Mass Effect and other notes

Tonight's stream of Mass Effect saw me having to do one side mission twice because the game soft locked, but outside of that it was pretty straight forward, as we covered all the side quests areas not related to Noveria or Feros. We ended up doing Bringing Down The Sky, and had a few critical mission failures on the pain in the ass minefield portion.

Now currently, Mass Effect is slated for Saturday, but since that is my birthday, we might do something else that night. I'm still not sure

Big thank you to Kalenal for the raid following their night of Final Fantasy XIV

For our raid we went over to intergalacticpants who was playing The Last of Us Part 1

Mass Effect Achievements

• Stasis Mastery: Use biotic Stasis 75 times 

Work was really good today, even if one dude was a complete douche-canoe. There is questions about work for tonight however.

Got my nieces Christmas presents ready for them! Even if Amazon was a bit late with some added things I had wanted to get them.

Currently in the middle of writing a story based on the Netflix Punisher series, it'll probably be around 2300 to 2500 words at most.

Because of my birthday, I'm not planning to do any writing on Saturday, so I'll have to double down on Sunday and Monday.

My Aunt wants to visit next Saturday, which will mean probably another day where I won't be able to get any writing done. (Sigh)

Good night folks!

Horizon Zero Dawn and other notes

Hi everyone,

We had another good night of work, as I reached the goal I was looking for which hopefully will mean a bit extra in next week's paycheck to set up for the next set of bills.

Tonight's stream of Horizon Zero Dawn started a bit late because I thought I hit the start stream button on OBS... but we covered a lot of ground, finding various first items for a series of collectables in addition to slowly covering every quest we come across. I'm pretty much resigned to not doing the Hunter Lodge Quest however. The Cauldrons certainly seem like they'll be fun to explore when I come across them.

Horizon Zero Dawn Trophies

• First Vantage found: Found and accessed a Vantage datapoint.
• First Corrupted Zone cleared: Killed all the corrupted machines in a Corrupted Zone.
• First Banuk Figure found: Found a wooden effigy left by a Banuk traveler.
• 10 Vulnerable machine kills: Killed 10 machines weak to Fire while burning, or weak to
• Freeze while frozen.
• First Core Overridden: Reached the Core of a Cauldron and accessed its information.
• All Recon machines killed: Killed at least one of every type of Reconnaissance machine.

Our next stream will feature Cyberpunk 2077 and  will feature the awful new gameplay mechanics. I already tested it out a bit to see what changed and I'm not liking all the changes to my quick hack set up, and the fact that I know have to scramble to get components I need to craft and upgrade what I already had equipped. Anyway the stream will start about 5 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and for sure we should be able to finish the game outright.

For the raid we dropped in on twitch.tv/zonesama who was doing a stream of F-Zero 99

Didn't finish the second of back to back WWE commission requests due to... passing out around noon, which was weird. I'm going to finish that, after I post this and take the opportunity to work on my Persona story.

Also discovered that The Last of Us Fandom community is more insane than I first thought after yesterday. I'm really tempted to really get under their skin, I mean what could be worse than Ellie verbally tearing down Joel? Answer: Joel helping Abby.

Phillies won tonight, and at this point unless something horrific happens they are a shoe-in at the top Wild Card team in the National League.

On a side note, my weight has been fluctuating a lot late going anywhere from 250 to 260.

And on that note, have a good night!

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!

The Last of Us Part 2 and other notes

Hi everyone,

With it being Labor Day weekend, I was already griping about having a three day weekend,  but then work got cancelled to give everyone a four day weekend. Seems nice right? Not when you're like me and taking every hour you can get.

Oh well, we did start the stream tonight at 7 PM and we finished The Last of Us Part 2, in fact the stream ended a couple minutes after midnight after realizing how short the final act of the game is . I really have a lot of positive things to say about this game, in fact I would dare say it's one of the best games I've played this year, which is saying a lot when one considers Saints Row, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Persona 3 Portable are on that same list.

