Abzu is the 60th we finished this year

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream opened with Abzu, a game that is more of an experience because of how gorgeous it is and how incredible the musical score is. I did try to find everything for a 'possible' 100% completion run, but some areas are just too difficult to see where some things are  Still, it does give me an excuse to play it again on stream to try and get the other achievements.

I hope to have the highlight reel featuring all 60 games we finished for this years tour ready by New Years Eve

We did play Smite, and there were two quests that tied into one another, play as a Warrior and play as a Chinese God... so with that I ended up playing as Mulan for the first time, picking up one of her two achievements and coming painfully close in picking up the other, which involved leveling up her weapons. She kind of feels like a less dive heavy version of Nike.

We loaded up Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 to try and get an S-Rank achievement... never got hire than an A-Rank. There has to be a trick to it.

Lastly we closed out with SoulCalibur II HD Online, and I totally forgot that earlier in the year I was messing around with it to try and get several achievements done. Was surprised to pick up one achievement for defeating 50 male warriors. Did do an arcade run as Heihachi, and I have to giggle at his ending basically coming across as it was all a dream.

ABZÛ Achievements

• Breach: Leap from the water.
• Jetstream: Burst 15 fish schools in the jetstream.
• Food Chain: Witness predation while meditating.
• Ballet: Perform a flip while riding a creature.
• Connection: Ride the Great White Shark.
• Leviathan: Breach the water on the back of a blue whale.
• Reflection: Complete the adventure.

SMITE Achievements

• Two For One: Unlock the SMITE Award "Two For One."

SoulCalibur II HD Online Achievements

• Exemplary Fortitude: Defeated 50 Male Characters

Stream Clips

• Achievement: Leviathan
• Achievement: Two For One 
• WakkaWakkaWakka 
• Is that all you got
  

By the way, here is the full list of every game we finished this year.

01/07 - Pokemon Shining Pearl
01/17 - Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
01/20 - Life of Fly
01/24 - Battletoads
01/25 - Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe
01/26 - Gears 5
01/29 - Disney-Pixar Brave
02/08 - Life is Strange: Remastered
02/13 - Life is Strange - Before the Storm: Remastered
02/15 - Kingdom Hearts III
02/19 - Life of Fly 2
02/22 - Tell Me Why
02/26 - Mortal Kombat IX
02/28 - Light Fairytale Episode 1
03/01 - Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold
03/01 - Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper
03/01 - Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
03/07 - What Remains Of Edith Finch
03/09 - WWF SmackDown 2: Know Your Role
03/12 - Teen Titans
03/14 - Sonic Generations
03/15 - P.O.W. Prisoners of War
03/15 - Beast Busters
03/16 - Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon
03/21 - Contrast
03/23 - Gears of War: Ultimate Edition
04/02 - Apocalypse
04/19 - Mass Effect 2
04/23 - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai
05/17 - Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition
05/22 - Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes EX Edition
05/30 - Lego Batman: The Video Game
06/02 - Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Xbox 360 Version)
06/11- Capcom Fighting Evolution
06/18 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
06/21 - Persona 5 Royal
07/11 - Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins
07/18 - Persona 4: Arena
07/23 - Tekken Tag Tournament 2
07/25 - Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
07/30 - Persona 5: Strikers
08/06 - Stray
08/12 - My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure
08/22 - Mass Effect 3
09/02 - Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
09/05 - LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
09/12 - Murdered: Soul Suspect
09/16 - The Quarry
09/20 - Tekken 7
10/03 - Overwatch
10/10 - The Last of Us Remastered
10/14 - Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
10/28 - Until Dawn
11/18 - Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight
11/21- Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova
11/22 - Dragon Ball FighterZ
11/23 - Fallout 76
12/09 - Persona 4: Dancing All Night
12/13 - Games of Thrones: A Telltale Series
12/20 - Abzu

For the raid we dropped in on FelKimchi as they were playing Genshin Impact over on twitch.tv/felkimchi! 

Found out that mom will probably start getting radiation treatments on my birthday, and the major areas of concern are in her hip and right shoulder. If anyone wants to help with my mom's medical expenses, you can donate to her gofundme at https://gofund.me/6adf8354

The streak of Mass Effect shorty commissions request is now up to four, and I should have guessed that there was a possibility of including Matriarch Benezia. Will have to ponder how to make that work.

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

What's the best way to carve wood? Whittle by whittle.

Song of the Day: Rocket Man (I think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time) by Elton John

For tonight's stream, the plan is to play Fall Guys and Fallout 76, so silliness and action is expected. 

