Today's Notes 3/31/21

 Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Dragon Age Inquisition saw a big focus on side-questing with a trip to a dungeon to find some runes and parts to deal with Higher being of some sort, taking down a 5th dragon, wrapping up stuff in the Exalted Plains and finally some actually story progression with entering the Fade and seeing what really happened with the Inquisitor and The Divine in the game's intro. We also locked in the relationship with Sera, unless there is something else that will happened to throw a monkey wrench into those works. 

This week's Extreme Ghostbusters episode Home Is Where The Horror Is shares a few similarities with the Real Ghostbusters episode Mrs Rogers Neighborhood, in that the house which is haunted is actually a trap, the creature the old lady in both episodes transforms into have some similar traits and the house ends up destroyed. That said this does have one of my favorite lines 'Are you Batman? No I'm His Cousin, Ghostbuster Man!'. There are also a number of pop culture references through out the episode such as Monty Hall, The Twilight Zone, etc.

Put my pre-order in for Mass Effect Legendary Edition for the Xbox, and that will probably be the first Xbox Series Generation game we end up streaming on Twitch in May... unless I choose to play Forza Horizon 4 on stream one night before then. I do wonder what will be the first game that will be Xbox Series console era game that will not have a previous generation release. 

Speaking of Forza Horizon 4, here's hoping what I read about when the in-game seasons change is true in that they reset every Thursday, because getting around in the Winter in the game is a pain in the rear when it comes to finding barns and going off road.

Today Fitness Boxing 2 session was kept short because work up a tad bit late, so we cut the stretching out and went straight into a brisk 20+ minute session to keep the streak going. Didn't have a single miss today, had a few punches not quite in sync but they 'connected' enough to get credit for them.

Tonight's stream will yet another Wednesday night of ESPN Baseball on the PlayStation 2, as well be facing the Montreal Expose and Baltimore Orioles. The Expos series is a four game set, so chances we'll be lucky to get two games in against Baltimore.

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

Today's Notes 3/30/21

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Dragon Age Inquisition saw the wrap up of things in the Westward Approach and then out attention was turned towards the Exalted Plains where we covered everything we could until we had to head back to Skyhold to open up two expanded areas for that zone. We did tackled the dragon in the Emerald Graves, so we now have defeated four dragons, and there are six more needed to get the related achievement. We also unlocked the Stargazer, People Person and Invincible achievements.

We'll be continuing Dragon Age Inquisition tonight at about 6 PM EST, with a focus on some things related to what we were covering last night first before jumping back into the Exalted Plains. 

Now Sony's trend of being any consumer popped up in a big way this week with the announcement they are closing the digital store fronts for the PS3, PSP and PS-Vita with no backwards comparability options for those systems for the PS5. Now to my knowledge new games were still being made for the Vita, so it's very weird as to why Sony would close it's store-front. The PS3 and PSP I can understand because those are older systems... but this this just reeks of Sony wanting to force people into buying a PS4 or PS5. And people wonder why I went with the Xbox One and Series for my more modern main-stream console releases.

And before you point it out, yes I do Consider the Nintendo Switch to be more of a niche system in comparison.

Speaking of which, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was pretty solid, very few misses and lasted about a half hour. If I'm planning things out correctly, I'll need to do 19 more exercise sets to finish up using Hiro as the trainer.

My back up Uninterrupted Power Supply should arrive later today, because fuck knows last Friday having three brief power flickers had me worried to my wits end. I went with the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Sinewave UPS System because of it's reviews and was listed as the best one on the market on every list I could find. 

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

Today's Notes 3/29/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Comcast continues to perform up to the standards I am currently paying for, as the string of nights with no issues continues.That said, knowing that Comcast owns NBC and Peacock, while also knowing they spent $1 Billion Dollars to get exclusive rights to the WWE Network raises an eyebrow when they are going out of their way to edit out content that doesn't meet their standards... which is stupid when once you consider half the stuff that already exists withing the Comcast owned libraries of movies and TV shows. Well just one more reason for me to cut off the cable service.

Last night's stream of Overwatch was mostly Mayhem matches, and big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of things. We certainly ran into some people making odd match up decision choices through out the night in relation on who to focus on. Did pick up a play of the game as Moira early on, so that's always a good thing to have a scene stealing moment!

Played more Forza Horizon 4 off-stream last night as well, getting all the qualifiers out of the way, now I wonder how often do the seasons change with the game, if it's once a week, once a day or what. If it's once a week, we might just pair it up with Star Trek Online which has been a struggle with filling out Thursdays as of late.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed, and I set new personal bests in terms of estimated calories burned and time spent working out. We also knocked out the Hiro's Buddy achievement, and we need to do about 22 more exercise sets using him to get his last character specific achievement. That said, I did struggle with a few motions leading to a higher than normal fitness age score which is also ugly to see, but there is no consistency to gauge what leads to scores being terrible.

Tonight we'll be back to Dragon Age Inquisition, resuming things in the Westward Approach. I did go out of my way to tackle some loose ends in the Emerald Graves off stream, but I know there is a dragon there that we'll save for doing on stream.

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

Today's Notes 3/28/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Bit of a late post, because while I woke up at about 1 PM EST I didn't roll out of bed till like 1:30 PM EST... because well, it's Sunday. 

Last night's stream of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma had quite a few hilariously gory moments, as no punches were being pulled when it came to how characters died on particular paths. Mira certainly became a stand out character with how she literally went beyond all logic to touch Eric's heart but well... digging into his chest for his heart because she doesn't understand emotes. Then there is the Incinerator where depending on the outcome which happens, some very direct things happen. I will say this, I certainly don't care for Eric as he comes across as having far too many issues to tolerate. That said, I'm starting to see how this game ties into 999 and VLR with a number of references and foreshadowing.