I really don't see where people had a problem with TLOU2, unless you're were MAGA Hate wearing, Trump Loving, transphobic, homophobic cuck with a small dick, there's no reason to hate on this game, because everything about address the biggest problems with the first game to such a large degree it actually made me the world building. 

While it may be quite some time until I do, I wouldn't mind replaying The Last of Us Part 2 down the road to get some trophies that can only be done in a New Game Plus run.

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• High Caliber: Find all weapons
• What I Had to Do: Complete the story

So what is replacing The Last of Us Part 2 on Friday nights going forward? Well Horizon Zero Dawn is what I selected, and yeah we could say that 2023 is the year for me playing open world games. I heard a lot of good things about HZD, so I hope it lives up to the hype.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/oldish22 who was playing Path of Exile

Our next stream is scheduled for 5 PM Eastern on Saturday with the continuation of Cyberpunk 2077.

Got a lot of writing done today, finished one commission story based on current day WWE and got started on another one, and I have one for Resident Evil in line as well. So yeah, three stories ended up being put in the queue.

Got some dinner from a local joined called Donkey's Place, which has these great cheese-steak sandwiches, which I haven't had in a long time. Also realized they sell shirts as well, which I was rocking on tonight's stream.

So on that note have a good night!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

Hi everyone,

Work today was another abbreviated session with an assignment that is very tough due to language barriers and very specific requirements for people to take part in the research effort. Needless I didn't get any interviews done and was growing frustrated.

Tonight's stream of Cyberpunk 2077 ran longer than intended because we did actually advanced the plot, focusing on the plot a bit which got fairly interesting as we went and rescued Evelyn after tracking her down to Clouds, then to a Ripperdoc and then to an underground XBD studio, which sets up a few things plot wise. We also cleared out everything in Westbrook. If the remaining areas have as few side quests to do, I could see myself 100% the remaining portions.

Cyberpunk 2077 Achievements

• Little Tokyo: Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Westbrook.
• Stanislavski's Method: Use a dialogue option related to V's life path 10 times.

Our next stream (assuming there is work) is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern and we'll be stepping away from Cyberpunk 2077 to resume The Last of Us Part II. We left off in the middle of Abby's Seattle Day 2, having to go into the depths of the hospital, which should just be... awful lol.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau who was featuring the next DLC content for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. 

Got one one WWE short story commission request done, and wouldn't you know it? The next commission request I get is for another WWE related one. I really do feel like I'm pigeonholed at times. Still I started that second story so I should be able to rip through it in short order hopefully.

Volition , the stuido behind Saints Row is shutting down, the whiny cry babies that voted for Trump and wear MAGA Hats went out of their way to sink the Saints Row reboot (which I played earlier this year) and it basically hurt the studio. There was nothing woke about Saints Row '22, but if these fuckers want to whine, then they better go look at the original game in the franchise because that was 'woke' as hell.

Anyway, on that note, I'm heading off to bed, good night everyone!

The Last of Us Part II and other notes

Hi everyone,

Work tonight was okay, as we had the same clunky assignment and I question whoever said  it should only take 5 minutes. It does not take minutes to do this one interview when you have to probe and try and coax answers out of people.

Also had a job interview for a local place on the Camden water front near the Aquarium, which I hope leads to something. It would be way more hours than I'm looking for but at the same time it's also hybrid so it would be workable in that regard .

Tonight's stream of the Last of Us Part II saw us finishing the Abby's version of Seattle Day 1 and getting through the first half of Seattle Day 2. For a good portion of it I had some serious doubts about the time frame, because it looked like it was syncing up with Ellie's Seattle Day 3... but then realize and learn it does show events from Abby's point of over the same time period of each day. The character of Lev is pretty interesting as a Trans Male character (as in Female to Male... and the Abby / Owen sex scene was certainly out of left field.

