Another Night of Persona 5 Royal

Good afternoon,

For last night's stream, well we did a back to back night of Persona 5 Royal, as we covered several weeks of in-game content, getting the last couple of Confidants maxed out, plus several trips into Mementos and getting different things done, plus other things while reaching December 24th... which meant we started what was the end game stuff of the original Persona 5. We tacked the first half of it, which mean seeing that who we thought was Igor was not Igor... and seeing the big commentary on the game is how easily society can just settle into just wanting things to be the same no matter how beneficial changing things for the better can improve things for all.

So this means, the next time we play Persona 5 Royal, we'll be heading into the final dungeon and boss battles of the original game plus everything that covers the end of the year and start of the Royal story content. Should be pretty interesting,  

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Unsurpassed Rebel: Conquered the Reaper.
• Cruiser of Pride: Capsized: Completed the cruise ship Palace.

Twitch Clips

• We jump in!
• Defeated The Reaper Of Mementos! 
• Well that got Makoto's attention
  

For the raid, we dropped in on Chem_Ron who was also playing Persona 5 Royal over at twitch.tv/chem_ron!  

Now some may ask why wasn't last night a random night... we, we did a random night of gaming earlier in the week, plus I didn't have any of my three wireless controllers for the PS3, Xbox One or Xbox Series console charged. Of course that raises the question of why didn't I do something on the Nintendo Switch and well, I didn't want to start something up on a Saturday. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Block Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo for a solid 30 minutes.

My fantasy baseball team had a solid week, as of 12:45 PM Eastern today, they batted .276 (56/203) with 35 runs scored, 11 home  runs and 38 RBI, but no stolen bases. In 38 innings pitched, there were 2 wins, 1 save, 39 strikeouts with an ERA of 4.03 and a WHIP of 1.08. 

It's the start of a new week, which means a recap of everything we featured last week which included: Overwatch, Lego Batman: The Video Game, Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Legends of Wrestlings, Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Rocky Legends, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Final Fantasy XIV and Persona 5 Royal!

 

Sega announced the 'Mega Drive / Genesis Mini 2' and you can call me impressed, as finally Sega is starting to do more with it's library as this version will actually included games from the Sega CD era of gaming, which includes Shining Force CD, Mansion of Hidden Souls and more. It is speculated that Sega's next Mini console will feature a proper mix of games from not only the Sega CD era side, but also the Genesis itself and also the 32X. As I've stated every so often, Sega has a really rich history of gaming and its a shame they rarely do anything with their history.

Had to get on Comcast Xfinity case again yesterday afternoon regarding some instability in my Internet Service, which not only effects my streaming on Twitch but also working during the day.

For tonight's stream, it's Sunday which means Overwatch is on deck! So on that note we'll see you in later

A Random Night of Old Games

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream had a wide amount of variety with games from the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 era. We lead off with Legends of Wrestling, which arrived in the mail mid-afternoon, and outside of the unlock all the wrestlers code not working, it was just as mediocre as I remember. Mainly I added it for the purpose of having the completely trilogy of the series. Something of note is that my stream had a few resets which I suspect was due to an issue with Comcast.

Second game was Rocky Legends, which in many ways is the older version of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions which we played last year... just a little less arcade like. It does have a full story mode, with various unlockables that can be earned... but Rocky Legends is a lot more grind heavy. Also of note is that the music from the Rocky films is worked in quite nicely through the game with some musical cues kicking in depending on how a round is going.

We then switched to the PlayStation 3 and checked out Golden Axe: Beast Rider... and from what I experienced, it seemed like a good game The controls are a little over thought out, and the riding of the dragon seemed a little clunky, but beyond that the game looked, sounded and played pretty well in my opinion. Would I dedicate it to a full attempt to beat it... who knows.Still, I did find it to be better than something like Bloodborne.

Marvel vs Capcom: Origins was the next game, which has the full arcade port of Marvel vs Capcom... now i played the EX Edition recently, but going back into the 2v2 style certainly was screwy, as I felt a lot of my timing was way off in regard to what I was able to do. Not to mention the Arcade port A.I. is much more brutal than the PlayStation variant. We closed the night out with a quick look at Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, which was the version of SSF2T that had the more modern look that no one really liked. If I started earlier in the night I probably would have dedicate more time to actually brute force my way through it, but hey that's a challenge for another day!

