Highlights For The Week Of 6/13/21

 Here are highlights for the week of June 13, 2021 of all the games featured over on http://twitch.tv/fredcasden! This week we played Overwatch, Ftiness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Tom Clancy's The Division, Star Trek Online, WCW Vs The World, WWE All-Stars, Xena: Warrior Princess, Bloodborne, Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown & DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power!

Today's Notes 6/18/21: From The Final Frontier to the Squared Circle to a Warrior Princess

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream was a variety stream as we featured four games over on twitch.tv/fredcasden.

The night began with Star Trek Online, the Thursday night tradition, and of course the big deal was just doing the endeavors, which offered some variety this week, using polaron weapons in space, defeating terran enemies on the ground, restoring sheilds in space and completing any Task Force Operation on a intermediate difficulty. Now can some one tell me exactly when was it that people stopped realizing what the fuck to do when facing Leeta during Assault on Terrok Nor? When she is chasing you, run to the three pads so the other people can activate the one you lead her to! It's not that difficult! But on two different versions of that same TFO (one using Sorra, the other using Zagreus), I got stuck with dudes who clearly were leading Leeta away from where the rest of us needed them to be. It got rather annoying, particularly since I was the one that did the console puzzle both times. to get a force field to drop.

Anyway, following Star Trek Online, we loaded up WWE All-Stars. Released in March of 2011, WWE All-Stars is an over the top styled arcade brawler that went wither real cartoonish versions of various WWE Legends and Superstars of the time. I had this game in collection since 2011, I have played and in fact I had DLC for it, so were able to use extra characters, since half of the default roster was locked. We could get a special stream out of it, going through Fantasy Warfare to unlock the other characters, and if we do that we can add the game to the Tour List for 2021. 

Next we turned out attention to WCW vs The World, now we tried to play this a few weeks ago and the copy I had did not work... so I tracked down another copy, and this one worked, and boy did I not have a clue out to play... actually had to look at the manual to see a few details. I pretty much had my ass handed to me, and had to lower the difficulty to easy to win a match and to get an idea of how to play. This is one of those games we can throw into the PS3 or PS2 for just shits and giggles of just how bad I am at it and how old the game looks (it did come out in 1996 after all) 

The final game of the night was Xena Warrior Princess, based on the legendary show starring Lucy Lawless, this is one of those 3D action games from the PlayStation 1 era where it tried to be ambitious and simple, but it just ends up handcuffing the player. This game came out in 1999... with no analog options. Keep in mind the original dual-shock controller came out in 1997... so what the fuck? Anyway we stumbled and bumbled our way through the first three stages. Now there are 21 stages within the game, so I kind of figure we can divide this game up, going back to it every now and again to see if we can get further. We can pair it up with Star Trek Online on Thursdays, and have it be the first game we play after doing the endeavors. Or I could just start the game over from scratch and do a proper play through from start to finish over several streams. 

Any way, here's the list of clips from last night featuring all four games!

Twitch Clip: Rose's Theme From Alpha 2 Works Nicely

Twitch Clip: The King Tea Bag's CM Punk

Twitch Clip: Hey! We did a Russian Leg Sweep!

Twitch Clip: Did we get him? We got him!

Now following the stream my attention again turned to Trover Saves The Universe in knocking out achievements for it, and we got a few done, to give us 20 out 27. Here's what I did last night.

1. You Actually Did It?!: What the hell is the matter with you?! You actually made 100 baskets?! What are you a sociopath?!
2. It's A Video Game, Kill Something!: Don't kill any villagers, because God forbid you do something out of the ordinary!
3. Here's a dang achievement, stop killing me!: Jump Trover into the Acid Lake 5 times. How is this even an achievement?
4. Daddy Gotta Eat!: Instead of feeding the poor, feed Gail's roommate in under 5 minutes!