Getting back to Seattle Day 2, the descent through that skyscraper was torture, and I'm not looking forward to going through the bowls of the hospital when we resume The Last of Us Part II on Friday

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Relic of the Sages: Find the Strange Artifact
• In the Field: Find 12 workbenches
• Put My Name Up: Earn the high score in the archery game
• Survival Training: Learn 25 player upgrades
• Journeyman: Find all training manuals
• Tools of the Trade: Craft every item

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/zonesama where they were playing Quake II 

Finished the Resident Evil short story commission in fairly short order while playing into the tropes of how zombies are used... and now I have another commission request to do based on modern day WWE... I don't know why people think I follow what's going on with current day WWE, but I'll somehow make it work... now I just kneed to know who the hell makes up the Damage Control group.

Real excited about an idea I have for my Headcanon series for a multi-part feature focused on the idea of What if Vegeta were Female, and I think by and large only Vegeta's relationships would be different. I already have the early years to the end of the Saiyan saga recorded, next is creating notes to cover the Namek & Frieza saga

Our next stream is slated for 5 PM on Saturday over on twitch.tv/fredcasden, and we're getting back to Cyberpunk 2077, doing whatever side quests we can before advancing the main plot to try and out pace the level scaling.

So on that note, good night everyone!

The Last of Us Part II and other notes

 Hi everyone,

We had work tonight, and we was another great night, getting five interview completed. Also took thethe talent assessment test for Comcast, which I hope might lead to something, and I may be able to schedule an interview for Subaru, which has a major office complex in my home town.There is a challenge because all the nearest dates and times are already filled!

Tonight's stream of The Last of Us Part II finally saw us reaching the point where Abby and Ellie meet face to face after the later was hunting down the former's crew, and now we get to see Abby's story, because as I said on stream (and will in an episode of Head Canon in a few weeks) Joel deserved what she got. Now having the added context that it was Abby's father who Joel offed at the end of the first game. 

But what really stands out about Abby is that she is freaking jacked, I mean dude, she has some massive arms, which I wonder is symbolic of her wanting to hunt down of Joel. There's also some complex details regarding her crew of associates that has me a bit curious as to whey they were like before Ellie knocked them off one by one.

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Sharpshooter: Win the marksmanship competition
• Mint Condition: Find 5 coins

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/mst3k , the offical Twitch channel for Mystery Science Theater 3000

Had to throw out one commission request because the client basically was filling so many messages to my inbox that it became intolerable. Which was a shame, but I do have a policy that states just because someone has a commission story in progress does not give them the write to try and have my full attention. So instead of two back to back WWE short stories in the works.

Our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is schedules for 5 PM Eastern on Saturday Night and will feature the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre game, since it's on Game Pass, making it a perfect little item to feature.

So on that note, have a good night everyone!

Borderlands and other notes

Hi everyone,

We actually had work this evening, even if there were a lot of technical problems, but i had four completed interviews and learned how much of a nut case one of the folks in the New Jersey State Senate is.

Tonight's stream featured Borderlands to basically wrap up main story stuff related to the Intergalactic Ninja Assissan Claptrap content, which lead to picking up several achievements along the way, including the one requiring to farm drops for Tannis. It was a pretty chill night for the most part. We'll probably move on from Borderlands now, granted there are stiff some things to do, but nothing of real consequence as it relates to achievements that won't involve doing a second play through.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition Achievements

• It's so realistic!: Collected 5 3D glasses
• The Collector: Completed a crazy request for Tannis
• Knoxx-Trap: Killed General Knoxx-trap
• Ned-Trap: Killed Dr. Ned-trap
• Steele-Trap: Killed Commandant Steele-trap
• Muerte la robo-lución: Killed the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/xlunagoddess where Walking Dead: New Frontier was being featured! 

Finished the first of a series of short story commissions related to Resident Evil, which is going to prove to be more challenging than one thinks because of how fucking screwy the continuity of the franchise is. At the same time, started work on another commission request for a WWE related one.... and also picked up another commission request that is also WWE related. Can't say I'm thrilled with doing wrestling stories, but extra income is extra income.

Made the decision that Saturday's stream will feature the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre game, since it's on Xbox Game Pass.

Our next stream  over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern on Friday night, and will feature The Last of Us Part II on the PlayStation. 