Twitch Clips

•  The Dramatic Camera!
•  Knocked Him Down!
•  A Big Dude On A Bridge
•  Shinku Hadoken
•  You Win
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on CallMeMsGalaxy who was playing Overwatch over on twitch.tv/callmemsgalaxy! 

Speaking of Overwatch, I did my 5 placement matches for Support... and went 2-3, getting placed at Silver 1724

I would be shocked by all the drama surrounding Star Wars, but lets be honest, at this point, most people are taking the roles in that franchise just to bait trolls.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Triple Combo #1, Double Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Advanced Combo #2. Triple Combo #1 was set to No Mercy Difficulty, and managed to score a new personal best on it.

Started work on the commission request for a WWE story involving Finn Balor, AJ Styles and Liv Morgan, I got the general opening set, and I figure if I don't over complemented I can knock it out gradually over the next few days

Feeling old yet...  rumors are starting to pop up regarding what may be happening for the Power Rangers 30th Anniversary. Although I believe Jason David Frank is done with the franchise because of how his tattoos need to be constantly covered, and of course there is issues with Austin St. John that could result in him spending 20 years in prison due to committing fraud with the PPP loans.

For tonight's stream, Iceman will be unable to join us, so we'll be taking a break from Fallout 76 and focus on something else for to the evening! Thus I think we'll place the Xbox 360 version of Ghostbusters on tonight's stream.

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

Closing the book on Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions... For Now

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream certainly went long... that's what I get for once again trying to go for 100% completion on something that is beyond my skill level.

Last night's stream of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions had simple goal get through as many of the remaining characters' arcade towers as possible... and we were keeping a good pace to the point I thought, we'll try and get the achievement for beating an arcade tower on the hardest difficulty using the last character... Apollo Creed.

Things in that regard started off well, getting through Diaz, Bashir and Rocky with a fair amount of difficulty... but then came Erling and his bullshit combo that takes off 25% health. Don't get me wrong, I knew playing BRB:CC on it's hardest difficulty meant I would have to deal with some real horse shit, but Erling is pain in the ass to deal with on the lowest difficulty setting. Now I know he can be beaten, hell only 75 people have done based on who is registered over at www.truetrophies.com... which means if I want to get the Go The Distance achievement, I'm going to have to remember whose path was the most straight forward. 

Still, with 42 out of 43 achievements unlocked, I think that is a fair place to leave it, I mean we saw everyone's story, unlocked all the alternate attires, did all the special challenge requirements regarding different defensive and offensive actions, so last night closed the book on Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions. We might revisit it next year at some point as like an 'Unfinished Business' feature, setting it on a Friday night to go that last achievement.

There is a question regarding how does Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions fit in with the rest of the Rocky & Creed films... well if anything it does establish title lineage going back before Apollo, so the title history goes from Vick Rivera' to Asif  Bashi to Apollo Creed to Rocky Balboa in Rocky II to Clubber Lang  in Rocky III to Rocky Balboa also in Rocky III to Union Cain in Rocky V to Tommy Gunn also in Rocky V. There is a big question of the title history from after Gunn to Union Cain in Rocky Balboa, and of course the Creed films title history can be a bit murky as well.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to long time friend of the channel Felkimchi who was playing The Walking Dead over on twitch.tv/felkimchi!

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Trophies

1. Dude, Where Are My Keys?: Beat Danny "Stuntman" Wheeler's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
2. That's Not Canon!: Beat an Arcade Tower in an alternate costume
3. Going Back For Reshoots: Beat Duane "Showstopper" Reynolds' Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Going Out On Top: Beat Asif "The Basher" Bashir's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
5. Punk Goes Pow: Beat Hector "Anarchy" Del Rosario's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
6. Leif Erik's Day: Beat Erik "The Norseman" Erling's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
7. Nashy Smashy: Beat Bobby "The Operator" Nash's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Wanna' Lotta' Mo': Beat James "Clubber" Lang's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
9. A Couple Of Hats: Unlock all Outfits
10. Rise To Glory: Beat all Arcade Towers on Any Difficulty
11. Livin' (On) In America: Beat Apollo "The Prince of Punch" Creed's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty

Twitch Clip Links

• Clubber Told Him To Run 
• Finish Him!
• One More Round... Here It Comes!
  

