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!

 

 

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!

Mortal Kombat X, Job Interview and other notes

Hi everyone,

So first up, we had a job interview for Cooper Hospital today, and it kind of went okay, but I fear I might have botched it when asked 'Why do I want to work there?' which is never a question I'm good at answering, especially now when a big reason is more personal than professional. I was told that they are only in phase one of the interview process and phase two is when they narrow down the field to five candidate to see who among them would be the best fit.

On the plus side I was given some information regarding several of my applications that positions have not been filled and was encouraged to contact Talent Acquisitions to let them know I'm still interested in those spots.

Did end up looking on LinkedIn to see if there were any postings being listed, and there appeared to be a couple of promising leads.

Sadly, work was cancelled tonight, I wonder how much the threat of a severe storm with nickle sized hail was a factor.

That meant tonight's stream started early, and we played the story mode of Mortal Kombat X, which does such a great job of setting up the future of the franchise that was then squandered in Mortal Kombat 11 and it's expanded story Aftermath. We had some trouble with a few fights because I totally forgot how to play the various characters that are featured in the story mode, in fact the Raiden vs Liu Kang fight in Chapter 10 took me three attempts to do.

We also did a living tower run as Cassie Cage, mostly to make sure we did a fatality at least once.

Mortal Kombat X Achievements

• It's a Gusher: Spill 1,000 pints of blood
• Moving Up: Reach personal level 10 in XP
• A New Beginning: Complete 50% of Story Mode
• There is a Ruler: Complete 100% of Story Mode

For the raid we dropped in on sweetlindir who was playing Baldur's Gate 3 over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Did a lot of writing on the commission request for an AEW story involving the Outcasts, putting down 2000 words already. Also picked up another commission request to write something basedon the game Vanquish, which I've never played.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and I have Mortal Kombat X slated for the night, we might try our hand at something else. We'll see what ends up being the case.

So on that note, have a good night folks!

Overwatch and other notes

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Overwatch 2 saw lots of wins and losses, but some very questionable teammates as well. There was one match where I was Wrecking Ball and the team didn't push past the first choke on Blizzard World, despite me getting behind the other team and reaching the objective to cause them to turn around. Then there  matches where folks just stay as Widowmaker until the last 40 seconds instead of swapping off her in order to give more direct help in a team fight to win a match.

On the other hand, I picked up a play of the game as Ana & Junker Queen and even an achievement as Sigma, completing his set from when he was added to the game. Other characters used included D.va, Reinhardt, Tracer, Ashe, Moira, Mercy and a few others. 

Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun this week for many of the matches!

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Event Horizon: Get 3 killing blows during a single use of Sigma's Gravitic Flux in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we checked out misscammi316 who was playing Dead by Daylight over on twitch.tv/misscammi316

Recorded the 10th an final video for my series of watching and reacting to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, and made the decision not to do a series involving Dragon Ball Z Abridged. There just isn't as much meat on the bone with DBZA that I could talk about in regards to my knowledge of references.

Ordered some take out again, because I puttered around in the Kitchen a lot today, and the Doro Dash driver recognized me from High School... which was amazing, considering they were a year behind when I graduated and, they were in a different shop class. So either I aged surprisingly well

Yes it does bother me that my father has turned into a transphobic right wing nut case.

Finished the Metal Gear Rising short story commission and it was a challenged because of how that franchise handles particular details. There is a possibility there will be an AEW story commission done in the near future as well.

Got a job interview tomorrow (Monday) at noon... I hope it goes well... thankfully it' a remote interview.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and we'll feature the story mode of Mortal Kombat X, which is perfect considering how lack luster every single announcement for Mortal Kombat 1 has been. The start time is under the assumption I have work of course. If not, we'll probably start early.

So on that note, I'm heading to bed, good night everyone!

Just A Bad. Embarrassing Day

Hi everyone,

Friday was certainly a day I'd rather forget, I woke up really early and I figure I'd  get a lot done, which I did in terms of writing the Mass Effect short story commission, got three video made for YouTube and worked on my job search (found out I got rejected by another job), plus my daily work out.

Then around 11 AM I just felt like laying down for a bit... and I didn't wake up again until 6:30 PM... meaning I missed work started at 5 PM. I was so confused that that when I saw the clock that I questioned myself on if it was AM or PM before seeing my phone and that one of my supervisors tried to contact me out of concern because A) I haven't missed a day of work willingly since I had a tooth extraction and B) when I do miss work, I never no-call. They assured me everything was alright and they were more concerned for my well being

Needless to say I cried for nearly two hours, and really resisted the urged to punish myself for this... I can't think of the last time something like that has happened to me.

This is also why the stream to finish Spider-Man Miles Morales didn't start till 9:30 PM, because if I missed work there was no way I was going to justify starting the stream early. We wrapped the game up in fairly standard fashion, the boss fights against the Prowler, Rhino and the Tinkerer were all unique and varied, plus we cleaned up a fair amount of the side objectives that don't involve a second play through. 

