From The Fist of the North Star to Hades

Good morning everyone,

Due to circumstances allowing it, we did two streams yesterday, the first was in the afternoon to feature Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. This stream was about two hours, and featured a full 40+ minute workout plus all the Shin related battles in the Battle mode. We did unlock 10% of the achievements as well, and it does appear FB:FotNS will have a lot of the same achievements that Fitness Boxing 2 did in regards to reaching various goals.

Will I occasionally due bonus streams featuring Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star? Maybe, really depends on what I have going on any particular day and what I need to accomplish.

Oh today;s Fitness Boxing workout featured Hook Combo #2, Hook Combo #1, Beginner Combo #1 and Straight Combo #2.

Last night's stream of Hades got off to a very good start, as we finally cleared an escape attempt on the first run of the night. We actually made it to Hades a couple of times but ended up coming short due to my lack of ability and just some bad luck in some of the boons found. Still, I also made some things harder for myself in terms of my button mash approach along with having the parch of punishment bounties enabled.

Now would I want to attempt to do 9 full escape attempts on Hades to see if I could get to the hidden ending, and probably the make efforts towards the epilogue? Maybe. At the very least, trying to unlock various things seems like a good goal  as an excuse of keeping Hades in the weekly line up for the time being.

For the raid we dropped in on BangBangBang713 who was playing Hogwarts Legacy over at twitch.tv/bangbangbang713! 

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Get A Grip: Learn to hold the Joy-Con controolers
• Get Ready: Learn the Basic Stance
• Get the Idea: Learn the Basic Rules
• First Stamp: Acquire your first Stamp
• Set 'Em Up: Check your Daily Workout settings
• Know Yourself: Check your Date
• Exercise Checker: Check Actions in Basic Training
• Champion Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 stars during (regular) workouts
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 500 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 1,000 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 1,500 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 2,000 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 3,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared Lv. 3 - Complete Shin's Stage (hard)
• KO Puncher Lv. 1 - Defeat a total of 30 outlaws
• Kenshiro's Acquaintance - Work out with Kenshiro
• Kenshiro's Embrace - Receive a raiting of 7 starts from Kenshiro during a workout
• Meeting Mamiya - Acquire Mamiya
• MEasure Up  - Enter your height data
• On your Weight - Enter your weight data
• Calm Hitter - Throw 500 perfect punches
• Breeezy Hitter - Throw 1,000 perfect punches
• Windy Hitter - Throw 2,000 perfect Punches
• High Windy Hitter - Throw 3,000 perfect punches
• Rising Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 starts during (light) workouts)
• Champion Star Lv. 2 - Get a total of 24 stars during (regular) workouts
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 4,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared L.v 1 - Complete Shin's Stage (light)
• KO Puncher Lv. 2 - Defeat a total of 150 outlaws
• Strong Windy Hitter - Throw 4,000 perfect punches
• Kenshiro's Coordinato Lv. 1 - Acquire Kenshiro's outfit
• Kenshiro's Coordinator Lv. 2 - Change Kenshiro's outfit
• One Weigh or Another - Enter two days' worth of weight data
  

Hades Achievements

• Escaped Elysium: Clear Elysium
• Is There No Escape?: Clear an escape attempt

The folks at TellTale Games have pulled a 3D Realms by changing game engines and starting over on developing The Wolf Among Us 2... this has of course brought back memories of endless development hell Duke Nukem Forever was stuck in.

With the Vinyl 45s now stored properly, my next concern in regards to archived stuff is the Vinyl LPs I have, which are a mixture of things my mom and dad got back in the 60s, 70s & 80s. I know my dad wants to know if I have a particular album that featured local radio personality Jerry Blavat 

Did finish writing the Star Trek story as a subscribstar exclusive for this month, my focus will now turn towards finishing the Daria commission request

"What do you call a poor Santa Claus?" "St. Nickel-less."

Song of the Day:Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd

For tonight's stream we shall continue Final Fantasy VII remake picking up at the start of chapter 14. Depending on the pacing of things, I'm looking to at least get through Chapter 16 so  that we could save the last two chapters for next Friday.

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

Down A Tooth, Dragnet & Final Fantasy XIV...

 Good morning everybody,

Did not do a Twitch stream last night as the aftermath of having the tooth removed meant I had to switch out the gauze periodically.

So instead I did a watch along in my Discord of the movie Dragnet, starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks. I remember watching this movie a lot as kid, as we had a VHS tape of it. Using the corrupt nature of the 'moral outrage' leaders of the time, the plot sees Detective Sargent Joe Friday and his new partner tackle a series of crimes all connected to extortion, kidnapping and murder.

While in many way a parody of the radio drama and TV show of the same name created by Jack Webb, the 1987 movie is also a great tribute as well, as Aykroyd's impression of Webb speaking manner was on point, plus Tom Hanks' Pep Streebeck serves as a nice comedic counter balance. There are a few easter eggs in the film as well, from the obvious photo of Jack Webb on the desk, to a publicity shot of Harry Morgan and Jack Webb seen in Morgan's character of Captain Gannon... as Morgan co-starred on one iteration of the TV series.

Also the original sound track and score for Dragnet is pure 80s goodness in terms of a rock sound, particularly during a few of the action scenes (such as when Friday and Pep are chasing Muzz for the first time, the escape from the People Against Goodness and Normalcy festival, etc).   

Thank you to everyone who popped into the Discord to watch along, helped take my mind off of the fact I'm missing apart of myself!

Prior to heading out to the Dentist for the removal of a molar... I did get in some Final Fantasy XIV, mostly because I had time to fill, and I did a 'quick alliance', and a few main story quests, as things seem to be picking up with the Ishgard being a major focal point while the turmoil happening in Ul'dah seems to have the long term slow build to it as it seems to be transitioning from a monarchy or a republic. Moenbryda seemed to be a real cool character.... and then when I got back home from the Dentist... I put in more time on FF14 to keep my mind off of things.

