RWBY: Grimm Eclipse and other notes

The big objective for tonight's stream was to do the entire campaign of RWBY Grimm Eclipse as Weiss Schnee and thanking we were able to do so, which was possible because we had Weiss at level 10 with a complete skill set already in place. The only time we had trouble was the very end with the Giant Scorpian and the various androids that keep spawning. Now the question will be when will I do runs as members of team JNPR.

We took a look at RWBY Arrowfell, which is a side-scrolling RPG where you can swap between all four members of the team. We knocked out the first chapter and I think we will add the game to the tour list, but we'll start it over when we finally dedicate time to it. Probably after we play Grandia (which we will start on Monday)

We messed around with RetroMania Wrestling completing the 10 Pounds of Gold as James Storm and getting an achievement as Stevie Richards. It appears the update from earlier this year added a bunch of achievements that are certainly do-able

Tomorrow's stream will feature Overwatch 2

For the raid we dropped in on samaell_alwahm who was playing Zenless Zone Zero 

Finished the My Hero Academia Story commission request, next up is a Pokemon commission story for the last one scheduled for July.

Did some yard work today, ended up going through three things of weed trimmer.... ugh

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse Achievements

• Ticking Time Bomb: Completed Mountain Glenn Part 2 with 3:00 minutes or more left on the clock.
• Weiss Schnee: Complete the campaign using Weiss

RWBY: Arrowfell Achievements

• A Mission Begins: Complete objective at the Summit.
• What are ya buying?: Purchase an item from a Merchant.
• Treasure Huntress: Open a chest.
• Close Encounters: Defeat 50 enemies using melee attacks.
• The Mysterious Orb: Complete Chapter 1.

RetroMania Wrestling Achievements

• Whipped Into Shape: Win a match as Stevie Richards in the SRF Arena

 

Marvel's Midnight Suns and other notes

Tonight we finished Marvel's Midnight Suns with 70 of the 72 achievements unlocked (the last two involve reaching maximum dark side balance and getting the other 71 achievements). I'm at 105 lightside, so I figure pop in doing a mission or two daily and using dark powers will help progress that over.

As far as the ending and final boss battles go, it was incredible and very good payoff, with The Hunter getting a Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3 / Makoto Yuki in Persona 3 style ending where they end up basically dead / sealed away. But Midnight Suns does tease a sequel involving Doctor Doom which I feel would be awesome.

Would I do a New Game Plus Run? Well that depends on if I want to grind out a huge portion of the game again and take full advantage of the conversations to push towards dark side even faster.

My commentary video for Midnight Suns will be on YouTube on August 9th

Anyway, RWBY Grimm Eclipse will be featured on Saturday's stream and on Monday Grandia will take over as our main game.

Tomorrow night we're playing God Eater Ressurection

For the raid we dropped in on abenonymous who was playing Marvel's Spider-Man 

Work was a lot better than it was last night by a wide margin

Nearly finished the Arrow commission, just needs an epilogue to close it out

Marvel's Midnight Suns Achievements

• Extracurricular Activities: Attended all Abbey Club meetings in a single campaign.
• Family is Forever: Completed the Transia story missions.

Sea of Thieves and other notes

Iceman and I had our fair share of misadventures, with our ship getting sunk twice, having to use a row boat to get loot back to an outpost,  finding the Dutchess bountyand battling other vessels. It was rather hilarious to a large degree at times, as is expected with Sea of Thieves.

Sea of Thieves is slated for next Wednesday

Our next stream will feature Marvel's Midnight Suns and we got to hope the abbey clubs start happening to wrap those up

For the raid we dropped in on ZoneSama for their Zone-Out stream

Work was a complete drag, over 400 contacts made with only 1 complete to show for it

Finished the Persona 3 Commission request, hopefully the client pays for it without me having to send repeated notices. Next story is a quick Arrow one 

Long term planning, considering a couple of nights dedicated to RWBY Grimm Eclipse for achievement hunting, YouTube Commentary and streaming purposes

Smite and other notes

Iceman was not available so instead we featured Smite, and shockingly we won 5 matches... while losing 5 matches, although one of those losses was due to being stuck with a player who refused to play. We were joined by Strike for a couple of games.

Picked up the discounted Battle Pass to make sure I go that Athena skin, as well as gnabbed all the RWBY related skins to make sure I didn't miss out on them a second time.

Gods used tonight were Athena, Cupid, Chang'e, Terra, Thanatos, Freya and Amaterasu, the last four having the skins for Yang, Ruby, Weiss and Blake. 

I think when Smite 2 launches, we'll dedicate a few Saturdays to it since by then we'll be pretty far into Persona 4 Golden

Tomorrow night we're back to Borderlands 2

For the raid we dropped in on ZoneSama for the weekly Zone-Out streams of retro TV

Work was solid, if unspectacular, not as productive as the previous nights

Picked up the Porsche bundle in Overwatch 2 since I already had the coins in my account

Finished the Back to the Future story and started work on a Star Wars commission which might take me until Friday to finish given how much dialog I have to write!

Alan Wake Remastered and other notes

Tonight's stream of Alan Wake Remastered ran close to four hours because I was trying to find the chests, pages and coffee thermoses , but we did knock out two chapters, with only dying three times. I fully forgot about how between chapters the inventory resets, which makes conserving all the ammo almost pointless. If there is one thing that bothers me about this game is that it none of the awkward animations that some characters have, in particularly with the character of Barry.

Alan Wake Remastered will return next Friday night!

Our next stream will feature Asura's Wrath with the goal being to finish it along with as much of its DLC as possible before we move on.

