The Expanse, Party Animals and Other Notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was solid as we had a good pace of completing interviews, even if some folks were more 'mental' than others. Gives me hope that Friday is going to be a good day.

Tonight's stream opened with episode 5 of The Expanse: A TellTale Series, and I realized what this game was... it's a glorified tech demo, and I'm real curious if the fault lies with TellTale Games or Deck Nine Games, as both companies were involved. When compared to games that both companies have worked on and  released previously, The Expanse is a shallow experience. Sure it looks great, but there is nothing of substance there. I firmly believe this is the worst game I played here in 2023. Doesn't help that Episode 5 was less than a gig in size, making it the smallest of all 5 chapters, and boy did that really show as it was barely 40 minutes in length.

We loaded up Killer Instinct and saw that its story mode was basically the arcade mode. We did a quick run through as Orchid. Interesting a number of achievements popped from when I last played it back in August. I checked to see if anything popped in Resident Evil 6 and the answer was nope.

We also checked out Party Animals... and that game is basically a violent form of Fall Guys, it is down right hilarious and can be frustrating as the controls are pretty loose. There are a fair variety of game modes, and the fact you can choose your animal is pretty cool. If you liked Fall Guys, give Party Animals a whirl.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Heal Thy Medic: Help Virgil overcome his panic attack
• Brother's Reaper: Rayen kills Arlen
• Oyedeng, Kopengs: Complete Episode 5 of The Expanse
• Miraculous Maya: Keep Maya alive
• Khan's Revenge: Keep Khan alive
• Bosmang: Complete all Episodes of The Expanse
• Data Archivist: Complete Episode 5 with all Data Logs

Killer Instinct Achievements

• Sadira's Web Trap: A web trap hit an opponent, while in Instinct Mode with Sadira
• Glacius' Armor: You absorbed a hit with Glacius' Ice armor while in Instinct Mode
• Orchid Novice: You have reached 30 Fight Challenges with Orchid!
• Competitive Hisako: You have won a ranked match as Hisako!
• Astral Assistance: You completed a Shadow Lords mission with a Guardian equipped!

Party Animals Achievements

• Welcome To The Party: Finish the Tutorial
• First Strike: Win 1 match in the Quick Match
• Sportsmanship: Knock out 1 player during the podium moment
• Immortal Kombat: In Into The Game, knock out opponent playing arcade 3 times in one game (Quick Match)

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern (assuming there is work) over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature Horizon Zero Dawn, we'll bounce from quest to quest based on distance.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/misscammi316 who was playing Smite

So I posted an older short story based on The Last of Us over on Ao3 and boy, the Joel apologists were in full force, I'm really tempted to write a follow up just to piss them off even more.

Speaking of stories, knocked out one WWE commission request and started on another. It is funny considering an earlier commissioned story involved Emma's return to the promotion earlier this year... and she was let go today.

Those will be all of my notes for tonight, have a good one folks!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was another great night... even if some of the people I talked turn turned a simple 10 minute study into a 30 minute torture session. Now I'm good at trying to control the interview, but some people need to be smacked.

Tonight's stream featured Cyberpunk 2077 and we started as soon as we finished work, as we focused on more side quests, as every time one ended another popped up. The big thing was trying to knock out quested related to Kerry's questline, and there is only one left to do, but we couldn't get it to trigger. Ah well, now the big worry is going to be the Liberty Expansion which drops this week to see what happens to the save file on Saturday, which is the next time we'll be playing it. 

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/Reese who was playing Overwatch, the raid was picked by LvStrkr as one of the channel rewards! 

Our next stream, scheduled for about 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature episode five o the Expanse to wrap up that disappointing mess. Trust me, when I do my casual review of The Expanse, the negatives are going to be prominent. Since the final episode will only take maybe hour, we'll  be pairing it with Killer Instinct.

Knocked out another commission story request based on Resident Evil, which turned out alright, even if the paper thin plot relies on what contrived references I can make.