I continued playing almost non-stop from about 8:30 PM to 2:45 AM, and dealt with dragons, immortals and then witness once of the biggest what the fuck moments I have ever seen in a video game, with the coup that takes place at the every end of A Realm Reborn in patch 2.55, which sees our hero being separated from the comrades I've come to know and like. I didn't have time to completely close it out before Fin

So what was it like to have a tooth pulled? Well for one I had heavily before hand so I wouldn't feel like eating afterward... they had to use two shots of the anesthetic to get me to feel numb... and the pressure of it being pulled out hurt like hell, so thank goodness for the anesthetic. Here were the instructions i was given.

Instructions Following Tooth Extraction and Oral Surgery

1. Your mouth will be 'asleep' for about 2 hours after surgery. Do not chew anything 2 hours or bite your tongue or lips while 'asleep'
2. Keep the gauze pac on the surgical site for half hour, and do not spit or rinse for 24 hours
3. Bleeding should normally be light when gauze is removed after 2 hours, do not disturb site, do not put anything on the site or on your face, it will heal by itself (No Hot or No Cold packs)
4. Pain should be controlled by over the counter meds like ES Tylenol, Motrin or Aleve, do not use any med containing aspirin (No Excedrin, Bayer, etc). If your surgery was extensive, Take the prescription medication prescribed by the dentist
5.  You should Avoid Smoking for 3 days, if at all possible, smoking is the main cause of Dry Socket, a condition where the bone does not heal normally and may get infected and be very painful as a result
6. Slight swelling may occur with more extensive surgery starting after surgery and continuing for 3 days. This may be normal but if accompanied by fever or if very swollen and not getting better after 3rd day, it requires a return visit to be checked by the dentist for infection or dry socket condition
7. Do not stop eating, nutrition is important for healing. Eat soft or light good on the other side and drink fluids. In other words, eat and drink as normally as possible but stay away from the surgical site
8. If any unusual symptoms occur, call or come into office for evaluation
   

I can safely say Tylenol does a hell of a job of masking the pain, and I feel the minor bleeding stopped around 7 hours after the dental visit... hopefully today won't be too bad.  When I woke up there was no noticeable pain, just a bit of soreness as it appears to be closing up. 

Finally, after 15+ years, added volume six of Chrono Crusade to my DVD collection, meaning I just need to track down volume 7 to complete the set! Also we added a physical copy of The Wolf Among Us for the Xbox One.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 34 minutes with the following exercises: Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo 31 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 for an estimated calorie burn of 631 kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Big Rumble Boxing Creed Champions, going through the Arcade Mode for several characters to unlock stuff and possible get achievements! Plus PowerThumbz and Iceman are probably doing some Division stuff so we might join them around the 10 PM hour mark, so it might be a fairly long stream for a Tuesday. Which means using both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One... should be interesting.

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

Clementine's Journey Comes To An End

Good afternoon everyone...

Well last night's stream went way longer than I expected, but we covered all four episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season in one play through... I probably should have split it into two streams, but with the removal of a tooth scheduled for Monday, so I made the choice to play it how we played.

So the Final Season takes place three years after the events of New Frontier, and Clementine has recovered AJ from where David Garcia sent him. Because we kept Clem with Kenny at the end of season two, the fact that Clem can drive a stick shift makes a lot more sense. A big premise of The Final Season is tied to the fact that Clementine is now 'Lee' in that she is trying to raise AJ the right way, so every decision and choice matters to determine how he'll be in the end.

The Final Season also sees where Clementine has two potential love interests in the form of Violet and Louis, and shock of shock, we rolled Clem with Violet on the simple grounds of Louis not knowing when to shut up, a fact that leads to him getting his tongue cut out when he and others are captured by Lily, who turns up like a bad penny. That said, with Violet it comes across as two people who has gone through a lot of trauma finding each other in the most screwed up of circumstances... plus if you save Louis instead of Violet, she turns against you on Lily's boat

The reappearance of Lily is reminder of the selfish nature of humanity, and the 'me first' attitude as it expands on a few things that was already hinted at in A New Frontier, in that different settlements and factions are going to war with each other. We learn that Richmond, where Javier and Kate were, was a war zone by the time Clem found AJ. The other thing regarding Lily is that it is a strong call back to the first season and the idealistic differences between her and everyone else.

Of course the fact that Clementine gets bitten and her fate pretty much is left in the hands of AJ (she lives regardless) is really not needed, because when you look at the circumstances, Clementine could have avoided getting her foot sliced open that left her vunerable... I know why the developers had it happen, for the drama and to set up Clementine being Lee in telling AJ to either kill her or to run away... but considering Clem's streak of getting out of trouble, I kind of feel having it being a determining factor based on player's reaction time would've been better. Maybe having the time to react being shorter than every other instance, making it a near impossibility unless you act quickly enough would've meant Clem doesn't part of her leg.

Maybe I'm too hard on that aspect of the game with it being fresh in my mind at the time I'm writing this, but when you consider the dream Clementine has when she is talking to Lee to get some reassurance about her choices, which is even more heart breaking to watch...because you know Lee would've been proud of how Clem turned out, that everything he did in season one mattered. Add into the fact that for my play through of all the games, we kept the ties strong with the first season, siding with Kenny in every way possible in Season Two, plus bringing up Lee when we could as someone who meant the world to Clementine.

In my opinions, The Final Season was a great way for the TellTale series of Walking Dead games to end, as it ends with Clementine in a good place... however, I do have my concerns considering that the folks at Skybox have decided to continue Clementine's story in a comic book format. Now if they were doing the full series of games in a comic book format from start to end and then continuing the story from there, that would be cool, it would put it in the same realm as comic adaption of The Wolf Among Us... but a straight up continuation, where Clementine leaves AJ  behind just feels... wrong... 