For the raid we went over to weirdtiffz who was also playing Alan Wake

Alan Wake Remastered (PS4) Trophies

• Follow the Light: You were enlightened by a dream.
• Let There Be Light: You have restored power.
• Float Like a Butterfly: You avoided getting hit -- with style!
• Nordic Walking: Unlike Stucky, you enjoy incontestable health benefits. Namely, you're not dead.
• Bright Falls' Finest: You finally managed to make that phone call.
• Under a Thin Layer of Skin: You disobeyed the park ranger's instructions.
• Finders Keepers: You have discovered five of the hidden chests.
• Paging Mr. Wake: You have discovered 25 manuscript pages.
• Missed by a Mile: You managed a slow-motion dodge 20 times
• Park Ranger: You survived Elderwood National Park. 

Work was solid, couple of interviews were done, couple of real jerks tried to damper it with rude language.

Knocked out the RWBY x Justice League crossover story to fulfill commission request, next up is a Spider-Man commission story which should only take a couple of hours to write... more or less.

Did some grocery shopping today, picking up as much healthy alternatives as possible... but I forgot the salad dressing!

Good night!

Asura's Wrath and other notes

 We continued Asura's Wrath this evening, going from Episode 10 to 15, plus doing the glorified FMVs that were DLC chapters 11.5 and 15.5, which adds context to the story, but at the same time, really has some questionable choices. Really enjoying the game, and in terms of  the base game achievements we have nearly 50% of them, of course there is the question of how many achievements we'll get as I did see there are some tied to difficulty settings and game play modifiers.

Funny thing, apparently screenshots of Asura's Wrath are forbidden on Facebook... go figure, but not on tumblr.

Next time we'll play Asura's Wrath will be on Saturday, where we'll go through the rest of the game and the extended story, with luck we may even do the Street Fighter crossover stuff.

Friday's stream will feature Alan Wake Remastered

Asura's Wrath Achievements

• View of the Valley: Continue to stare at the hot spring attendant's assets.
• Like a Fish: Consume more alcohol than you should.
• Sometimes I Feel Like...: Find all the peeping Doji at the hot spring.
• Denied: Get scolded by your former master in Episode 10.
• They Don't Stand a Chance: Defeat 50 enemies while in Unlimited Mode.
• Shut Up, Augus!: Interrupt Augus' monologue.
• Heads Will Roll: Completely lose it in Episode 12.
• Rebirth: Complete Part II: Rebirth.
• Rebel with a Cause: Do what you think is right in Episode 13.
• Can't Touch This: Perform 50 counterattacks.
• Taking Out the Trash: Defeat 300 enemies with heavy attacks and/or lock-on fire.
• Unstoppable Force: Defeat 100 enemies while in Unlimited Mode.
• A Cry of Anger: Activate Burst 50 times.
• Quick on the Draw: Achieve 70 EXCELLENT synchronic impact rankings.

 For the raid we went over to zonesama who was featuring Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire

Work was solid tonight, no real complaints

Finished the wrestling related story after last nights's stream and started work on the RWBY x Justice League commission, and counting that I have 10 stories to write to earn extra income this month. 

I really hate how long the Amazon Prime reward codes for Dead by Daylight are... and too bad the developers of that game don't have a way to link an account to just have the redeem kick over.

Good night folks!

 

Starfield and other notes

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Starfield was interesting, as the game is very detailed and massive, and I can tell already I'm going to mostly keep it on Saturday nights since that is the largest night of the week for streaming. I certainly spent a lot of time looking around for loot and stuff which is probably going to turn my play-though into a slog. Since we're playing it via Game Pass, I'm going to give it the direct casual approach approach. It is a gorgeous game, and the sound mixing seems spot on.

Our next stream slated for 9:30 PM Eastern on Thursday will feature RetroMania, and we'll see if we like that game enough to want to dedicate serious time to it

Starfield Achievements

• For All, Into the Starfield: Enter Space for the First Time
• One Small Step: Join Constellation

For the raid we went to twitch.tv/zonesama for some retro TV watching 

Work was solid, we had a fairly interesting assigned focused on things in New Jersey even if my patience was really tested.

Got a commission story based on Arrow done, and it didn't turn out as well as the previous one, but i got bogged down with some few other things that cropped up. On the plus side, I'm fully caught up on commissions, so I can probably work on the Persona story unless something pops up

Recorded  two videos for my YouTube channel, one being my casual review of Day of the Tentacle while will premier in January, and the other thoughts on the RWBY / Justice League crossovers.

And that will do it for today's notes!

Good night!

Day of the Tentacle, Smite and other Notes

 Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream opened with Day of the Tentacle and it was pretty much a sprint to the finish, even as I was taking my time and making sure I got nearly every achievement in the game, missing two that are not very obvious. I have a lot of positive things to say about the console port of this game, and it makes me wonder why Lucas Arts and Disney has not done remasters of other games from the Point and Click era of the 90s. Obviously I'll be doing a review of this game for my YouTube channel. Question of what will replace it in the weekly line up is up in the air at the moment.

Now Day of the Tentacle didn't fill the entire stream, as we loaded things up with Smite for the first time in a while, winning a couple of matches and losing a couple, playing as Athena, Baset, Discordia and Cupid. We will not talk about the Assault match which was a 3 versus 5 waste of time and downer to end the stream on.

Wednesday's stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will start around 9:30 PM Eastern, but Journey to the Savage Planet will be on hold as Iceman needs to work late, so we'll either start Starfield or RetroMania

Day of the Tentacle Remastered Achievements

• Voiding the Warranty: Try to put something metal in the microwave
• Master Plumber: Flush 50 objects through time
• Energy Conscious: Turn off the television
• Rap Sheet: Forger: Try to sign the contract yourself with the quill pen
• Behind Every Great Man Is a Quality Roadie: Red makes a super battery with only a little help from Hoagie
• Rap Sheet: Adventure Gamer: Pick up 45 things that don't belong to you
• Flush: Acquire a diamond
• That Should Have Worked: Hoagie uses battery with Chron-O-John instead of plug
• Number One: Power Hoagie's Chron-o-John
• Music Appreciation Award: Reach yesterday without turning the stereo off
• Yesterday's News: Defeat Purple Tentacle yesterday
• Mental Patience: Play the whole game without skipping a cutscene
• ...Take on the Words!: Sit through the end credits

SMITE Achievements

• Objective Stealer: Deliver the killing blow on a map objective where enemies did more damage in a qualifying match.