Over in the realm of  Final Fantasy XIV, I began work on the Stormblood quest line, meeting with the Ala Mhigan Resistance and knocking out the quests associated with M'naago to basically get the resistance on board with working with the Alliance. Once again we're gonna have to find the Aether Currents and related quests so that we can fly around without hindrance, but the map is split in two halves with only one half accessible at the start. Still progress was made.... next time I play my focus will be on Meffrid and his quests, since they have to be done in order to progress the story... of course if I find any plus sign quests I'll knock them out too!

Bandai Namco announced that the servers for Jump Force will shut down in August of 2022... which means I finally have an excuse to play it... which does mean I can put off playing Dragon Ball: Kakarot just to make sure I get achievements for Jump Force done that involve online play

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout had Uppercut Combo #2, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Hook Combo as the exercises for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of421 kcal. Missed two straights, one off of a great combo which pushed the Fitness Age up to 23... damn it!

For tonight's stream we're leading off with Street Fighter iII: Third Strike to see if we can beat the final game of the Street Fighter III trilogy... and it's more Gears of War Judgement fun with Iceman as we play the Aftermath story that ties in directly with Gears of War 3!

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

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Is A Lot Of Fun!

 Good morning everybody,

For last night's stream, we hooked up the PS4 and played Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions for the first time!

Now I wasn't expecting much, maybe just a modern take on the Rocky games that were released for the PS2 over 15 years ago... in terms of presentation and how it looks, it's a real pretty game. The character models are on point for the licensed characters of Rocky, Apollo, Adonis, Clubber, the Dragos and the villain from the first Creed movie. There is a nice set of arenas, plus a back alley location, so not every fight is in the ring. The music is nice, with the real gem (and DMCA nightmare being Eye of the Tiger from Survivor).

Game play wise... it's a button masher, while the controls are simplistic... it's really more about overwhelming the opponent with a barrage of punches in a quick fashion. There does seem to be a delay or lag when it comes to blocking and dodging, which makes it a lot tougher than it needs to be.Still once I got the hang of it I was able to put some combos together

Now surprisingly there are quite a few unlockables, from bonus characters to alternate attires, and there are two ways of doing getting them. One is to go through the arcade mode with every default fighter at least once to unlock their respective alternate attires and a corresponding bonus character (example beating Arcade Mode with Rocky, unlocks Rocky's alternate trunks as well as Apollo Creed). The other method is to just do versus matches and grind out the requirements needed via an XP type bar to unlock something random.

With that said, I highly suggest and encourage going through the arcade mode, because every character has a story. With Rocky, he's telling Adonis stories, and you are replaying some of the big fights from the films, plus a couple to help stretch out the story mode. With Adonis, he's in a fixed tournament going up against guys he had issues with it... then you have Ramirez, whose story is a prequel to the original Rocky, where he is dealing with a loan shark and it caps off with street fight against a young Rocky... then you have Scraps, whose story is a fever dream involving having to fight for world peace against Ivan Drago and the resurrected Apollo Creed. 

Perhaps the biggest drawback is lack of online multiplayer, considering the roster, it seems like it would be a blast to play online. Oh well....

With Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions being a PlayStation 4 title, there are plenty of achievements to earn, and the best part is, because of the Arcade mode being a story mode, it justifies me streaming it again! And you can bet we'll go through everyone's story!  

Following the stream we sent the fun over to eltipometroidvania who was playing Super Punch-Out! over at twitch.tv/eltipometroidvania! 