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

Well Happy Birthday To Me

Good afternoon everybody,

I have leveled up today, as its my birthday... I am now 39 Years Old. Most would say I'm just wasting my life... they are probably right, but hell, to each their own.

Anyway, last night's stream certainly had no plan as I didn't want to start up anything major or risk finishing a game, so we revisited some old favorites and checked out something I'm considering as a game to feature in 2022.

First up, was the return of The Grand Tour Game, which involved a delay in me doing any gaming during the stream because I had to wait for it to finish installing. It was a great revisit to just doing the first episode. Took me a while to remember how to do things correctly, as I did earned gold medals on every event back in 2020. But something funny happened when I was porting over last night's stream, apparently Amazon doesn't want any footage of the game to exist, and thus blocked the entire stream... so the segment of The Grand Tour Game will be edited out.

Next was Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, this was mostly just trying the score attack. Trying to earn an S Rank in this is not easy, as tracking the ghosts when we get the power pellet is a major weakness. Still managed to get a clutch 'A' Rank, so that's something.

We checked out Battletoads, which game out last year as an X-Box exclusive... and boy the all important aspect of online co-op not being a thing is a major downer. Still it is a game that looks great, is pretty easy to learn the basics of and has some nice humor to it. This is a game we will stream in 2022, which means the save file I've started will be deleted.Still we earned about eight achievements, so that was cool

Finally we jumped back into Jump Force, and I was hoping to get some S-Ranks on Hard Missions to get another achievement and get a step closer to 100% completion, but things did no shake out the way I was hoping in terms of finishing with Awaken Abilities. I did dive back into Jump Force after the stream and was able to knock out the two achievements I want to do... one part thanks to an 'character' event where using One Piece and Yu-gi-Oh character lead to a multiple of two to various mission rewards.

Big thanks as always to Kalenal for the raid during the stream. Last night they were featuring Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Super People over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming. From what I can tell Super People is just your typical battle royal game.

Battletoads Achievements

1. Dodgebrawl Champion: Finished a fight without taking damage.
2. Brawling… With Style!: Earned your first 'S' Rank from an encounter.
3. Toads in a Hole: Escaped from the simulation bunker.
4. It Begins…: Got your first collectable.
5. Road Rash: Went in search of the evil Dark Queen.
6. Into the Third Dimension: Used your tongue to reach the background.
7. Battlemaniacs: Defeated 100 enemies.
8. Parks & Recreational Violence: Battled through a creepy amusement park.

Jump Force Achievements

1. Reliable Companions: Raised ten support characters above level 70 through battle.
2. A Master Warrior: Got S rank 10 or more times on Hard Free Missions.
   

Twitch Clip Links

• More Power!!!!
• There's a Finish! 
• Brawlin... With Style!
• Just Kick It Up A Notch! 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Beginner Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 454 kcal.

I can safely say that the rest of this week will feature different games on Friday and Saturday, I might go back to Rise of the Tomb Raider to work on some achievements associated with that on Friday. Would be rather interesting if I go that route. This would mean both Fist of the North Star and Pokemon Shining Pearl being saved for next week.

Managed to finish a fan fic commission based around the WWE in 2010... and got paid for it promptly. Always nice when that happens. Might consider doing another one for the same client. .

For my birthday stream, I will be playing Final Fantasy XIV, and my focus will mostly be with the Eden side quests that were apart of Shadowbringers. We might do other trials and dungeons and stuff as well.

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

More Forced Jumps And Gears Warred

Good morning everyone,

The grind for glory is real, but some times it's about the journey and not the destination... right?

Last night's stream lead off with Jump Force as my quests to grind out various achievements added another one to the list of things I accomplished in that game, so at this point the biggest challenge is going to be mostly focused on getting S Ranked on Free Missions on the Hard, Very Hard and Expert Difficulties. We did clear the complete 100 missions achievement

Around the half way point of the stream, the fun switched over to Gears of War 4, where Iceman joined in so that we could finish the Co-Op campaign, something that turned out to be a very rare accomplishment. It was certainly a lot more fun with a friend than my original play-through when it came to knowing someone had my back. 

The fifth Act of Gears 4 did strike a cord with me in regard to just how bland a main character JD is, and since I am aware that Kait becomes the lead in Gears 5, that's probably for the best considering its her lineage that is at the heart of the story.

Iceman and I also messed around with the horde mode, clearing 9 waves before we got overwhelmed by the enemies. Managed to some achievements out of it, and much like the other Gears of War games, it does give some heavy consideration to revisit them... for things other than just getting the collectables.! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to PradoxGamerAU who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau!