 For the raid we went to www.twitch.tv/EcoNstinct where Fortnite was being featured

Watched Justice League X RWBY Part 2 today, and it was a fun continuation of the first film, but it certainly made quite a few references to things in the later seasons of RWBY I didn't know about, which means I'll have to watch and catch up. There was one minor bit of disappointment in that the second film didn't fully commit to Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Blake adapting things to the DC Universe as things ended up favoring them using their standard abilities in the films climax.

Knocked out an commission story based on the Arrowverse today, and got an instant request for a follow up, which is awesome.

I certainly got something in mind for Halloween, just need to get the pieces together for it.

And on that note, good night!

Cybperunk 2077 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream got off to a rough start because apparently Cyberpunk 2077 and its DLC expansion Phantom Liberty don't update as a single game like you know... every other fucking game on the planet, so the first 30 mintues was a complete wash. Once the two updates (when one was really needed) was done, a bunch of achievements that I know I didn't unlock related to the base game popped, meaning I'm two achievements away from completing the default achievements.

As far as the actually playing the game knocked out a few side quests, 'claimed' a few cars and generally made sure anything doable was done before advancing the plot, getting Idris Elba's character involved and seeing just how nutty things can go. Trying to make sure I don't do anything that kicks me from the Phantom Liberty content since some choices can and will be a factor

Next time we'll be playing it will be on Saturday's stream at 5 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Of course Friday's stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern and will see us playing Horizon Zero Dawn

Cyberpunk 2077 Achievements

• The Devil: Help Takemura avenge the death of Saburo Arasaka.
• Gunslinger: Shoot an enemy grenade in midair with a revolver.
• Two Heads, One Bullet: Kill or incapacitate 2 enemies with the same sniper rifle shot.
• Rough Landing: While Berserk cyberware is active, perform a Superhero Landing to kill or incapacitate 2 enemies.

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

Work was okay, not as draggy as the other nights this week... didn't get any completed interviews, just people who feel outside the parameters.

Finished the last WWE related commission story that I had booked today, and now I have two commissions based on something else to do, one for Spider-Man and another for Resident Evil.

I did actually force myself to do something not related to work, writing or streaming and sat down to watch RWBY / Justice League Part 1... and I thought it was okay, unfortunately unlike the comic book the first crossover, the film didn't have the balls to fully commit to having the DC Heroes being natives to the world of Remnant, and went with a half-baked trapped in a virtual reality world story. Now it was part 1 and there was a tease that there was another villain involved, so hopefully when part 2 comes out, it'll be better.

And on that note, good night!

Journey to the Savage Planet and other notes

Hi everyone,

Well the Phillies crushed the Marlins tonight to go on to face the Barves in the Division Round of the Playoffs... in a rematch of the same Division Series from last year. It's going to be interesting follow

Tonight's stream featured Journey to the Savage Planet, and following some issues in me being unable to hear Iceman and invites not working, we were able to get into a lot of exploring and finding the resources needed to unlock new gimmicks to help reach new areas... when we weren't figuring our own ways of getting around stuff. Looking forward to the next time we play it, which is slated for next Wednesday.

Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition Achievements

• Return To Sender: Retrieved your own loot box. Death is no excuse for leaving behind Kindred property!
• I Want To Go Home. Eventually.: Marked your first fuel pod. Momma, I'm coming home!
• That's all people really want to do...: Kick 10 Pufferbirds in 45 seconds. It's why you bought the game. We get it.
• We came, We Saw, We Kicked Its Ass: Crack Cragclaw with a Co-Op partner. Teamwork really does make the dream work.
• Cragclaw Defeated: Cragclaw down. Break out the garlic butter! 

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/zonesama during Cecilia Littlewing's marthone of retro television 

Our next stream is slated for Thursday night at 9:30 PM Eastern with Cyberpunk 2077, continuing doing stuff related to Phantom Liberty

Work tonight was okay, got a solid interview done right off the back before it became mundane and mind numbing in the final hour.

Finished the Watch Dogs commission story requests and got started on the WWE commission request straight away, trying to make it different from another similar is going to be a challenge. Also in the queue are commission stories based on Spider-Man and Resident Evil

Picked up a birthday present for my niece, as well as some sweatpants and the 2nd Justice League / RWBY crossover

And on that note, good night!

Progress in Agents of Mayhem

Good morning everyone,

Song of the Day: Can I Change My Time by Tyrone Davis

Yesterday got off to a good start as a new boom arm / mic stand arrive which is a lot more managable than the one I got a few years ago. The key thing is now I can have the mic even further away from the speakers, but it does end up placing it closer to me. 

Also had two comic books books, one being the RWBY / Justice League crossover, and the other being the Power Rangers / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover. Really looking forward to reading both.

Last night's stream of Agents of Mayhem saw a big focus on story related content and leveling up some characters. With the exception of Scheherazade, every other agents side stories are completed. We'll be getting to Scheherazade tonight as her unlock missions become available only after the Gaunt story is completed. At this point I can mostly focus on main story stuff, because I am debating putting in the grind to get every Agents up to level 20.

That said, I did notice that as far as the Xbox version of the game goes, not many people actually finished it. I think it was something like 7% of Xbox players finished the main campaign, which is kind of stunning to me. But I kind of figure if I stick with the main missions the rest of the way, I'll finish Agents of Mayhem within three streams. 