Overall, I don't feel Spider-Man Miles Morales is as good as the prior Spider-Man game, while it has its own unique style and feels more grounded, I don't think it makes as good use of the space of the map as the earlier game. Plus having things locked behind having to do a New Game Plus run is just poor decision making.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• Veloci-Skates: Chase Tinkerer through the city
• Never Give Up: Pay respects at Jefferson Davis' grave in Harlem
• Deep Cuts: Collect all Sound Samples and recreate the Davis Brothers Mix
• Exploding Bulldozer: Defeat Roxxon Rhino
• Family Drama: Defeat Prowler
• Competitive Spirit: Beat Phin at the rocket launch mini-game
• Shared History: Walk through Miles and Phin's past
• Ultimate Sacrifice: Save Harlem
• Memory Lane: Collect all Postcards
• A New Home: 100% complete all districts
• Socially Acceptable: Scroll through the entire Social Feed at the end of the story
• Best Fries in Town: Pay your respects to a legend in the Upper West Side
• Crime Master: Complete all Bonus Objectives for every crime type

For the raid we dropped in on bangbangbang713 who was playing Diablo IV over on twitch.tv/bangbangbang713

I made up my mind, the next PlayStation 4 game for Friday nights will be The Last of Us Part 2... it can't be as terrible as the first game right? RIGHT?!

I saw the list of guest characters for Mortal Kombat 1... and I'm not impressed, and I just know there are going to be a lot of bitter wrestling fans wanting to do every fatality to Peachmaker, since the character model is John Cena. 

Our next stream for Saturday night is slated to start at 7 PM Eastern, and we'll get back to Gotham Knights, so we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Awesome Stream With Family For The First Time Ever!

 Hi everyone,

Today was a good day the pain in my left ankle is certainly fading and now I have to monitor the remaining swelling and hope is dissipates over the next few days.

Of course today was incredibly as my Cousin Frances and Aunt Grace came over, bringing some food to help ease my mind in terms of me cooking, but this also turned into a pizza party and most exciting a co-op gaming session with my cousin! Last time we played any video games together had to be when they were living in Collingswood back in the 90s, so this was great!

The game we ended up playing because I was totally undecided was Lego The Hobbit, and we both saw exactly why it got some real mix reviews with some bad camera angles, finicky pixel perfect issues when it came to interacting with objects and an hub world that takes too long to navigate! On top of that Several achievements associated with completing several chapters did not pop, because the last thing we completed was Over Hill and Under Hill! Hopefully they'll pop if I randomly load the game up another day.

Now I'm not going to play Lego The Hobbit with out my cousin, since we started it together and with all the unique quirks I listed, it is most certainly a game best played in co-op! Hopefully we can make arrangement for another Saturday night of shenanigans real soon!

On a side note, exposed Frances to Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.... it went well (I think lol)

We also included some Street Fighter 6 after my family departed for the evening, doing my placement matches as Cammy and actually ended up being placed in the Silver tier!

LEGO The Hobbit Achievements

• Someone to share in an adventure: Played a level in co-op
• A city turned to ash: Completed "Greatest Kingdom in Middle-earth"

For the raid we dropped in on Felkimchi over at twitch.tv/felkimchi while they were playing Doomsday: Last Survivors!

Got some writing done on the latest commission request and got a fair bit done, while also picking up another request for a Mass Effect story. So we have two stories in the queue.

The more and more I see of Mortal Kombat 1... the less interested I become, the announced roster has no one I'm interested in playing as, and the leaked / rumored roster is even less compelling. I did not have this view point when it when game to Mortal Kombat 9, X or 11 or even Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

Our next stream for Sunday night will feature Overwatch 2, it'll be a mix of playing quick play and knocking out challenges. Hopefully we'll have some good random match up pairings!

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

General Notes

 Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was kind of a lost day due to me waking up early to trim some branches and do some yard work of sorts. Combine that with the after effect of the unplanned marathon stream on Saturday and I was completely out of it all afternoon. I should look into finding a cheap service to get various yard stuff done in one shot, because it is a lot for me to manage.

Last night's stream of Overwatch saw wins and losses. We had a lot of fun though, big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the action. Picked up two plays of the game as Orissa and Reinhardt, with other characters used being Ana, D.va, Junker Queen, Bastion, Tracer, Tobjourn and others.

We also messed around with a few other modes besides Quick Play

For the raid we sent the action over to misscammi316 who was also playing Overwatch over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

The plan for today's stream is to continue Persona 3 Portable, depending on my mood and how long it takes to recharge my Xbox Series controller, we may start early to try and get a lot done.

Speaking of plans, since we knocked out Star Trek Resurgence in one night, that frees up this Saturday night to dedicate to Street Fighter 6 on the XBox side of things.