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Trophies

1. This Guy Is Still Standing?: Land a Super Move 3 times in a single match
2. Finality: Win a match by Knockout using a Super Move
3. Ain't How Hard You Hit: Armor through a Basic Attack 10 times
4. Unmistakable Fire: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 3 times in a single match
5. It's How Hard You Can Get Hit: Armor through a Basic Attack 20 times
6. Sunshine And Rainbows: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 10 times
7. The Legend: Beat Rocky "The Italian Stallion" Balboa's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Eye Of The Tiger: Win a match without Slip Countering or blocking any attacks
9. No Playing: Perform a Slip Counter 10 times
10. Imma Let You Finish: Interrupt an opponent's attack with a Super Move 10 times
11. No Jiving: Perform a Slip Counter 20 times
12. You Slip, I Slide: Slip Counter a Slip Counter 10 times
13. Just Business: Perform a Slip Counter 30 times
14. The Legacy: Beat Adonis "Hollywood" Creed's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
15. A Mean And Nasty Place: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 20 times
16. Flying High Now: Slip Counter your opponent 3 times in a single match
17. Head Trauma: Beat Luke "Scraps" O'Grady's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
18. Beat You To Your Knees: Break your opponent's Guard Meter 30 times
19. How Winning Is Done: Get the first Knockdown in a match without losing any health
20. One Step: Pierce an opponent's Guard with an Unblockable Move 5 times
21. Hit The Bars: Beat Axel "El Tigre" Ramirez's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty

Twitch Clip Links

• Rocky: "Yo!" / Drago: "Die"
• Eye Of The Tiger! 
• Watch it!
• Apollo Creed Is Back From The Dead?! 
  

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued with my attention turned to the Crystal Tower story line, which involved my first taste of the Alliance Raids... and boy, just being told 'kill stuff and don't die' certainly was inspiring on my first successful run of Labyrinth of the Ancients. Granted I was downed once... but still managed to get through it, thanks to one person putting in some tips as well as having a wiki up to see where I'm supposed to go. Turned my attention also to the next steps in the Main Story Questline, which introduces Yugiri and the Doma, who are refugees who we get to bring to Reverenant's Toll... and I also learned that I'm now on a collision course with the next Primal... Leviathan... why do I feel there's going to be a Primal a giant  Tonberry

Am I nervous about my Dental appointment on Monday afternoon... yes... yes I am.

Received my copy of Daria: The Complete Animated Series today, and I wasn't expecting the delivery, in fact I didn't get a notification it would arrive until late this evening... after it already arrived. That said this box set is the 8 disc variant with all 5 seasons plus the two movies. The box set itself is from the era where for some reason, every packaging maker tried to be cute, and so the discs don't on the pegs neatly. Oh well.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Advanced Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 494 kcal.

For tonight's stream we're going to do something random,,, not completely sure, as I want to save doing more Big Rumble Boxing for next week as a feature title! Plus on Saturday, we're playing The Walking Dead:  The Final Season, so we need something chilled for tonight. We'll see what I come up with!

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

Puzzles And Judgment

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream proved to be a lot of fun with a tad bit of frustration tossed in.

First off, we lead off with Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, with the goal of trying to beat it on the HARD difficulty setting with Dan on the standard arcade mode, then do it with another character (Ryu) also on the HARD difficulty setting in the classic arcade mode. The difference between the two is some sort of subtle balance change , but I didn't notice any difference. We were successful on both attempts which was really cool, so we've officially added Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix to the games finished list for this years tour! 

Then at 9 PM, the half way point of the stream, Iceman joined in as we started up Gears of War Judgement, as we continue our journey through the Gears Saga with the game set earliest in the time line. Marcus and Dom are not in it, as the focus is on Baird and Cole. The controls are slightly different than in the first three games so it's taking some getting use to, and the enemies are certainly a hell of a lot more up in your face. Iceman has played it before but it's been a long time for him, so it's almost a totally blind play through. We did clear the first two ACTs, and there are six in total, plus a bonus one for finishing the story that takes place in Gears of War 3. 

The story For Gears of War: Judgement is that Baird and his team are on trial for basically going against the orders given to them, and everything is being told as a flash back. So Baird is in the role of Marcus, and Cole is along for the ride as well, with two new characters Sofia and Paduk. As Iceman tells me, this game is basically explaining Baird's attitude in the first three games where he basically doesn't give a fuck about what those in charge have to say! 

Now for the ugly side of the night, three times during the stream, everything just froze, the stream didn't go down, it's just froze... all the USB devices (webcam, Elgato, speakers, stream deck) disconnected and then reconnected. I tried looking for a solution in Event viewer after restarting the PC but couldn't find any system errors... which I suspect were erased after when I restarted the PC after the stream....

