Thoughts on Star Trek Online: Stormfall

Good morning everyone,

Last night we returned to Star Trek Online for the first time since February, as two new episodes were added, titled 'Blue Shift' and 'The Calling'.

'Blue Shift' continues from where the previous mission 'Red Shift' ended, as a rescue plan to rescue Ilia from the Terran Empire, and I believe this is the second mission to ever to make use of mechanics used in a Task Force Operation, as one was introduced that involved raiding Terran Space Dock and guarding three Exocomps (who steal the show with how sassy they are... I mean one is called Cereal Killer!). Beyond that, there are nice space battles, as well as the payoff of getting Marshall Janeway back in command of the Mirror Universe version of Voyager. Once Illia is retrieved she lets the player know that there is a Mirror version of V'ger that is very pissed off and is being summon by the Terran Emperor.

'The Calling' sees another trip into the Mirror Universe, where we get to play as our mirror counterpart 'The Inquisitor' in what is a glorified flash back scene to show what is happening on the alternate version of Pahvo (a payoff to 'Killy's' escape from when that character first tried to take over Pahvo and escaping when her plans were thwarted). There is a major space battle, a re-taking of the Mirror Universe Enterprise to put Admiral (Mirror Universe) Leeta back in command as well as dealing with the alternate version of V'ger for the first time... and out first look of the Terran Emperor's flag ship.

Of course I should talk about Forged in Fire, which is a remake of Assault on Tarok Nor using the remodeled Deep Space Nine interior from FOUR YEARS AGO (let's keep in mind Assault on Terok Nor was introduced seven years ago). It basically plays the same, with some things simplified down and made more obvious. I do like the twist of having to run up different levels in the Ore Processing portion to avoid getting nuked by Admiral Leetha's nova blasts. Plus you finally get to take down Kurland... and make the joke that 'Kurland WAS here'.

Overall, the new content is great, Both missions are really well done as the pace is kept moving with both, even with all the dialog, but of course this is Star Trek Online, so we won't see the next chapter of the story for like another two months..The new Task Force Operation is a quick in and out affair, that most people in PUGs can tackle in 5 minutes. Overall it took about two hours and change to get through all the new stuff... that was not the new tutorial for Federation 2409... I'm debating featuring that next week.

For the remainder of last night's stream we played Smite, going six and four in ten matches that were a mix of Arena and Assault. Big thanks to LvStkr for being apart of a few matches, always cool to team up with one of the channel regulars!  We also managed to pick up a couple of achievements as well.

SMITE Achievements

• Love to Guard: 5 Mastered Guardians.
• Get Over Here: "Unlock the Smite Award "Get Over Here"!

Twitch Clips

• We don't need a HUD!
• We'll just look at you... 
• Ooo that was a terrible line!
• Coming through! 
• One for me
  

For the raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke as they were doing VRChat things over at twitch.tv/Flint_Locke!  

Knocked out Today's Daily Death in Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle right after last night's stream ended (and a much needed trip to the rest room) I need to do the next two on Thursday and Friday to unlock the final achievement. Progress is being made!

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

Added two games to the Xbox digital library, From Earth to Heaven and Sam & Max Save the World. The later we have played before but it's the remastered version that was released after Telltale originally closed down, so if we stream it'll be good for a few laughs, plus the challenge of playing a point & click game with a gamepad may make for a unique experience. From Earth to Heaven, it's a first person platformer that is supposedly an easy completion. We shall see if that's even true or not.

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, I'm going to start off with Fallout 76, and we'll see if Iceman joins in or if we may be teaming joining in for a four person run of Gears of War 3, who knows! Regardless we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 5/24/21: Overwatch, Mortal Kombat & More!

Good morning everybody,

Woke up a bit before 7 AM today, maybe because I slept in yesterday leading to me waking up super early today, but who knows how that works out. Still we're up and doing things.

Last night's stream of Overwatch saw the first hour being dedicated to archive missions before settling into playing Quick Play matches the rest of the night. I picked up two plays of the game, both as D.va which is always nice, and had some real good moments playing as Tracer in Quick Play matches that surprised me. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of a lot of the fun last night! And of course have some clips from last night while I'll list here.