Just realize, I've not played Mortal Kombat X on the console side... I've done MK 9 and MK 11... but not X... hmm...

Since we're at the end of May, the Phillies are certainly looking like they are done for the year, despite being in striking distance of the Braves, but they have too many holes in the line up and pitching staff.

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

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks Is Actually... Good?!

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream had some minor instances of frame drops and a couple of brief interruptions, but with Xfinity doing repairs to the lines and stuff, it makes it harder to access the gateway to see what the upstream power levels were. 

Anyway, we started the stream with Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks for the PlayStation 2... and outside of some questionable cut scenes where Liu Kang had different hair styles, and some really bad voice acting... it's actually a good game. I was impressed with how responsive the controls were and how as a brawler things just worked. We actually advanced fairly deep, going all the way up through the Kitana/Jade/Mileena boss fight. 

Now I did have some trouble mostly with puzzles and figuring out what to do and where to go, so some sort of map indicator, way pointer or a decent in-game map would really made things progress a lot further than things did. There are of course some continuity issues as well, such as when Jade is killed in the original Mortal Kombat timeline, but these are just nitpicks.

We did switch over to MultiVersus, and I think I figured out Arya Stark and Jake the Dog in terms of how to play them. I do struggle with trying to time using abilities to save my self from getting knocked off the sides, but hey happy to say there are things I'm figuring out.!

Twitch Clips

• That's a Big Dude...
• Mulitality doesn't work on the Sorcerers? 
• 1 versus 2
• Haha! 
• Ho! Ho! Ho!
• Victory! 
  

For the raid, we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/Kalenal last night! 

As of last night I got the Galaxy at War up to over 80% in all five areas so hopefully I will continue to make progress with that to get it's related achievement in Mass Effect 3 sooner rather than later.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #1, Body Hook Combo and Double Hook Combo #2

Have not finished writing the latest Commission request yet, in fact I basically scrapped what I originally had for the intro yesterday afternoon.

What kind of music do windmills like? They're metal fans.

What do you call a fish with two knees? A tunee fish.

Song of the Day: Somebody That I used to Know by Gotye (Featuring Kimbra) 

Star of a new week means we get to take a look back at all the games we featured over the previous seven days which included: Overwatch, Mass Effect 3, Smite, Fall Guys, Final Fantasy XIV, Stray, Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks & MultiVersus!

 

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, Overwatch is on deck and we're going to hope it'll be incident free with little to no issues with my Xfinity service.

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

Stray was awesome... Yes I cried a little

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night we played Stray... and unfortunately, the stream got split into two parts, but we did play the entire game in one night. And I'll admit right at the start, I cried at the end because I was reading every line of dialog out loud, so the last few lines broke me. I do have a clip where you can hear my voice wavering.

In terms of the actual game, I loved it... our nameless cat certainly had one hell of a bad day... and not because of the 9+ times I got killed. I did enjoy a lot of the early puzzles and exploration that was involved. I know for sure I missed a lot of stuff, and made some choices that made some achievements unobtainable. I did find some of the later enemies (The Sentinels ) tough to deal in terms of getting past them, because I was kind of powering through when I should've been looking for patterns

The funny thing is about the plot with it basically being trapped in a walled city or vault is that one could consider this is what Fallout would be if there were no humans and mostly robots who evolved into having human qualities to some degree. I'm probably reaching with that statement, but oh well. Does give me a reason to go back and play it again as part of next year's line up.

Would I recommend Stray for folks to play, yes, wholeheartedly yes!

Big thanks to the viewers for kicking in 300 Bits during the stream, ya'll are awesome! And also thanks to the new followers as well in the form of EvacArts_Guila and Pipermarch99!

Stray (PS4) Trophies

• Missed Jump: Fall inside the city.
• A Little Chatty: Meow 100 times.
• Not Alone: Meet B-12.
• Cat Got Your Tongue?: Have B-12 translate a robot.
• Curiosity Killed the Cat: Wear the paper bag.
• Cat-a-Pult: Jump 500 times.
• Meowlody: Bring all the music sheets to Morusque.
• Boom Chat Kalaka: Dunk the basketball.
• Cat-a-strophe: Try to play mahjong with the robots.
• Cat's best friend: Nuzzle up against 5 robots.
• Catwalk: Reach Midtown.
• Scratch: Scratch the vinyl in the club.
• Al-Cat-Raz: Go to jail.
• No More Lives: Die 9 times.
• Eye Opener: Complete the game and open the city.

Twitch Clips

• Aww.... tip-tap-tip-tap.... 
• Panda! Boom-Chat-Kalaka!
• Sup Dude! 
• You Can Tell Stray Broke Me...
  

For the raid we dropped in on MommyBee who was playing Persona 5 over at twitch.tv/mommybee!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Beginner Combo #1, Hook Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for 28 minutes.

