Closing in on the end of Spider-Man

Good afternoon everyone

Work yesterday was an hour shorter than anticipated but was productive as I got two interviews done and set up several for next week. 

I did have a rough start to today, as I basically woke up several hours ago, but just laid in bed and kept thinking about how much I'm failing at trying to do things the way mom would've done them.

Last night's stream of Spider-Man finally saw us finish Act 2 of the story, because I did so much side-content all I had were the last side-missions before doing a series of main story quests. Was rather surprised on the twist that Doctor Octavious was the one who orchestrated the big break out of Rykers Island and The Raft, which turns the in-game world into Saints Row The Third when all hell breaks loose.

Potentially I could finish Spider-Man next week, based on how quickly I find and deal with all the remaining Sable and Prisoner Crimes and Camps (already completed them in three sectors already), and then there's there is basically a blitz of the main story and doing everything associated with it.

The entire quarantine situation that happens in Act 3 does remind me of Tom Clancy's The Division and of course the real world parallel with Covid. Wonder how many other games that came out before 2020 involved more mass quarantine plot-lines.

Now there is no chance in hell I'm going to Platinum Spider-Man, because getting all the costumes is going to be too much of a pain in the ass to deal with, and it's not worth it. I'll be glad to get every other achievement however.

Marvel's Spider-Man Trophies

• Tombstone Takedown: Defeat Tombstone
• Schooled: Complete all of the Corrupted Student missions
• A Bit of a Fixer-Upper: Complete all optional projects in the lab
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Complete all Side Missions
• The Six Assemble: Complete Act 2
• Overdrive: Complete 10 Vehicle Takedowns

For the raid we dropped in on maximilian_dood during their stream when they were playing Mega Man Battle Network over at twitch.tv/maximilian_dood

The plan for tonight's stream is of course, Elder Scrolls Online, continuing our adventures with Striker! 

For the first time I watched Duck Soup, one of the legendary films starring the Marx Brothers... it is as good as I always heard it was.

Did a few runs of Hades following last night's stream, and managed to successfully get the Thorn of Thanatos achievement, using the spear and building around Poseidon and Zeus. So with this achievement unlocked, I have only two left to get!

Hades Achievements

• Thorn of Thanatos: Get 30% bonus damage with the Pierced Butterfly

Here are this week's Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star Stats

• Punches Thrown: 7560
  
• Estimated Calories Burned 2958.24 kcal
  
• Fitness Age: 18
  
• Achievements Unlocked: 66%

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

Chapter 14 of FF7-Remake took the entire stream?!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy VII Remake was interesting, as Chapter 14 took the entire stream. Now if I was just tearing through and doing only the main story, we could've done a few chapters probably, but I put in the time to do all the side quests in the area, which took a lot of time, including having too look up where to go in some instances.

That said, it really did reek of padding in some instances because only in Chapter 14 do you unlock a fast travel option, but by the time you do there is no point, or at least in my case, because I would try and do multiple side quests at the same time to get done. Still, at the very least, I have done every side quest, so I should be getting the trophy for doing them in the coming weeks assuming there is one more town to explore and to get a feel for.

For the raid we dropped in on dont_run_x while they were playing Tom Clancy's The Division 2 over at twitch.tv/dont_run_x

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• Crate Annihilator: Complete all Normal difficulty Whack-a-Box challenges.
• Picking Up the Pieces: Complete Chapter 14.

Didn't have work yesterday, so I took advantage to get a rough idea of how many LP vinyl records I have (roughly 200) while also searching for proper storage containers for them. The YouTube videos going through them to inventory what I have is going to be interesting because I have some stuff that goes back to the 1960s.

Finished the Daria short story commission last night, and that was a lot of fun to work on. Now I have a WWE (groan) short story commission to work on next

I have a sneaking feeling someone stole something from my front porch today, as I saw a notification for something being delivered, but by the time I woke up and checked, I saw the front gate wide open and nothing at my front door. 

Today's Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Straight Combo 32 and Straight Combo #1. It is possible to actually get 100 hits during a Boss Battle if you do well enough during your Special Technique portion. Also you don't have to do the daily workout to get the stamp, simply doing the daily missions contribute to building a streak as well.

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Stage Master: Exercise on all stages
• Rising Star Lv.3 - Get a total of 36 stars during (light) workouts
• Flyweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 6000 HITS
• Shin's Stage Cleared Lv.2 - Complete Shin's stage (Regular)
  

"I got carded at a liquor store, and my Blockbuster card accidentally fell out. The cashier said never mind."

Song of the Day: Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin

For tonight's stream, the plan is continue Elder Scrolls Online to get more of a feel for it.