Note: I am copy and pasting the achievement descriptions as they, the developers of some games put way to much effort into trying to be clever.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 506 kcal. There was a big focus on ducking and weaving today, so my core got a real work out. We're now up to 63 out of 100 for the Laura's Best Friend achievement.

For tonight's stream we are going to do some gaming on the PlayStation 4, so what I have ready to go are Street Fighter V: Championship Edition and Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, I am waiting for a delivery to arrive at the time this is posted, so if it arrives in time we'll go with my main choice, if not, then it's either one of those two games, the edge probably going to Street Fighter V to do it's story mode.

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

Today's Notes 5/26/21: Mass Effect 2, Mortal Kombat 11, New Games & More

Good afternoon everybody,

Yes another day where I scheduled myself for work, but there are no work assignments, but good thing I have covered myself better this year than previous years. Still it is annoying waking up early expecting to do something but then not having that something to do.

Anyway, last night's stream of Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition was focused squarely on what was the DLC for the original version of the game. So we tackled Zaeed and Kasumi's loyalty missions, bounced around the galaxy knocking all the missions associated with the Firewalker DLC and also went all in on the Project Overloard content. Amazingly, because of the difference between the PC and console versions of Mass Effect 2, I ended up having quite a few critical mission failures during the course of this, two  involved the piece of shit Hammerhead, while the other three were in direct combat. Anyway we picked up several achievements last night which I shall now list.

1. 
   Broke, Blind, and Bedlam: ME2: Gain the loyalty of the thief
2. Head Hunter: ME2: Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets
3. Revenge!: ME2: Gain the loyalty of the mercenary
4. Agent: ME2: Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds
5. Overload Specialist: ME2: Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies
6. Digital Exorcist: ME2: Successfully shut down the rogue VI in Project Overlord
7. Power Full: ME2: Evolve any power

And here are some clips from last night as well!

Twitch Clip:Shepard is Right Here In Front Of You

Twitch Clip:Critical Mission Failure: Environmental Hazard

Twitch Clip:Critical Mission Failure: Flamethrower

Twitch Clip:We Were Waiting For 'Em

Following the stream, I did jump into Mortal Kombat 11 to make some progress towards the "Master of Time' achievement, and I'm up to 63% out of the 250 towers needed to be completed. This will probably be a nightly process as it is very grind heavy. At the same time I also worked on one of the two remaining tutorial achievements, which was for Advance game mechanics. having to spend 45 minutes on just trying to time the flawless blocking into attack combos. Still I did pick up that achievement.

1. Ready To Kompete: Komplete all Advanced Tutorials

I said it before and I'll keep saying it, but tutorials within Fighting Games should not be tied to achievements.

Following yesterday's blog, a package that should've arrived on Monday.... arrived. Well that was awkwardly phrased. Anyway where are four new additions to my collection

Xena: Warrior Princess (PlayStation) -I was a fan of the TV series back in the day, and while I was aware there was a game based on it, I never picked it up.

WWE: Crush Hour (PlayStation 2) -This is one of those games where I often went back and forth on picking it up when I saw it at EB Games, like I was a big WWE fan at the time it came out, but I often found something better.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 (PlayStation 2) - I remember having the original Ready 2 Rumble Boxing of the PS1, and so if this is anything like the game I remember playing, this should be fun -  

WCW Vs The World (PlayStation) - Considered to be the best WCW game for the PlayStation, I did own a copy back in the late 90s... thing is, it's nothing but Virtual Pro Wrestling with the WCW license slapped on it

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session went 43 minutes, and it was nearly flawless, had three misses and they were all on combos. Today's sets were Beginner Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #1, Double Combo #1 (at No Mercy, set a new personal best), and Defensive Combo #2.  In regards to the punches I missed on, they were from the orthodox stance, mainly jabs and left uppercuts, I was perfect when in the southpaw stance. We're up to 68 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement.

For tonight's stream, we'll be back to the Division, and we may be joined by Iceman as we continue through New York, I might start a little later so I'm not just randomly wandering around doing stuff the entire time, but not 10% sure.

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