So on that note, 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

The Last of Us Part II and Other Notes

Hi everyone,

We had another mundane day of work, the assignment is so bland and has so many road blocks put in it that I felt like I was going through the motions by the end of my shift. Can't complain, as we did get nearly a full set of hours this week.

Tonight's stream of The Last of Us Part II saw us finished Ellie's version of Seattle Day 1, which involved quite a bit of side questing to all the areas in down town Seattle before progressing with the main story which saw a lot of stealth and combat happening with the Wolves (aka the human villains). There was a number of cool moments, such as Ellie playing 'Take on Me' during a segment where a guitar was found, along with Dina coming to Ellie's rescue on several cut scene occasiosl

Now the Birthday Gift flash back was nice, to try and give the big warm and fuzzy feelings towards Joel, but remember he projected his feelings about his own daughter not being around on to her, so for me it was nice to see the build up towards Ellie learning the truth.

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Mechanist: Fully upgrade a weapon
• Sightseer: Visit every location in downtown Seattle
• Looks Good On You: Put a hat on your companion

For the raid we dropped in on zonesama who was featuring Skullgirls over on twitch.tv/zonesama

DId some writing yesterday on the WWE short story commission, but since it features similiar content compared to the recent commissioned story for the Mass Effect series.

Our next stream is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern on Saturday night, and just for the hell of it we're going to play Borderlands again and work on the DLC content to see if we can get towards    1000 gamer score! 

 Have a good night everyone, and we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

 

Finished Borderlands and Other Notes

Hi everyone,

Started the day knocking out the 2nd of three commission requests that came in this week, which was focused on Mass Effect and that ended up being over 3000 words, then started work on the 3rd commission requests which is a WWE story... not thrilled with that, but hey we had a variety of stories done. Will work on that story on Friday during the day.

Work was meh, one of the tougher assignments where w just leave voice mails more than actually speaking to people. I did have two possible ones, but they both didn't qualify because of demographics.

So for the stream, we went ahead and finished Borderlands, and I was sticking pretty damn close to all the quests and bounty boards tonight, and since I was over-leveled by a bit and had some fairly good gear, it was basically a cake walk, particularly the descent to the Vault to face the Destroyer. It is the 32nd game we've finished this year, which raises the question over what game will be next?

But before that , we do have 865 out of a possible 1750 Gamer Score, and I would like to get it to over 1000, so we may keep Borderlands around for Saturdays to do the bonus content.

Actually come to think of it, before I work on any commission stories, I'm going to record my Casual Review of Borderlands for my YouTube channel after breakfast.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition Achievements

• My Brother is an Italian Plumber: Killed an enemy plumber-style
• Discovered Trash Coast: Discovered Trash Coast
• Destroyed the Hive: Killed the Rakk Hive
• Ding! Sleepless: Earned level 40
• Wanted: Flynt: Killed Flynt
• Fully Loaded: Rescued enough Claptraps to earn 42 inventory slots
• Made in New Haven: Completed all missions in the Rust Commons
• Discovered Crimson Lance Enclave: Discovered Crimson Lance Enclave
• Discovered Eridian Promontory: Discovered Eridian Promontory
• Destroyed the Destroyer: Killed the Vault Boss

For the raid we went over to kaedmon who was playing The Elder Scrolls Online over on twitch.tv/kaedmon

Assuming there is work, our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern and will feature The Last of Us Part II. I really like what I experienced last week, so I'm interested in seeing how this double story goes.

So on that note, have a great night every one! 

The Last of Us Part II and other notes

Hi everyone,

Friday was a mixed bag on various levels, for one I did some yard work early in the day... and went through three spools for my lawn trimmer just to get the sidewark and part of the yard done. I really need to just dump weed and grass killer on every bit of vegetation around my house to kill it all off.

To top it off, I quick order of some stuff from DoorDash was nearly delivered to the wrong address, and I was super pissed. At least the driver realized their mistake when they drove past my house and saw me waiting for my delivery.

Sadly work got cancelled again, putting a huge dent in things as I was counting on my next pay check to basically cover half the cost of a new fridge.