So the goal on tonight's stream is obvious, unlocked Scheherazade, do her story missions and then tackle the big story arcs!

Agents of Mayhem Achievements

• Super Agent: Reach level 40 on any agent.
• Bombshells: Fully deck out the Bombshells in their signature outfit.
• Three's Company: Fully deck out Carnage a Trois in their signature outfits.
• You Got Gaunt!: Complete "Operation: Star Power".
•  All the Bells and Whistles: Fully upgrade all areas of the ARK

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal while they were playing Pokemon Scarlet over at twitch.tv/kalenal

My brother hooked me up with some food from Checkers yesterday, it made for a nice change of pace of eating healthy.

You know, there are times I truly believe Naoki Yoshida aka Yoshi-P is a complete idiot... and it's mostly due to him trying to justify something stupid like only a PlayStation console can handle anything Final Fantasy related. 

Got some writing done on the Dragon Ball short story commission, using flash backs have allowed for it to flow a lot better.

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

So We Played Doctor Who The Lonely Assassins

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream opened with Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, which is a visual novel styled game that acts as a revisit to the episode Blink from the 10th Doctor era, where the player is interacting with Osgood through an in-game mobile phone, with a series of puzzles to determine what has happened to a man named Lawrence who has apparently vanished. Lawrence himself, was also in the original episode Blink, so the connects were very strong. While the game play elements were rather minimal, the story was really good, and some of the use of the Weeping Angels was actually really well done. 

Perhaps the cool thing about this little game is that a number of Doctor Who alumni appeared in it, with Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Finlay Robertson as Larry Nightingale and the use of archive footage of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. Jodie Whittaker provides a few lines as the 13th Doctor at the very end (if everything was done correctly). There are a number of references to some other parts of Doctor Who's history which made for some great call backs.

Time to complete the game took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, so it's a short game, but if you catch it cheap, it's worth checking out. Also fair warning there are a couple of jump scares, or at least things that will make you take a long hard look at your screens when they happen. 

This does lead to the usual discussion regarding Doctor Who video games, as we haven't really seen many over the past 17 years. There were a few during the Matt Smith years there decent, and a couple of mobile ones during Peter Capaldi's era, but for a show like Doctor Who never got the care and attention like so many other sci-fi franchises. But then again, considering the incompetence of the BBC, I'm not surprised...

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins Achievements

• Well, That Was Rude...: Declined Osgood's call.
• We've Got a Game...: Accepted Osgood's request for help.
• First Clue: Congratulations, you found your first clue! Many to go...
• Mo's Apology: Found a message from Mo apologising for his outburst.
• An Old Friend: Read any of the messages from Sally Sparrow.
• How Strange: You received a rather unusual call from Lawrence.
• Never Run When You’re Scared!: The plot thickens as Osgood unlocks more of the phone for you to explore.
• Call it a Day, Mr Nightingale!: Received a threatening phone call from Mr Flint.
• There's Something on the Phone!: Discovered the source of the corruption on the phone.
• Master Persuader: Persuaded Marguerite to resend the download link.
• Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Stuff: Found out Natasha has been sent back in time by the Angels!
• Not Your Average Police Box: Found all photos of the TARDIS hidden throughout the game.
• Don't Blink: Found the Doctor's warning of the Lonely Assassins.
• Lawrence's Plan: Discovered Lawrence's plan to confront the Angels.
• Saving the World with a Disco Ball: Angels? What Angels?! You helped Osgood defeat the Weeping Angels lurking at Wester Drumlins.
• Happy Ever After: Unlocked the hidden ending by completing all tasks listed in the operations log. 

Now we didn't just play Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, we also played some Paladins as we checked out characters that have skins from RWBY, namely Vore (Ruby Rose), Imani (Yang Xiao Long), Saati (Blake Belladonna) and Furia (Weise). Of the four characters, I have used Furia before, in fact I played her a lot when the character was first added to the game. In terms of the designs, Ruby and Weiss look great... Blake is kind of average... and I have no fucking clue what they were thinking with Yang, but they did her dirty. One big positive here is that the voice actors from RWBY recorded lines for their characters, so the charm of some of the things like Yang's puns were in full effect.

On a side note, I had some good moments as Vore and Saati...while trying to re-learn Furia was a real challenge... on the other hand, I couldn't get a handle on Imani what so ever.

Big thanks to the viewers for kicking in 300 bits last night, I know I say it every time, but you are awesome for the continued support.

Twitch Clips

• Hmmm....
• Don't Blink... 
• Well that shut him up
• The Cadillac 
• Double Kill!
• That's Two... 
• I Yeeted Myself Off The Side...
  

For the raid, we dropped in on YrGamerBunni who was playing Mass Effect 3 over on twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Defensive Combo #2 for 28 minutes.

Messed around a bit with Overwatch 2 last night, mostly to check out Moira's new kit... and I'm not a fan to some of her nerfs while feeling mixed about separating her biotic orbs into two different abilities.

Mail must have arrived super late because I often check for deliveries twice... anyway, I did redeem some loyalty points I had with Square Enix to get a Life is Strange Before the Storm figure set of Rachel Amber and Chloe Price.I will try to remember to show it off later tonight.

The goal for tonight's stream is to knock out two more story arcs in Persona 4 Arena, plus we'll do an arcade run or two as well.

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

More Persona 4 Arena... More Xfinity Troubles

Good morning everyone,

Well last night's stream of Persona 4 Arena wasn't all in one session, as the stream got broken into three parts... because we had two stream interruptions / resets thanks to Xfinity. Now my internet didn't go down fully, but there were some issues that certainly persisted throughout the day of the upstream just hanging... and this goes to when I was working yesterday afternoon as well. I did call Xfinity last night after a modem reset to see what's involved with swapping the 2 cable boxes I have for a wireless variant. Not it took nearly 40 minutest to questions answered over what could be done to make things as seamless as possible as well as inquiring about the unlimited data cap plan option. Sad part was I didn't get all the questions I wanted answered because I was put on hold for 15 minutes of said call.