Also picked up two commission requests for (sigh ) WWE related stories... one featuring Rhea Ripley and the other featuring Triple H. I said before and I'll say it again, those nearly 15 years of being one half of the Dice and Kristi writing duo certainly branded what type of stories people want me to write.

Heard some good things about the Party Animals game, while the obvious mediocrity of Mortal Kombat 1 becomes more obvious with every review I see.

And on that note, I'm going to bed! 

Good night folks!

The Expanse, Gundam Evolution and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work was another rough night, and I have to say this, I think I prefer to be hung up on quick rather than having to go through my entire introduction. 

Also had a job interview today, and I really feel the person who I was talking to was a complete idiot, as it was clear to me they didn't want to do their job.

Tonight's stream opened with episode four The Expanse, and while it was nice, and had a puzzle that I couldn't figure out, it was painfully short. Telltale Games really dropped the ball in regards to giving players any sense of immersion beyond making the people get an idea of who Drummer is. You spend 90% of the episode alone, and the last 10% setting up the final episode which drops in two weeks time.

So with that done, we loaded up Gundam Evolution for the first time in 44 days, and runninginto instances of people leaving matches to have them thrown, we managed to win three games and got called the MVP! We did unlock the ability to play ranked matches, but no one was playing that mode, so we couldn't get any ranked achievements.

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and we'll be starting up Horizon Zero Dawn. I see it has a 'Story' Difficulty, so we'll certainly be engaging the plot armor!

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Drone Dodger: Made it past the Drones in the Mines without being caught
• The Pit and the Pirates: Complete Episode 4 of The Expanse

Gundam Evolution Achievements

• Rookie: Reach Player Level 10
• Ace Pilot: Get MVP in a Casual or Ranked Match

For the raid went over to twitch.tv/xlunagoddess who was playing Starfield!

After 20+ years I finally found volumes 4 & 7 of the Resident Evil novels by SD Perry, so I now have the complete set!

Did some writing today, worked a bit on Chapter 4 of my Persona AU fic, as well as knocking out another commission based on the Spider-Man MCU films. Next commission request is Resident Evil

Saturday's stream may start a little late, I'm going to see if I can visit my brother's house that afternoon, 

Hope everyone has a good night!

Resident Evil and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was another challenging evening, granrted some folks were willing to do the study, but the stiff sample requirements are making things nearly impossible for me.

Tonight's stream saw Iceman and I finish Ada Wong's Campaign in Resident Evil 6, which was a lot of fun, as Ada's Chapters 3, 4 and 5 sync up with key moments in the Jake/Sherry, Chris/Piers and Leon/Helena campaigns. The big reveal that the fake Ada was basically the result of an unrequited love was interesting, but the real fun was seeing things from a different point of view in all three chapters.

Of course, I did get screwed out of two achievements not popping, one is a completing the game on amateur difficult and the other was for completing chapter 5... the funny thing is, the in-game badges menu indicates I did unlocked them bot, but not on the Xbox registry, which is really weird. So next week, we're going back into Resident Evil 6 to replay chapters 1 & 2 of the Jake/Sherry campaign, along with Chapter 5 of Ada's to get the obvious story ones that didn't pop.

Now Iceman and I ended up talking a lot about creating characters for video games in terms of immersion and the whole CM Punk fiascoe, plus our break down of the MLB standings, which was always a lot of fun.

My next scheduled stream is for 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden with the plan being to featured episode four of The Expanse: The Telltale Series, and pair it with like Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed or maybe even Gundam Evolution

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• This Takes Me Back: Complete Chapter 3 in Ada's campaign.
• Ada's Demise: Complete Chapter 4 in Ada's campaign.
• Rising Up: Earn a level-four title.

No formal raid tonight, I simply went over to twitch.tv/bestibunni to say hi and hang out for a bit!  