On a more positive note, we did start The Last of Us Part 2, and the first four hours alone are so much better than the entire run of the first game which I played last year. The controls are so much better, and the fact that I can customize them to negate some of the terrible button combinations and actions is very helpful.

I particularly love that Joel basically get his comeuppance for his actions at the end of the first game, setting up a interesting revenge plot for Ellie, while we also see things from the antagonist's Abby's point of view as well.  The achievements are much more manageable and fair  when compared to the first game as well.

I'm actually looking forward to playing The Last of Us Part 2 again next Friday, which is a feeling I didn't really have with the first game last year.

The Last of Us Part II Trophies

• Apprentice: Learn a player upgrade
• Tinkerer: Upgrade a weapon
• Starter Set: Find 5 trading cards
• So Great and Small: Find the Engraved Ring

For the raid we dropped in on marslag who was also playing The Last of Us Part 2 over on twitch.tv/marslag

Picked up another commission request for a Mass Effect short story to somehow have MaleShep and FemShep interact as siblings. An interesting challenge to say the least

Heading up to North Jersey today with my brother and his family to visit my aunt. and her family. The plan is leave early in the morning, hopefully get up their around 10 or 11 AM, and then making it back up by 4 or 5 PM. Really hoping everyone is considerate of that fact. 

Spoke with the FnDanteSavage during the day just to see how he was doing, and turns out as much turmoil as I'm going through, he had his own misadventures this summer, but I'm glad to know he and his family is doing well.

So Saturday's stream, as far as I'm concerned is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern, and I want to experiment with maybe featuring something from Game Pass to get footage for an idea for content for my YouTube channel.

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

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

Just A Bad. Embarrassing Day

Hi everyone,

Friday was certainly a day I'd rather forget, I woke up really early and I figure I'd  get a lot done, which I did in terms of writing the Mass Effect short story commission, got three video made for YouTube and worked on my job search (found out I got rejected by another job), plus my daily work out.

Then around 11 AM I just felt like laying down for a bit... and I didn't wake up again until 6:30 PM... meaning I missed work started at 5 PM. I was so confused that that when I saw the clock that I questioned myself on if it was AM or PM before seeing my phone and that one of my supervisors tried to contact me out of concern because A) I haven't missed a day of work willingly since I had a tooth extraction and B) when I do miss work, I never no-call. They assured me everything was alright and they were more concerned for my well being

Needless to say I cried for nearly two hours, and really resisted the urged to punish myself for this... I can't think of the last time something like that has happened to me.

This is also why the stream to finish Spider-Man Miles Morales didn't start till 9:30 PM, because if I missed work there was no way I was going to justify starting the stream early. We wrapped the game up in fairly standard fashion, the boss fights against the Prowler, Rhino and the Tinkerer were all unique and varied, plus we cleaned up a fair amount of the side objectives that don't involve a second play through. 

Overall, I don't feel Spider-Man Miles Morales is as good as the prior Spider-Man game, while it has its own unique style and feels more grounded, I don't think it makes as good use of the space of the map as the earlier game. Plus having things locked behind having to do a New Game Plus run is just poor decision making.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• Veloci-Skates: Chase Tinkerer through the city
• Never Give Up: Pay respects at Jefferson Davis' grave in Harlem
• Deep Cuts: Collect all Sound Samples and recreate the Davis Brothers Mix
• Exploding Bulldozer: Defeat Roxxon Rhino
• Family Drama: Defeat Prowler
• Competitive Spirit: Beat Phin at the rocket launch mini-game
• Shared History: Walk through Miles and Phin's past
• Ultimate Sacrifice: Save Harlem
• Memory Lane: Collect all Postcards
• A New Home: 100% complete all districts
• Socially Acceptable: Scroll through the entire Social Feed at the end of the story
• Best Fries in Town: Pay your respects to a legend in the Upper West Side
• Crime Master: Complete all Bonus Objectives for every crime type

For the raid we dropped in on bangbangbang713 who was playing Diablo IV over on twitch.tv/bangbangbang713

I made up my mind, the next PlayStation 4 game for Friday nights will be The Last of Us Part 2... it can't be as terrible as the first game right? RIGHT?!