Now for the gaming of Persona 4 Arena, we covered two story arcs fully, first Mitsuru and then Naoto, and combined they took over four hours to get through. Granted I started off doing full narration of Mitsuru's story for the first hour, but even with setting the speed of the text to fast, there is a lot ground covered. I did find Naoto's to be more engaging as every other 'chapter' had a fight that had to be played, so the story of how events played out from their perspective to be a lot of fun. Not to mention, Naoto seems to be the most progressive character in terms of basically being gender neutral to some degree.

We also did an arcade run with Labrys, and both does she have some real wonky attack patterns to learn to be effective with. I did like her post-match trash talk of everyone on the arcade ladder. Did managed to figured out her Instant-Kill move which was pretty bad ass. Also learned it can be blocked.

Big thanks to RedFoxCovUK for resubscribing to my Twitch Channel last night, as well to the anonymous cheerers who tossed in quite a few bits!

Persona 4: Arena Achievements

• The Queen: Mitsuru's Story chapter has been told.
• The Detective: Naoto's Story chapter has been told.

Twitch Clips

• And It was that moment he realized
• Naoto Instant-Kill Move 
• Labrys Instant-Kill!
  

For the raid we dropped everyone over with Joliet4 who was playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and also doing a music stream. They stream over on twitch.tv/joliet4!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Uppercut Combo, Hook Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #2 for 31 minutes. I did do an extra 17 minutes of exercise to make up for waking up late yesterday

Played a couple of Arena matches in Smite, wining one and losing the other... but managed to get one of the achievements associated with Thanatos. I'm getting closer to having 50% of the in-game achievements for Smite... but the overall total was increased to 306 with the recent addition of Lancealot

SMITE Achievements

• Reaper of Souls: As Thanatos silence 15 enemies out of their abilities.

I will say this, when it comes to the election for US Congress in Pennsylvania, anyone that votes for Lisa Scheller is a fucking idiot. Because think about this, what was one thing Trump was all about 'China this and China that'... well Scheller is a Republican who is the CEO of Silberline Manufacturing Co. Inc and during her time in that role, the company has eliminated 60% of their American workforce, closed one manufacturing facility in Carbon County, PA... while opening another in China. The truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle Will be revisited this year... with the PS4 version, as before we'll do the story mode and play various matches and so forth. What is notably about BBCTB is that its a cross-over of Persona 4 with BlazBlue with Under Night In-Birth with RWBY. But if I remember right the original released didn't have an arcade ladder of any kind.

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 to play Fallout 76, I will of course progress my own story and more than likely we'll be joined by Iceman to knock out some daily stuff via his Fallout 1st Immortality world. So it should end up being silly.

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

Just Another Fun Night of Overwatch And A Bonus Stream Of Fitness Boxing 2

Good morning everyone,

A new week starts as we have all sorts of things to consider over the coming days of what to feature and when!

Last night we of course played Overwatch, and big thanks as always to PandaSweet for joining in on several matches. We got into a hot stretch where we went 8 and 2 in our final 10 matches of the night. The night did include a couple of Mayhem matches as well, and I picked up 5 Plays of the Game, 4 as D.va and 1 as Junkrat. So a real successful night on Overwatch! Woo-Hoo!

Of course the big Overwatch news is that the Halloween Terror event starts on Tuesday October 12 and will run until November 2, and so far we know that Reinhardt and Roadhog will have new skins. The question now becomes, who else will have new attire? And what new 'achievements' will be tied to Junkenstein's Revenge this year.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to glorifiedthief who was playing Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors over at twitch.tv/glorifiedthief!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Bullseye!
• Caught 'em!
• Scoreboard!
• I got Bob'ed and D.va'ed at the same time
• When I can't get behind Panda's Shield
• Waiting for the right moment for a Quadruple Kill!
• Wild Finish
• That was me falling off a ledge 
• We win 
• Get Ready For A Shock!

Off-stream Final Fantasy XIV stuff is that I'm gradually making progress through the main story, but the placement of NPCs can be really odd. I get and appreciate Square Enix wanting to make it feel like a living world so that you don't find certain characters in the same spot when on a quest... but a way point finder would be useful when NPCs are in a building that is underneath where the map is indicating where they should be standing! That said the off-stream adventures  saw a familiar sight, at least when compared to Final Fantasy XV: Fighting Ifrit and getting a Chocobo, also joined the Twin Adder because well... I started in Gridania.

The guy who commissioned the two fics I've done last week basked around RWBY and Harry Potter is wanting more, hell he sent a list of stuff for me to consider taking on, but if there is one thing people know about me when it comes to fan fic writing its that I'm not really keen on repeated use of the same themes and characters unless it's something I'm really invested in.

There's been a lot pointed out at how the WWE's Women Division has seen a down turn as of late, and it all goes back to the a lot of the decisions of who was let go back in the spring of this year. The WWE would rather turn the Women's Division back into the bathroom break filler matches it was of the LayCool/Divas Title era than for the women to get equal time for their stories and characters to developer. 

Star Trek Online is kicking off it's Halloween event on Wednesday so for sure we're going to feature that to start of that night's stream, and The Simpsons game will resume on Friday night to finish it's second half.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercise Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1 with the estimated calorie burn of 503.kcal. We also did an extra set featuring Difficult Challenge Combo #1 which added 103 kcal. Total session was 37 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 606 kcal. This session was also streamed as a surprise as I tried use the Xsplit Cam set up.