Did a fair bit of writing, finsihing a massive commission request featuring Harley Quinn and Lois Lane, then another one featuring Spider-Man. They client liked the Spider-Man story so much, the requested an instant follow up which I'll work on tomorrow!

Getting both stories done allowed me to order some take out from the 45th Street Pun over in Pennsauken, which has one the best damn burgers I've ever had.

And on that note, I'm heading to bed! Good night folks!

The Expanse, Ghostbusters & Other Notes

Hi everyone,

Work tonight featured one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to market research and that's when we have questions that have no flow or rhythm and feel disjointed. Sure I had three interviews, but I felt like I could have more if the questions felt natural!

Tonight's stream opened with episode three of The Expanse: A Telltale series, and this installment had the same problems episode one did, and that it's way too damn short. Sure big things happened during it, such as Drummer being betrayed, and the details of how people from the inner solar system view the people who live in the asteroid belt, but it barely lasted an hour. In fact I'm shocked I didn't find all the salvageable items because I was looking everywhere! I stand by what I said, there was no justification for this game to have a staggered release date.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Impossible Objects: Complete Episode 3 of The Expanse
• Data Recoverer: Complete Episode 3 with all Data Logs

Now the plan was to play Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but when I went to play a match I saw a message that the servers were having issues. 

So instead we played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, we got in several matches, winning a few as Ghostbuster and nearly winning one as a ghost. There was certainly a lot of wildness happening when I ran into a super skilled ghost player.

Big thank you to x9abenonymous9x and YourDadPlaying for the raids and sharing their communities with me!

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/sweetlindir show was playing Hunt: Showdown 

Finished the Halo short story commission request fairly easily, thanks in large part to the Halo fan community doing an excellent job in having transcripts of all the major dialog points in Halo: Infinite. And of course, I got another commission request, this time to write a four story for a series based on Resident Evil. 

My next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern time and will featured The Last of Us Part II, as we continue Abby's journey towards the Aquarium. It's going to be interesting to see how much time it takes to get through her side of the story, which in theory should be just as long as Ellie's. Of course if work is for some reason cancelled (and we hope not!), we'll start earlier.

So on that note have a good night!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

Hi everyone,

Had a bit of work tonight, as we had this multi-state assignment focused on issues regarding protected land in the United States, and boy did opinions vary from state to state... one would think folks would have a unified outlook on things like that, but nope!

Tonight's stream of Cyberpunk 2077 saw me focusing a lot of some side quests and realizing that having a car in that game is necessary because there is a lot of traveling to do. Sure I can fast travel, but that's no fun. I did feel like I got a better handle on the combat system, even if I forget that taking cover is actually a smart thing to do in this game, but on the other hand I discovered I loved rushing down enemies with a katana! On a side note, the skill tree system can go suck a dick, because it makes no sense to me what so ever.

Didn't do a formal raid last night but I went over to twitch.tv/bestibunni to say hi, since catching their streams have been tough for me lately. 

Went through one of mom's closets to throw to get some more stuff thrown out in the trash... it's been nearly 7 months since she's passed and it hurts like hell doing this. Wish my brother would actually take the initiative and say he's coming over to want to go through her things before I finish my half-hearted approach to it.

Knocked out the shot story commission request for a story based around Rooster Teeth which turned out rather well I think. Picked up another commission request to do a story based on Halo and to somehow make it work involving Cortana's replacement called 'The Weapon'. Going to need do a bit of research.

Out next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Thursday night over on twitch.tv/fredcasden, now I believe episode three of TellTale Game's The Expanse series comes out this week, so if it does, we'll do that and pair with Texas Chain Saw Massacre. If we have the same problems we did with Episode 2, we'll just continue Cyberpunk 2077 and hope the next Expanse episode is ready by Saturday.

So on that note, have a good night everyone!

The Expanse, Ghostbusters and other notes!