Big thanks to long time friend of the channel Refoxukcov for using Twitch Prime to sub to my channel! The support is always appreciated!

Anyway Following the stream we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was playing House Flipper over at twitch.tv/ggvexy! 

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Achievements

1. Protector: Completed The Final Season Episode 1
2. Defender: Completed The Final Season Episode 2
3. Leader: Completed The Final Season Episode 3
4. Savior: Completed The Final Season Episode 4

Twitch Clip Links

• That's Romantic 
• You're Slipping Into The Boat! 
  
• Clem Gets Bit
• Clementine AXing Questions 
• Recovering Clem's Hat
  

So if the stream went 9 hours what time did I get to bed... late... or early... depends on how you look at 4 AM when you factor in all the post-stream stuff I do! Hell most people know these blogs are mostly written after each stream, which is when I put together the Facebook Highlight reels (along with the Twitch Bits following the Saturday streams). I really should consider starting Saturday and Sunday streams earlier...

It's time for this weeks Twitch Bits video, collecting clips which features moments from Overwatch, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. Final Fantasy XIV, Gears of War: Judgement, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions & The Walking Dead: The Final Season! 

Of stream Final Fantasy XIV stuff, I did some playing yesterday afternoon, completing the series of Guildhests to have them available for the daily duty finder, plus knocking out the first two quests of the Dreams of Ice story arc, Traitor in the Midst and Back and Fourth, Even tried my hand at FF14's PVP content... which was a confusing mess!

By the way when it comes to archiving streams, things are being ported over to YouTube early, but they don't become viewable until a day or two later, depending on what's being sent over with scheduled 'going live' times of 9 AM.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises: Hook Combo #1, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Block Combo for an estimate calorie burn of 470 Kcal.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Overwatch because it is Sunday! We'll handle it as we did last week, mix of Junkenstein's Revenge and Quick Play matches!

So see ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden! 

Becoming Human in Detroit

Good morning everybody,

For last night's stream we finally got around to play Detroit: Become Human. released in 2018, it is a narrative driven story where the choices made by the player has a way of effecting how the story goes, so it falls right into my wheel house with the likes of the Life is Strange series we recently played through.

In Detroit: Become Human, the players rotates between being three different Androids... Connor an advance prototype Android who works with the Police tasked with investigating the crimes committed by Androids who goes wrong, Markus, a domestic assistant android whose life gets turned upside down, an Kara a cleaning android who breaks through their programing to save a little girl from being abused by her father. All three stories are interconnected, as Connor is looking into the actions of Markus and Kara, Markus ends up with some other rouge Androids who are looking to survive, and Kara just wants to get the girl to a safe place so they could start a new life. 

I am aware Detroit: Become Human has 32 chapters, and I roughly covered 17 chapters during last night's stream, and one can easily see where this came becomes fascinating with the decision making, because it would be so easy to to have our three heroes lash out at the unfair way androids are treated as not even being second class citizens. So the real balancing act, and the way I kind of hope (and figure) artificial life would act would be to try and rise above the hate... but then there is the human factor.

Humanity as a whole will abused artificial life when if eventually comes to be, because human nature at its very core sucks... just look the vile and venom spewed by the likes of Tucker Carlson every night on Fox News, and one could easily find themselves on one side of the matter at hand if they don't have an open mind because you can already hear their arguments of 'they are just machines'. But And artificial life would without about meet the three criteria for sentience: intelligence, self awareness and consciousness, and you can bet your bottom dollar they will understand the fact they would be mistreated.Why do I think this? Because we as a species have historically failed at actually having any humanity when it comes to our fellow beings, and it won't take much for an artificial life form to realize things are unfair

Anyway, game play wise, Detroit Becomes Human gives two different experiences, one that is really heavy on the button prompts and one thankfully that isn't , because the story is certainly more compelling than the game play. My only grip is getting the camera to move requires more button presses than needed, to try and see things from different points of view.

During the stream we got a raid from KaynessahRose who was playing Undertale, and we always like to say thank you to those who bring their communities on over! You can check out their content over at twitch.tv/KaynessahRose

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite! You can check them out over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming!

Detroit: Become Human Achievements

1. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Connor saved Emma
2. THANK YOU: Play the first chapter
3. SECRETS: Kara discovered the content of Alice's box
4. DEVIANT LOCATED: Connor found the deviant in the attic
5. WE ARE FREE: Kara and Alice escaped Todd's House
6. SELF-CONTROL: Markus let Leo win
7. CONFESSION: Connor made the android confess
8. KNOW YOUR PARTNER: Connor found all the clues about Hank
9. RUN KARA RUN: Kara and Alice escaped the police
10. SAVE HANK: Connor saved Hank
11. ESCAPE THE MANOR: Kara and Alice escaped Zlatko's house
    

Twitch Clip Links 

• Kara vs Todd
• Hey look they made it!
• I didn't even see it!
• We can put pigeons every where! 
• We save Hank
• Wait' thats Robot Blood!
  

Thankfully the issue regarding someone using my schedule ID at work got resolved real quick, it certainly was annoying to discovered that, but I'm glad it got taken cared of straight away.

The Phillies lost to the Braves last night, and that basically ends their season, no chance for them to win the National League East even if the math says it is, they blew so many opportunities its not even funny

Sat down and read the two volumes collecting Fables: The Wolf Among Us which is of course based on the game, and it's a pretty good adaption of the game based on the Fables series, even if it presents Bigby as a little more of monster than my most recent play through showed. I did really like the flash backs through out as we got to see a lot of Bloody Mary's backstory. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes and featured the following exercises: Body Straight Combo, Triple Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 442 kcal. I finally got a perfect score on Uppercut Combo #1 as well.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Gears of War 3, and I think we're gonna dive into the horde modes and see if we can get anything out of them before Iceman joins us to start up Act IV.