Twitch Clips: That was slick

Twitch Clips: Chasing Dva With Torb's Hammer

Following the stream, I turned my attention back to Mortal Kombat 11, chasing two more achievements last night, meaning at this moment I have 54 out of the games 58 achievements. The two final four are tied to completing 250 towers (I'm at 60% for it), play 50 Casual online matches (I'm at 12%) so those I will get with time. Then there are the other final two achievements which are both tied to the tutorial which I'm just going to dread trying to complete. But since we're so close, I might as well try, even if it's going to frustrate the hell out of me. Anyway here are the two achievements we unlocked last night.

1. Victorious: Equip 5 different character victories
2. Total Disrespect: Defeat an opponent as Bug-Vorah
   

Wet to Daemonswolf over at https://www.darkwolfcreative.com for a new start screen image, with the basic instructions of basing it on the famous Breakfast Club poster, beyond that DaemonsWolf had free reign to select the characters, and they did a great job, featuring Johnny Gat from Saints Row, Max from Sam & Max, Zagreus from Hades and Luna from Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. This will be serving as the new start screen until I come up with a idea for the next one.

Just saw that Capcom is releasing a new collection of Arcade games, listed as "Capcom Arcade Stadium" and considering how back and forth Capcom has been about taking advantage of their own history in releasing old games in a budget bundle, it's nice to see. Looks like it would be a pretty easy achievement hunt to go through them. So maybe we'll add that as a digital title on the Xbox side, while keeping an eye out for a physical Nintendo Switch release down the road.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed on Twitch, as it has been on Monday's for the past several months, but I had to cut today's session short after finishing the daily because something got my attention. Still the work out was pretty solid. Also clipped a couple of moments from this morning session, showing that while I do my best, it looks awkward as hell!

Twitch Clips: Sway Combo!

Twitch Clips: Block Combo... Is My Life

Tonight we'll be starting up Mass Effect 2, and it will be listed as Mass Effect Legendary Edition, since there is a strong difference between the original version of ME2 and it's LE counter part in that the later will probably result in more viewers. We'll probably start early, based on when I have dinner. 

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

Highlights from the week of January 3, 2021

Here are highlights for my Twitch channel (twitch.tv/fredcasden) covering the week of January 3, 2021, which featured Overwatch, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Fitness Boxing 2, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online and Zero Escape 999! 

Today's Notes 1/6/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night I marked 5 years of streaming on Twitch with a one night play through of Sam & Max hit the road, and man I love that game... as proven by the fact I'm able to quote so much of it, knowing what lines are said when and where during the course of the adventure. Big thanks to everyone who came by to help mark half a decade of being on Twitch!

Had a solid 1/2 Fitness Boxing 2 workout session, there was no lower body focus today, so it was very straight forward. I did earned a couple of new achievement the first being Super Featherweight Puncher Lv. 3 which is to reach a total punch count of 32,500 HITs and also Typhoon Hitter which is ti throw 40,000 perfect punches... which I believe it more for perfect movements including ducks, weaves, steps and blocks. Because my total across 16 Hours 22 minutes (or 26 separate but consecutive daily sessions) of Fitness Boxing 2 I have a total of 37,721 punches thrown. So HITS are more in line with my actual punch count. Also I weight in at 258 LBS recently.... so I got below 260 lbs! My current goal is to get down to 253 lbs, so I'm getting closer.

Tonight's stream will be a return to ESPN Major League Baseball as we'll continue the 2004 season with the Philadelphia Phillies, I think we'll just be doing one three-game series tonight as the stream will start at 9:30 PM EST and heaven knows I'll be distracted by the news during the course of it.

So President Trump got what he want, he got his terrorist supports to attack Washingdon DC on the day where he was going to be certified to be the loser that he is. I'll give credit to gizzard neck Mitch 'The Bitch' McConnell for saying and wanting to do the right thing, but Ted Cruz and that piece of shit no-body from Oklahoma can go hang in a ditch for encouraging what is happening at the time of this writing. Every body who has stormed the capital building should be branded as terrorists and treated as such. But let me get this right, all summer long, for protesters in the street, tear gas and rubber bullets were used who protested the deaths of several American citizens by local law enforcement, but for Trump's supporters who are performing a terrorist act. If you support this in any shape way or form, you are a traitor to this nation.