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For 7/31-8/6/22

• Punches Thrown: 8539
  
• Estimate Calories Burned:3491.37 kcal
  
• Laura's Champion Progress: 66% (33 out of 50 Hours)
  
• King EX Fight Progress: 95%
  

So an update Xfinity, I was called yesterday saying they did quite a bit of work in the area on Thursday, so they want to come out tomorrow to check the lines to see if things are where they are supposed to be. Now there was someone out this morning checking on upstream signals, and they saw the history that the power levels were at 50 or above going back to July 17. I was also told RF lines (?) were being replaced in the area to help resolve a lot of issues.

What's even better than Ted Danson? Ted singing and Danson.

Why did the invisible man turn down a job offer? He couldn't see himself doing it.

In regards to Mass Effect 3, I have been putting in time over on the N7 HQ site to build up the Galactic Readiness. With luck I'll be able to get the in-game achievement for that by mid-week. We'll see. if I'm right with that prediction.

Song of the Day: Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones

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 hooking up the PlayStation 2 to check out Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, and more than likely we'll mess around with other thing. I did consider numerous other things, but I figure this would be a game most people wouldn't even consider checking out in 2022.

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

More Side Progress In Final Fantasy XIV

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV featured a few issues with Xfinity, with a few instances of Upstream Power Levels shooting well over 51, causing stream stalls and frame drops. I made sure to take screenshots when I was able to get into the gateway to see what was going on.

In terms of what we did in game, I knocked out various little side quests, did some fishing and finally wrapped up the Botany job quests at level 70... which was a bit of a pain in the ass than it needed to be because the final items needed to be harvested were at a location that only spawns like every hour or so. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun on a few raids and trials in the daily roulette, as it is always fun to have Panda watching out back!

Also thank you to viewers in the chat for kicking in a few bits, thank you for the continued support!

Twitch Clips

• Just Some Fishing
• Forgot to Put the shield up! 
• We're going to die!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/oldish22! 

Sometimes I like to tuck my knees into my chest and lean forward. That’s just how I roll.

The failure of HBO Max just goes to show that major media studios trying to gate keep their content isn't going to work, and unfortunately it has lead to the halt of a lot of stuff that apparently was practically done and ready for airing. Of course anyone who has followed the history of anything associated with Warner Brothers / AOL-Time Warner / Discovery, would know they have botched the hell out of many things by overestimating what the consumer base wants.

I Make Horrible Science Puns... But Only Periodically.

I have the world's worst thesaurus. Not only is it terrible, it's also terrible.

What do hillbillies drink from? Hiccups.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #2, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Straight Combo for 31 minutes.

Apparently DNF Duel is having issues with population when it comes to online match making, but the issue is more with fighting games having a very short shelf-life with online play. Why? Because there is always a new game coming along. Hell it takes a lot for me to stick with a fighting game, but if I have a goal or objective you know I'll put the time in with it. Hell, if I was to look at the top 10 fighting games I've put time into using say Exophase to track hours they would be.

1. Jump Force - 73 Hours (Xbox)
2. BlazBlue Centralfiction - 72 Hours (Steam)
3. Mortal Kombat 11 - 65 Hours (Xbox)
4. Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid - 51 Hours - (28 Hours (Xbox)  + 23 Hours (Steam))
5. BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend - 49 Hours (Steam)
6. BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend - 42 Hours (Steam)
7. Persona 4 Arena - 36 Hours (Xbox)
8. Mortal Kombat X - 32 Hours (Steam)
9. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection - 31 Hours - (16 Hours (Xbox) + 15 Hours (Steam))
9. Injustice 2 - 27 Hours (Steam)
10. Ultra Street Fighter IV - 26 Hours (Steam)

Obviously some odd ones are Power Rangers and Street Fighter 30th, because i played two different versions, so I just added their time up. Now a lot of these games have a story mode, hell that basically makes up the majority of Persona 4 Arena, but it has no online community to support it because it's a near decade old game. WIth the BlazBlue games, I know a ton of time was dedicated to their story mode with some limited online play here and there. I know I played online a lot with MKX , while MK11 was more of grinding towards achievements in off-line modes, same with Jump Force.

But from what I understand, DNF Duel is just relying on online game play... so yeah, it's no wonder people aren't sticking to it,

Work continued to drag, as the assignment I'm stuck with is just a real moral killer because of when folks prefer to be interviewed... oh well, at least I can pass them along to others.

Song of the Day: Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes 

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 play Stray, and I'm looking forward to it.So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Far From A Flawless Victory

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream featured the story mode of Mortal Kombat IX, which of course is just known as Mortal Kombat because it was a reboot of the franchise and a re-telling of the story of the first three Mortal Kombat games, introducing a new generations to all the characters... and killing a quarter of them!