Also, Twitch Raids weren't working so we couldn't send the fun along to anyone last night... so that was disappointing.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Achievements

1. Modern Battle Master: You completed X’ Arcade Mode on Hard or Expert Difficulty.
2. The Longest Journey: Ya-hoo! You have completed X’ mode (Hard or Expert difficulty) using only Dan.
3. Classic Battle Master: You completed X Arcade Mode on Hard or Expert Difficulty.

Gears of War: Judgement

1. Challenge Accepted: Completed your first Declassified mission
2. Ribbon Master: Earned 3 unique Ribbons in any section
3. They Called Him Karn: Completed Museum Of Military Glory
4. Level 5: Reached level 5
5. Open Arms: Completed Halvo Bay Military Academy
6. A Peek into the Future: Watched Aftermath teaser 

 Can I just point out how much Donald Trump has made my job difficult with how he has brainwashed the people who were nuts to begin with? Not every political poll has to do with him, even if he has to be included because of his influence.

Acquired Zarya's skin for week two of Overwatch's Halloween Terror 2021 event, I have gotten pretty good at picking my shots as McCree during Junkenstein's Revenge.

Started the Seventh Astral Era Quests for Final Fantasy XIV last night as well, these were apart of patch 2.1 released who knows how many years ago.  Anyway, the big goal was to knock out Thornmarch, a quest that releases a new duty assignment for group raids... and after a long wait was able to get into it... and involved fighting Moogles and their king.... it took a few attempts, but someone was about to relay what needed to be done and we were successful in the end, and we knocked out the rest of the story progress that sees the Scions base relocated from Vesper Bay to Mor Dhona. Also learned that there is a mandatory side quest involving the Crystal Tower that has to be done... joy....

Got the confirmation / reminder call for my Dentist Appointment on Monday at 3:30 PM, and I'm still up in the air on if we're going to stream that night or just do a watch along in the Discord of something.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises Triple Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Uppercut Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 418 kcal

For tonight's stream we're going to hook up the PlayStation 4 and mess around with Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions, since November will mark the 45th anniversary of the release of Rocky (I think... not sure)

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

Synthetic Lives Will Matter

Good morning everybody,

It's Friday, and considering the work assignment I've been on this week, I'm glad it is, let me tell ya!

Anyway last night we wrapped up our first play through of Detroit: Become Human, and we certainly screwed up a lot, as Conner got shut down, Luther and Alice Died but Kara was still alive and Markus got his moral victory through peaceful protest. Needless to say bad decision were made, but the great thing about a game like Detroit: Become Human is that there are multiple paths and we could jump back to make different choices. So it's safe to say this will be apart of next year's gaming tour.

Part of where I screwed up is accidentally progressing things with Conner that advanced the plot before I could check everything out, which meant a lot of things got skipped. With Markus, things kind of stayed pretty event, but with Kara, things really went wrong on the boat to Canada when the patrol boat came by wand Luther was killed while Alice was gravely wounded, I had Kara 'keep going', because I felt it would have been wasted effort if she died when she made to Canada... so I guess not giving the bus ticket back would have kept them alive.

Now let's adjust the elephant in the room which is the title of today's entry, because when you think about Detroit: Become Human did a better job of addressing the issues of racism and how fucking screwed up the Human race is. We are collectively a very ignorant, self-serving people who can't even treat each other with any dignity, and do you think we'd be able to when artificial life becomes a reality? The answer to that is a resounding no, we will not. Just look at the Black Lives Matter movement, conflict between those in 'superior' position and those who are oppressed is always inevitable. Yes, there are people who think like me and are open mind it with a live and let live, don't bother me I won't bother you attitude... but sadly, the reality is, there are more people in this world are so closed minded that tolerating them is becoming more and more difficult every day.

Which is why I'm so grateful my job has really settled into having folks work remotely... it keeps me from dealing with idiots in person.

Big thanks to Sw33ts_gaming (twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming) for the re-sub and continued support  Sw33ts_Gaming plays a lot of Smite and has recently played It Takes Two, they are certainly good people! 