 Hi Everyone,

Tonight's stream opened up with episode two of The Expanse: A TellTale Series, and we purposefully went to get every single achievement possible that was not related to the one character we threw out the airlock in episode one. I was really pleased with episode two, as it allowed for some great character moments and interactions, plus some really obvious choices being made. Khan is probably my favorite character in her clearly just being a crotchety old lady who is a total bad ass. Also liked Virgil's backstory as well, and the possibility of unifying the crew is the best way to do things.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Stogie for Fogey: Give Khan a Gift
• Drug Gifter: Give the Twins some Medicine
• Spore Taste: Give Virgil the Mushroom Powder
• Thorston Mayer: Discover the truth about Virgil's past
• Martian Music: Listen to Maya's Music
• Celebrations are in Order: Complete Episode 2 of The Expanse
• Debris Spree: Complete Episode 2 with all Scavenge Items
• Data Master: Complete Episode 2 with all Data Logs

We also featured Ghostbusters Spirits Unleash, experiencing the newest map and seeing a lot of the Ghostypes, along with the fact that the ghostbuster equipment can be customized to look like the gear seen in the Real, Extreme and 2016 extended universes of the franchise. While we mostly played as Ghostbuster (complete with fishnet stockings lol), we did do one match as a ghost, which was quite fun.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/elegantlyslays where elegantlyslays was playing Friday The 13th The Game. They ran into some cheaters,  and with the game so close to shutting down I don't blame them for not wanting give screen time.

Got a 40th commission request for a Mass Effect story, this time revolving around the Party that takes place during the Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3. This might take a few days to write because of all the things I want to try and include for the client. 

Came across a great clip from Boston Legal where the Alan Shore character goes into just how stupid and exploitive the pharmaceutical is  to having a drug for every disease in comparison to the hypocrisy of religion towards its bigotry towards homosexuality. I mean both industrys (and yes religion is an industry) exploit people's fear of getting stick and fear of something different for blatant profit and do so with no shame.

In regards to the bit of yard work (well cutting branches) I mention last night, well I did that today as I was able to pick up some extra groceries thanks to the funds I earned writing short story commissions so far this month.

Our next stream is slated for 7 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and we'll feature the three story missions of Overwatch 2 that were added this week before we get into Quick Play matches. I've already played the story missions off stream, but it's going to be nice to feature them on stream.

So with that, have a good night everyone!

The Last of Us Part II and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work was cancelled today, but I was told we should have something on Monday which I really hope is the case. Didn't receive the paper work I was expecting for the job I applied for on Thursday, so I'll reach out to the recruiter who contacted me about the job I'm hoping I might get. 

Tonight's stream of The Last of Us Part II saw me covering all of Seattle Day 2 on Ellie's side of the story, which is mostly Ellie by herself hoping to find Tommy instead finding Jesse, and then going off to the Hospital to find Nora and getting the information on Abby's whereabouts. Because of Ellie's apparent single minded focus on revenge, it has lead to her getting some great character growth, particularly when the flashback of Ellie learning about what Joel did coming after her encounter with Nora. Again, Ellie is certainly shining brightly as she deal with the guilt caused by Joel's decision and the guilt of pushing him away because of it, and his fate.

Don't get me wrong, Joel deserves what he got, and I have no sympathy for him as a character, because his decision basically put a target on his back and lead to greater tragedies that could have been avoided if he wasn't selfish. 

That said, I'm looking forward to continuing this game on next Friday's stream

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Specialist: Learn all player upgrades in one branch

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/zonesama where Zonesama was hosting a Just Chatting stream.

Finished writing the 39th entry in a series of Mass Effect related short story commission requests, and it wasn't the strongest entry, considering it revolved around the character of Maya Brooks. At this moment there are no commission requests in the queue, which means I might focus on an original story

Really have to break out the sheers and go our and cut some branches and stuff, maybe will do that on Sunday afternoon if it doesn't rain that day.

Figured out what I want the Friday videos for my YouTube channel to be, and it's going to make use of my brain as a fan fic writer and using my own head canon for various franchises to make topical discussions. The first video will focus on Trini from the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and will premier on August 25!