See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 1/5/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Today marks the 5th anniversary from my first attempt at streaming way back in 2016, where I had no mic, no webcam and a real basic understanding of how things worked. It was about that same time when I started doing a lot of my content on my old YouTube channel before looking for a fresh start following my falling out with Dare to Stream last year and nuking everything. Still it's been a wild ride so far, and it's why, for my 5th anniversary of streaming on Twitch, we'll be bringing back one of out favorites, a game that did not see any screen time last year, Sam & Max: Hit the Road? Why this game, well I wanted to get the 2021 tour off of finishing games off on a good foot, and since Zero Escape 999 probably won't be finished until towards the end of the month based on the one night per week full story to different ending runs we are doing, we just started Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and my pacing with that will take a while too.

Speaking of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, we reached level 40 last night, but I saw some battles are a little more difficult than one would assume, as I actually needed two tries on a story mission and didn't quite have the power to get through 'training advancement' on first tries. That said, since my skill from the first game carried over, it was totally awesome to wreck Vegeta with his own moves not once, but twice in terms of the Capsule Corp time rift side story. I am really digging the inclusion of the movie villains, as they shake things up quite a bit, not to mention how certain elements of the story are being seen from a different perspective from the first game. Also fighting Cooler and Frieza at the same time certailly didn't leave me Frosty nor did it give me a King Cold level of Chill. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was a solid routine, that saw me struggling with the the front back step movements, something about it is certainly tracking different than the first game, but then again I wasn't a huge fan of FBCs with the first game either. Beyond those troubles, everything else was solid, even though I really have to figure out what they mean by 'engage your core'... what ever that is suppose to mean is going over my head.

I have been kicking around ideas to get back into writing fan fiction, there have been some old stuff I've seen on YouTube recently that's given me a few ideas on how to twist things around, it's just a matter of finding out if anyone else has done what I'm thinking already or not. Believe me, if there is one thing I hate is seeing that I'm late to the party when it comes to writing something seeing someone do a concept first and perfect it. I have no problem with folks improving on my concepts, but to try and follow someone else who had the same idea that's tough to do.

And on that note, we'll see ya at about 9:30 PM EST for Sam & Max: Hit The Road over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Today's Notes 11/9/20

Good afternoon everybody...

Well as usual we got the day started late, but we did get in a solid 50 minute Fitness Boxing session, focusing on strength and cardio, which meant only 4 sets instead of 5, but it was a more intense workout. Really trying to put effort into moving back and forth from a standing position seems to take some pressure off my left knee as opposed to the slight bounce I normal do.

 Big thanks to one of my regulars ShadowStrikeR24 for letting me know about the upcoming remaster of Sam and Max: Save the World. It's a big surprise that came out of nowhere, but considering the original Telltale series was done in a 4:3 aspect ration, having an updated version is appreciated. I got a slight chuckle seeing that the publisher and developer is Skunkape Games.... as Skunkape is an antagonist in Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse.

Last night's Overwatch stream was a lot of fun, with the entire stream dedicated to Mayhem matches... which surprised even me. Normally at about 8 PM EST, the modes in Arcade mode rotate... now I started the stream at 7 PM EST, Mayhem was available from the start so to see it still there at 8 PM was a pleasant surprised. That said, it is amazing how stupid some people can get in Mayhem, particularly those who just want a match to end, so they either switch to something that isn't helpful or they quite the match.

Tonight's stream will be at 9:30 PM and will focus on the Southpaw Regional Wrestling and Empire of Tomorrow DLC... which means again trying to deal with the idiotic in-match objectives with awful controls. The only bright side is that these two DLC packs focus more on the Women of the WWE and seems to involve the player using more than just one character at a time.

I just now realize that I probably will have to sit down at some point and make a new twitch channel trailer, as the current one features footage most from the first half of 2020. That's gonna be a rough evening, as I'll have to go through months of clips to edit things down to just a couple of seconds.

Anyway, hope you all have a great day!