I'm not kidding, for all the good that comes with the story of Mortal Kombat IX, they really went out of their way to kill off a good chunk of the 'good aligned' characters. Sure many were brought back in Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat 11, but the infamous moment when Sindel one shots everyone but Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage in chapter 15 really is a way of saying 'none of these characters matter'. And then there were some of the fights and how wonky the game can be with how block heavy some can be, and Shao Khan can be an absolute monster unless one is spamming certain special moves, but that is what it is. 

Some of the character model designs still look good for a decade old game, while others certainly didn't age that well. The controls are still pretty damn responsive by modern standards, and the impact of every attack sounds really damn good. That said, some of the audio was mixed oddly to suppress the stage music, but Mortal Kombat has never been a franchise known for having good music

Now we also went ahead an unlocked 50% of the Krypt during the stream, getting a good portion of the alternate costumes. And I am considering doing more Mortal Kombat IX stuff associated with Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Wednesdays, since we'll be using the Xbox One console for the later when teaming up with Iceman.  The big thing I do want to accomplish with Mortal Kombat IX is 'mastery' of one character, and that would require 24 hours of play time using one character, 100 victories, 100 finisher, 10,000 pints of blood and 100 X-ray attacks done

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Halfway There!: Complete Story Mode 50%
• There Will Be Blood!: Spill 10000 pints of blood
• Cold Fusion: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Cyber Sub-Zero"
• Quan-Tease: Unlock Hidden Fighter "Quan Chi"
• Back In Time...: Complete Story Mode 100%
• Undertaker: Unlock 50% of the Krypt 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Jax has been disarmed
2. Ah his is in the air 
3. Lucky... 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo #1 and Hook Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. But as you can tell with the screenshot we did some extra, which I always try to squeeze in even if I don't documented here on the daily blogs!

Messed around with SoulCalibur again last night trying to bang out some more achievements and noticed that one that was unlocked a few days ago was finally credited to me (Close Call). Anyway, for as barebones as the game is the achievements are possible to some degree. Anyway with the 'Guardian' achievement that does extent my current streak of Xbox achievements another day, so woo-hoo!

SoulCalibur Achievements

• Close Call: You have triumphed over extreme adversity and defeated an enemy with very little health.
• Guardian: You have learned to counterattack your opponents' repels and parries.

A new week is here, but let's look back at what games we featured on Twitch last week, which were Overwatch, Tell Me Why, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal and Mortal Kombat IX! 

If you think Donald Trump was a good leader, then you are a fucking idiot and you should move to Moscow and kiss the feet of Vladimir Putin you misanthropic nutball.

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is, it's Sunday, which means Overwatch. Currently there is a mini-event called Reaper’s Code of Violence, which is to unlock a new skin, icon and spray for Reaper. So that is our goal for the evening!

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

A Night Of Exploring The First Palace

Good afternoon everyone,

Well, I wanted to fully experience a dungeon or palace in Persona 5 Royal, and last night certainly was it. Sure we got some character development and leveled up a few things, and badly mishandled fusing Persona's, but the biggest thing was going through what I think would've been 90% of the first palace, missing a couple of things along the way.

Still with the notes I'm using saying to go through it in one 'in game' day, I can see the perks to it, because leaving and going back to them would be a pain. This means I would have to certainly stock up on stuff that replenish HP and SP, since there doesn't seem any way to do so in the Palaces outside of of the Will Seeds.

I do like the different enemies that are encountered and the fact that if certain conditions are met, they could be recruited, however only so many can be had at one time, which means fusing some with the hopes of getting something fairly powerful is key, not to mention having the fused Persona have a variety of elemental attacks to be used in battle.

Still the next time we do Persona 5 Royal, which will be on Friday, we'll do the Calling Card set up and see how that goes!

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was doing JackBox Party things over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz! SheepFuzz also raided my stream earlier in the week... and I forgot to make note of that! They are certainly good people! 

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• I am Thou...: Obtained a Persona through negotiation.
• Tactical Teamwork: Performed a Baton Pass.
• You'd Better Hang On!: Used the grappling hook.
• Let's Blow It Up: Defeated enemies via Disaster Shadow explosion.
• Technician: Triggered a Technical.
• A Deadly Debut: Performed a Guillotine execution.

Twitch Clip Links

1. You wouldn't believe me if I told ya 
2. We recruit another one 
3. That finished Them

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted  28 minutes with Defensive Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Double Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 437 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercises Stats 2/20 to 2/26/22 

• Punches Thrown: 11,309
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4677.42 kcal
  
• Total Days In A Row (Counting original Fitness Boxing): 600
• Total Days In A Row (Only Fitness Boxing 2): 441
• 43 out of 50 Hours trained for Hiro's Champion
  

Learned that the rewards for the four current Pandemonium raids in Final Fantasy XIV can only be claimed once a week, which kind of negates doing them daily. Tough beans man. 