I saw the list of guest characters for Mortal Kombat 1... and I'm not impressed, and I just know there are going to be a lot of bitter wrestling fans wanting to do every fatality to Peachmaker, since the character model is John Cena. 

Our next stream for Saturday night is slated to start at 7 PM Eastern, and we'll get back to Gotham Knights, so we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

We Finished The Last of Us And Like Everyone Else... We'll Never Play It Again

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of The Last of Us Remastered started a little early because I wanted to give myself a cushion on trying to finish it... and thankfully it was very straight forward when it came to getting things from point A to point B. Whoever came up with the 'sneaking battle' against David in the burning diner needs a swift kick to the nuts, but that was more luck than anything else to get passed it. It took me about a dozen attempt to get passed it because stealth isn't something I'm good at no matter what the game.

Now the novelty of playing as Ellie was kind of cool, and it does show that the developers were thinking ahead to what they were going to do in the sequel with her being the focus and finding out what Joel did. Quite frankly I'm not too keen on the ending because Ellie tells Joel her sacrificing herself so that a vaccine can be made was something she wanted to do

Now as the title says, I'm never playing the Last of Us ever again, because all a second play through would be is to find collectables I missed and upgrade Joel to have maximum stats. But the fact that The Last of Us had no standard achievements or things that allowed for a player to feel as if they were making progressing just sucks the joy out of the game. I like looking at games I re-play and seeing achievement list to make it feel like it was worth my time. The Last of Us Failed in that regard.

Now it was a bit after 10 PM when we finished The Last of Us, so we did some bonus gaming playing some Street Fighter V, clearing Sakura's SFV arcade ladder before getting my butt handed to me in some ranked matches. One thing I'm hoping for with Street Fighter VI is that there would be fewer loading screens between fights, both online and off.

The Last of Us Remastered Trophies

• No Matter What - Easy: Complete the game on Easy

Twitch Clips

• David gets to me...
• Chop! Chop! Chop! 
• You liar!
• Finished With A Super 
• Barely Held On
• Got 'em! 
  

Big thank you to Kalenal for the raid following their stream of The Trials of Mana, they cleared the section where they were miniaturized and are heading to the Wing Element portion. You can check them out over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Also huge thanks to Iceman for re-subbing to the twitch channel for the 55th Month in a row! Incredible!

For the raid, we dropped in on BestiBunni as they were playing Magic: The Gathering over at twitch.tv/bestibunni! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Left-Right Step Combo, Hook Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 for 28 minutes. By my estimation, I should hit the 50 hour mark for the Evan's Champion EX Achievement by Monday

The Phillies vs Braves Division Series starts at 1 PM This afternoon... obviously I will be working but I'll have the TV on and on mute just to keep up with things.

What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet? "Supplies!"

Imagine if Americans switched from pounds to kilograms overnight. There would be mass confusion!

Song of the Day:  Water Fountain by Alec Benjamin

For tonight's stream we're going to turn out attention to playing Dragon Ball FighterZ, and we'll be using the Xbox One console for it. We'll look at the tutorial and other things before diving into local matches and maybe start the story mode.

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

Off to a good start this week

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was a lot of fun as we actually had matches in all three roles (Tank, Damage & Support) with a fair amount of wins and losses along the way. There was a weird glitch seen at the start where queuing up was not even possible, and the game itself crashed unexpectedly which is the first time I've seen that happen. Big thank you to PandasSweet for being apart of the fun.

In terms of who I used last night where it was a variety, D.va, Morita, Bastion, Roadhog, Tracer, Torbjourn, Orissa, Junker Queen, Junk Rat and several others. Also picked up six plays of the game during the stream, which was awesome... and I might have had a few more that were probably over looked in terms of just wrecking fools.

Also managed to snag one of Junker Queen's achievements which surprised me, but the big thing I have trouble figuring out is how does she mitigated damage? Her shout doesn't seem to offset that much. Will probably have to settle into using her more often to figure that out.