Our next stream on Saturday is scheduled for the usual 7 PM Eastern start over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and we're going to see if episode two of The Expanse is available to play, if not, then we may focus on something else, maybe continue the Claptrap DLC for Borderlands or actually start up a larger scale game. We'll see what I end up doing.

On that note, have a good night!

Borderlands, Overwatch, Xfinity and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Another day and another day where work got cancelled, but I was told we should get two assignments in next week. Doesn't help me this week however. Job hunt may have lead to something as I came across something on Indeed that could be promising. I'll give more details if things move forward. Did have a bit of a job interview and an application filled out today as well

Had major issues with Xfinity this morning where somehow 'Bridge' mode on my modem was activated causing major havoc and too took an hour long call to get through to someone who could tell me that it wasn't just me but that most people are not smart enough to access the gateway to see what events occurred. 

Tonight's stream was supposed to feature The Exanpse A Telltale Series Episode Two, but TellTale Games outdated approach to release a game in episodic releases lead to it not being avaliable on either Xbox on PlayStation consoles. Many people were pissed and rightfully so. If it's resolved by Saturdays, we'll feature it then.

So instead, we played Borderlands once again as we knocked out various quests in T-Bone Junction and started on the Claptrap DLC content. Nothing major, just covered a lot of ground and worked toward leveling up Lilith. It might be possible to hit level 50, but getting to level  69 is certainly a grind. We picked up no achievements, but hey, this was more for the content than anything else

For tonight's raid we went over to twitch.tv/kalenal to watch Kalenal play Final Fantasy XIV

Started work on a new short story commission today based on Mass Effect which ties in with the Citadel DLC content of Mass Effect 3.

I did play the new PVE content in Overwatch 2 before the stream, and the story and lore that was put in certainly made things real interesting and put more weight behind the various character interactions. We're certainly will feature the story content on Sunday's stream to lead things off!

Garbage was not picked up today, and is the second time in a month this has happened. Needless to say I logged my complaint with the Public Works department.

Out next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature The Last of Us Part II. If there is no work, we'll started at 6:30 PM Eastern, but obviously we are hoping for work.

So on that note, have a good night and we'll see you tomorrow over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Resident Evil 6, Broforce and other notes

Hi everyone,

Work was cancelled again today, but on the other hand I made a little bit of cash via commissions for story writing, and I knocked out another commission request today, for another in a long line of Mass Effect stories.

Went through more of mom's stuff to throw out... and... well I was total wreck, even if I just grab and throw stuff in a garbage bag, it's pretty much heart wrenching every single time I do it.

Tonight's stream didn't start until 9:30 PM Eastern, because I wanted to lead off with Iceman as we finished the Jake & Sherry campaign in  Resident Evil 6. We basically had the back half of Chapter 4 and all of Chapter 5 to do, which we knocked out in about 90 minutes. Overall I liked this campaign a lot more than the first two campaigns, as the story and game play was a lot more smooth. Next week we'll start on Ada's campaign to begin the final leg of Resident Evil 6.

In the second half of the stream, I messed around with Broforce which was just added to Game Pass, and I knocked out a few levels while unlocking a number of Bros. One of the charms of Broforce is all the references to 80s action heroes. We'll feature Broforce again next week following the Resident Evil 6 part of the Wednesday stream

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• Still on the Run: Complete Chapter 4 in Jake's campaign.
• See You Around: Complete Chapter 5 in Jake's campaign.

Broforce Achievements

• You're Fired: Kill an enemy by launching them on a propane tank.

 For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Resident Evil 7: Biohazard over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x

Found out I got rejected from a few places I applied for... the job search goes on with the usual 1 step forward 20 steps back which is driving me nuts.

Our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern if we have work, and will feature The Expanse to lead things off. If we work is cancelled, we'll start at 6:30 PM. 

So on that note, have a good night!