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

 

 

The Enemy Warrior Arc Of Dragon Ball FighterZ Is Done!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Dragon Ball FighterZ certainly lasted longer than expected when it came to getting through the Enemy Warrior arc of the story mode. Granted I've been going through every single fight to try and grind up Levels for Goku to get Link Level 40 as well as 1,000,000 Zeni... but it did occur to me what the biggest problem with the story mode is. 

You see, the story of Dragon Ball FighterZ basically should have been executed in a similar format as the Xenoverse games, which actually would justify the level grinding method and the number of fights against 'minion' version of the game's launch cast. In short Dragon Ball FighterZ suffers from the same problem Jump Force did... but multiplied by three for normal difficulty (or six if one includes the hard version of the 3 story arcs.

That said next Tuesday we'll start up the Android 21 version of the story which will feature Android 18 in the lead role. And from what I understand Goku doesn't become available until after clearing board 11 or 12, which means it'll be a frantic push to use him in all the remaining fights. I do figure it'll take two maybe three  weeks to clear the Android 21 arc, depending on the number of total fights.

On a side note, less than 4% of Xbox players completed the Enemy Warrior arc of Dragon Ball FighterZ with even fewer completing the Android 21 arc, so I'll be in good company when I accomplish that.

Dragon Ball FighterZ Achievements

• Ho ho ho... What an Unexpected Thrill: Story - Complete the Enemy Warrior Arc.

Twitch Clips

• Check Out MasakoX On YouTube For What If Freiza Turned Good!
• That's a Counter! 
• Enemy Warrior Arc Final Battle... Frieza Gets The Final Hit!
  

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Tom Clancy's The Division 2 over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz! 

Finished the NXT short story commission and quickly picked up one for another WWE one based on the sudden return of Mia Yim. Did get started on writing it to make sure to include one of a few requested plot elements.

I would like to know what part of me telling people what hours I am an am not available do they not understand. I am not cutting my daily workout short for no one.

Speaking of which Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge COmbo #1, Biceps Shape Focus Combo and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 for 34 minutes.

Why didn't the astronaut come home to his wife? He needed his space.

Song of the Day: Best of You by Foo Fighters

For tonight's stream we are back to Fallout 76 with the initial focus being on the Raiders Vault Raid, and hopefully we can knock that out in easy fashion.

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

The Villains Story In Dragon Ball FighterZ Is Rather Silly

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream had an unusual circumstance where it was unexpectedly reset with no sign of any connection instability along, and then there were 13 instances of stream instability over the course of the night... 9 of which after the stream reset. Viewers pointed out that for them the stream suddenly restarted, so I wonder if the issues was with Xfinity or with Twitch.

Anyway, we were playing Dragon Ball FighterZ last night with the focus being on the Villains version of the game's events. Unlike the Heroes version, the soul link is only tied to Frieza with Bulma coming up with a way to get folks being able to fight to some degree. But the real treat is how snarky everyone is with Cell and Frieza snipping at each other, Yamcha and Tien having interactions with Nappa. Cell roasting everyone he's teamed with has been a treat as well, not to mention Bulma getting up in Cell's face for not wanting to cooperate. Something that made this also enjoyable was there were 'tutorial' fights, so it was get into the fights and win to try and gain zeni to make progress towards a couple of achievements.

And speaking of achievements, I did do an arcade run, and once again I blew my opportunity to get the S-Rank. The Extreme Gravity Spaceship course involved five fights... and I picked up S-Ranks on the first three fights and an A-rank in the fought... but in the final fight, I ended up with a B-Rank. Talk about disappointing. But hey we knocked out the achievement for the arcade run at least. 

Next time we'll play Dragon Ball FighterZ will be next Tuesday, and with Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed moving to the Saturday part of the weekly lineup next week, on Monday, we'll feature Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova.

Dragon Ball FighterZ Achievements

• Extreme Gravity Guru: Arcade - Complete the Extreme Gravity Spaceship Course.

Twitch Clips

• This is the end!
• The Ginyu Force Learn That Vegeta Doesn't Work 
• Ultra Instinict vs Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan
  

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Tom Clancy's The Division 2 with Iceman over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz! 

Work was alright yesterday, however some idiots tried to troll me, however I just come back at them saying I'm am a professional and keep continuing to try and get the interview accomplish. Of course I see that the assignment I'm on today is one of my least favorites...

Black Adam has been added to MultiVersus, so we'll feature that game for sure on Saturday night to see what we can learn while using him. And I understand an arcade mode was added to the game as well! So that should be a hoot to try.