Since this session was streamed the fun was set over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite this morning over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming!

Bonus Twitch Clip Links

• Intermediate Combo #2
  
• Advanced Combo #1
• Weaving Combo #1
• Difficult Challenge Combo #1
  

Tonight's stream will see focus return to The Walking Dead with Season Two, which takes place a couple of years after the events of Season One, so Clementine is a bit older and is the star of the show. This will be a lot of fun!

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

A Night of Metroids, Plumbers, Apes and Boxers

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream heavily featured the original Metroid, along with three other games from the Nintendo's NES era of the 1980s.

We'll talk about Metroid first, since it was the one game I certainly wanted to feature, and I can safely say this: anyone who finished it without using any of the password / cheat codes, kudos to you, because it was a reminder as to why I normally don't stick with Metroidvania games for more than a night or two. The controls are real easy to learn, and they are responsive to the inputs of the controller (at least the emulated version of Metroid is that is available through the Nintendo Switch's Online NES collection.

My biggest issues with Metroid is there really is no clear cut indication of where to go, the seemingly  randomness of the enemy movement patterns and some of the leaps of logic one must take to figure out how to reacher new areas. Let's address the first issue first, I totally get it that Samus has to find the gear and search all over the place first for the best gear to get the job done, the issue is actually figuring out where to go as the game is set up to make one feel like they are running in circles... and certainly this had me looking for an online guide to cover that. The second issue is randomness of enemy movement patterns, there are numerous instances where the pattern of the enemies changes, making quite a few things impossible to predict, which certainly cost me some time. The final issue relates to some of the games 'puzzles', such as having to go up through a ceiling or down through a floor, there is no way to tell difference as all the textures look the same.

Thankfully I found the guides over on GameFAQs to be rather helpful, but more importantly a map which actually gave me a idea of how to get to the mini-bosses and then to Morther Brain. And I'll straight up admit, we used the NARPASSWORD password / cheat code to push through. Even with these tool it did take me over three over to get though the game. We are counting it for this years tour, which means 54 games have been finished on stream.

Now we didn't end there, we messed around with three other classic Nintendo games: Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Punch Out. Of the three... only Super Mario Bros I had some experience with, but that didn't show as I made numerous careless mistakes. Donkey Kong took some time to figure out but we managed to clear all three of it's stages to get a feel for it, Punch-Out I have played only a handful of times back in the early 90s... and well I'm so bad at that game Glass Joe can knock me down!

Big thanks to Foxy_Melly for re-subscribing to the channel for 22 months in a row! Foxy is also a streamer, broadcasting from the UK and was most recently featuring Destiny 2! You can check out their streamers over a twitch.tv/foxy_melly! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaWorstGamerEver25 (twitch.tv/daworstgamerever25) who was playing American Truck Simulator! I've known him since high school and he's a really good dude! Hope you check him out when you get a chance!

Twitch Clip Links

• The First Of Many Deaths 
• Hey We Found A Thing! 
• Oh Wonderful... What Is This?!
• I want the thing!
• Hey we found another thing!
• We are so screwed...
• Damn it all!
• Ay Dios mio!
• Hey we made it!
• Down Goes Donkey Kong!
• I'm so bad Glass Joe can knock me down! 
• We're dead 

Twitch continues to have issues porting things over to YouTube, in the mean time I am highlighting key things from each stream to be archived at a later date. Hopefully Twitch can fix their issues as soon as possible. I will try to do full downloads and uploads of things featured on stream, but that's a long ass process.

While I was doing my laundry after last night's stream, I sat down to bang out (HA!) the commissioned fic featuring the RWBY characters of Pyrrha, Jaune and Cardin. It's up now over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: advanced Combo #2, Double Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo. Total estimated calorie burn was 563 kcal.  We also did an additional 11 minutes with Uppercut Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 as well for an added estimated calorie burn of 174 kcal. So the compete totals for today were 43 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 738

At this exact moment I'm not completely sure what's on the agenda for tonight's stream, we could dedicate it to Final Fantasy XIV or maybe start The Walking Dead Season 2? I'll make up my mind by this evening that's for sure!

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

Sora In Smash As The Dead Walks

Good morning everyone,

So yesterday the big news of the final character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate was revealed, and I talk about that later in today's posts.

First up, last night's stream featured The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 3 & 4, where things really get screwed up thanks to Ben over the course of two episodes, and a number of folks get 'removed' from the party during what turned out to be a 5+ hour long stream because I couldn't remember everything that needed to be done right away.

First off, episode 3 is where Kenny looses Duck and Katjaa, thanks to a bandit raid that draws walkers to the Motel... and the reason why the bandits raid the motel is because Ben made a deal with them, and was stealing supplies. Once that was discovered, the bandits didn't their goodies and shit hit the fan pretty quick. Things escalated as tension between Lily and Carley boils over with Lily killing Carley, thus forcing Lee's hand to abandon her... and we don't see Lily until 'The Final Season' which takes place several years later. 

Let's point out that Episode 3 is also where Ben's streak of stupid decision starts and really continues into Episode 4 when he puts Clementine in harms way, where he removes a hand-ax from a door that was holding back walkers and where he wanted to confess when said walkers were coming to chomp down on everyone. So letting him go was not exactly a tough choice. Yes having him around in episode 5 might make rescuing Clementine easier... but let's face it, like Duck, Ben was really annoying and served no purpose other than being a plot device to cause tension in the group.

Other big decisions of note: We left Clementine at the house, so she did not go to Crawford, and we had Lee show the Bite he suffered at the end. One could say this has been an Honest-Lee done play through! (HA!) 

So the question becomes when will we play episode 5 and the bonus episode 400 Days? Well  the answer is on Thursday, but for tonight's stream we're back to Gears of War 3. Iceman should be able to join us around 9 PM, so we have a good shot of finishing the game! 

