Marvel's Midnight Suns and other notes

Tonight we extended the stream of Marvel Midnight Suns because I was trying to find the last one of the plants I needed to that collection related achievement... sadly RNG is a factor even with a guide knowing where stuff will spawn. Need to make sure to go hunting on the Waxing Moon next time in game.

Otherwise we advanced the plot the Sanctum Santorum has been destroyed, but we were able to finally start the Venom DLC, which means the sub-story involving the DLC characters can progress forward. Mephisto being a factor is kind of cute.

Marvel's Midnight Suns will return on Thursday's stream.

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Hunt Showdown

Work was solid, the assignment was not as good as last night however

Finished the Persona 3 story, next up is a large Star Wars one, hopefully I can pad it out to make up for lost work from last week 

Marvel's Midnight Suns Achievements

• KKRRAKATHOOM: Spent 10 Heroism with a single ability.
• A Light Extinguished: Completed the New York story missions.
• Never Been Satisfied: Completely spend and then refill Venom's Ravenous meter in a single encounter.

Marvel's Midnight Suns and other notes

Tonight's stream saw a lot of roaming around the abbey in Midnight Suns as we opened up new ares to explore and saw that there are things that re-spawn periodically. S between every mission there is bound to be a Mass Effect like roaming around session.

I do need to get the Hunter to level 8 or higher to unlock the second hidden power, and possibly try to get abilities that can strike multiple enemies at once.

We didn't really advance the plot, but discovered there are missions that can be done before major story ones to earn additional rewards and such. I'm really liking this game overall!

Marvel's Midnight Suns will return on Thursday's stream

Tomorrow night we're playing wither Sea of Thieves or Smite, depends on Iceman's availability. 

For the raid we dropped in on sweetlindir who was playing Hunt Showdown

Work was solid, we closed out one assignment and switched to another... and best part was... no power outage

Nearly finished the Mass Effect story commission, need to write one more scene for it.

Marvel's Midnight Suns Achievements

• Elemental, My Dear Agatha: Solved the mystery of Agatha's Altar.
• Might Need Pockets: Crafted a combat item at the Item Bench.
• Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble: Used Agatha's Cauldron to complete a Recipe.

Borderlands 2 and other notes

Tonight's stream of Borderlands 2 saw a huge hang up when it came to making sure I can redeem the SHIFT Keys in order to get top tier gear every so often.Once that was sorted, we made nice progress, knocking out two story missions, high fived Claptrap and did several side quests.

There is one I came across that I know I'm not looking forward to doing and that involves making deliveries. I don't think I finished that quest in the Steam version several years ago.

Borderlans 2 will return tomorrow night for more fun

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Hunt Showdown

Work today was a complete slog as being so use to working evenings has me fighting to stay away...  ended up taking a nap after ward

Finished the Spider-Man commission after I finished work but before that nap, next up is a WWE related on, which I'll probably have to adjust some things to in order to keep it from being a two-parter 

New Jersey is replacing lead water pipes so now I have to deal with having their licensed pros coming into my home and doing who knows what to the front of my house. Hopefully I don't have a lead pipe and that can be avoided!

Borderlands 2 Achievements

• A Road Less Traveled: Completed the mission "The Road To Sanctuary"
• New In Town: Completed the mission "Plan B"
• Up High, Down Low: Gave Claptrap a high five
• Better Than You Were: Reached level 10
• Sugar Daddy: Tipped Moxxi $10,000

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes Achievement

• Justice League: Unlock all Justice League characters (Single Player Only)

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and other notes

Tonight we finished Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and if I thought fighting Superman was a pain in the ass, Brainiac was even more so, since that was a souped-up version of the Flash boss fight. Still we got several achievement thanks to how things progress to the story. All in all I really enjoyed it, and it is just a big budget version of Agents of Mayhem, and I will continue to make that comparison.

Now since this is a 'live service game', replaying it from the start can only be done via chapter select to replay various missions, but I do recommend folks play it.

I do think I will keep it in the weekly line up, moving it to Monday nights not next week but the following one,  since the first season expansion is coming soon, so we can see how that works out, plus if there are achievements being added, I would hate to miss out on them. Plus I suspect with Joker being added to the roster, that will be a good time to try on-line play.