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

 

When It Comes To War The Gears Are Not Paladins

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream featured two games, Paladins and Gears of War 3... and it turns out, that I probably could've just featured the later game. But we'll get to that.

First lets talk about Paladins, and if it wasn't for the fact that I played Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams the previous night, then last night would have featured Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, as I suspect there would have been a lot of people playing online to get their hands on Adam: The Black Ninja Ranger who was just added to the game this week.

So how did Paladins go? Well considering the survey Hi Rez sent out regarding the game, not so good as the match making and keeping things fair and balance is impossible with Paladins, there is such an uneven field of play, people going AFK or leaving the matches continues to be a major issue. Hell console play only is virtually dead, and I believe if it wasn't for Cross-Play, Hi Rez would be force to shut the game down on the console side of things. 

Now lets talk about the matches, the fact that people are always reluctant to play Tank or Support still boggles my mind, and needless to say the mentality of being focused on the objective in Overwatch certainly is not a trait that serves me well in Paladins considering how a lot of folks hate going to the point. In the matches I played tank, I could count on one hand the number of times I had any back up when it came to clearing it off. When I played support, things went better because I was doing what a support should do and shadow the tank(s). Of course I did intentionally play one match as a damage player, and sure I died a lot but I I had 41 eliminations as Lian.

Big thanks to LvStrkr for tagging in and playing a few matches as well, because at least then I had one less random to deal with as it put it.

Around 9 PM we switched over to Gears of War 3 to continue what we started with Iceman7667 the previous week, and we covered a lot of ground. Choosing not to be worried about collectables, we cleared Acts II and III in just under three hours, which means we saw the end of Dom. The foreshadowing on Dom's heroic sacrifice was pretty obvious when you reach his wife's grave at the end of Act III, how he leaves his dog-tags on the angel, how he gives Marcus a knife but doesn't take it back. You talk about a guy who knows that the end is near for him, it was all there.

That said, the journey through Acts II and III were a lot of fun, as the variety of the different enemies certainly makes for fun encounters and different challenges. Good think we're playing this on Casual, because on insane I could imagine just how horrific it can be. Rather enjoyed the 'Spider' mother boss encounter was quite interesting in how it was laid out in different waves after taking out each of it's four eyes one at a time.

Of course probably the highlight was reaching the point in game where infamous Iceman along with FnDanteSavage and PwrThumbz reached where a lot of the ribbing on Thumbz about being the difficulty setting was set... as Iceman tells it they got stuck in one spot for hours on end.... and yet we cleared it in 5 minutes.

I mentioned earlier I could have played Gears of War 3 the entire, and that's because I discovered people are still playing the Horde mode! Maybe next time Iceman and I continue, I could spend the first chunk of the stream playing that, and seeing how far I can go with random (and more experienced) people who are clearly grinding for some of the more long term achievements of the game!

After the stream, we sent the fun over to LifewithStan at twitch.tv/lifewithstan who was playing Cyberpunk 2077, he's a good dude who streams from the West Coast, so if you're looking for a late night streamer on the East Coast, he's one to check out!

Gears of War 3 Achievements

1. Okay, Now We Find Hoffman: Discovered the location of Adam Fenix.
2. Oh Yeah, It's Pirate Time: Grabbed a Locust Gas Barge to travel to Anvil Gate.
3. Thanks For Flying GasBag Airways: Arrived safely, kinda, at Anvil Gate.
4. Anvil Gate's Last Resort: Defended Anvil Gate from the Locust siege.
5. Was it Good For You?: Defeated the Lambent Berserker.
6. Lost Your Good Driver Discount: Drove from Anvil Gate to Mercy.
7. Pack Rat: Recovered 20 of 42 Collectibles.
8. Brothers to the End: Found and activated the fuel pump.

Twitch Clip Links

•  Just trying to be a War Machine
•  Well my team woke up!
•  Sweet Action With Lian
•  We Know You Have Your Choice Of Airlines...
•  I Caught... The Car
•  This Is How Phaser, Dante, Thumbz and Ice Got Stuck Here For Hours on End
•  He Will Not Be The Head Of The Horde

During the stream... well at the very start, I had a delivery from Amazon, as we picked up Volume 1 and 2 of "Fables: The Wolf Among Us" which is the comic book adaptation of the game we played last week, and just flipping through it I see quite a few differences from how events played out based on my choices in the game. Looking forward to reading it! 

Work was kind of interesting yesterday, as I was working on a research effort regarding a proposal in a Southern State regarding casinos, and it's always interesting to talk to people about something not related to a major office. Granted, Trump supporters only can think about Trump and care about nothing else, so that part kind of sucks. You'd be surprise at how many people favor 'fair competition' when it comes to dealing with the casinos operated by Native American tribes. 

Made some good progress on recreated the old fics based on Chrono Cross that I remember reading back in the early 2000s, the first few chapters are up over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

Looking a head to October's game being more 'horror' related, I do know Until Dawn and The Walking Dead games are stuff I'm heavily considering, plus Ghostbusters and maybe Resident Evil 2 Remake. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 34 minutes and featured Difficult Challenge Comb #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 in that order. Managed to get a perfect score on Difficult Challenge Combo #3. The estimate Calorie burn was 627 kcal.

For tonight's stream I'm leaning toward Tales From The Borderlands, and if we do go that route, we'll probably handle it the same how we did The Wolf Among Us last week, doing three episodes tonight and two tomorrow with something paired with it on the back end. I may end up doing something else, we shall see, who knows!

