned as D.va, Reinhardt and Winston!

Something I realized that I forgot to do was to put together the video of all the Plays of the Game I had in Overwatch for last year. Granted it only goes back to February 20, because of the computer issues that occurred, but hey I remembered to do it. Overall I earned 246 Plays of the Game, goes to show I can have my fair share of big moments. Sadly, three clips had issues with how they were saved, so we just roll with the other 243. The video itself will be an hour and 40 minutes. At the time of this post, it was 65% uploaded to YouTube.

Big thank you to LvStrkr for re-subbing to the channel during the stream, the continued support is always appreciated!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke who was doing a read aloud of the visual novel Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi! You can check them out over at twitch.tv/flint_locke!

Twitch Clip Links

• Booyakasha?!
• Getting on Fire as Moira 
• On fire as Mei! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #2, Beginner Combo #1 and Front-Back Step Combo for a duration of 28 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 439 kcal. Now here is the progress on the EX Achievements I'm currently grinding towards

• 49/50 Hours Trained with Karen for Karen's Champion
• 388/400 Stamps Acquired for Honored Stamper
• 530,360/540,000 total HITs for Immortal Weight Puncher
• 84/100 percent of all EX Achievements acquired for King EX Fighter

I should be able to knock off the Karen's Champion achievement sometime this week,  while both Honored Stamper and Immortal Weight Puncher seem like things I might be able to accomplish towards the end of next week.

With Jump Force 100% completed, my attention for X-Bos achievements turns to Dead or Alive 5 Last Round. I knocked off a bunch in the summer of 2020, so now is seeing which ones of the remaining I can get. Some of them involve the tutorial and I hate that with fighting games, so I think I'll focus on things involving time played, mainly one hour in free training and the 100 online matches. But here are the ones I did accomplish tonight.

Dead or Alive 5 Last Round Achievements

1. Rival Rampage: Fight online 10 times.
2. Anybody, Anytime, Anywhere: Set "Throwdowns" to "Accept" and have 10 Throwdowns in Versus, Arcade, or Free Training mode.
3. Change of Power: Press H+P+K during a Power Blow to tag in a partner and deliver a Tag Power Blow.

On the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection side of things, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting was knocked off the list of games in  the collection to beat, so that just leaves the original Street Fighter and Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. 

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection Achievements

1. Hyperactive: Beat Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting.
   

I advanced the plot in Final Fantasy XIV yesterday afternoon with the main story quests A Sleep Disturbed and An Old Friend. The first saw an interesting take on the Riddle of the Sphinx and a surprising battle that was really well thought out, which made me kind of wish it was a trial or raid. The second quest basically sets the tone that Elidibus is going to be a lot more direct with his intention to be bring back the world he helped destroyed.... but considering this is taking place in the post game of Shadowbringers, it does raise some questions.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife was listed as being available digitally today, but I guess that was a false date as now it's listed for tomorrow, January 4th

For tonight's stream we shall be hooking up the PS4 to continue Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, maybe I'll try to use the wireless controller to see if we can do the one set of bartender mini-games that is not possible with a wired controller.

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

 

 

 

Nothing But Mayhem

Good afternoon everybody,

Well yesterday was interesting, I did a bit of fan fic writing based around Jump Force, and those who know where I post those things can find it in the usual space.

Anyway last night's  stream of Overwatch was mostly Mayhem matches, and I finished on a 2 wins and 8 losses stretch... so not a good week win wise. But I mostly stuck with playing Damage heroes, so it's not like I was trying to go all out as per normal if I was a Tank or Support. I also messed around with the Experimental stuff, where there was some wild changes to how characters play, like for D.va for example, having her boosters last for 4 seconds instead of 2, which meant she was traveling farther. Wonder how many of those things will stick long term? I did get one play of the game as Cassidy, so as usual I had my moments!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke over at twitch.tv/flint_locke as they were playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi! 

Twitch Clip Links

• I show up and things happen!
• I got a couple out of that! 
• We did it! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured... Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 474 kcal. Stepped on the scale today and my weight looked to be about 242 lbs!

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements In Progress

• 360/365 Consecutive Days for One Year's Hard Work
• 32/50 Hours for Karen's Champion
• 360/400 Stamps for Honored Stamper
• 492,161/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5
• 82/100% for King EX Fighter
  

I will admit I have been doing a little extra each day as of lat, so the pacing for the Monster Weight Puncher is now ahead of the pace it's been on for the past month. Not sure exactly how the additional sessions are effecting the Karen's Champion achievement since I believe only the daily work out time increases it.

