The Expanse, Party Animals and Other Notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was solid as we had a good pace of completing interviews, even if some folks were more 'mental' than others. Gives me hope that Friday is going to be a good day.

Tonight's stream opened with episode 5 of The Expanse: A TellTale Series, and I realized what this game was... it's a glorified tech demo, and I'm real curious if the fault lies with TellTale Games or Deck Nine Games, as both companies were involved. When compared to games that both companies have worked on and  released previously, The Expanse is a shallow experience. Sure it looks great, but there is nothing of substance there. I firmly believe this is the worst game I played here in 2023. Doesn't help that Episode 5 was less than a gig in size, making it the smallest of all 5 chapters, and boy did that really show as it was barely 40 minutes in length.

We loaded up Killer Instinct and saw that its story mode was basically the arcade mode. We did a quick run through as Orchid. Interesting a number of achievements popped from when I last played it back in August. I checked to see if anything popped in Resident Evil 6 and the answer was nope.

We also checked out Party Animals... and that game is basically a violent form of Fall Guys, it is down right hilarious and can be frustrating as the controls are pretty loose. There are a fair variety of game modes, and the fact you can choose your animal is pretty cool. If you liked Fall Guys, give Party Animals a whirl.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Heal Thy Medic: Help Virgil overcome his panic attack
• Brother's Reaper: Rayen kills Arlen
• Oyedeng, Kopengs: Complete Episode 5 of The Expanse
• Miraculous Maya: Keep Maya alive
• Khan's Revenge: Keep Khan alive
• Bosmang: Complete all Episodes of The Expanse
• Data Archivist: Complete Episode 5 with all Data Logs

Killer Instinct Achievements

• Sadira's Web Trap: A web trap hit an opponent, while in Instinct Mode with Sadira
• Glacius' Armor: You absorbed a hit with Glacius' Ice armor while in Instinct Mode
• Orchid Novice: You have reached 30 Fight Challenges with Orchid!
• Competitive Hisako: You have won a ranked match as Hisako!
• Astral Assistance: You completed a Shadow Lords mission with a Guardian equipped!

Party Animals Achievements

• Welcome To The Party: Finish the Tutorial
• First Strike: Win 1 match in the Quick Match
• Sportsmanship: Knock out 1 player during the podium moment
• Immortal Kombat: In Into The Game, knock out opponent playing arcade 3 times in one game (Quick Match)

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern (assuming there is work) over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature Horizon Zero Dawn, we'll bounce from quest to quest based on distance.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/misscammi316 who was playing Smite

So I posted an older short story based on The Last of Us over on Ao3 and boy, the Joel apologists were in full force, I'm really tempted to write a follow up just to piss them off even more.

Speaking of stories, knocked out one WWE commission request and started on another. It is funny considering an earlier commissioned story involved Emma's return to the promotion earlier this year... and she was let go today.

Those will be all of my notes for tonight, have a good one folks!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was another great night... even if some of the people I talked turn turned a simple 10 minute study into a 30 minute torture session. Now I'm good at trying to control the interview, but some people need to be smacked.

Tonight's stream featured Cyberpunk 2077 and we started as soon as we finished work, as we focused on more side quests, as every time one ended another popped up. The big thing was trying to knock out quested related to Kerry's questline, and there is only one left to do, but we couldn't get it to trigger. Ah well, now the big worry is going to be the Liberty Expansion which drops this week to see what happens to the save file on Saturday, which is the next time we'll be playing it. 

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/Reese who was playing Overwatch, the raid was picked by LvStrkr as one of the channel rewards! 

Our next stream, scheduled for about 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature episode five o the Expanse to wrap up that disappointing mess. Trust me, when I do my casual review of The Expanse, the negatives are going to be prominent. Since the final episode will only take maybe hour, we'll  be pairing it with Killer Instinct.

Knocked out another commission story request based on Resident Evil, which turned out alright, even if the paper thin plot relies on what contrived references I can make.

Also picked up two commission requests for (sigh ) WWE related stories... one featuring Rhea Ripley and the other featuring Triple H. I said before and I'll say it again, those nearly 15 years of being one half of the Dice and Kristi writing duo certainly branded what type of stories people want me to write.

Heard some good things about the Party Animals game, while the obvious mediocrity of Mortal Kombat 1 becomes more obvious with every review I see.