The Phillies blew out the Astros 7-0 last night to go up two games to one in the World Series, and as I was thinking yesterday, Nola will be pitching for the Phillies to night. Apparently the Astros starter was tipping his pitches considering Harper called Bohm over to tell him to look for something to drive... and it turned out to be one of the homers the Phillies crushed last night. Phillies manager Rob Thompson that Syndergaard is going to start game 5, so hopefully the Phillies win tonight behind Nola. I am curius as to why Wheeler is being saved for game six.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #2, Left-Right Step Combo and Hook Combo #2 for 31 minutes.

My dad's answer to everything is alcohol. He doesn't drink, it's just that he's really bad at crossword puzzles.

Song of the Day: Pink + White by Frank Ocean

For tonight's stream we're back to Fallout 76, we might get some help from ThumbZ on dropping a nuke, but otherwise I'll focus on other quests and random stuff.

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

First Impression of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed

Good morning everyone

Last night we played Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed and it's really awesome, you get to play as either your own custom Ghostbuster or as a Ghost in a 4 vs 1 match. The objectives are to close the Ghost Rifts and to capture the Ghost, while also keeping civilians calm. The tutorials for both being a Ghostbuster and a Ghost are very descriptive to let you know what you can do. Finding a match was pretty easy with Cross-Play, and one can easily tell that some folks are really looking to play as the Ghost because I ran into dude who already had things ranked to level 30 and above.

In terms of presentation, there is a story that is gradually unlocked as you play, and I've seen the first three major cut scenes that involves Winston getting possessed because of something in a trap that Venkman sent to the firehouse so there is incentive to keep playing to see how the story plays out. Sound effects and music are really solid, voice overs are also decently done. There is also a 'ping' system so voice chat isn't needed but one has to hope folks are paying attention.

Now it may get 'old' seeing the same few maps over and over again, however, I think there is a lot of long term potential with GB:SU because more maps can easily be added down the road, and I can easily see maps being based on locations from the movies being added to make things really interesting down the road.

We'll do another stream of Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed next Tuesday!

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Achievements

• Stylish: Equip an unlocked cosmetic item to your Buster
• Vaporous Expansion: Unlock a Ghost class variant
• Discovery: Break open an artifact to reveal a Rift
• Swift Rift Removers: Destroy all Ghost rifts within 5 minutes of the match start
• Advancement: Equip an upgrade to a piece of gear
• Fully Upgraded: Equip an upgrade to every slot of a piece of gear

Twitch Clips

• Ghost Captured
• Just Being A Ghost 
• Knocked off the stairs!
  

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Tom Clancy's The Division 2 over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz! 

Work was pretty solid yesterday, even though it was really focused on speaking to people in New York state, and man there are some real loons out in some of those boondocks.

The Phillies won game one of the NLCS against the Padres 2-0 behind two home runs from Harper and Schwarber. They only need to win three more games to make it to the World Series... I'm not getting my hopes up, because the Padres are a good team. In fact I saw stats that basically indicated the Padres and Phillies have basically the same win-loss record going back several years.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Front-Back Step Combo, Defensive Combo #2 and Triple Combo #2 for a duration of 28 minutes.

What did one dish say to the other? Dinner is on me!

What does a house wear? Address! 

Song of the Day: Self Esteem by The Offspring

Nabbed Doom, New Tales from The Borderlands, Star Trek Prodigy: Supernova and Them's Fightin' Herds: Deluxe Edition on the Xbox side of things. So you can beat we'll featuring them as soon as possible based on the currently line up of games we have already in place.

For tonight's stream we're back to Fallout 76 with the goal being focused on doing the final mission of the Steele Dawn story arc. Granted I still have not finished the story arcs for things that were part of the original release of Fallout 76.

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

Shin Akuma In Capcom Fighting Evolution Is Rather Tough

Good afternoon everyone,

Well first off , the Xfinity tech arrived late, after 6 PM, but he was real attentive an actually was able to find a major problem in that one of the cable boxes were shorting out and causing havoc, sending electricity back through the line which was disrupting everything. So the tech took that one and I was advised to replace the other with a wireless cable box at some point.

Anyway, last night's stream started with Capcom Fighting Evolution, and I was doing just some random arcade runs with a few different characters... and somehow with the duo of Zangief and Alex I met the requirements for facing Shin Akuma. CFE does have some weird difficult spikes, as I really struggle with the likes of Dimitri in almost all circumstances, but Shin Akuma was on an all different level. Now I tried to beat him with the duo f Zangief and Alex, but in the end I ended up trying different characters before finally pulling it off with Zangief and Felica. Because we got the super secret boss fight and completed it, we're counting Capcom Fighting Evolution on the tour! 