Suicide Squad will be back on Saturday's stream, as we chase more achievements and work on getting everyone to level 30 before determining which character will be my 'main'.

Tomorrow's stream will feature Ghost of Tsushima with the big focus on clearly out the invaded areas in the first area of the map.

For the raid tonight, we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Hunt: Showdown

Work was really good, seven interviews on the Health and Wellness Study/

My YouTube Channel is now up to 346 subscribers thanks to the shorts, wonder if at some point I'll be able to earn something from it. Probably not.

Finished the first of four back to back to back to back WWE related story requests, this was was for the SubscribeStar Commission Tier. At least with the next two some extra funds will be earned.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Achievements

• Their Dark Designs: Achieve 26 Stars in Riddler AR Challenges
• Your World is Mine!: Complete the final Lex Luthor Support Squad Mission
• War Machine: Complete the final Gizmo Support Squad Mission
• Shock Treatment: Complete the final Hack Support Squad Mission
• No One Defeats Brainiac!: Kill The Collector of Worlds

South Park The Fractured But Whole and other notes

Tonight we started up South Park The Fractured But Whole, and really got into roaming around and and exploring, seeing what we could do early on, which was a fair bit. I really like the combat system as I realize I have to be a little more thoughtful of where I place my team so that no one is blocked. We'll resume it on Saturday's stream!

Friday's night's stream will feature Catherine Full Body.

For the raid, we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Hunt: Shodown

South Park: The Fractured but Whole Achievements

• Potty Trained: Used a toilet and achieved the highest mastery level
• Cosplay Curious: Wore costume pieces from 3 different sets at once
• Fashionista: Found 10 costume pieces
• #followbacks: Became mutual followers with 10 people in South Park
• Toxic Environment: Looted 100 Biohazard items
• Pasta of Prophets: Crafted a macaroni picture for Moses
• Junksmith: Crafted 10 distinct recipes

We did have work, after a shit ton of technical problems was sorted out, and I knocked out four interviews. Pretty good night.

Got a jump start on my taxes, still waiting on some forms to come in to fill it out. Hopefully we can get a refund this year.

Since I was dealing with that I only got a fair amount done in terms of the next commission request, which is Dragon Ball related, I'll be working on that during the day on Friday.

Also we're expecting more snow... and the stuff we already had just melted... fuck my life.

Good night!

Persona 5 Tactica and other notes

A new year begins with a New Game Plus run of Persona 5 Tactica, and this play through we're pretty much focused on leveling up as quickly as we can chase down the remaining Personas to fill out the compendium in order to get the last achievement. We're at 96% on that, and with luck we'll be able to tear through the story battles and level up rapidly. Thankfully I do have some high-end Personas that grant an XP Boost which should make things quicker.

We'll continue this all out blitz on Tuesday's stream.

For the raid we went over to SweetLindir who was playing Hunt: Showdown.

With the day off, I mostly recovered from last night's New Year's Eve stream. I forgot how exhausting Overwatch can be if played for more than 5 hours.

Did knock out a major story commission based on the NFL, and next up is a Dragon Ball related commission involving Trunks. Had to do a lot of research in regards to the math to figure out character ages.

Hopefully we'll have work tomorrow!

Good night folks!

Asura's Wrath and other notes

I've heard a lot about Asura's Wrath over the years, hearing how difficulty it is, and then I learned it has a mode for casual players... plus I looked at the achievement's list, there is no incentive to make this game any harder than it needs to be! So on that front I'm already on the path recommending this game for a casual experience. 

I do really like the presentation of Asuara's Wrath with everything playing out like an anime story arc. Asura's motivations for being very pissed off are more than justified with everything being laid out the way it is as well.

Looking forward to continuing it on Thursday' stream!

For the raid we went over to SweetLindir who was playing Hunt: Showdown

Asura's Wrath Achievements

• Anger Management: Activate Burst for the first time in Episode 1.
• Mortal: Achieve a D rank or higher on any episode.
• Shut Up, Wyzen!: Interrupt Wyzen's monologue.
• The Six-Armed Man: Grow a few extra limbs in Episode 5.
• Suffering: Complete Part I: Suffering.
• Pain Is Universal: Accumulate a total of 10000 in damage.
• Shut Up, Kalrow!: Interrupt Kalrow's monologue.