During the stream we had a big raid from redneckerthenyou who was playing Grand Theft Auto V before he brought his community over. I've known him for a while and he is a great guy! You can check out his content over at twitch.tv/redneckerthenyou

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Zanerli at twitch.tv/zanerli and he was playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey... and it was yet another reminder that I need to go play the games in that franchise.   

Detroit: Become Human Achievements

1. JERICHO'S HERO: Markus got enough parts
2. DOUBTS: The Tracis escaped
3. A SMILE ON HER FACE: Alice enjoyed a ride on the merry-go-round
4. NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Kara succeeded to make the cop go away
5. SEND A MESSAGE: Markus conducted a pacifist riot
6. KINSHIP: Connor refused to kill the Chloe
7. STAND YOUR GROUND: Markus stood his ground against the police
8. THIS IS MY STORY: Finish the game once
9. MORAL VICTORY: Markus succeeded in making the soldiers stand back
10. UNDEFEATED: Don't lose any fight before reaching the end
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Sumo is unimpressed
• Spare The Tracis
• Are Amerian Senators Really Corrupt?
  
• Symbolism
• That's the obvious choice
• It gets you right here...
  

Yesterday we added three new additions to the collection, first was Marvel Super Heroes for the PSOne. This version is the Japan variant, which was nearly 1/3 of the cost of finding the North American version of the same game. This does mean I would have to use the modified PSOne to play it, but hey, I don't mind.... that's why we added it after all.

Next, we finally added the PSOne version of Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes EX Edition. As you recall, the last time I went searching for this game I was sent the Dreamcast version... which was great for collectors purposes, but as I stated before, the PSOne version of the first Marvel vs Capcom game had it's own unique build.

Lastly, we added Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions for the PlayStation 4 to the roster, making it the third game based around the Rocky franchise to be added. And while it is focused on the recent Creed films, I have the idea of maybe doing a Rocky 'legacy', where we feature the two PlayStation 2 era games (Rocky & Rocky Legends) as a way to build up anticipation for BRB:CC. Of course, I did notice that reviews for this were mediocre, but the good news is that it's achievements are focused more on actually playing it as an arcade styled fighting game which means we could have some fun with it.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2. The estimated calorie burn was 475 kcal, and the one missed punched ended up being a jab while in the Southpaw stance. Achievement progress update, we're up to 294/300 days for the Ten Months Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper achievements  & 29/30 hours for the  Hiro's Contender achievement. That last one we should unlock tomorrow, while the first two should unlock on Thursday.

For tonight's stream, Life is Strange: True Colors returns with 'Wavelengths' the bonus episode which takes place before the events of the main game.Since I doubt it'll cover the entire stream, we'll end up doing some other things too! 

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

Today's Notes 5/30/21: Last Night Was A Random Night!

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream was without question a night of many things, as we jumped from game to game.We'll start with the one sour note from last night, which was the fact WCW Vs The World simply would not go past the loading screen after selecting who I wanted to play as and who I wanted to face, so we couldn't get into an actual match. I tried it on the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3, so that was a bit disappointing.

Of course disappointment did not last for long, as our attention turned towards Forsaken, a game whose advertisements in things like GamePro and Eletronic Gaming Monthly gave the impression it was an RPG, but no, it's a pure 360-degree shooter that probably would induce actually motion sickness into soft-heated MOBA players. Forsaken comes across as a game where it feels like the developers were trying to assign everything to a button and couldn't quite grasp how to incorporate analog controls. Still we made it through the first level at least.

Twitch Clip: Hey We're Making Progress!

Next up was Gex, a game that originally was on the 3DO, but perhaps the version I'm most familiar with was the PC port. Gex is your typical plat-former video game of the 90s, and it's most memorable trait was perhaps that Gex made pop culture references and could be a little snarky at times. While we didn't get out of the Cemetery section, we did get through several levels, and had a good time with it. Gex actually does hold up pretty well game play wise.

Twitch Clip: I'm Jumped Onto It.... I Jumped Through The Platform?!