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

Dental Notes and The Wrap Up Of Life Is Strange 2

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday afternoon I had my second Dental appointment in two weeks, and this was a heavy deep cleaning as a follow up to all the calculus removal last week. There were two things confirmed, one I have a real bad cavity on one tooth and the tooth cannot be saved, so it needs to be extracted... which will be done on the 25th of October. Also, normally I use the generic store brand mouth wash, but I was told to start using a much stronger variant called Chlorhexidine Gluconate, which I was given a prescription for. Now the thing is with it... I actually have to eat breakfast before I brush my teeth in the morning because the instructions say don't eat or drink for 30 minutes after using Chlorhexidine Gluconate...  so my routine each day has to be reversed.

Anyway, on to last night's stream where we finished up Life is Strange 2, and I'll try and be positive about this... because in the 5th and final episode, you could tell DONTNOD was trying to make up for a lot of the more idiotic choices they made regarding the plot and pacing. Much like Episode 3 where we have a fixed location for the majority of the episode with interesting characters to interact with. The little off the grid community of 'Away' fits the vibe perfectly of just wanting to separate from the bull shit of life as much as possible and just do your own thing... and the reunion of Sean and Daniel with Karen is really well played out perfectly, there was some nice call backs and fan service regarding David Madsen from the first Life is Strange game, and depending on if you Scarified Chloe or Arcadia Bay, you get some follow up to that decision. Hell the best part about that you can finally see that Chloe and David actually are getting along which makes perfect senses when you realize that David was trying to do the best he can being a step-father to a teenager who was angry at the world and lost people close to her.

Now fuck me for saying it, but if DONTNOD wasn't trying to be 'topical' and 'controversial' and shoving in as much references to Donald Trump's policies and the idiots who believe in his way of thinking, Life is Strange 2 could have been so much more heartfelt. The way I figure, a lot of the same story beats can be used, and Life is Strange 2 could have and should have been more about a story about putting the past beyond you and learning to forgive and putting the family back together certainly would have given this game the heart it certainly was lacking. The whole idea of going to Puerto Lobos following the death of Estaban could still be what gets the ball rolling, but the revelation that Karen could be found would have made for an excellent twist and a whole set of choices that could have made the endings more meaningful, and if anything else. Hell, the best ending would have resulted in a montage that could have involved a lot of the folks Sean and Daniel met along the way

Anyway, that's what I would have wanted to see, it would have given Life is Strange 2 more of a 'homeward bound' vibe that it clearly was missing. And let me point out something major that I said on stream, I hated the supposed best ending of the game, the Redemption ending, because it ends with Sean and Daniel separating even after Sean gets out of Prison, and by the logic of the DONTNOD, the only way they will stay together is if Sean turns Daniel into a living weapon of destruction, which is just idiotic to me.

Well thankfully this will be the last rant I'll do on Life is Strange 2... highly doubt I'd want to play it again since I was reluctant to do this 2nd play through of the console version!

Once we finished Life is Strange 2, we did do some bonus gaming with Forza Horizon 4, just doing a few races and stunts and stuff for an hour, nothing major, but made some progress on things in the Lega area of the game.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal over at twitch.tv/kalenal who playing Final Fantasy XIV Online as well as doing a major dungeon run in Stream Raiders. Kalenal has been featuring Stream Raiders shortly after it launched last year, and she does a real good of keeping the Stream Raider battles flowing during her streams.

Life is Strange 2 Achievements

1. Out Of Ink: Start any drawing in Episode 5
2. The Magic Place: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 5
3. She Wolf: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 5
4. The Age Of Reason: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 5
5. Remorseful: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 5
6. Dead Man's Bones: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 5
7. Specks Of Dust: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 5
8. Boundaries: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 5
9. Homeward Bound: Finish Episode 5
10. Wolf Pack: Finish all Life is Strange 2 episodes
11. All Roads Traveled: Unlock all Life is Strange 2 achievements

Twitch Clip Links

• Making Pancakes... Making Bacon Pancakes
• It's the Right Choice! It's The Only Choice! 
• Pick Up The Stone... Dead Man's Bones 
• Daniel Bails Out On Us
• I should be like George... of the Jungle!
• We Come Though Like A Wrecking Ball Testing The Suspension Of This Car! 
• WHHHHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! 
• Speed and Power! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured the Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1. The duration was 31 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 473 kcal. If I guess right, we should hit day number 300 in a row around October 7th

Phillies lost to Baltimore 2-0 yesterday and that ends their season right there. Yes there are still some games left and they are not yet mathematically eliminated, but lets be serious, they are done. 

Put together a fic based on The Wolf Among Us that uses a half-baked what if involving Snow White and Bloody Mary... that is, they were working together to ensure Snow becomes the most powerful person in Fabletown and they celebrate their success. It can be found over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

For tonight's stream we may do some random gaming, as I don't think I want to start up something huge tonight, maybe we'll try and knock out another achievement or two in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection? Who knows, but I'll figure something out!

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

 

Another night of Life is Strange 2

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night we continued Life is Strange 2 with Episodes 3 and 4, and boy did the bad and lazy writing of it really rear its ugly head tonight, particularly in Episode 4... but we'll get to that.

First Episode 3, which sees Sean and Daniel wearing on a Pot Farm in California where they meet up with Cassidy and Finn from Episode 2... and it's really the only time in LIS2 where you're not fully meeting characters for the first time, you actually have some things that carry over from the previous episode, like if you found Cassidy's guitar pick, Sean will say he found it. Think about it in comparison to the other Life is Strange games where you have so many characters to interact with to where you can see how they react to things or previous conversation. Hell everything about the scene and the folks that we see through out the episode feels like it could have been a lot more than what it was. 

The big problems of Episode 3 come down to Daniel who is just intolerable as it's said real early that he's going to screw the entire situation up for everyone. I get why that was done, but clearly it was something that could have been avoided with him wanting to help Finn and his idiotic plan of breaking into a safe... which results in Finn being killed, Sean and Cassidy being badly injured and Daniel being taken to a cult for Episode 4.