 Work was 'meh' today, only one interview, hope tomorrow is better.

Nearly finished a WWE related commission request, going to bang that out before I go to bed.

Craig Kimbrel signed with Baltimore, too bad he ran out of gas, but without him the Phillies wouldn't have been in the playoffs at all.

Good night folks!

The Evil Within 2 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work was kind of weird a we got a big assignment that is nearly impossible because we're forced to stick to the script more so than usual, which makes things very tough, then there is the possibility of getting back to day shift hours, which would mean I could work longer than I do in the evenings, but they don't want to inform me until the last minute, and trust me rebounding from night to day is not easy. At least for this week all streams will be at 9:30 PM Eastern

Tonight's stream saw us starting up The Evil Within 2 on the Xbox One. It's been a few years since we played the first game on PC, so jumping back in was kind of unique, and thankfully the console version has all the PC related cheats, so I don't have to worry about ambushes. The game's cut scenes looks very good, and the controls are pretty solid. The open world aspect is kind of neat, which probably means farming brain goo a lot more possible. Apparently there are a lot of locked areas I find open up depending on how the story progresses.

The Evil Within 2 Achievements

• Welcome to Union: Took the plunge back into STEM.
• DIY: Crafted something for the first time.
• Good to See You Again: Acquired the Warden Crossbow.
• Thinning Them Out: Killed 30 enemies.
• Backup Ain't Coming: Completed the "Rogue Signal" side mission.

Of course as indicating before our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature The Evil Within 2

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/sweetlindir who was playing Hunt: Showdown 

Finished two commission requests today, one being Star Trek related and the other on Resident Evil, which would be the last one of a series that features direct references to the two Outbreak games. The next commission request is also Resident Evil related, but it ties in closer to Resident Evil 2.

Also worked a bit on my Person 5 story, and that's about 80% complete as I need to make sure Naoto closes it out in the featured spot.

Did plant to go out to the post office yesterday, then realized I didn't put my return address on th envelope and I didn't have a pen in my satchel.

Got even more reasons not to play Mortal Kombat 1 and that's in regard to the treatment of the characters from Mortal Kombat X... seriously fuck Ed Boon.

And on that note, good night!

 

 

The Expanse, Ghostbusters & Other Notes

Hi everyone,

Work tonight featured one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to market research and that's when we have questions that have no flow or rhythm and feel disjointed. Sure I had three interviews, but I felt like I could have more if the questions felt natural!

Tonight's stream opened with episode three of The Expanse: A Telltale series, and this installment had the same problems episode one did, and that it's way too damn short. Sure big things happened during it, such as Drummer being betrayed, and the details of how people from the inner solar system view the people who live in the asteroid belt, but it barely lasted an hour. In fact I'm shocked I didn't find all the salvageable items because I was looking everywhere! I stand by what I said, there was no justification for this game to have a staggered release date.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Impossible Objects: Complete Episode 3 of The Expanse
• Data Recoverer: Complete Episode 3 with all Data Logs

Now the plan was to play Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but when I went to play a match I saw a message that the servers were having issues. 

So instead we played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, we got in several matches, winning a few as Ghostbuster and nearly winning one as a ghost. There was certainly a lot of wildness happening when I ran into a super skilled ghost player.

Big thank you to x9abenonymous9x and YourDadPlaying for the raids and sharing their communities with me!

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/sweetlindir show was playing Hunt: Showdown 

Finished the Halo short story commission request fairly easily, thanks in large part to the Halo fan community doing an excellent job in having transcripts of all the major dialog points in Halo: Infinite. And of course, I got another commission request, this time to write a four story for a series based on Resident Evil. 

My next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern time and will featured The Last of Us Part II, as we continue Abby's journey towards the Aquarium. It's going to be interesting to see how much time it takes to get through her side of the story, which in theory should be just as long as Ellie's. Of course if work is for some reason cancelled (and we hope not!), we'll start earlier.

So on that note have a good night!