And on that note, I'm going to bed! 

Good night folks!

Killer Instinct, Story Writing and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Second day in a row work was cancelled, but I did got to ask a question regarding the how the current political climate in the United States may have actually negatively effect the world of Market Research. I suspect Donald Trump has made it virtually impossible for any traditional questions to be asked regarding how people feel about various public figures, and I know some agencies who favor conservatives are afraid of pissing him off.

Still have been applying for everything I can come across, hopefully something will pan out.

Anyway, because of no work, we started the st ream early at 6:30 PM Eastern and rolled with Killer Instinct tonight, learning the basics of how to play and seeing what the game has to offer. I saw there was a story mode that means it would be worth checking out the lore of the game, but the Shadow Lords and its micro-transactions based system certainly raised an eyebrow. Surprised there was no traditional arcade ladder though.

That meant I ended up playing a lot of matches against other players, and something that became real apparent is that Killer Instinct has an awful match making system, throwing low tier new comers against top ranked players with no actual rhyme of reason. Yes Killer Instinct is something like 10 years old, so the pool of players is going to be modestly small, but I certainly could tell the world of difference between me losing a close fight against another player with the same skill level as myself, and getting my faced stomped in.

Was shocked at how many achievements there are in Killer Instinct as well, so in terms of just 'grinding things out', the game certainly has replay value to anyone willing to try and go through the torture of it. Seeing as how there's a big update coming to improve various aspects of the game, I suspect there will be a spark of player interest in it once again.

 Killer Instinct Achievements

• Enemy of My Enemy: You recruited an agent of UltraTech to your Shadow Lords team!
• Stylish Gargos: You have unlocked a color for Gargos!
• Friendly Rash: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Rash!
• Friendly Kim Wu: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Kim Wu!
• Stylish Kim Wu: You have unlocked a color for Kim Wu!
• Friendly Cinder: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Cinder!
• Criminal Flair: You hit your opponent 5 times with Special Attacks while in Cinder's Instinct Mode!
• Stylish Cinder: You have unlocked a color for Cinder!
• Ready to Body: You've played all 10 Qualifying Matches!
• Demonic Annihilation: You completed a combo that dealt 85% or more damage in any mode as Omen!
• Competitive Fulgore: You have won a ranked match as Fulgore!
• Friendly Spinal: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Spinal!
• Supreme Spinal: You have earned a Supreme Victory in an online match as Spinal!
• Competitive Spinal: You have won a ranked match as Spinal!
• Triple Trials!: You have completed 3 trials!
• White Belt: You have completed 5 Dojo lessons
• Survival Orchid: You have won a survival match as Orchid!
• Orchid's Jaguar: You hit an opponent with a Jaguar while in Instinct Mode with Orchid
• Stylish Orchid: You have unlocked a color for Orchid!
• Friendly Sabrewulf: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Sabrewulf!
• Stylish Sabrewulf: You have unlocked a color for Sabrewulf!
• Friendly Thunder: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Thunder!
• Stylish Jago: You have unlocked a color for Jago!
• Sabrewulf's Claws: You Have performed 10 points of chip damage while in Instinct Mode with Sabrewulf
• Competitive Sabrewulf: You have won a ranked match as Sabrewulf!
• Friendly Jago: You have won an exhibition match vs a friend as Jago!
• Competitive Jago: You have won a ranked match as Jago!
• Competitive Glacius: You have won a ranked match as Glacius!
• Thunder's Spirit Dash: You did a dash while in Instinct Mode with Thunder
• Competitive Thunder: You have won a ranked match as Thunder!
• Competitive Sadira: You have won a ranked match as Sadira!
• General Novice: You have reached 10 General Fight Challenges!

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 during their stream of Phasmophobia over on twitch.tv/misscammi316

Knocked out two story commissions today, which when the funds come in makes up for no work today, the first story was based on AEW's The Outcasts, and the second was based on the video game Vanquish. Really wish I knew more about both to put in more details, but hey, between both stories over 6500 words were written.

Out next schedule stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden  is for 9:30 PM eastner on Wednesday with Resident Evil 6 with Iceman. Regardless of if there is work or not, Wednesday's stream will not start early in order to make sure RE6 is properly featured. 

So on that note, have a great night everyone.