The long queues for Final Fantasy XIV certainly have a way of making one want to play it even more. The problem is Error 2002, which is caused by the smallest of interruptions in an internet connection that boots folks from their place in line! 

That said, I did put in several hours to put a large dent into the Main Story Quest, covering the entire Alphinaud Quest Chain up to An Unwelcome Guest. Also solo turns 1 to 3 of the Second Coil of Bahamut... the 4th coil has a few instant death mechanics that I will need help with.

On a side note: Eulmore is clearly a creepy place, Meol is basically Soylet Green because it is PEOPLE!

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we'll see how far we get as I clearly got distracted with exploration once we got to the Hidden City last week. There are certainly a lot of things in the area to find... but I know for sure, we're not finishing the game tonight!

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

I've Got My Monday Face On

Good afternoon everybody,

A new week begins, and it's a holiday week, so if you're heading out on the road to get places, please be safe!

Last night's stream of Overwatch certainly was the usual nonsense that occupies my Sunday nights. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in the fun! We certainly felt like those in roles we weren't playing left a lot to be desired.This is why we focus on playing damage roles in the later portion of the stream so at the very least we're not trying to carry matches! That said as I looked back through some clips, I don't think my aiming was exactly on point in some matches.

Did get three Plays of the Game as Moira, D.va and Torbjorn, so I had my share of exceptional moments.

Still, one thing everyone could see is that I can get really competitive, and I do try to keep that in check, and I did let it slip towards the end of the stream, It's why I mostly play Quick Play and not ranked, but cause that would be a show in and of itself! 

Big thanks to  redfoxukcov for using Twitch Prime to re-sub to the channel!

After the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke who was up to voice acting silliness with Higurashi no Naku Koro ni over at twitch.tv/flint_locke!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Focusing on the Objective!
• I wanted to get the Orissa... 
• Tracer's Read For Some...
  

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 estimated calorie burn of 555 kcal

Here's the progress update on the EX achievements of Fitness Boxing 2, as I'm closing in on several

1. 346/365 consecutive days for One Year's Hard Work
2. 25/30 hours for Karen's Contender
3. 346/350 stamps for Unparalleled Stamper
4. 474,933/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5 
5. 80%/100% Achievements for King EX Fighter
   

I should knock out Unparalleled Stamper by Friday since that is four days from today

Picked up the Hivebusters DLC for Gears 5 (aka Gears of War 5) as LVstrikR pointed out it was on sale this week, and also snagged Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as well. Heard it was way better than Marvel's Avengers which we played last year.On a side note: Microsoft's X-BOX website is not exactly working correctly either using Firebox or Microsoft Edge, as I had to use roundabout methods to pick up both items..

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw a major focused on the the raids associated with the Omega quest line, and I have to say that Alpha the Chocobo is cool, little guy just doing his best . If there was a plush of him, I'd say I want one! Anyway, some of the raids associated with the Omega side story are a little weird and gimmicky heavy, like fighting a train for example!  There there was the fact that we have to fight Midgardsormr at his peak... needless to say that didn't thrill me. 

Of course the world servers for FF14 went screwy and I had to see the largest queue to date of 700... so I can imagine what it's going to be like when Endwalker comes out! When I was able to get back in I just focused on filling out some of the Hunting log.

I've been using Avast as my anti-virus software... and while I'm very satisfied with it, it can be a little too damn intrusive on when it gives notifications about what upgrades are available.

For tonight's stream, we are resuming Rise of the Tomb Raider, we are picking up somewhere at the start of the final third of the game, so with luck we might be able to finish it, if not we'll certainly finish it on Tuesday night!

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

Junkenstein's Revenge Leads To The Ultima Weapon

 Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of course featured Overwatch, as we split the stream between doing Quick Play matches as well as various runs of Junkenstein's Revenge in the Halloween Terror event. Basically went back and forth between the two modes, with a few of the Junkenstein variants (Three There Were, Mystery Switch and Endless). Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on a bunch of these, as it was a completely chilled night. I did manage to grab a bunch of Plays of the Game in the event mode, two as McCree and one each for Tracer, Brigitte, Solider 76, Ashe and Torbjörn.

One thing Panda and I realized is that if you combined McCree's Ultimate with that of Baptiste's in this mode the outcome is very pleasing. Doesn't quite work as well with 76, but it was really it does a fair amount of damage.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke over at twitch.tv/flint_locke as they were doing another episode of their read aloud series of streams featuring Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Meakashi!