It's the Weekend

Good afternoon everyone

Yesterday was kind of weird as when I was working I got a notification that my Facebook account was suspended, and apparently its because my Instagram account got hacked. Thankfully I was able to resolve it, but I did have to take 30 minutes out of work to get it fixed.  But work itself was solid, got an interview done which is always a good feeling

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy VII Remake opened up with a boss fight and was very action packed, as Chapters 10 through 13 had a ton of combat, including a section where playing as Barrett is the focus of. Of course, the fact that Jessie was killed off because of the whole Shinra dropping the plate on Sector 7 plot device, it does take the wind out of the sails for the game. Still she went out like a bad ass in my humble opinion.

Now from what I can tell there are five more chapters left, So depending on pacing we might be able to finish it on next Friday's stream. Depends on if we got a big area to explore and do side quests or note.

Eagle eye viewers would have noticed than when I came back from my break I seemed upset... I ended up thinking about mom, and every time I do it just hits me hard. 

For the raid we dropped in on DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• Sewer Survivor: Complete Chapter 10.
• Paranormal Investigator: Complete Chapter 11.
• The Collapse: Complete Chapter 12.
• Broken Dreams: Complete Chapter 13.

I do plan to do some writing this afternoon to try and knock out a WWE Short Story Commission, and I did get another request to do afterward based on Daria which I'm really excited to get to.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #1, Block Combo and Defensive Combo #2.

 "What did Baby Corn say to Mama Corn?" "Where's Pop Corn?"

Song of the Day: Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul

For tonight's stream, the plan is to try out Elder Scrolls Online, which was gifted to us by LvlStkr earlier this week as a possible replacement for Final Fantasy XIV. We'll see how long it takes me to get through the tutorial!

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

 

Just Doing Things In Fallout 76

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 was mostly without incident, until the game itself started crashing repeatedly when I messing around with stuff related to the Brotherhood of Steel. Don't know why things like that happen on Consoles but who knows. We were also joined by Iceman who accessed the Fallout 1st gimmick which means we could probably knock out dailies rather quickly when he's able to join which means more of a chance to tackle the scoreboard things. Overall thing were mostly straight forward last night. I did hope to hit level 35, but that was a no go on stream. Did duck back in off-stream to knock out a bit to reach that mark... but ran out of 5.56 ammo. Also I basically have the option of joining the Brotherhood of Steel, not sure if there is another faction or not and who would technically be the good guys.

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Shwag: Collect 10 Bobbleheads

Twitch Clips

• Anyone Else Want Some?
• Get Away From My Stuff!
• Another Thing Comes Running Up On Iceman 
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown and celebrating their birthday over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf! 

Played some Smite last night knocking out a few weekly quests which involved playing as Hunters and Assassins... and of the two classes, I'm much better as a Hunter. Still played two matches as Thanatos and Charybdis, unlocking an achievement with the later.

SMITE Achievements

• Drown Your Sorrow: Unlock the Smite Award "Drown Your Sorrow"

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout Featured Intermediate Como #2, Hip Shape Focus Combo and Straight Combo #2.

We had work yesterday afternoon, and from what I learned, is that Republicans are completely delusional as it pertains to Roe vs Wade and gun violence. How can these people have their head so far up their asses at this point is beyond me.

Rather surprised the Phillies won yesterday afternoon as I was following the game via Twitter

Apparently the WWE Board of Directors is targeting Vince McMahon himself for a $3 Million payment of hush money... and no this has nothing to do with the hush money he paid to keep Jimmy Snuka out of prison back in the 80s, and it involves some major speculation regarding John Laurenitits as well. Will be very interesting to see if this forces Vince out of his own company considering Stephanie has taken a leave of absence recently. Apparently the investigations started in April and there has been enough found for it to be made public.

And speaking of WWE, looks like Sasha Banks has been let go... I know maybe two people are sadden by that.

LvStrkr said he would join us for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge fun on Saturday if he's not too busy, so we could have some co-op silliness with the new game this weekend! I have already pre-installed the game on my Xbox One S.

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 of course Final Fantasy XIV, which will focus on all the usual nonsense of raids and basic level grinding on alternate jobs.

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

Raids, Leveling and Fishing

Good morning everyone,

The end of another week is here, woo-hoo! Anyway last night's stream was a lot more fun than even I was anticipating, because we were joined for a bit by Kalenal to help with power leveling Blue Mage and to get an understanding of the Ocean Fishing aspect of Final Fantasy XIV! Kalenal, of course, streams over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

A big part of the stream last night did focus on the Pandemonium raids, doing all four in a single night, which worked out quite nicely in terms of getting the things I need to get the best possible gear I intend to go after. The raids themselves were mostly okay, thought I did struggle more in the Fourth Circle than I normally do. Thing that did surprise me was the wait times being a lot longer for the First and Second Circle.