Jump Force Achievements

1. Prospectus: Cleared 100 or more different Free Missions.
   

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. The Sound Of Silence: Carried the Customized Lancer Marcus gave you to the end of Act V Chapter 2
2. Brothers Till The End: Completed all Campaign Acts in Co-op (any difficulty)
3. Level Up! : Reached level 2 in one Horde class
4. Ribbonator: Earned 5 Ribbons
5. Level 10: Reached level 10
6. Level 5: Reached Level 5
7. Level 15: Reached Level 15
   

Twitch Clip Links

• 5 Seconds left on the clock!
• The Phyiscs Make Very Little Sense 
• Slice it!
• Overkill! 
  

Now I know I didn't post the usual screen shots of the results of yesterday's Fitness Boxing 2 session, it was because i had the Twitch graphic to show. And I like to only use about 4 images at most in a blog post. That said, today's daily work out session featured Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 493 kcal.

I'm pleased that the DC character known as Powerhouse is getting their own series on the CW, titled 'Namoi'. The reason being is that Powerhouse is not a forced re-work, change for the sake of change legacy character (Example The Flash's Iris West-Allen & Wally West)... Powerhouse was created in 2018, and in that span of time was able to garner enough credibility with the comic book reading audience to give the character a bigger platform. 

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw a lot of time spent with the dwarfs and seeing the whole point of the Lali-Ho greeting. There are some little comedic moments sprinkled around the featured side quests. The main story plot was advanced up to That None Shall Ever Again, and there is the theme of uniting the entire world of the First, which kind of is a smaller version of basically a condensed version of everything done with Eorzea in uniting various city states to face the empire. 

Messed around a little with Pac-Man Championship Edition 2... I forgot how overly complicated the ghost trains can get in it when it comes to the score attack mode.  

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Achievements

1. SCORE ATTACK > EXTREME 3: Obtain Rank A or higher in SCORE ATTACK > EXTREME.
   

Every time Bret 'Hitman' Hart is interviewed about his career, the most delusional he becomes. Hey, I was big fan of the guy, but his recent claims that he inspired every Canadian wrestler is pretty damn silly. 

Found out my younger brother and his family caught Covid, hopefully they have a quick recovery.

For tonight's stream I'm not completely sure yet of what we're going to feature, I have a couple of ideas, but we'll see what shakes out!

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

Today's Notes 4/13/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Dragon Age Inquisition was basically all about doing every side quest I had open that didn't involve finding plants or rocks, as we covered the last bit of Cullen and Josephine's Inner Circle Quests and everything in the Hissing Wastes. This lead to five achievements being unlocked which are listed below.

• Pathfinder - Discover a campsite and establish at least one Inquisition camp in 10 wilderness areas.
• Demonslayer - Defeat 1,000 demons in single-player mode.
• Dragons' Bane - Slay 10 high dragons in single-player mode.
• Keymaster - Enter the heart of the Solasan temple.
• Decorator - Purchase any new decoration element for Skyhold.

With that said, this all sets up tonight's stream where there are three main story quests left to cover, and four achievements to along with them, with luck we'll finish Dragon Age Inquisition today! 

Following last night's stream I messed around a little with Pac-Man 99, which is the latest classic video game turned battle royal, and as a replacement for Super Mario 35, it's okay, even if figuring out how to get the controls to switch to where I can use the analog stick instead of the d-pad to move was a pain in the ass.

Also jumped into Overwatch (PC Version) last night to try my hand in getting the 2021 Archive Achievements, succeeding in two of them, 

• Sympathy Gains  -  Complete the Sympathy Gains Archives challenge mission. 
• Thunderstorm - Complete the Thunderstorm Archives challenge mission. 

For Sympathy Gains, I used Dva, while the rest of the team was Ana, McCree and Reaper. Ana's anti heal was really useful in preventing the enemies from healing each time one was taken down, plus when used right McCree and Reapers ults can clear out a bunch. The reason I used Dva is because her defense matrix can eat a lot of damage from the Heavy Assault enemies that are encounter. For Thunderstorm,  I again was Dva, while the rest of the team was Baptiste, Roadhog and Orissa. This involved taking out time and taking out enemies at a distance, because if they got close they would do a lot of extra damage. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session lasted about 30 minutes, plus I did a little extra because I had the extra time to do so. My few misses were due more to carelessness on my part, or rather me being absent minded about the sequence I should've been performing. Still it was a good way to start the day.

And on this note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden for more Dragon Age Inquisition!