Twitch Clip Links

• Come on! Come on!
• One got through 
• Got Two Of Them With That 
• Happy Halloween... SQUISH! 
• An Empowered High Noon! 

Yesterday afternoon I made a quick trip to CVS for my refill of the chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse, and pointed out the head of the pharmacy that the amount in the bottle does not equal 30 days considering the instructions are for to use it twice a day! He said that would be fixed for the next and final time.

Following the stream and getting the Facebook video done, I loaded up Final Fantasy XIV, and made some progress on the Carpentry job quests before turning my focus back to the Main Story Quest... and everything was leading to my first tates of 'The Howling Wing' and a battle against the third primal, Garuda... which surprisingly was much more straight forward than the battle against Titan was. The thing is... it's what I saw in the cut scene afterward that has me concerned, as I saw the Ultima Weapon... and if things hold true to almost every other Final Fantasy game I've played, that thing is going to be a nightmare to defeat. Sure by the time I get to it, I'll probably be close to level 60 since it appears to be a Level 50 boss based on the MSQ, the gear I'm getting is mostly mid to high 40s, which means as high as my stats are going to be... the gear may not be up to par. Hell if things go right this week, we might stream this thing... depending on how I lay out doing the lead up quests in the mean time.

Experimented with a different way of getting the video and audio from the Elgato HD60S last night using the HD Capture software that downloads with capture card. Using it and listening to the audio through certainly seemed to work wonders and it also appears I can use the same software to play anything from the consoles without switching displays. This test was done using Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and everything seemed to work out. The tricky part would be if I should mute the desktop audio... further experimenting may be required. 

On the plus side, I finally earned another achievement in SPF2T... so yay!

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Achievements

1. Alternative Lifestyles: You completed Y or Z Arcade Mode on Hard or Expert Difficulty.
   

Paul McCarntey had the gall to call the Rolling Stones a blues cover bad when the Beatles were exactly the same thing. The only difference between the two is that the Stones didn't stray too far from the origins and were able to carve out a huge piece of music history, while the Beatles imploded because John Lennon had his head up his own ass.  

We have two new additions to my physlcal game collection: Alan Wake: Remastered for the PlayStation 4, and The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series for the Xbox One, which will remained seal.

Got confirmation that my Mail In Ballot was received by the Camden Count Board of Election back of September 28th for this year's General Election.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises Front-Back Step Combo, Hook Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 447 kcal. I needed to make a run to the post office, so no need for extra exercises today.Here's the update on the EX Achievement progress: 311/365 consecutive days for One Year's Hard Work, 22/30 hours for  Janice's Contender, 311/350 stamps for Unparalleled Stamper and 433,147/450,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 4.

For tonight's stream we'll be starting up The Walking Dead: New Frontier, with the plan being to tackle episodes 1, 2 and 3 tonight, then wrap it up with episode 4 & 5 tomorrow! 

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

Overwatch, Tweaks To The Stream Layout, Bots and more

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of course featured Overwatch, and big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on matches! I believe we won more than we loss over the course of the evening. In terms of who I used, D.va, Moira, Mercy, Tracer and Mei were featured.

With the Halloween event coming up, I switched everyone's skins over to their Halloween variants, thankfully  D.va finally got one last year! I am excited to see who gets new Halloween themed skins this year. 

Did pick up two plays of the game as D.va last night as well, and it's really been the year of D.va when it came to to getting big time plays.

There was a bit of weirdness where Overwatch's in-game voice chat went down for everyone, but since I have a Discord, Panda and I were still able to chat during all the chaos.

The stream did see a fair shat of bots last night, and not all were the hoss bots, but since I've gotten fairly good at at banning and blocking them, and I have no issue of putting the action on hold, dealing with them is not an issue for me.

We've also made more tweaks and adjustment to the stream so the game capture area takes up a good portion of things and serves as the top layer, while I am in the bottom right corner, chat box is above me, bit boss is above that and that the top is the logo.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke at twitch.tv/flint_locke who was continuing their journey through Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Meakashi!  It's a visual novel mystery, and Flint does a full on Reading Along stream with a few of their friends, which makes things rather silly at times! 

Twitch Clip Links

• Panda Got Blown Off The Blidge... I Get Blown Up ON The Bridge
• Being the definition of a word rhyming with chewed 
• Torb Can You Fly?! NO HE CAN NOT!!!!
• I'm On Fire! You Can't Be Serious!
• Sinking Baskets
• A Step Too Far... 