So after two hours of that, we switched over to Smite for a bit, playing a couple of arena matches before finally playing Super Meat Boy. I'm not particularly fond of these trial and error platformers, but there is a charm to Super Meat Bo that was appeal for me to clear the first world, as I certainly picked up on what to do pretty well. 

Super Meat Boy Achievements

• Nostalgia: You found a warp zone! Now pay me for the door repair!
• The Commander: You unlocked Commander Video! Double rainbow all da way!

Twitch Clips

• Defeating Shin Akuma!!!!
• Thank you! 
• We did it!
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV  over at twitch.tv/kalenal!

Was recommended to check out a rouge-like game called Vampire Survivors, which is only on Steam. We'll try and fit that into this weeks like up of games. From what I understand it's a rouge-lite indie game, with a max run of 30 minutes if one manages to live that long.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #2, Triple Combo #1 and Left-Right Step Combo.

Got another commission fan fic request this time for a WWE fic based around Cody Rhodes and Brandi following Cody's WrestleMania return earlier this yaear. 

It was announced that Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portalable are all coming to Xbox consoles and Windows, with P5R being the first, with a release date set for October of this year! Safe to say that version will be in the lineup for next year! Plus with P3P and P4G coming to the Xbox side, that means I will not have to open up the older versions of Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 for the PS2, so they can remained sealed and in mint condition!

Also announced, Overwatch 2 will be launching on October 4 as well as a Free-To-Play service, and existing players will get a founders pack!

It's the start of an new week, so let's recap what we did last week which included Overwatch, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Persona 4 Arena, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Smite and Super Meat Boy!

For tonight's stream, we'll be playing Overwatch, and hopefully last night's stream was a clear indication of how smoothly things will go tonight. 

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

More Issues With Xfinity, Finally Played The Kenly College

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream was another stream that saw a few interruptions, resulting in two major stream restarts and the loss of 20 minutes of footage. I've documented it my journal so when I call Xfinity to report the problems, which I did after the stream I had all my ducks in a row, pulled up the admin data for my modem so I could see exactly what they were seeing. Also made full use of Twitch Inspector to further prove when issues were happening on stream (not so easy to do when I'm working.

Anyway the stream itself of Tom Clancy's The Division 2 saw Iceman and I tackle the Kenly College event, and I'm really wondering why the hell is it an every three week event because it seems like something folks would want to run repeatedly, but at the same time, some of its gimmicks and finding everything took time. I did like some of the Puzzle elements, and of course since we were playing the Division, that meant Iceman was apart of the fun, so there was some hilarity, including when one enemy ran around me to get to him. Now would I personally want to replay the Kenly College stuff... not really, but it was worth experiencing

Twitch Clips

• I am the definition of...
• He just ran past me! 
• What the hell? 
  

For the raid, we dropped in on YrGamerBunni who was playing Mass Effect 2 and Fortnite over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!  

Finished the commission request for a WWE story based around Liv Morgan, Finn Balor and AJ Styles yesterday morning, and it's a good thing too, considering Finn turned heel on RAW. This has lead to a new commission request for a story based around the end of Halo 4 with Cortana and Master Chief... which will be hard because I've never played any of the Halo games.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved  Intermediate Combo #1, Triple Combo #2 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for a 3o+ minute workout.

I've already seen what the assignment my day job has me on, and it is not what I was anticipating based on what I've seen others working on yesterday. Safe to say I'm not too thrilled with who'll I'll be dealing with this afternoon.

The 'suggestions for starters' regarding my Fantasy Baseball team is rather amusing, as it's suggesting I started Alejandro Kirk over JT Realmuto. Kirk may be having the better season, but it always seems as if it's not starting most of the time, even though he and Realmuto have played in the same amount of games.

For tonight's stream we're going mess around with Persona 4 Arena's story mode... and if it's anything like the story modes in the various BlazBlue games I've played, it should be pretty cool.

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

Just Another Blogger Post Where The Original Draft Was Not Saved!

Good morning everyone, 

Here is another blog post where things totally were not saved in their original format by Blogger for whatever reason, and thus I’m having to recall everything that I wrote originally.

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun as usual, we were joined by PandaSweet for the entire stream, and we had a lot of more wins than losses that’s for sure. We actually had a couple of wins that took place on the Volskaya Industries map that lasted less than three minutes and thirty seconds with us on attack. I had a couple of Plays of the Game in Junkenstein’s Revenge as Cassidy and Torbjourn, plus one in a Quick Play match as Moira. Other characters used were D.va, Ashe, Soldiers 76, Mei and Junkrat.