Also hit the mark in Final Fantasy XIV that unlocked the Tantalus Attire for having an active account for 150 days. Now I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Tantalus was the main character of Final Fantasy IX, but having not played it I'm not sure, but the attire for FF14 does look similar in design from what I remember.

Apparently there is apparently another Final Fantasy XIV live letter scheduled for today, so I'll check those notes after the stream to give my thoughts on them with tomorrow's blog post!

Big thank you to FnDanteSavage for popping in with the Twitch Prime subscription last night! He is a gentleman and a scholar!

For the raid, we dropped in on DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/DaemonsW0lf!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Oh wonderful....
2.  When a fate spawns when you're fishing
3.  A Little Level Boosting

Did some more Forza Horizon 4 off-stream achievement hunting last night, finally found a small stretch of road to get the Noisy Cartographer achievement, and finally did some co-op races as well... I may be terrible, but hell it got me another achievement! I will admit the achievement popped at 529 roads, but there are 531, so I really wonder where those two little strips of pavement are, but I'm not going to go hunting for them.

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Test your Might: Complete The Trial.
• The Noisy Cartographer: Drive down every road in Britain.
• Jolly Cooperation: Complete 5 Horizon Life Co-op Races.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Beginner Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #2. Since I've been doing little extra sets on top of the daily, I think there is an outside chance I can complete the requirements for Hiro's Champion by Monday or Tuesday... keeping in my mind original guess to complete that was to be around the 12th of March.

Look, I liked Samuel L. Jackson's performance in Pulp Fiction, but there was a snowball's chance in hell of winning Best Supporting Oscar for it back in 1995, because I don't think his performance was better than Paul Scofield's performance in Quiz Show, who I believe should have won the Oscar.

Picked up In Darkness On Fire Book One: Flames of Alexandrite by Kate Flemming off of Amazon and it's a pretty good book. Since it's told from a first person perspective, you really get into the head of the main character Alexander in just how conflicted he is about his wants and desires. It's actually a pretty breezy read considering the subject matter.  

Also nabbed a few cheap things on the Xbox side of things, Haunted Halloween '86, #SincuaAttack, What Remains of Edith Finch and SSX. The first three games are for potential easily 100% completion purposes, but when it comes to SSX it's to see if I workaround related to the EA terms and conditions for online play related to NBA Jam: On Fire Edition works.

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Persona 5 Royal, which is our long-term Friday night game! 

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

A Night of Multiplayer In Gears 5

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream saw me deep diving into the Multiplayer content of Gears 5 that has nothing to do with the campaign, as we played Horde Frenzy, Escape and several other multiplayer modes and had a damn good time doing it. Perhaps the most fun was the second Horde Frenzy which was set to Advance Difficulty and how cheap some of the deaths were.

Now here's the funny thing we manage to knock out several achievements because of it, which shocked me because I certainty am not playing Gears 5's multiplayer mode off stream, so the fact we ranked up to the point of hitting Corporal and Sergeant during the stream says a lot to some degree. Sure we have the boosts from when I started messing with Gears 5 back in December, but c'mon they certainnly can't be helping that much.

We did use the Xavier Woods skin for the entire stream, and I figured out how to do the in-match emotes and phrases for the character I''m using, it involves holding down the right analog stick and pressing a direction button that an emote or phrase is assigned to. 

The question becomes will we keep going back to Gears 5 every now and then just for the Multiplayer? Well, yeah, for me it now becomes like Forza Horizon 4, a game where we can go to to mess around with it and make progress. And since I have a good idea of how to make progress to move up the ranks to some degree,

Huge thanks to DaemonsW0lf for the huge raid following their stream of Hunt: Showdown over on twitch.tv/daemonsW0lf!  

Also thank you to LvStrikR and DaemonsW0lf for resubscribing, as well as to CuriousTKG for subscribing for the first time, and for the community gift subscriptions! That was awesome!