I watched episodes 2 to 8 of Clarkson's Farm over on Amazon, and not only is it interesting to see what it's like to be a Farmer, but also seeing more the direct impact COVID-19 had on Farmers.It does amaze me exactly how fucking insane the amount of paper work involved in farm work. That said I'd be very interesting in seeing another season of it, as the final episode certainly showed just how nuts harvest time can be.

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

1. 75892: Win the LEGO® Speed Champions Senna event.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises: Body Uppercut Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo. The estimated calorie burn was 436 kcal. We reached Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 3 and there is a level 4 to reach which required 450,000 HITs

Fitness Boxing 2 EX Achievements

1. Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 3: Reach a total punch count of 405,000 HITS
   

My weight has been stable at about 246 pounds , so that seems to be the next barrier to push through in the coming weeks, as getting past the 250 pounds mark took a while.

Trying to remember old Chrono Cross fan fics from 20 years has me wondering how to handle the Serge swap with Lynx, who is a Demi-Human. The first attempt didn't turn out a good result.

I do have to run off to the Post Office today to drop off my mail-in ballot's for the General Election here in New Jersey that is taking place in November. Why wouldn't every do the mail-in ballots? It just makes sense.

Phillies had their chance to really close the gap with the Braves, but they loss on Sunday afternoon while the Braves won. So now the Phillies have six games left, three against the Braves... and they are all must-win. And at this point I doubt the Phillies will end the season with a winning record.

For tonight's stream, we are kicking off the 'spooky season' with Ghostubsters; The Video Game Remastered... and we'll use the Xbox Series S console for this, so we'll be keeping the Xbox achievement streak going!

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

Lots of Wins Last Night Before A Trip To The Dentist Today

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun as we spent the entire night playing Quick Play matches, and I ended up picking up five plays of the game! Big thanks to PandaSweet and Chief_b33f for joining in on all the fun! We certainly won more than we loss, ending on a stretch of 7 wins out of the last 10 matches played. Here is the full list of matches played and who I used.

Sunday Night Overwatch Quick Play Matches

1. Moira - Win
2. Moira - Win
3. Moira - Win
4. Moira - Loss
5. D.va - Win
6. Reinhardt - Loss
7. D.va - Win
8. D.va - Loss
9. D.va - Loss
10. D.va - Win
11. Moira - Win
12. D.va -  Loss
13. D.va -  Win
14. D.va - Win
15. D.va - Win
16. D.va - Loss
17. D.va  - Win
18. D.va - Loss
19. D.va - Win
20. D.va - Win
21. D.va - Loss
22. D.va - Win

I did end up with 5 plays of the game, all as D.va through the course of the session which was really awesome. It's too bad I didn't mark down which matches they took place in because three came in a row, and then I had 2 in other matches, one of which was a loss and the other win.  

That said, because of all the ranked matches I've done recently using only D.va my 'bulldog' mentality that I use to have when using her has popped back up, such as diving in on Bastions and chasing down members of the opposing teams back line. Then again with PandaSweet playing Support and Chief_b33f also being a tank, it allowed me to play more loosely too.

Twitch Clip Links

• I'm The Last Person Standing!!!!
• SCOREBOARD! 
• Quad-Kill At Their Door Step! 
• Was That Mean? I don't think so!
• Get the Bastion Twice in 30 seconds 
• Orissa Pulled Me Down!!!!! 

Yesterday was National Video Game Day, and as a stream I do play a lot of video games. I firmly believe there is a video game for everyone out there, some even Free to Play... hell some of the stuff I have played falls under that category.. 

After the stream we raided Flint_Locke who was playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Himatsubushi and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Meakashi which are visual novels, they have been working on that for several weeks, doing full on voice overs of the dialog along with some of their friends, which makes it a great experience to watch and listen! You can check out Flint_Locke over on twitch.tv/flint_locke

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily consisted of Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Intermediate Combo #1 and Triple Combo #2 while lasting 31 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 524 kcal. Finally managed to get a perfect score on the Biceps Shape Focus Combo. Achievement progress update, we're up to 20 hours out of 30 for the Hiro's Contender Achievement, day 276 out of 300 for the Ten Months Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper achievements. . 

Now as indicated I do have a dentist appointed today, at 2 PM Eastern, I'll be walking to it and walking back, so I should be back in time for tonight's stream, But because I don't know what they are going to do beyond probably X-Rays, a cleaning and probably ripping me for not going to a dentist for so long, I'm probably going to have a very casual stream tonight. 

With that in mind, depending on how I'm feeling which might do some Star Trek Online, or we could go ahead and start up a larger game. Other consideration is doing a night of APBA Baseball

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