The Expanse, Street Fighter 6, Gears 5 and other notes...

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream featured The Expanse: A TellTale Series... and I was impressed with how great the game looked, the voice acting, the dialog choices and the controls... everything was so immersive that I was caught off guard with the the first episode only ended after about 70 minutes. This basically proved the fundamental problem with TellTale Game's episodic release style, because for streamers and content creators, a 70 minute 'episode' just isn't good enough. Hell I could and have gotten close to two hours of play time out of each episode of the TellTale Walking Dead Season 1. 

The release of  the Expanse, does prove that the company's being Life is Strange: True Colors and Star Trek:Resurgence had it right by releasing the full game day one and letting players go at their own pace. A shame The Expanse is tainted by a archaic gimmick. Add on to that that you cannot access the options menus when starting the game and this not fully a positive experience.

So since the Expanse was so short, we played some Street Fighter 6, getting ranked placements as Juri and Ryu. We tried to do some Avatar fights, but couldn't find anyone to match up with in the Battle Hub.

Lastly, we loaded up Gears 5 for the first time in a while, doing an Escape, a couple of Horde runs and a PVE. We managed to complete a horde run, which was pretty cool, and picked up an achievement during an escape. 

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Captain Drummer: Complete Episode 1 of The Expanse

Gears 5 Achievements

• Buying Time: Used the Scrubber Room to slow down the Venom in Escape

For the raid we dropped in on daworstgamerever25 who was playing Rocket League and showing off their sound mixing skills over at twitch.tv/daworstgamerever25

Work was cancelled again, and while I'm partially covered for this week, going forward I'm in dangerous territory. Also doesn't help but I think one of the job I was applying far was blatantly misleading applicants with the address I was given not being for the company listed. 

Wrote a bonus story for my SubscribeStar followers based on Hellsing, which ended up being over 3000 words. It was something different based on what I know regarding the character of Heinkel Wulf.

Our next stream is schedule for Friday night at 9:30 PM Eastern with the start of The Last of Us Part 2... if work gets cancelled again, then we'll start early, since I do have to be up before 8 AM to prep for a trip up to North Jersey.

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

Resident Evil 6. Power Wash Simulator and other notes

Hi everyone,

Finished the short story commission related to Mass Effect first thing this morning, I was particularly inspired by some ideas I had for it. So at the moment commission slots are open.

Work got cancelled at the last minute, but I was told we should have an assignment starting on Thursday, which I hope gives us many hours of work.

Update on the Fridge, because it's so old, all possible replacement parts (Part # WR9X405) for it were discontinued... so I certainly have to look into getting a new fridge a lot sooner than I expected.

Tonight's stream opened with Resident Evil 6, which saw Iceman and I clear Chapters 2 and 3 of the Jake and Sherry campaign, along with the opening few sections of Chapter 4. There was quite a few deaths in Chapter Two as we tried to figure out how to escape the cave, along with getting hung up in searching for stuff in what was supposed to be a stealth section in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 saw us reach the point where Jake and Sherry run into Chris and Pierce in China, which some wild sequences involving a motorcycle and seeing the helicopter battle from a different angle.

For the second half of the stream I dived into PowerWash Simulator, clearing a couple of jobs in pretty straight forward fashion. 

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• A Revolting Development: Complete Chapter 2 in Jake's campaign.
• Silent Killer: Use a stealth attack to take down five enemies.
• Let's Blow This Joint: Complete Chapter 3 in Jake's campaign.

PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Sole Task: Complete the sole of the Shoe House last

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir who was playing Sea of Thieves over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Got some Miscellaneous groceries, some snacks, bread, drinks and things like that. Nothing major.

Realized I needed ink for my printer... because I haven't had to use my printer in probably five years.

Our next stream is scheduled for Thursday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, and we're going to feature episode one of The Expanse, the first major release from the revived TellTale Games. Sadly they are doing episodic releases for all five chapters, So we'll bounce to it on all the major release days.

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