For the raid we dropped in on LifeWithStan who was playing Elden Ring over at twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

Gears 5 Achievements

• Perky's Revenge!: Got a kill with 3 Perks active in Horde
• Corporal Punishment: Reached the rank of Corporal in a Tour of Duty
• Sergeant at Arms: Reached the rank of Sergeant in Tour of Duty
• Once More From the Top: Re-upped!
• Shutout: Won a match of Gridiron and kept your opponents scoreless
• Take a Look Around: Completed a Versus match on Reactor, Blood Drive & Checkout
• In Total Control: Won a Control and/or KOTH match on 10 different maps

Twitch Clip Links

1. You can do it!
2. The Double In Free For All! 
3. We move the turrent as the doors are closing
   

It appears Capcom is looking to set the ground work of Tournament guidelines for Street Fighter VI to have some more control over how they want their games presented. It makes sense, but a lot of folks are upset about that.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1

Anyone blaming the owners for the lost start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season clearly doesn't realize that the demands of the players makes no sense in either the short term or the long term. Because guess what, only a handful of players will still make 'mega money' in the hundreds of millions because of snake oil salesmen like Scott Boras, who controls the leadership of the players union!

Messed around some with Forza Horizon 4 to try and find the final missing roads I need... but man that is a challenge. Did managed to accomplish a couple of achievements last night that extend my streak through today.

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Antique Restorer: Find and restore 15 Barn Finds.
• Time for an Adventure!: Play your first unranked Free-for-All Adventure.

I am laughing my ass off over Kim Kardashian being declared single and how that must really strike a blow to the ego of Kanye West. Hey if that drama is always on my news feed for whatever reason deemed by the algorithms then you better believe I'm all for anything to causes the most over-rated entertainer of all time. And lets be honest, he hasn't had a true hit song in over a decade with Power.

For tonight's stream we're going to play Final Fantasy XIV, and the focus will first be on the Pandemonium raids, so yes we will be doing all four raids. And depending on how long that takes we'll also do some more Blue Mage and Fishing grinding as well!

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

More Shadows Fewer Tombs Raided

Good morning everybody,

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

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

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

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

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

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

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

Twitch Clip Links

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Shadow Falls Over A Raided Tomb

Good morning everybody,

Last day of November... wonder how many people actually completed the No Nut November nonsense?  My guess is no on!

Anyway, last night we started up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and boy does it tease with the whole Lara is gonna start with all her gear prologue... only for her to have just her bow at the start of the main story. At the very least it is acknowledged with in the game that Lara doesn't pack all her gear together, so there is a justified, if not silly, reasons for her to have to re-acquire all her abilities from the first two games.

In terms of scope, it does feel like Shadow of the Tomb Raider is much smaller in scale than Rise of the Tomb Raider, despite the stakes being higher, since Lara accidentally started the apocalypse, as I seem to be almost shuffled along from major story point to major story point.. Even as I'm taking my time, nothing much is drawing my attention to find tombs and crypts to knock out bonus challenges.

That said, some of the returning gimmicks from Rise and the new stuff introduced in Shadow certainly has resulted in a number of my deaths. The grapple hook swing is a bit of a pain to get right, and swimming with enemies under the way (namely the piranhas) certainly weren't needed considering the panic inducing nature of wanting to get from point and to point b as quickly as possible due to Lara's limited air supply.

I do have to say, I enjoy some of the striking while unseen, as one would expect in the good Rambo movies, there are more logical ways to deal with enemies than in Rise. Some of the puzzles are creative, even if more trial and error is involved.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how much of the story we can knock out tonight. considering the pace the game seems to be set on to get the player moving in the right directions.

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

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Path of the Stars: Decipher the Path of the Stars
2. Día de Muertos: Remove the dagger from the Temple of the Moon
3. Recipe for Disaster: Survive the flood
4. First Steps: Purchase a Skill
5. Survival Instincts: Defeat the Empress Jaguar
6. Asking Price: Buy an item from a merchant
7. Point of Interest: Learn of 5 interesting locations from civilians
8. Unwelcome Guests: Get rid of the pillagers outside of Kuwaq Yaku
9. Help thy Neighbor: Complete a Side Mission
10. Treasures from the Past: Decipher a Monolith
11. Look, Over There!: Kill 3 enemies while they are distracted
12. First Blood: Perform a Stealth Takedown from a mud-covered wall
13. Tables Turned: Kill 5 enemies while they are searching for Lara
14. Fire of Life: Enter the Temple of Life's inner chamber
15. The Hidden City: Find Paititi 