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Coup De Gracie - Use Junker Queen’s Jagged Blade and Carnage to pull and kill an enemy in Quick or Competitive Play.

Twitch Clips

• Quad Kill!
• Trapped them between my ult and Hog's ult 
• Hi!
  

Big thanks to BlueElectron for renewing their subscription to my Twitch channel! Always appreciate the support! 

For the raid we dropped in on CallMeMsGalaxy as they were celebrating their birthday and also playing Overwatch 2 over at twitch.tv/callmemsgalaxy! 

Today Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #2, Body Straight Combo and Body Uppercut Combo for 31 minutes.

Song of the Day: Hurricane by Luke Combs.

How did Darth Vader know what Luke got him for Christmas? He felt his presents.

What's the last thing that goes through a bug's mind when it hits a windshield? Its butt.

The Mets lost last night to Padres in the only Wild Card Series that went to three games, and I know Jerry Seinfeld is going to blame it on the Timmy Trumpet thing... but let's be honest, the blame falls on Keith Hernandez whose comments about the Phillies defense seemed to curse the Mets into playing terribly.

Finished writing the 3rd consecutive commission request for something based on the show Arrow before I went to bed last night... and the one who commissioned it wants a 4th one. Will based the next installment around the third episode of season one.

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.   

The plan for tonight's stream is to finish The Last of Us Remastered, so I'll probably start a bit early to make sure that happens. Hopefully it's really straight forward.

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

The Last of Us actually became half-way decent

Good morning everyone,

I will admit, despite how shitty the game looks whenever it's dark or entering an area with spores, The Last of Us actually became 'kind of' fun to play once I got past the Pittsburgh part, and with the next few areas being shorted and more condensed while moving the story forward. 

That said, the relationship between Ellie and Joel does come across as more forced than anything else when she 'runs away'. Ammo continues to be a hindrance at time but I'm glad I'm playing this on the 'Easy Setting' just to one or two shot most enemies. 

Now the way I figure there are three chapters left with two major sections each, so there is a possibility I could finish The Last of Us Remastered during a stream next week. We'll pick up at the start of the Winter Section, after Joel was injured when ambushed in the University.

Twitch Clips

• He's on fire!
• Making use of the Flamethrower 
• Right through the D...
  

Big thank you to LvStrkr for re-subscribing to my Twitch Channel for the 42nd month! That is incredible!

For the raid we dropped in on BestiBunni who was playing Magic: The Gathering over at twitch.tv/bestibunni!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #1, Sway Back Combo and Beginner Combo #2 for 34 minutes

Song of the Day: No Type by Rae Sremmurd

What do you call birds who stick together? Vel-crows.

Today I gave my dead batteries away. They were free of charge.

The Phillies beat the Astros and clinched the 3rd Wild Card spot. Kyle Schwarber ended up being the key to victory... and funny enough I saw a clip on YouTube for the MLB Network discussing Schwarber's hitting approach. 

Finished the Arrow short story commission request last night, based it around the Pilot episode to leave plenty of room for follows ups. And the client immediately asked for one... best part is I can make it a direct sequel

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... we officially welcome Overwatch 2 to our weekly line up with a special Tuesday night stream! I intend to start the stream as soon as I finish work and grab dinner

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

One last night of old Overwatch

Good afternoon everyone,

Now color me embarrassed because I thought to Overwatch servers were going down at midnight last night, but nope, turns out they were going down at noon today, but we got in a full on 8 hour stream, with plenty of breaks and water had. Ended up getting five plays of the game, one as Bation, three as D.va and one as Reinhardt. Hell even got the Triple Threat achievement for Bastion as well which shocked the hell out of me.

Big thanks to BangBangBang and PandaSweet for being apart of a lot of matches in what turned out to be a marathon stream of kicking ass and taking names. I got in matches as quick a few characters including ones I don't normally play... and the list of those I used were Doomfist, Echo, Sigma, Bastion, Roadhog, Wrecking Ball, Zarya, Lucio, Cassidy, Ashe, Mei, Brigitte, Mercy, Reinhardt, Moira, & D.va. Hell I even had a pretty good moment as Doomfist of all people. like in theory I know how to use him, it's just that in execution it's not easy.