OF course, there were some issues with my Internet Service Provider, Comcast/Xfinity, which resulted in the first 10 minutes of the stream being counted as lost footage. I've documented and I'll collect various notes so the next time I contact them I'll have a case to force a technician to come out and check everything. 

Twitch Clips

• And boom goes the dynamite
• Play like your hair is on fire! 
• It's High Noon... Rest In Peace!
  

We had two raids during the stream, first was from Pau6always who was playing Rocket League over at twitch.tv/pau6always! We also had a raid from CallMeMsGalaxy who was also playing Overwatch over at twitch.tv/callmemsgalaxy! 

For last night's raid we dropped in on Joliet4 who was doing a short music stream over on twitch.tv/joliet4!

Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid appears to be in an unplayable state, as I tried to do few matches to get back into the flow of playing it... but the game itself kept crashing. I was playing it on my Xbox One S , I tried uninstalling it, reinstalling it and power cycling my console. Now to see if it was a hardware issue, I did play some Smite, and knocked out this week's challenges with three games as a Mayan god and 2 as a Guardian by using Cabrakan. I had no issues at all with that. I did see on a few forums that Power Rangers has had an increasing series of crashes posted on various versions of the game depending on various factors. The good news is that I did get both of Cabrakan's achievements in a single match so it was worth it.

SMITE Achievements

• TREMORS!: "Unlock the Smite Award "TREMORS!"

• Shield Smash: "Unlock the Smite Award "Shield Smash"!

So the question becomes, will I ever stream Power Rangers; Battle for the Grid again... we'll see, I'll try installing it on the Xbox Series S console and see if I have the same issues.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficulty Challenge Combo #3 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo. This was also day number 700 in a row of working out,

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 will be featuring Tom Clancy's The Division 2 with Iceman to finally check out the Keenly College content.

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

 

We Had A Group Of Six!

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun as we ended up having a group of six by the end of the night. Big thanks to BangBangBang, PandaSweet, BloodyClown, Beltizar and TeddyBeartJTs for all being apart of the fun. It was super cool having a group of that size, and really makes having a fixed night for Overwatch feel like a great idea. Of course the larger the group the more the 'match making' of Overwatch will try and make sure to have us face a team of a similar size, which would increase the difficulty. I ended up with four plays of the game with D.va, Torbourn, Reinhardt and Cassidy, as well as used Moira, Mei & Soldier 76 at various points.

The stream did see a full reset for some reason, which I think was caused more by an issue with Xfinity, so part of the stream was lost.

Twitch Clips 

• Well that is POG...
• Buckle Up! 
• A Sig-Dva Combo!
• We got it! 
  

For the raid, we sent the fun over to TracyDoll over at twitch.tv/TracyDoll  as they were playing Friday the 13th! This raid was requested via the channel points redeem on my channel by BangBangBang713!

Saw a list of highly recommended open world games, and the ones that caught my attention were Eastshade, Biomutant and Mad Max. The first two are to new to grab for the list, but Mad Max is old enough to have as an option. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Hook Combo #1, Beginner Combo #2, Block Combo and Sway Back Combo.

Completed another commissioned fic based around the 2012 WWE story line involving John Cena and Eve Torres, and the client was quick with the payment, and as I said before, that is always nice to have happen.

Accidentally deleted all the clips used for the BRB scene from the month of April yesterday and I didn't realize it until I started OBS. Oops! But because of that mistake I finally decided to switch to Clippy for the BRB screen. This will also mean I'll have to he options of having clips of streamers who raid (or who are friends of the channel) play when giving a shout out.

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. 

Now there was a chance for Tom Clancy's The Division 2 for tonight as a sudden fill in... if I knew about the Keenly College event a little sooner. Also according to Iceman, no one really expected it or for the event to be less than a week, because other wise, I would have tagged in the Division 2 over Fallout 76 for Wednesday

For tonight's stream we're back to playing Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition. Last time we played it we took down the Water and Earth Dragon... so our next objective will be Gaea's Navel to recruit Leah and to defeat the Green Dragon.

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

A Night of DOA, Sinuca and Gears

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream ended up being a triple header with Dead or Alive 1 Ultimate, #SinucaAttack and Gears of War 5: Ultimate Edition.

Now last year at one point, we played the PlayStation version of Dead or Alive, which was released in 1998 and it surprised me with how smoothly it played. Last night we played Dead or Alive 1: Ultimate... which was released in 2004... and it is inferior to the PlayStation version. How could that be? Dead or Alive Ultimate was a remake right? Well only Dead or Alive 2 saw a remake in that release... Dead or Alive 1: Ultimate is a straight port of the Sega Saturn version, without two characters or some of the extra optimization the PlayStation version had. We mostly played as Tina, but also played as Kasumi as well. On a side note, despite being backwards comparable, the only features for DOA1:Ultimate does not work.