Following the stream, we sent the fun over to Joliet4 who was doing an music stream. Joliet4 is a talented musician and an awesome stream, and is the only partnered streamer I'd ever considered raiding.Also she recently entered a song writing contest at the last minute and was able to put together a song in a few days about a road trip on Mars!  So be sure to check her streams out over at twitch.tv/joliet4!

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Achievements

1. Lend Me Your Ears: Completed Season 1 Episode 3
2. Penultimate: Completed Season 1 Episode 4
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Lee Deaths Count: 3
• Lee Deaths Count: 4
  
• ZOMBIE CLEMENTINE! 
• Lee Deaths Count: 5
• Clem Learns To Shoot 
• Smash Buttons!
• Lee Deaths Count: 6
• We Choose To Leave Clem Behind
• The Got A Little Close
• Clearly Brie Had A Say In This
• Lee Deaths Count: 7
  

So let's talk about the big reveal that Sora from Kingdom Hearts is the last character to be added to the roster of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now there are a bunch of idiots saying it should have been Fortnite getting the final slot, but let's be serious: 99% of people who play Fortnite have not actually played Fortnite's main story mode. I have and while it's good, because of the lack of community support for it, it's impossible to really progress far in it. 

So with that said, Sora in Smash makes sense, since his abilities from the Kingdom Hearts franchise gives him a wide variety of moves, example his glide can be used as a recovery, he has a double jump to reach higher platforms, various magic spells to give him some rang. The only draw back is that he's going to be another 'sword fighter', which is something a lot of folks were complaining about considering the majority of the characters in Smash that represent the Fire Emblem series.

There are some that are saying that Sora's appearance in Smash will actually work to making the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 make sense with how Sora goes missing (I haven't played KH3), and if that's the case it certainly fits when one figures in the various side games that have come out over the years. But what this doesn't do is connect Disney to Smash for the first time... you see Cloud and Sephiroth are Final Fantasy characters already in Smash, and they appeared in Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, so that connection was already formed. 

The big question though is, how much did Nintendo have to shell out for Sora to keep the Mickey Mouse key-chain on the Keyblade? My guess is a lot.

Got an offer to do another commission fan fic, this time based around RWBY and the combination of  Jaune, Pyrrah and Cardin. Started work on it last night with an alternate universe take on some details of Cardin finding out about how Jaune got into Beacon.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with the following exercises: Defensive Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Double Combo #1. Estimated calorie burn was 441 kcal. The one miss we had was a Left Uppercut during a combo sequence... damn it!. EX Achievement update, we're up to 299/300 for both Ten Months' Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper, which means we'll reach both milestones tomorrow! We're now up to 15/30 for Janice's Contender, so still a long ways to go with that

As noted earlier, tonight we return to Gears of War 3, probably will do some Horde mode stuff first before Iceman joins in to hopefully get through Act V to finish the game!

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

Smited Warrior Dreams

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream did feature Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams and the version of that we played was the one included in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. Now the intention was to try and get multiple achievements... but then I decided to go through this with every single character. Part of that reason was because it didn't take me too long to clear the arcade ladder with Ryu, and since the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection isn't listed on Twitch for whatever reason, I didn't want to keep updating the title

 
Now like with it's sequel, I do have a unique history with Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams as it was game that was ported to Windows 95 PCs back in the mid 90s... and like with its Sequl, I would play it using a keyboard. It is basically how I learn to use the WASD keys to move and the attack buttons were Insert / Home ./ Page up for Light / Medium / Heavy Punch.... and Delete / End / Page Down for Light / Medium / Heavy Kick. This is also why when you see me playing fighting games, I rely a lot on diving in to close distance and why my defense is terrible, I basically learned to do as much damage as possible with what I could figure out with each and every character.

This is where you would ask 'why didn't I use a game pad', and the answer to that is simple.... most of the game pads sold at Electronic Boutique and Babagges only had four buttons! I never could find a six button gamepad!

Anyway, some general observations about my play through of Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams is that M.Bison is certainly the end goal for quite a few characters in the game: Chun Li, Charlie, Guy, Birdie & Rose. Ken and Sagat both target Ryu, who along with Adon goes after Sagat, Sodam goes after Guy. That last one is interesting considering Sodam and Guy both originated in Final Fight. The big take away from each ending too me is that Rose was looking to stop Bison and one could see how that ties into Rose's character story in Street Fighter V talking about needing to get back to 'Zero'... and for those who don't know in Japan, Street Fighter Alpha is known as Street Fighter Zero. 

Also learned that if you clear the arcade ladder with out using a continue, you earn a special little bonus ending saying 'You Mastered The Character You Used' and that it's been recognized. Thought that was pretty cool. We managed to do that with Chun Li, Guy, Sagat and Adon

Now we didn't stay with Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams the entire stream, we switched over to play some Smite, and imagine my surprise that there is an opportunity to get the skins from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battle pass from last year... except each skin is 1500 gems (roughly about $20 in real money)... look, if there was a bulk purchase option, I'd consider that, but not individually. I'd probably make an exception if this was the RWBY skins however (LOL). Anyway we won a couple of matches but lost the majority of the bouts played.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Swiftsupafly at twitch.tv/Swiftsupafly who was playing Monster Hunter World, the man love to knock out achievements, so it's always fun to check on his progress!

 Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Achievements

1. Try and Counter This!: Beat Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams.

Twitch Clip Links

• Back for more Sagat
• For Chun Li... It Is Indeed Tuesday!
• Soul Illusion
• Jungle Beats!
• They went to a bad place... yes they did! 
• Damn Right I Slayed Them! 

Order a back up headset to use with my phone for work purposes, as last week folks said they couldn't hear me, so having a back up makes sense in case something is wrong with the older headset. And by headset I'm referring to a microphone / ear phone combination piece... the kind you'd see used in call centers and such.