Experimenting with making original content for my YouTube channel again, starting with a 'First Time In A Long Time' reaction to Cowboy Bebop: Asteroid Blues. Why first time in a long time? Because I haven't watched a lot of stuff in years. Still this was mostly to test the waters to see how this would work in terms of avoiding any copyright claims by making it as transformative as possible, such as combining the episode with my green screen and background and cutting the audio from it to about -17 dB. Editing was an interesting process  to focus on things that I said at key moments.

For tonight's stream, we'll be tearing through the story mode of Mortal Kombat IX, we will be reducing the difficulty to try and get through all 16 chapters, but you know it's going to probably take several hours to get through.

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

Whole lot of things

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch certainly was interesting with a lot of overly aggressive matches, some suspect new comers and other craziness. There was one Lucio who seemingly got their 'Soundwave' back faster than usual, keeping in mind, all matches were just Quick Play bouts, and it didn't help they appeared to be a smurf. So his bony ass got reported as so as something was noticed.

Big thanks to BangBangBang713 for joining in on several matches, always awesome to play with members of the community! Picked up one play of the game as D.va, and got in a few matches as her, Moira and Mei this evening, and I did use Reinhardt for part of one match and Tracer as a back fill in another.

For the raid we dropped in on Redneck_23 who was just doing a Just Chatting stream over on twitch.tv/redneck_23!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  The Focus Was Real
2.  I'm on fire... first one way and then the other
3.  A Nice Wall

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2 for an estimated calorie burn of 482 kcal.

Messed around more with Moral Kombat IX to earn some basic achievements, we'll most likely dedicate time to the Story Mode this week, maybe for Saturday's stream perhaps.

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Complet-ality: Perform 1 of each type of "-ality"
• Finish Him?: Perform any fighter's hidden finishing move
• Tag, You're It!: Perform and land a Tag Combo
• Robots Rule!: Win Arcade Tag Ladder with robot Sektor and Cyrax

Capcom officially announced Street Fighter VI, and here's hoping it's not just limited to the PlayStation side of the console market. That was easily the biggest drawback about Street Fighter V. That said, I'm more excited for the Capcom Fighting Collection  that will be coming out this summer, which will include every Darkstalkers game, plus other stuff like Red Earth, Cyberbots, Super Puzzle Fighter II, Pocket Fighter and the Anniversary edition of Hyper Street Fighter II.

 We added a few things to X-Box side of heavy considerations for streaming in the future

• Light Fairytale Episode 1 & 2
• The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition
• Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins 
• Binary Domain
• Dead of Alive 1 Ultimate
• Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate
• Dead or Alive 3 Ultimate

Elena Temple is a retro styled platformer, Heard Binary Domain was a lot like Gears of War, so that could be interesting, of course the Dead or Alive Ultimate versions of the first three games that were on the original X-Box is more for easy completion. Light Fairytale is an episodic turn-based JRPG that apparently didn't do well enough to warrant the series continuing... and the Doctor Who game is another odd-ball licensed by the BBC instead of giving the franchise a proper video game experience.

That is something that always bugged me, outside of the 11th Doctor era, there has not been much of note for the Doctor Who franchise in the realm of video games. To be honest, the show does lend itself more towards the point and click adventure style of video game, which we got with the Doctor Who: Adventure Games, but there was a fairly decent action platformer as well with Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, and I believe the last major release was your basic Candy Crush styled game in the form of Doctor Who: Infinity. 

For tonight's stream we're going to start up Tell Me Why, which is a narrative driven game developed by DONTNOD. I've heard good things about it, and I figure this might take two, at the most three streams to finish.

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

 

A Casual Night Of Grinding In Final Fantasy XIV

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was pretty casual, with an initial focus on doing on the Wondrous Tales that I needed to wrap that up for the week. A big focus of the stream was spent leveling up Blue Mage and Fishing. I really do find the fishing part to be good part to just chill out. Leveling Blue Mage is a bit tough, finding some FATES seems to really help in that regard, particularly if I end up doing one that folks are working on.

I did discovered that Blue Mage can do some of the side quests, which does mean some actual content can be done with the class. Problem is remember all the areas where I skipped the side quests as I was really focused on Main Story and Featured quests!  I thought about doing a Pandamoemum raid, but since that gives major spoilers as it relates to Endwalker I held off on doing that. Kind of figure those would be wise to do on stream one the first of Endwalker's Post-Content comes out.

Now will I watch the Final Fantasy XIV live letter tonight to see what's coming? Nope, that happens at 9 PM Eastern and I will be in the middle of my stream for the evening, but I'll check out the notes afterward to see what's coming and what's expected.

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing We Were Here Too along with FNDanteSavage over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Of course that would happen!
2. Kill this damn thing already! 
3. RUN AWAY!!!! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout was 31 minutes with Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 566 kcal.