#SinucaAttack obviously is something i messed around with one night prior, and it ended up being featured last night on stream because of my disappointed with DOA1:Ultimate. We started from the beginning and managed to get past where I stopped playing the previous night, and saw that additional gimmicks like a jetpack ends up being introduced into the game.

Lastly, with Iceman's help, we wrapped up Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, getting all the collectables (aka the COG tags), and experiencing the 'additional' part that was not in the original version of the game. There was one particularly moment that featured the Brumak getting way to close to me, and well you don't see me panic much, but that was certainly a time for it!

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition Achievements

• Know Place Like Home: Discovered Adam's secret lab
• YEEEEHAAAAA!: Escaped from the Brumak (end of Ch.6)
• Power Up: Restored power to the bridge
• Marcus? Is That You?: Restored communications with Control
• Shock Therapy: Killed the Brumak
• All Aboard! Uh... We're Aboard!: Boarded the Imulsion bound train with the Lightmass Bomb
• For the Fallen: Recovered all 33 COG tags
• I Can't Quit You Dom: Completed all acts in co-op
• Mercenary: Completed all acts on Casual Difficulty
• A Dish Best Served Cold: Defeated General RAAM

So what's next with Iceman and I in what has been weekly adventures going back for nearly two years? Well we're not sure, at some point 'Insane' difficulty runs of the Gears games is something I'd like to attempt. There is some consideration for either Resident Evil 5 and 6, which are also both co-op games. Iceman has said he wants to make sure I do the Keenly College event in The Division 2 at least once, but because that's a random event, it makes it nearly impossible to plan for, having to keep an eye out for it.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Flying Hip Attack
2. That worked! 
3. Rescuing Iceman
4. Found it! Bringing Down The Wall 
5. RUNNING RUNNING!!!!!
6. Defeating Raam! Right through the heart

For the raid we dropped in on LifewithStan who was playing Elden Ring over on twitch.tv/lifewithstan!

You know what's funny... I forgot to put the highlight video on my Facebook page last night and had to scramble to remake it.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #!, Triple Combo #1 and Body Straight Combo. Even though I had work today, I did work in some extra free training, and set new personal bests for Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #2, scoring perfects on both. Today was also day 626 in a row going back to when I started with the original Fitness Boxing... that means in 40 days it would be... well you can do the math.

Extended my Xbox achievement streak through today by knocking out the last two achievements that I think are possible with SSX that doesn't require 'getting good' at the game. Current streak is at 42 days.

SSX Achievements

• Gear Up!: Make your first Gear Purchase
• I'm Flying!: Deploy your wingsuit for the first time (not achievable in Tutorial)

Tonight's stream will feature Final Fantasy XIV, mostly just relaxing and making light progress on things as we'll be taking it easy!

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

A Gentlemanly Stream

Good morning everybody,

You know that happy feeling you get when you have that last slice of pumpkin pie... that is a good feeling right?

Anyway, last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV mostly focused around the Even Further Hildibrand Adventures Quests, which takes place after the events of Stormblood, and certainly is an interesting adventure that involves stolen goods, mind control and gentleman like behavior! I've enjoy going through the these little side stories as it adds more flavor and comedy to the at times rather dark and brooding world that is Final Fantasy XIV.

I am a bit sad though, because of COVID-19, a lot stuff that was expected for Shadowbringers post-story that takes place before Endwalker ended up getting cut... and among that content were the next set of Hildibrand adventures. I'm hoping they will be worked into Endwalkers post-story content.

Now once we wrapped up the adventures with Hildi, I started back work on the Main Story Quest, where Gosetsu and Yotsuyu are being reintroduced as their status of being alive is not intersecting with the story, and thus we're having to track them down. Again, I was surprised when I first saw that they were alive via cut scene, so it's nice to see that even with my side questing that they are not being left in the wind as far as the main story goes. The interesting thing about this, is that Yotsuyu has apparently lost her memory, and a lot of the story involves people from her past that drove her to be the mega bitch overseeing Doma. Some want to be as far a way from her as possible while others want to kill her.

But this does bring up something regarding Final Fantasy XIV that I think I mentioned before, in that there does seem to be a pattern of villains being redeemed in someway if they happen to survive a major battle, Nero and Fordola both come to mind here.