Still I made sure to close out Overwatch with a win and we look forward to Tuesday night and Overwatch 2!

Overwatch Achievements

• Triple Threat: Kill 2 enemies in each of Bastion's configurations without dying in Quick or Competitive play.
  

Twitch Clips

• Achievement: Triple Threat
• How the hell did that happen?! 
• The Final Win In Overwatch
  

Thank to you LepsLair for the raid during the stream, they were playing Dead by Daylight over at twitch.tv/lepslair!

For the raid we dropped in on  YuzuPonEN who was also playing Overwatch over at twitch.tv/YuzuPonEN! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Uppercut Combo #1 and Waist Shape Focus Combo for 31 minutes

Song of the Day: Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day

What kind of dogs love car racing? Lap dogs!

What did Winnie the Pooh say to his agent? "Show me the honey!"

Started work on the Commission request for an Arrow short story, and got the intro and set-up written. Thankfully some folks did transcripts of many of the episodes to find something that works. 

I uploaded all of my Plays of the Game in Overwatch for 2022 to my YouTube Channel. Had to do it across two videos because for whatever reason the exporting feature in Windows' Video Editor hates anything over 30 minutes long.

Overwatch Plays of the Game 2022 Part 1 (January 9 to May 16)

Overwatch Plays of the Game 2022 Part 2 (May 22 to October 3)

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 we shall resume The Last of Us Remastered on the PS4, picking up towards the end of the Pittsburgh portion of the story where we have to sneak out of the city. Should be a pain in the ass.

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

More Mixed Views On The Last Of Us

Good morning everyone,

Well we continued The Last of Us last night, picking up in Bill's Town, getting into and out of the school... which meant dealing with the Bloater for the first time, that took a few attempts to deal with because the actual GAME PLAY IN THIS GAME SUCKS! We made it into Pittsburgh... and thankfully not too many Runners or Clickers to deal with, and because I got myself lost when Joel and Ellie were separated, I looked at a guide and saw that I should have had to deal with a bloater but I booked it out of that area as quickly as possible. 

Now this area, which is in the flooded section of the Hotel is accessed when the elevator Joel is standing on collapses, it's poorly lit and flashlight bugs out even when not using it regularly. And just like Friday in another water area, the lighting becomes green tinted so for me I can't see a fucking thing in situations like that. I was about to say to hell with this game right then and there.

I also didn't care for the Humvee with a turret that apparently could track my positioning. If there was away to sneak around it I didn't realize it, but I do now I called it right before the final section of the Pittsburgh arc.

Now at the start of the stream, I did compare The Last of Us to The Walking Dead Season 1 from TellTale games, and I stand by the face when I say The Walking Dead was a lot more fun than anything I'm experiencing in The Last of Us . I also said depending on how I was feeling about the game would determine if I would continue it... and we'll continue it next week on either Monday or Tuesday because I'll be damned if I'm playing this game more than once a week.

The Last of Us Remastered Trophies

• Let's gear up: Craft every item

Twitch Clips

• Well that happened...
• Da Fuq?! 
• Two Headshots with the Bow
  

For the raid we dropped in on CallMeMsGalaxy who was playing Overwatch over at twitch.tv/CallMeMsGalaxy! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #2 for a duration of 28 minutes.

Worked indeed sucked yesterday, as I do feel like I'm stuck on this one damn assignment because I know how to at least dig to find the right people... but is very annoying not being able to be productive. Unfortunately, I am getting suck on the same assignment today

Got a commission request for another WWE short story, which at the very least will be interesting to write because of the requested use of characters.

The Phillies lost to the Cubs and their chances of blowing any opportunity to get into the Playoffs has increased

What do you call a cow with two legs? Lean beef!

What do bees do if they need a ride? Wait at the buzz stop!

Song of the Day: Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones

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 we'll be getting back to work on Fallout 76, the plan of course will be advance various questlines and just have fun.

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