Played some more Forza Horizon 4 last night, and it's amazing how easily it is to gain influence and stuff as I'm trying to do things in the order they appear but it seems like the game is designed to rush people along!

I do find it odd that the Navy is taking so long to finish routine maintenance of Vice President's residence located on the ground of the Naval Observatory. Yes I know that from time to time the Navy will ask for the Vice President to delay moving into the residence to conduct repairs and such, but it's going on three months at this point, and the US Navy is not completely incompetent (mostly, but not completely) 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was another long set plus a couple of bonus exercises. Amazingly, not much in the way of ducking, weaving, blocking... it was straight up punches only workout. Which means tomorrow's workout is probably going to be a killer. Still I felt I was in a good groove today, and since I've been adding some bonus exercises to when I do longer sessions it all works out right?

Tonight we will be playing Overwatch, with the usual nonsense of things, with the odds being fairly good that I'll mostly play either Tank or Support, depending on what game-modes are available. 

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

Best of the Week 3/21/21

 

Here are highlights from my twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of March 21, 2021, which featured Overwatch, Dragon Age Inquisition, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Music, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online, Super Mario 3D World and Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma!

Today's Notes 3/27/21

 Good afternoon everybody,

Yesterday afternoon we had wins so strong it caused three power flickers as a result of branches touching power lines in my neighborhood... I know this because I could literally hear it happen. This is the result of some of my neighbors neglecting to maintain the trees on their property and the lower power utility, PSE&G not enforcing penalties on those customers who refuse to comply with regulations. It's as simple as that.

Anyway, last night stream was kind of random in that I selected Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury to start things off with, just to try and... it's fun little game. Those who remember my play through of Super Mario Odyssey know when it comes to 3D plat-former games, they are not something I'm good at, so combine that with the mechanics of the point of view switching back and forth from a 2D-view to an isometric view, and it's a whole new world of trouble for me. That said I stumbled and bumbled by way to the end of the third world before a new viewer named Benny asked if they could play as well, which gave me the opportunity to try and the online co-op (which can be for up to four players, local and online) and man did that get nuts as here I ended up trying to keep up with someone who knows the game inside and out. I spent more time falling behind, falling into pits and just not being useful at all. Still with their help made it to the end of the 5th world. So maybe on a random night we'll go back to Super Mario 3D world to see to if can be added to the finished games list.

Off stream last night, we set up the Xbox Series S console, replacing a busted tape deck that has been sitting on a shelf for ten years. Now with it's smaller storage space of 512 GB, it can't fully replace my Xbox One S, but the way I figure I''l use the One S for older games and things that aren't cross-generation, and the Series S for newer games and things optimized for it. The first game we put on it was Forza Horizon 4, which is a gorgeous racing game... and the load times are pretty fucking quick. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was pretty solid, with a few odd misses, but nothing notable. In addition to the daily workout, we did a couple of bonus exercises (Front-Back Step and Double Combos) just to put in a little extra, since we did two real short daily sessions this week.

The Offical Ghostbusters YouTube channel added the Real Ghostbusters episode When Halloween Was Forever, and here's an episode that has some real notorious production errors involving Peter and Egon. That said, Samhain's debut was really awesome and it's the only episode of the series that actually had a follow up years later. Also, a gag in this episode of telling Slimer a cupcake / candy is in someone's socks to get them to do something I believe starts with this episode and it is something that i know is used again in the 1989 Halloween Special.

For tonight's stream we'll be back to Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma, with our focus being on either Team D or Team Q. Wonder what SAW like death penalties we'll see this time.

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

Today's Notes 3/26/21

 

Good morning everybody,

Well we got an announcement right off the bat as we've officially added the Xbox Series S to my stable of consoles. Now why the Series S and not the Series X you may ask. Well first off, the Series X version is probably going to be impossible to find for the better part of the next year, with the simple fact any that are manufactured and shipped off to retailers are selling out within seconds. Also, to justify having a Series X, I would need to get a new monitor to get the most out of it, and 98% of my Xbox library is digital anyway. So the Series S makes more sense

That out of the way, last night's stream of Star Trek Online saw a lot of changes. One a deleted six of my characters because getting them all caught up will be impossible, so I've kept Zagreus and Sorra as main characters representing the Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force, plus my two 'recruit characters' which are needed to unlock some account perks and such. We also ran into a lot of people sabotaging game play when it comes to Task Force Operations, where they either go AFK for the majority of the time or intentionally do something that makes completing the objectives impossible. This is why the developers put in a Buyout option when it comes to events that often involve dealing with a TFO, because they know it's a real problem. It got so bad last night I ended the stream early

So since I had extra time, I decided to start working on getting PlayStation Network Trophies, using games that I've played before on other platforms... and the first was Saints Row The Third, and boy was I not expecting the controls when it comes to the bumper and trigger buttons to be backward. L1 is to shoot, L2 is to toss a grenade....when on the PC and Xbox versions, it's reversed, R2 and R1 are also reversed as well for whatever reason. What were the developers thinking

Today's Ftiness Boxing 2 session was a solid 30 minutes (factoring in stretching) and was more for me to get loose today, as it's starting to heat up and getting a good sweat going is a hell of a lot easier when it's warm than when it's cold.

We've added Heavy Rain: Director's Cut  for the Playstation 3 to our collection, and so another acclaimed game that we'll eventually feature on Twitch.

Not completely sure what will be on tonight's agenda, probably some things involving the Nintendo Switch, but not completely sure.

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