Also picked up RWBY: Roman Holiday which tells a story featuring Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan and is set before the events of the first episode of RWBY that aired. 

After finishing Chrono Cross last month, I started thinking about some fan fics I read long ago, I kind of remember the details of them, but as I went to look for the site they were on, I found out that it was shut down. So I started to put some together and posted the first three over on HF.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes and featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo. Estimate calorie burn was 464 kcal

For tonight's stream, Gears of War 3 will be featured at around 8:30 / 9 PM Eastern as we'll be picking up on Act 2 with Iceman. But that's on the second half of the stream, for the first half we'll be messing around with Paladins

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

The Colors Were Indeed True In A Life That Is Strange

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night we finished Life is Strange True Colors and I love the finish of the game, as it really does feel like all the choice actually mattered in the outcome of the game. Anyway this will contain SPOILERS!

Episode 4 begins on the Spring Festival, and it's a fun little out door party with a handful collectables, as well as where you can fully lock in your love for Steph (or Ryan). There is a really sweet scene with Duckie in the Black Lantern, along with some things that are very easy to miss (such as Riley at the Bus Stop, which I didn't know about until after the chapter ended). Episode 4 is also where Jed being the true villain of the game is revealed when he tries to kill Alex.

Episode 5, sees a deep diva into Alex's past, the last time she spoke to her mother, the day her father left and her time shuffling through the system once she was taken in by CPS. A lot of it is real heart-twisting stuff, and pretty deep, including a real kick in the teeth of how fucking awful the actual mentality of a lot of people who say they want to adopt a child really is. You learn about the actual fate of Alex's father plus make some huge decisions regarding Jed, plus Alex's future.

Now when I said before that choice actually mattered, so depending on how you interact with key people (Duckie, Charlotte, Eleanore and Pike) can determine of if they side with Alex or not in Episode 5 for it's climax. Basically your actions really matter with them in key moments, in fact Charlotte's big moment is in Episode 3. Also depending on your love interest, Alex will be given a choice of to stay or leave Haven Springs, and there is a different ending on each.

There is another episode 'Wavelengths' coming out towards the end of the month / start of October, so we're certainly streaming that. And we'll probably work in Life is Strange 2 in between, depending on what major game I choose to start up

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV online! You can check their streams out over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

And yes I'm still debating on if I'll give FF14 a try lol

Life is Strange: True Colors Achievements (Earned on Stream)

1. Pressed Rose: Find the “Pressed Rose” Memory in Chapter 4
2. Count Me In: Find the “Drum Kit” Memory in Chapter 4
3. Exactly 731: Help the Jelly Bean Counter win the contest
4. In Front of God and Everybody: Find the “Microphone” Memory in Chapter 4
5. Birthday Boy: Find the “Polaroid” Memory in Chapter 4
6. The Kind of Thing You Can't Undo: Complete Chapter 4 of Life is Strange: True Colors
7. Scary News: Find the “Mom's Keys” Memory in Chapter 5
8. Some Kind of Fight: Find the “Business Card” Memory in Chapter 5
9. Guitar Strings: Find the “Guitar Strings” Memory in Chapter 5
10. Where The Devil Sleeps: Find the “Pendant” Memory in Chapter 5
11. You're a Helldiver Now: Find the “Bomber Jacket” Memory in Chapter 5
12. Emotional Unearthing: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 5
13. The Only Promise is The Adventure: Complete Chapter 5 of Life is Strange: True Colors 

Twitch Clip Links

• And The Rose Goes To...
• They are totally playing music... can you hear the music they are playing right now?
• Dude... That's One Hell Of A Kiss
• Jed's A Jerk 
• Where The Devil Sleeps 
• And I condemn you

Like the other Life is Strange games it is possible to go back to each chapter of Life is Strage: True Colors to find the collectables missed, and that's what I did earlier this morning.

Life is Strange: True Colors Achievements (Earned off stream) 

1. Crack: Find the “Crack” Memory in Chapter 1 
2. Officer Fish: Find the “Business Card” Memory in Chapter 1 
3. Emotional Enthusiast: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 1 
4. Phone: Find the “Phone” Memory in Chapter 1 
5. Team Chomp-Bot: Find the “T-Shirt” Memory in Chapter 2 
6. Amateur Archaeophile: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 2 
7. Emotional Archeologist: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 4 
8. Haven Historian: Find all Memory Collectibles in Life is Strange: True Colors 
9. Proud Parent: Find the “CIT Sticker” Memory in Chapter 4
   

With those final nine achievements, we have 100% completed Life is Strange: True Colors. 

It's Sunday which means, we have this weeks Twitch Bits video! This week we have clips from Overwatch, Life is Strange Before The Storm, Street Fighter V, WWE Battlegrounds, RWBY Grimm Eclipse, Mario Golf Super Rush & Life is Strange: Before The Storm!

I am debating what would be the next big game I'll start up, I'm leaning towards Final Fantasy VII Remake and Tales of Arise, but there are certainly other contenders depending on if I want to pad the games finished list list with a lot of short games (the current total is 41)

As the Phillies flounder, I do have to wonder should Bryce Harper be heavily considered for the MVP on the National League... and my gut, heart and brain all say no. If they don't win the Division, he should not win the MVP or even be in the conversation regardless of what his stats say.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 33 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 644 kcal. The exercises were Difficult Challenge Combos #2, #3 and #1 in that order. Managed to get another perfect score on DCC #1. I do have some issues with Difficult Challenge Combo #2 which involves a step & jab followed by a quick step back, and with my heavy footed stance it ends up turning into half-step jab with an awkward sway back.

For tonight's stream, well it's obvious folks, we're starting a new week and so we're playing Overwatch! 

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