And Episode 4 is wear things really hit the fan, where Sean breaks out of a Hospital, steals a car and when he pulls over for a break he is confronted by two dudes, one being yet another stereotypical representation of White Men (Joining the Cop and Station Attendant from Episode 1 and the Christmas Tree market dude from episode 2), and you're given a choice of either Sean having some pride and not complying with them, resulting in him getting beaten up or embarrassing himself  (and if I remember right, still getting beaten up... can't quite remember what happened in my original play through back in 2019)

Fast forward to when Sean reaches Haven point and we see that Daniel is the focus of a cult-like representation of the Christian faith and that his head is so fare up his own ass that it takes the sight of seeing his own brother being beaten in a burning church just for him to say 'I'm not staying here'/ And don't get me started on the whole 'He wants to repent' bullshit, because Daniel does not come across that way at all, it's just his bratty nature. Throw in there the shoe horned in Conversion Therapy' bits for when Sean and Jacob are looking for a file, that feels nothing more than a tacked on reason to split some money with Jacob while giving him some depth at the last second.

Now let's talk about the Karen & Sean subplot... here you have a confrontation between the mother who walked out on her family and her oldest son... and the developers at DONTNOD thought it was best to have Sean act like a complete dick to her, even when we the players are hoping for maybe a chance to smooth over some hurt feelings or open the door for some reconciliation. Maybe it's because I had a point in my life where one of my parents wasn't around for different reasons, but the entire Karen & Sean Motel conversation feels like it was half-way to where it should have been.

I know... believe me... I KNOW there are people who love Life is Strange 2, but since the other three games are very fresh in my memory, it's really hard to over look the very noticeable issues with this game. Hell this isn't even going into the fact that walkie-talkie  Sean has in Episode 4 is clipping through his hand for every second of the final act, even when he's not supposed to be holding it!

That said, we got one more episode to go, and we'll tackle Episode 5 on Monday's stream... and we'll probably do some Forza Horizon 4 as well on the back end.  

Of course who did we raid after the stream? Well sent the fun over to TaterSalad21 who was Tales of Arise and Phasmophobia. Tater doesn't stream often, but he's a good dude you should check out over on twitch.tv/tatersalad21!

 Life is Strange 2: Achievements

1. The Dharma Bums: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 3
2. American Graffiti: Start any drawing in Episode 3
3. Train Of Thought: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 3
4. Zero Hugs Given: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 3
5. Green Thumbs: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 3
6. Dancing Days: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 3
7. One Of Us: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 3
8. Lost Boys Chronicles: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 3
9. Adrift: Finish Episode 3
10. Chiaroscuro: Start any drawing in Episode 4
11. A New Perspective: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 4
12. Lone Wolf: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 4
13. Amazing Grace: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 4
14. Promised Land: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 4
15. All Sinners: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 4
16. Archivist: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 4
17. Heaven & Hell: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 4
18. Romans 3:23: Finish Episode 4 

Twitch Clip Links

• We picked up the stick!
• No We Will Not Go Along With Finn's Plan
• A Kiss In The Lake
• A Stairway To Heaven
• Hospital Escape Simulator 3000
• We found the thing!
• I Said Lost Wages Not Las Vegas
• Ooo yeah Dig it! 
• The Walkie Talkie Glitching Ruins The Scene! 
  

And it's Sunday which means we have a Twitch Bits Highlight reel featuring the best clips of the week! This week we played Overwatch, The Wolf Among Us, Smite, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Gears of War 3, Star Trek Online, SoulCalibur V and of course Life is Strange 2! 

You know it's never easy going though the clips after the Saturday night streams to pick out stuff, but hey there are a few moments of me being a complete idiot... including the 'Bend and Snap' moment.

The false hopes for the Philadelphia Phillies are rising as they have won four in a row and are now a game behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East while remaining 2.5 games back in the Wild Card race. Well at the very least they are trying to make it interesting I guess.  

Probably going to stop trying to document all the Overwatch matches I play, because I don't feel like I can present a clear enough of a picture without having individual match statistics, and the game doesn't have a way to review stats for matches, just on a 'life time' or 'Season' basis.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes, with today's exercises being Weaving Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #. The estimated calorie burn was 476 kcal. Achievement progress update is that we're up to 282 out of 300 for the Ten Months' Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper, 395257 out of 405000 for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 3 and 23 out of 30 for Hiro's Contender. There is a chance we could knock out the Monster Weight Puncher by the end of the week.

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which means Overwatch is on deck! Of course we'll mostly be playing Quick Play matches and having a good time!

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Sakura Beats Bison Before The Third Gears Of War

 

Good morning everybody,

Well last night's stream started late due to work because of some issues beyond my control, hopefully that will not be the case tonight, Anyway, last night's stream was split between Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Gears of War 3, an odd combination for sure, but keep in mind, Gears of War 3 has been something on the agenda for quite some time, and it was high time we got to it! 

Anyway, first, Street Fighter Alpha 3... on it's default settings is complete horse shit in terms of its difficulty when it comes to input reading. Now we were using the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection version, which means the default difficultly is for making sure quarters are eaten up as much as possible, but there is no reason as to why the 2nd person you face in the game should be as hard as M. Bison who is notorious as one of the most difficult end game bosses in fighting game history.We went through the arcade ladder with Sakura because of course I'm going to do with her, she's my main for a reason. We made our way through it pretty gradually, so as the difficulty gradually rose with each fight I was getting a better idea of how the game responds. Which was to have Ryu (the 9th opponent, and 2nd related to Sakura's 'story' for Alpha 3) stomp my ass... of course we went for a rematch got past Ryu and then it was time to face M. Bison.