Messed around a bit with the X-Box 360 version of Mortal Kombat IX, aka the reboot game which came after Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. For a fighting game, it actually has a good tutorial in that it teaches you the basics to make sure you know what buttons do what. Now I have played the Steam version years ago, but because it didn't have a borderless windowed mode, I never streamed it. So we'll more than likely will be featuring the story mode of MK9 in the near future. In terms of achievements, there are some I feel I could get, with some real heavy grinding... and probably making use of the broken wired controller I used for Capcom Arcade Stadium to go after the 24 hour playtime with one character.

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Fatality!: Perform a Fatality!
• Block This!: Perform a 10-hit combo with any fighter
• Where's The Arcade?: Complete Arcade Ladder with Any Fighter
• License to Kill: Complete Fatality Trainer
• A For Effort: Complete Tutorial Mode

Thinking about having a new logo made, and going to DaemonsW0lf (www.darkwolfcreative.com) for it is an obvious choice.

For tonight's stream we will be starting up Persona 5 Royal for the first time. Now my familiarity with the Persona series is pretty limited, with my first real exposure to it coming via Blaz Blue Cross Tag Battle... granted that game featured characters from Persona 4, but it caught my interest. And since I do lurk around the Fan Fic writing community, I've obviously seen stuff focused on Persona 5, granted without any real context, it was all Greek to me, so those will in no way affect my first attempt of playing it.

But what are my expectations for tonight's stream... well I'm not sure. I know the P5 community can be a little divided over some decisions that one has to make during the course of the game. At the same time, the amount of potential insight and actual help from the chat could be a lot of fun... I know most people are very picky about backseat gaming when it comes to Persona 5, but I've never been one to shy away from getting help with a video game!

So with that said, we'll see you later tonight for Persona 5 Royal over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

A Square-Enix Kind of Saturday

Good morning everyone,

Well one could say that last night was a Square-Enix kind of Saturday, as we split the stream between Life is Strange Remasterd and Final Fantasy XIV. Why did we do that? Well because I wanted to make sure FFXIV was included in this week's featured content, plus the pacing of Life is Strange would have meant an awkward split-stream on Monday. 

Anyway, Episode 3 of Life is Strange, Chaos Theory, is of course the one episode everyone knows since it features when you gave have Max kiss Chloe, plus the entire pool scene and where Max goes back in time to change history so that Chloe's dad lives... but Chloe ends up being paralyzed. One minor change may result in some positives, but other wise things could get really... really screwy. Since we're going in hard with the Max supporting Chloe route, that did mean basically tearing David down during the breakfast scene.

Of course, there was one thing you would have noticed in that I constantly say most of the stuff that happens to Chloe is her own fault, and that is basically true, because she could have accepted that things happen and to try and cope, but she never does. This fact really gets driven home in Before the Storm, particularly if you try and have Chloe make an effort instead of being the whiny woe-is-me drama queen she actually is. Don't get me wrong, I like the pairing of Max and Chloe... BUT... let's be honest, there's a reason why quite a few people choose Arcadia Bay over her and it is justified. 

As far as the Final Fantasy XIV half of the stream goes, we mostly did things related to Wondrous Tails, doing a couple of big raids, trials and other stuff. I briefly thought about doing MSQ related stuff but decided against it mostly because of how much dead air there would have been because of cut scenes (voiced and non-voiced). Did discover I did not have the Extreme versions of Trials unlocked related to Stormblood, the Resistance Weapons Quests that apparently adds another area to explore, which would make for some interesting content once I'm done with Endwalker. 

For last night's raid we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was doing a Community Appreciation Stream with giveaways while playing Stardew Valley!  They stream over on twitch.tv/ggvexy! 

Life is Strange Remastered Achievements

• Parallax View: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Lenscrafted: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• The Reflex: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Histogrammar: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Bokeh: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Pinholed: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• RAW Strength: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Viewfinder: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Optican: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Flash!: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Camera Eye: Take all optional photos in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
• Chaos Theory: Finish Episode 3: Chaos Theory

Twitch Clip Links

1. Well Chloe Asked For It
2. He was eating those beans! 
3. That's a Rare Achievement Too?!
4. Just A Little More! 
5. The Big Blow off...
6. Hurting Hermes! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout Featured a 28 minute workout which showcased Body Hook Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Uppercut Combo as the exercises. The estimated calorie burn for this set was 450 kcal. I did an addition 20 minutes to finish off the requirements for Janice's Champion, which mean's progress towards King EX Fighter is at 88%. My attention will now shift to the Hiro's Champion achievement, we already have at least 30 hours with Hiro as the trainer.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Janice's Champion: Train With Janice for Over 50 Hours
  

Now way I figure this week will certainly see the wrap up of a few things, with Life is Strange Remastered finished on Monday's stream with Episode 4 & 5, Gears 5: Hivebusters finished on Wednesday, and then Life is Strange: Before the Storm being featured on Thursday and Saturday with it's 3 episodes plus the bonus Farewell Episode. This will more than likely open the doors for the weekly line up to get back to what it was last year with a more stable lineup of a major feature. We shall see how true that becomes.