Also did a couple of dungeons and trials as well during the stream last night, a couple of which were from the Alexander series, so it was nice to replay them and this time knowing whats involved instead of going in blind! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Finished Kugane Ohashi
• A Gentlemanly Clip 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficulty Challenge Combo #3 for a duration of 34 minutes an estimated calorie burn of 643 kcal.

It's Sunday which meas it's time for this week's Twitch Bits! This past week we played Overwatch, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Jump Force, Mario Golf Super Rush, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, Smite, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Pokemon Shining Pearl and Final Fantasy XIV! 

For tonight's stream we will be playing Overwatch as we do every Sunday night. I know most folks think the game is dead in the water, but I do enjoy it as some of my best moments for any given week involved playing it! And of course, I get to play with members of my community! So that is always a plus!

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

Smite, The Division and a long Weekend

Good afternoon and Happy Thanksgiving,

Well I now have a long weekend because of the Thanksgiving holiday... so this means we'll have early streams today and tomorrow!

Last night's lead off with Smite, nothing major, as we stuck to the arena modes and got in several matches as a few different characters. I kind of figured out a little something with using Nox and Medusa that I feel could be effective with if I ever put in a lot of practice. Didn't get many wins last night, and we ran into quite a lot of people leaving matches.

Also, we did play The Division 2, with Iceman and PowerThumbz, to tackle stuff associated with the Reanimated Event. Which was I think fourth time that event was done this year, I know it was done in February and May, and I want to say sometime in the summer but I'm not to sure on the last one. Still it was fun and hilarious.

Still not sure how much more I personally can get out of The Division 2, its next expansion would need to have some sort of story content to really justify me keeping it on my X-Box One at this point. 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal over at twitch.tv/kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV! 

SMITE Achievements

1. Where Did I Go?: Unlock the Smite Award "Where Did I Go?"

Twitch Clip Links

• Where Did I Go?
• STRIKE! 
• Everyone is on fire...
  

Today's daily Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Beginner Combo #1, Straight Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimate calorie burn of 445 kcal. For sure we'll knock out one more of the EX Achievements with tomorrow's session

If you got a dark and twisted sense of humor, then look up Dark Simpsons on YouTube, you will never look at the characters on that show again the same way.

How do I know it's going to be a very cold winter... simple, it's the end of November and I have to put sweat pants on! Normally I'm in shorts in my office space.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures was very straight forward, as I did the Battle of the Bridge trail that is apart of the hilarious Manderville series of quests, as well as knocked out the First, Third and Fourth Binding Coils of Bahamut via the un-synced method, which meant for me to do them solo. The third is a very weird jumping puzzle in figuring out which triggers leading to getting down further... and the fourth was a bit tough solo, but I succeed and now I never want to see those trials again!

For tonight's stream, I believe we are going to start up Pokemon Shining Pearl, which recently came out. I am not at all familiar with the Generation five era of Pokemon, so this will be a new experience... I don't even know which start I'm going to go with! 

So we'll find out later today over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Night Jump Force Crashed

Good afternoon everybody,

You know I've seen some wonky things happen with both my X-Box Consoles (a One S and a Series S), but I've never seen a game crash at the exact same instant multiple times on either console

That was until last night when I was playing Jump Force, the plan was to get through a few chapters in its story, but then after a particular fight to start Chapter 5, called Another Crisis, now if i lose the fight, I get the option for a rematch as per usual. If I win the fight, the game freezes and crashes to the Xbox Desktop. I did try a full power cycle, that did not resolve the issues. 

Following the stream I did a full uninstall and re-install of Jump Force and knocked out the 'Another Crisis' fight, and everything seemed okay. So we're not giving up on this game yet! 

So with Jump Force out the window, I went to play Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Gran Prix, using the same console as I was using for Jump Force, the One S, and it was pretty much smoothly sailing. We got several achievements knocked out along the way. Because of how screwy the game's AI can be, I don't think I'll go for 100% completion the way I did with the first Nickelodeon Kart Racers game.

We also played Mario Golf Super Rush, focusing on doing ranked matches and got myself to the A-ranking, as well as realized that some things unlock based on play time instead of having to deal with the game's story mode. Hell I even won a couple of ranked matches last night, so woo-hoo! Of course I'm still using Daisy as my main! Also was cool to see some free updates, resulting in Shy Guy and Wiggler being added as characters, plus new courses like Shelltop Sanctuary and All-Star Summit. Mario Golf Super Rush has certainly found its way into being something I would throw to on a night where there are no plans or if something goes wrong.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to sw33ts_gaming over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming as they were playing APEX: Legends