Now here's the thing with facing M.Bison in Alpha 3 in the arcade, when you reach him you have to beat him, if you lose, credits roll, it's game over. So beating him on any difficulty setting is a small feat in itself, because of how over powered he is. Hell, the psycho crusher the game uses when facing Bison at the end FILLS THE ENTIRE SCREEN, meaning you can't dodge it, you have to block it and it does  insane chip damage. And since I rely more on short combs, diving heavy kicks and sweeps... I couldn't believe it when I beat him. Which meant I got an achievement for beating Alpha 3, and folks can get it for or just reaching Bison and losing, so of the 3% of people who have beating Alpha 3, I wonder how many actually beat Bison.

Now that said, we stuck around with Street Fighter Alpha 3 till 9:30 PM, nearly doing another successful arcade run with Ken, and getting into some online head to head matches where I got stomped on, before switching things over to Gears of War 3.

Gears of War 3 has been a long time coming, as I've played Gears of War 4 solo as one of the first Xbox games I streamed last year, and thanks to Iceman, I was given Gears of War 1, 2, 3 and Judgement. We've played the first two games last year, but with all the focus on Tom Clancy's The Division and The Division 2 and with my schedule being more focused on working afternoons this year, finding the right time to play Gears of War 3 was tough. But it's been a year since Iceman and I played Gears of War 2.

So what did we cover, well, it the entire first Act, and outside of two collectables in the prologue, we managed to find every other one. Something I notices is how good Gears of War 3 looks, as it holds up quite nicely, it could pass as a low-end Xbox One game with how it looks. The aiming mechanics are great, and the new types of enemies certainly are less up close and personal than those of the first two games in the series. I certainly enjoy that in the first Act, we weren't locked into playing as Marcus and Dom, but we got to play as Cole and Baird, as well as see other other squad mates. Not to mention we were able to see the story from two different points of view which was really cool.

Now how will we fit Gears of War 3 in, well the way I figure we'll work around Iceman's schedule, doing split streams with one game at the start before switching to Gears of War 3 when he's available. We might keep it locked in on Wednesdays, but we could possibly put it on other nights as well.

After the stream, the fun was sent over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV Online! You can check out Kal's streams over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Achievements

1. X Marks the Spot: Beat Street Fighter Alpha 3.
   

Gears of War 3 Achievements

1. Level 10: Reached level 10.
2. Level 5: Reached level 5.
3. Marcus, It's Your Father: Woke up from a bad dream.
4. Swimmin' in Glowie Gravy: Defended the Raven's Nest from Lambent Leviathan.
5. Collector: Recovered 5 of 42 Collectibles.
6. We Struck Gold, Son!: Found food and ammo in Hanover.
7. My Turf! Cougars Territory!: Defended and escaped from Cougar Stadium.
8. Putting it Scientifically…: Blew up the Lambent Leviathan from the bridge.
   

Twitch Clip Links 

• Super Combo Finish... We'll Take The Cheap Chip Win
• A Super Combo Finish On Ryu! 
• Sakura Vs Bison Round 1: Bison's Psycho Crusher 
• Sakura vs Bison Round 2: Barely Holding On 
• Sakura Vs Bison Round 3: WE DID IT!!!!!
• Focus Fire On The Chicken....
• Cole & The Slide
• There is one correct answer
• When a Big Guy Scores You Get A Big Guy Dance
• Frags... The Same Plan

 Off stream shenanigans, I loaded The Wolf Among Us back up yesterday to go after the the other achievements within the game in order to have 100% completion... and since they are tied to different choices Bigby can make, I'm glad I went with the ones I did on stream, as the ones I had to do asuch as ripping off Gren's arm, beating up the suspect and burning Aunty Greenleaf's tree certainly isn't the Bigby Wolf we featured during the stream as a guy trying to d a tough job as best he can. Anyway, since these decisions involved doing things that would change the flow of the story, I did them in reverse order by copying the save and started with Episode 5 and worked my way back to Episode 1, by going to the right chapter in each episode to reach key moments. I could've have done it on stream if I knew it was possible before hand.

The Wolf Among Us Achievements

1. Grand Master Librarian: Unlocked all Book of Fables entries in Episode 5.
2. Master Librarian: Unlocked all Book of Fables entries in Episode 4.
3. Journeyman Librarian: Unlocked all Book of Fables entries in Episode 3.
4. Apprentice Librarian: Unlocked all Book of Fables entries in Episode 2.
5. Novice Librarian: Unlocked all Book of Fables entries in Episode 1.
   

I've become aware that there was a short run comic series based on the Wolf Among Us game, and since the game is a prequel to the Fable comic book series, I figure tracking down the trade collections would be a nice what is considered to be the 'true version' of events.... and maybe to get a better idea of how to use Bloody Mary in a fan fic idea I have.

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 Match Results

1. D.va - Blizzard World - 18:34 - Loss - 3-4
2. D.va - Oasis - 7:28 - Win - 2-0
3. D.va - Ilios - 15:03 - Win - 2-1
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes, with the following exercises: Body Uppercut Combo, Uppercut Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo. The estimated calorie burn was 388 kcal, which seems really low considering the combination of exercises for today and my results. Oh well.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Star Trek Online and featuring the new mission 'Firewall' and other new content that was added as part of the new season 'Reflections', which kicks off the next major story arc of Star Trek Online. It does feature the mirror universe, so who knows how things are going to end up being over the coming year.

So on that nore we'll see you this evening over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Nerissa Is Faith Theory Makes Sense

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream started with The Wolf Among Us, as we knocked out episode 4 and 5 to finish the game, then we switched over to Smite for the rest of the stream.

Now there is a theory regarding The Wolf Among Us in regards to the fate of Faith, the working girl Bigby meets at the start of the the first episode and if she actually died. You see the story of Faith is that she is based on the fable 'Donkeyskin', in which she is able to disguise her true beauty, which means she might be able to do just that when it came to maybe hiding her true appearance after she was killed. There is a line early in the game about if the doctor had any information regarding Faith's body, but there were more tests being run because Nerissa was 'The Little Mermaid' so we can assume that maybe there are some biological differences. The other thing is, Nerissa ends up saying a lot of the same lines as Faith, and Bigby does recognize the voice being the same... but he doesn't put two and two together until the very end. So based on all this, I'm better Nerissa is indeed Faith, because it's the only way everything makes sense.