Attention then turned to Triple Play 97, and here's a game I played a lot back in the day.... on PC. Graphically, Triple Play 97 does not hold up well regarding how the players look, but the stadiums do look great, and pitching is probably a lot more easy to pick up on than hitting. Taking the opening day 1996 Phillies into the field.... we lost to the Oakland A's in a well paced game. One thing that certainly holds up about Triple Play 97 is the play-by-play commentary of Jim Hughson which is extremely well programmed, there are a couple of minor glitches with it but nothing to distracting.

Twitch Clip: And A Run Will Score

We then jumped into the PlayStation 2 era with Rocky, playing a few fights (Rocky vs Apollo Creed, Apollo vs Ivan Drago, Rocky vs Drago, and Clubber Lang vs Drago). I was stunned at how gorgeous this game looks for being nearly 20 years old, and plays pretty damn smoothly as well. Something that probably would've helped this game would've been some play-by-play commentary as the announcers during the big fights in the Rocky films added a lot to it. Something that clearly stood out was how fucking over-powered Drago was,  As I was all over him, knocking him down three times in two rounds, and then he went nuts and just brutalized me. It was fucking hilarious.

Twitch Clip: I Get Knocked Out By Dragon

The next game to see how it played was 007: From Russia With Love, and this really did surprise me in how it looked, sounded and played. One thing I can say about EA when it had the James Bond license, they certainly did try to make good games, and playing through the first two areas of the game certainly gave me the impression they were really going all out. Sean Connery actually voicing Bond certainly added a lot to the charm, and the work on making many of the characters who appeared in the film look like the actors who portrayed them was incredible for the time. We'll certainly come back to From Russia With Love as a big campaign game to fully finish down the road, starting from the beginning.

Twitch Clip: Okay That Was Cool 

Now during the stream, the United States Postal Service made a very late delivery at 7:38 PM EST, and I've never seen actual mail be delivered that late in my neighborhood. But what arrived was Mortal Kombat 4 (with it's strategy guide) for the original PlayStation. So we placed it into the the PS2 to see if it worked and yup it did. I have not played MK4 since probably 2001, but one thing remained true... Liu Kang's button inputs for special moves. We did not clear a tower, but for a quick look to see how it played we could get a lot of fun out of it, particularly if I take a nigh to get all the character endings.

Twitch Clip: Flying Kicks In Multiple Directions

Following last night's stream, I went achievement hunting as I was trying out Capcom Arcade Stadium, and this collection of classic Capcom games gives me mixed feelings. On one hand it's a great collection of Capcom's games that could be found in Arcades in the 80s and early 90s, but on the other hand, there is no on-line co-op despite that being a huge reason why people got the Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle & Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collections! That said, we did get a lot of achievements last night but a lot of the remaining ones require 'time' being put into playing the games. FOr example one requires 100 hours total play time, and to put that into perspective, Final Fight from beginning to end takes about 50 minutes. Anyway here's the list of achievements from last night

1. Coin Consumer: Insert nine or more coins in one play session.
2. Trend Follower: Play a game that has a bonus campaign in progress.
3. Tempo Conductor: Use the Cycle Speed (Up/Down) or Max./Min. Speed (Hold) feature.
4. If I Could Turn Back Time...: Use the Rewind feature.
5. Welcome to the Stadium: Play a game.
6. First Failure: Get a Game Over screen.
7. Future High Score Lister: Play a game in Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
8. First Taste of Victory: Clear a game.
9. Good Job!: In one play session, gain 10,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
10. Great Job!: In one play session, gain 25,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
11. Amazing Job!: In one play session, gain 50,000 CASPO while playing Score Challenge or Timed Challenge mode.
12. Remedial Student: Reach Class 5: Experimenter.
    

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session went 45 minutes, with an estimated calorie burn of 770. We missed 3 actions out of 1984 (A jab and two left hooks were the missed punches). Today's' exercises included Beginner Combo #2 (Set a new personal best for it at the No Mercy difficulty setting), Advance Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1. We're up to 80 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement, if we keep getting 3 points a day we should have it unlocked by next Tuesday (next Wednesday at the latest). 

We have new things in the collection today as well: Final Fantasy Origins for the PlayStation which includes remasters for Final Fantasy 1 and 2, Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga for the PlayStation 2, and for the PlayStation 3 Lucha Libre AAA: Heroes Del Ring, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan & Fighting Edition which includes SoulCalibur V, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Tekken 6..