Jump Force Achievements

1. An Insidious Plot :Cleared Chapter 4.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix Achievements

1. Fire Nation: Perform 500 drifts across any game mode
2. Penny Pincher: Finish every race of a single cup with at least 10 Slime tokens
3. Ghost with the Most: Perform 25 Slime stunts in a single race

Twitch Clip Links

•  Where do you think you're looking?
•  The Gnome Invasion!
•  That works to my advantage... for the Eagle! 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Advance Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 468 kcal. Today's session was also flawless, no misses or OK rated movements.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV progress saw the successful complete of the 5th trial in the Binding Coil of Bahamut series, but I still need to tackle the 1st, 3rd and 4th... nearly got into one of those as I waited 90 minutes. Hopefully I'll have better luck later on. On the plus side I started the Hildibrand Manderville saga, which are a series of stories involving said character who is a bit of a loony investigator. The comedy is really well done, and Manderville has some of the best facial expressions in all of Final Fantasy XIV.

In case you're wondering, why today's entry was posted in the afternoon instead of the morning, it's because I was told there was no work today... so I slept in.

For tonight's stream for sure we're going to feature Tom Clancy's The Division for Re-animator event,with Iceman and PowerThumbz. Gears of War 4 will be back next week. This was a last minute change, since they both want to complete all the stuff for that particular event, and I figure I'll tag along for a bit and watch Thumbz get downed... repeatedly.

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

Rumbling With A Missing Tooth

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday we took the day off of work to let the extracted tooth area heal, no blood or anything, have some general soreness that Tylenol helps with if it gets too bad, the real test will be today with work.

Last night's stream of Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions certainly was good in terms of knocking out achievements, as we picked up nine... but getting through the arcade ladders was rather difficult... with at least one fighter, that being Andy 'Mad Dog' Pono, who is clearly a slugger and whose punches should pack more impact, but man I just had so much trouble getting a groove using him during his story. On the flip side, David 'Solo' Nez was really easy to use as he has some natural combos that will shove an opponent into the ropes and into the corners, certainly makes him the most comfortable fighter to use in the game. 

I'm seriously considering if I unlock every achievement except the one that requires completing an arcade ladder on Champion difficulty, we'll dedicate a night to it to go for 100% completion. Granted some achievements would need to be done off-stream because of the need of a second player, and while I have two controllers, I do not have anyone that would be able to come over to knock out the ones that require it. 

Still... I think in regards to this year's tour, I'll count the game as being finish once all Arcade tuns for every character is done with every alternate costume unlocked, which seems fair in my view.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Big Rumble Boxing: Creed Champions Achievements

1. And Keep Moving Forward: Armor through a Basic Attack 30 times
2. Insecurity: Beat Andy "Mad Dog" Pono's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
3. Silent But Deadly: Beat Viktor Drago's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
4. Defy The Odds: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 10 times
5. Broke Your Nose Again: Knock an opponent into the turnbuckle 3 times in a single match
6. Defy Logic: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 20 times
7. Lone Rider: Beat David "Solo" Nez's Arcade Tower on Any Difficulty
8. Fight Club: Play a Versus match with adjusted Match Options
9. Fulfill An Incredible Dream: Land a hit on a rope-bounced opponent 30 times
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Thank Goodness He Stayed Down!
• He's Dead! 
• The Big K.O.!
  

Following the stream as ya'll saw, I did jump in to help PowerThumbz and Iceman with the 'Hunting The Hunters' gimmick for The Division 2... which lets be honest wasn't all that interesting in terms of the set up for it, run around shoot things at designated in-game times... which is just... plain idiotic. It was fun to play with them, but come on, it splitting it between in-game day and night cycles is annoying. It was not all pointless, as I did pick up an in-game achievement during it.

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Achievements

1. Arrow to the Knee: Shoot 10 enemies in the leg with a crossbow.
   

Over in my adventures off-stream with Final Fantasy XIV, I finished up A Realm Reborn, and began Heavnsward, which introduces new areas and plots to the game... with every other member of the Scions missing except for my character, Tataru and Alphinaud. The new area of Ishgard is certainly styled around a castle and a church, but is pretty vacant, at least compared to the first major city-states I've seen. I only saw one of the major open field areas, and it was certainly a challenge to navigate as it appears to be a series of floating islands, with weird ramps and not really a lot of room to maneuver in case of enemies being on the more narrow parts. Still I am looking forward to see the next phase of the story play out!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the following exercises Triple Combo 32, Intermediate Combo 31 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a estimated calorie burn of 503 kcal.

For tonight's stream, it will be split with things being played on the Xbox One side, the first half of the stream will feature something random, then at around 9 PM Eastern, Iceman will be joining in as we continue Gears of War Judgement, picking up on Act III!

So on thate 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!