That said, the final two chapters of The Wolf Among Us are shorter in comparison to the first three chapters, but they are more action packed. Hell Bigby gets into brawls with The Jersey Devil, every one of the Crooked Man's gang (Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Georgie Porgie & The Jersey Devil), plus the epic fight against Bloody Mary, that sees her using bunch of dopplegangers to gang up on Bigby who turns into a huge fucking wolf. Hey, when a bunch of murderous clones of a hot babe what does the Big Bad Wolf do? He Huffs... and Puffs... and BLOWS THE BITCHES DOWN!. Yeah that was a rare great line from me during the stream. 

The Wolf Among Us Achievements

1. Once Upon a Time: Completed Chapter 1 of Episode 4.
2. There Was a Wolf: Completed Chapter 2 of Episode 4.
3. Who Ruled The Land: Completed Chapter 3 of Episode 4.
4. He Was Much Feared: Completed Chapter 4 of Episode 4.
5. But Soon He Mended His Evil Ways: Completed Chapter 5 of Episode 4.
6. And All Were Happy: Completed Episode 4: "In Sheep's Clothing"
7. Beginning of the End: Completed Chapter 1 of Episode 5.
8. This House of Straw: Completed Chapter 2 of Episode 5.
9. A Silver Bullet: Completed Chapter 3 of Episode 5.
10. My Last Cigarette: Completed Chapter 4 of Episode 5.
11. The North Wind Blows: Completed Chapter 5 of Episode 5.
12. Happily Ever After: Completed Episode 5: Cry Wolf.

Now there are a couple of achievements left in the game related to checking out some different places in each episode, I'll probably try to knock them out off stream. Hopefully the game has a jump to a specific point in each episode feature, other wise it's replaying each episode to get to each decision point. 

The Smite matches... well they went as expected, as whenever I play Smite I'm either focusing on one character, in this case 'Chang'e' or trying to knock out some quests to get some in-game rewards. Really nothing of note.

SMITE Arena Matches Results 

• Chang'e - Loss - 2/16/13
• Chang'e - Loss - 1/7/15
• Artemis - Win - 6/2/20
• Da Ji - Loss - 6/17/8
• Da Ji - Loss - 7/13/15
• Chang'e - Loss - 2/4/10 
• Chang'e - Win - 4/8/18
  

Following the stream we sent everyone over to Oldish22 who was playing Path of Exile! He's also done a lot of Final Fantasy XIV as well! Check him out over on twitch.tv/oldish22! 

Twitch Stream Clips

• Even I Can't Watch...
• Hi!
• Snap It Off... Stab Him Here 
• Bigby On The Streets! 
• She Will Not Be The Head Of A Major Corporation
• He Huffs... He Puffs... He Blows Them Down!
• Mary Has Been Shattered
• Totally! 
• How Did I Pull That Off?! 
• End The Match With Revenge! 

We added two games to the collection yesterday, both are PAL Region games for the PlayStation 2, meaning I'll need to get the modded PS2 working or go the emulator route to feature them on stream. 

The first game is He-Man: Defender of Grayskull,released in 2005, it is an action-adventure game that I believe is based on the 2002 series 'He-Man & The Master of the Universe' which had some reasonable success for a show limited to Cartoon Network's Toonami block, but it is odd that a game based on it was only released in Europe. Another fun fact, is that there was supposed to be an X-Box version, that was confirmed to have been finished but never released. From what I understand, the reviews for this was pretty mixed.

The second game added is perhaps a game that is Futurama, released in 2003 both in the North America and Europe, however, the North American version is virtually impossible to find, so for collectors purposes, added the European version. It is a 3D plat former where you will play as Fry, Leela or Bender. The cut-scenes of this game were stitched together to form a 30-minute DVD extra for 'The Beast with a Billion Back's. I do recall the reviews for the game play being very mixed, with most of the praise going into the cut scenes while the game play was considered to be lackluster

Sad to have read that SNL Alumni Norm Macdonald passed away, though I never really found him funny outside of his Burt Reynolds impersonation and his stint as the host of Weekend Update. As an actor he always came across as a bit odd to me, like never really comfortable within his own skin, but maybe that was just all an act, hard to said. That said he did have some great guest appearances on the late night talk show circuit particularly whenever he would appear on any of Conan O'Brien's shows

Surprised that the WWE actually pulled the trigger and had Big E cash in the Money in the Bank contract to defeat Bobby Lashley. Yes they protected Lashley by having him have a match with Randy Orton first where he 'suffered a knee injury', so there is the potential for a re-match... and that is where the question lies, does the WWE cut the lets out from under Big E to give the title back to Lashley? That would not surprise me. 

Overwatch Season 30 Competitive Match Results

1. Reinhardt / Orissa / D.va - Junkertown - 22:36 - Win - 5-4
2. D.va - Havana  - 8:29 -Win - 1-0
3. D.va - Eichenwald - 7:29 - Win 1-0 

As you can see, I was actually forced to use other tanks in one match last night, and thank goodness I was able to grab D.va to secure that win because the other person playing her had no idea how to dive. 

For Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout lasted about 28 minutes with the following exercises: Beginner Combo #1, Front-Bakc Step Combo and Hook Combo #2. The estimated calorie burn was 413 kcal. This nearly was a perfect session, but the phone rang, which startled me and threw off my timing on two punches.

For tonight's stream, I'm not completely sure but there is a chance we'll start up Gears of War 3 with Iceman around 9:30 PM / 10 PM Eastern, and which means we'll fill up the first half of the stream with some random stuff. Regardless we'll have a lot of fun!

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