Jumped into Battletoads earlier this morning to knock out some achievements, which was nearly every one I could do single player that did not involve finding collectables. 

Battletoads Achievements

• The Dlala Code: Entered the Dlala Code during the credits.
• Blink and You'll Miss It: Defeated 25 pink eyeballs during 'Time For Plan B'.
• Mementoads: Took a picture with Axeley's standee.
• Take This, Axeman!: Used spit to keep Axeley's weapon stuck in the ground.
• Hey, This is a Rental!: Scored 75 near-misses while riding a rented Turbo bike.
• Warped Sense of Humor: Hit the fake 'Warp Wall' during Nightmare Rider.
• Not Just for the Holidays: Landed a streak of 15 hits destroying a totem.

A new week begins, but let's check out my favorite clips from this past week which featured: Overwatch, Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Paladins, Capcom Arcade Stadium, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Life is Strange Remastered, Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XIV! 

For tonight's stream, well you know what day it is... it's Sunday which means Overwatch! We'll be going after the Auspicious Soldier skin for Soldier 76!

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

Wrapping Up MK Vs DC & The Pain Of Paladins

Good morning everyone,

Well, Sony answered Microsoft's purchase of Activision-Blizzard by buying out Bungie... who made the original Halo and Destiny games. Now with me, this is not much of a counter punch, but hey maybe the Destiny franchise can get back on track... I doubt it considering the nonsense associated with story content in Destiny 2.

Anyway, last night's stream started with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe with the focus on doing arcade runs of the remaining characters to see their endings... so this included Liu Kang, Raiden, Captain Marvel, Shang Tsung, Catwoman, Sub Zero, Darkseid and Shao Kang. I was surprise that Darksaid and Shao Khan do not have any fatalities. On a side note, outside of Liu Kang and Sub-Zero, probably the easiest character to figure out moves for was Catwoman.

In terms of the endings... the one that I kind of feel would make the most idiotic reason for a big movie cross over since Warner Brothers owns Mortal Kombat and DC Comics, is the use of (The Real) Captain Marvel getting access to the Elder Gods to boost his powers to combat a major threat... and then have Raidan show up for some reason at the end. Not likely to happen but hell it's not like there has been a good Mortal Kombat film since the first one.

We also played Paladins last night for a bit, and as usual I was reminded as to why I stopped playing it so often. The usual nonsense associated with folks not picking on what the team needs and fighting off the objective came to the forefront. I honestly can't believe taking 'two flanks' is still a thing people do in this game, which drives me nuts. Either Two Tanks, Two Damage or Two Supports... never... EVER take two flanks. Anyway, in the matches played I used Ash, Tyra and Ying.

Big thank you to the_tjcalhoun for subscribing to my Twitch channel for the first time with Twitch Prime, Redfoxukcov for resubscribing using Twitch Prime for the 9th straight month and to Sw33ts_Gaming for the Tier 1 sub, continuing their stream at 34 months!

For the raid, there was no raid, we hosted maximilian_dood  who was doing things related to The King of Fighters XV over on twitch.tv/maximilian_dood!  

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Achievements

• DC Arcade Champion: Complete Arcade Mode with all DC characters
• MK Arcade Champion: Complete Arcade Mode with all MK characters

Twitch Clip Links

1. Dropping The Arcade Machine
2. This is for Man of Steel! 
3. The Free Fall Turn Around Into The Finish
4. Double Kill! 
5. Avoding Drogoz's Ult
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured a 31 minute workout around Hip Shape Focus Combo, Sway Back Combo and Straight Combo #2 with a calorie burn of 473 kcal. I will admit, with the real cold mornings, it's not always easy to load up the Switch to do the daily workout when one wants to stay nice and snug under the blanket.

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw major progress in the Main Story Quest, going from Skies Aflame up through At World's End. The dungeon, Vanaspati was mostly without incident... until myself, the other DPS and the Mage all got K.O.ed... thankfully the Tank, who was playing the role of Warrior which has some insane self-healing capabilities was able to solo the final boss. Needless to say they earned commendation without question.

In terms of how The Final Days is being implemented into Final Fantasy XIV, I really get some strong  Grandia II vibes, particular since the final act of that game sees the world being over run with monsters. That said, there were some surprising moments in the cut scenes and the Aether Currents were easy to find except for one which I missed from the far west side of the map. 

Before returning to the World of the First, I will be doing the Ranged DPS Role Quests, which seems to take place back in Doma. Should be interesting to see how the event of the MSQ are effecting other parts of the Realm.

For tonight's stream we'll be focused on Capcom Arcade Stadium, as we're at 98 Hours, so 2 hours of in-game time will unlock the final achievement. Though I easily could've done that last night.

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