 Twitch Clip Links

• Can We Go Down The Slide?!
• First Blood... Rambo Style! 
• The Slide and The Sudden Drop
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Defensive Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 439 kcal. Also turns out only the time spent 'Daily Exercises' count towards the trainers' challenger and champion achievements, as I've only trained with Karen 177 times to close in on her challenger achievement, but with Hiro I've trained 233 times and with Karen 243 times.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw surprising yet not surprising fight against Yotsuyu who regained her memory, at the behest of her step brother as part of a plot to get her to turn into the primal Tsukuyomi. A lot of these events are certainly set up for Shadowbringers, the next part of the story I'll be reaching either by the end of this week or early next. Now I will partially stand corrected in regards to Yotsuyu being redeemed, because in the trial against Tsukuyomi and in it's aftermath, it is quite clear her time with Gosetsu meant something to her.

I still have several main story quests to knock out before wrapping up everything associated with the main plot of Stormblood, and that's not counting any side quests I happen to find that will distract me

For tonight's stream as indicated earlier, we'll be resuming Shadow of the Tomb Raider! We'll try and start around 6:30 PM Eastern, but if I can start earlier I will!

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

From Sunday To Monday

 Good afternoon everyone,

A new week begins and we'll be featuring some new stuff over on my Twitch Channel this week.

But first, last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, as we finished with sevens wins in the last ten matches that were played. I ended up with three plays of the game, two as D.va and one as Junkrat. Big thanks to PandaSweet and SpeedyGamer for joining in on matches from the start of the stream! 

Now let's address the title of today's blog, when you really think about it, Blizzard's BattleNet name filter to prevent obscene and offensive handles for players has never really been good. In fact, the only way it works is if people actually reports the handles that clearly break Terms of Service along. Folks have gotten around it by using specific fonts and alternate spellings, but one has to think the fact this has been the way it has for so long is because of how clearly backwater the corporate officials at Blizzard are. 

This is starting to concern be a bit as I wonder on if I should start taking time on stream to report those players who breaks Blizzard's own TOS when it comes to BattleNet name. Hell maybe I should leave it to a vote for the viewing audience.

Anyway following the stream we sent the fun over to Daemonsw0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over on twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf! 

Twitch Clip Links

• 1... 2... 3.... We win!
• Aw you shouldn't have! 
• Give Me All The Beer 

I have decided that Jump Force is going to hang around to be featured on Wednesday's to feature my chase for some of the on-line achievements that I feel I could get. With the long load times, I'm sure time will fly by to the second half of the stream where we are often teaming with Iceman in something.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes an a estimated calorie burn of 517 kcal

Progress Update on Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise Achievements

• 353/365 Consecutive Days For One Year's Hard Work
• 29/30 hours for Karen's Contender
• 353/400 STamps for Honored Stamper
• 483,595/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5
• 81/100 Percent for King EX Fighter

More than likely we'll hit the Karen's Contender achievement on Wednesday, and it looks like Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5 and One Year's Hard Work will both be reached towards the end of next week.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw a big focus on the Four Lords side-story which takes place in the aftermath of Stormblood where four long lived animal spirits seek help to reinforce the bindings on the fifth of their kind. This side story was quite notable for the fact that it features a battle where Tataru fights along side the player... granted she doesn't do much, but it stands out as something really different! 

The main story was also continued as Yotsuyu's brother has shown up, and considering what I know of Yotsuyu's back story, and how her brother was acting it just means something majorly bad is going to happen... and I suspect her lost memory is going to end in some sort of tragic event. Also finally got an in-game apartment in Kugane of all places because it took a long time to figure out how to get one. So at the very least I have a little in game space to store little things I happen to find!

Big congrats to Kalenal (twitch.tv/Kalenal) for clearing the Ultima Weapson: Ultimate late last night. Kal has been working on that particular raid endlessly for the past month, and I know they were super determined to get it done.

For tonight's stream, we will be featuring a game I have not played before in Shadows of the Tomb Raider, the third game in what is called the Survivor Trilogy. As indicated before, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be revisited down the line to chase other achievements and stuff!

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