Since it's Sunday tonight we will be playing Overwatch, mostly to get in the matches needed to get the Echo skin that is part of the Anniversary Event that is currently taking place. And on that note we'll see yo

Highlights for the week of May 23, 2021

 Here are highlights from http://twitch.tv/fredcasden for the of week of May 23, 2021. This week featured Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercises, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Star Trek Online, Mortal Kombat 11, 007: From Russia With Love, Forsaken, Gex, Mortal Kombat 4, Rocky & Triple Play 97!

 

Today's Notes 5/27/21: The Division, Fitness Boxing & More!

Good afternoon everybody,

Work continues to be slow as it's yet another day where I wake up, check the assignment chart and see no assignments next to my name because what's available has very limited hours assigned to it (as in the client is paying for really narrowed sample period). That is the slight frustration that comes with working in Market Research.

Anyway, last night's stream of The Division was going really well, as Iceman and I were on a good pace of getting a lot done, but then a thunderstorm that was supposed to end at 10 PM in my area lingered and knocked out the power. But as I said we got a lot done, and I discovered an odd mechanic regarding any achievement which involved dismantling 100 items in that they couldn't be 'mark as junk' and broken down in mass, they have to be done one by one. It's odd but whatever. Did pick up two achievements, both of which are related to the story of The Division.

1. I've Got the Power: Secure the Power Plant.
2. Fly on the Wall: Restore the JTF comm relay.
   

We also have a couple of clips from last night which I'll listed here.

Twitch Clip: Going Up And Down and Up The Rope

Twitch Clip: I Don't Blame Ya

When the power (and internet) came back up, I went ahead and picked up the upgrade for Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid to see some of the changes, and it looks like of of the huge changes was for server stability as I had no trouble finding matches when diving into online head to head action, even winning a couple of bouts and pushing much higher tiered players to their limit. Didn't get to try Ryu and Chun-Li, but going up against them I can safely say it's going to be easy to pin them down with Udonna (Power Rangers Mystic Force) and Jen Scotts (Time Force Pink Ranger) who have excellent range attacks.

Also loaded up Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to chase down another achievement in that game.

1. Black Sheep: Every family's got one.

I do find it funny that involved carrying a sheep down to dump it into some ash to make it a black sheep. There is one more achievement needed in the game to get 100% completion for it, so I might go after it tonight off-stream.

We added two new PlayStation 2 games in my collection

The first is Rocky Legends, which is the lesser known of the two Rocky games released for the PlayStation 2. What makes it stands out is that it has a career mode where you can play as either Rocky Balboa, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang or Ivan Dragon. The later of the four is notable because in it, Ivan defeats Rocky.

The other game we added was Mortal Kombat Armageddon, which was basically the closer of the PlayStation 2 era of Mortal Kombat games. It includes every MK character that has appeared in every game up to that point in the franchises history, so finding a main to tackle the arcade ladder will be interesting to say the least.

For Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, it lasted 40 minutes but there was a patch update which actually corrected something, where it now indicated total number of actions, so this is the grand total of all punches, ducks, dodges, blocks, steps, etc, performed during a session.  Todays exercises included Body Uppercut Combo, Defensive Combo #1, Hook Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo. For the Body Hook combo I set a new personal best with it being set at the No Mercy Setting.  My time was just a hair off when performing Left Hooks from the Orthodox stance today.

As mentioned there was a patch update so Fitness Boxing 2 is now version 1.0.4. Some of the changes include addition settings for station animations so folks who hate how flashy the game gets in 'Zone' sections of sets can  turn that off; the icon sizes for actions, foot placement and the time remaining have been made larger and color for the combination lane was adjusted, instructor comments have been adjusted. So basically all little quality of game improvements have been made. 

I can safely say tonight's entire stream will be focused on Star Trek Online because there is actual new content to tackle, first two brand new missions "Warriors of the Empire" and "A Day Long Remembered” which probably will wrap up the long on-going Klingon Empire story arc that started with the addition of Discovery content to STO, and a new Task Force Operation “Remain Klingon”. So the plan will be to play the two new missions first and then the TFO and probably closing out with completing endeavors.

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