Monday, April 5, 2021

Today's Notes 4/5/21

 

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was all over the place, but we had a lot of fun. Perhaps the highlight was seeing the April Foolish concepts in the Experimental side that saw Mei classified as a tank and that she was made to be 15% larger.... so she got extra thick, which I know pleased a lot of the folks the R34/SFM/Blender content creation communities. Big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on all the fun. We did pick up four plays of the game last night, three as Reinhardt and one as Torbjourn. The best moment of the night though was getting a quintuple kill with Reinhardt that involved jumping off a ledge with his ultimate then using his charge to knock five people over the side, granted I thought I only caught four!

Clip:HAMMER DOWN! Quintuple Kill!

I see that Yahoo is closing yet another one of its sections this time Yahoo Answers, man ever since the Tumblr fiasco, which like Yahoo is owned by Verizon, anything associated with it that can be used for and by the community has been gradually shut down. And people wonder why Google is number one.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed as per usual for a Monday as we finally wrapped up everything associated with Hiro, and then for the bonus stuff we switched to Sophie who has a very soft, passive voice. And while the main daily exercise was nearly flawless, the bonus exercises which featured blocking were... well horrible. Granted I selected to do the blocking combo set, but it was bad. Very bad! 

Clip: Show me you can do  this! 

Now I am aware there was some bit rate dips during the Fitness Boxing 2 stream, not enough to cause problems, but enough for me to notice it. Might have been just network congestion but I'll be keeping an eye on that for sure with tonight's stream.

Tonight we'll be back to Dragon Age Inquisition and I will admit that we did even more off stream grinding last night, and took out the Dragon on the Storm Coast. No major quests or character dialogs were done, so we're good on that front. We do have a few inner circle quests to do with tonight's stream, so we'll be starting off with high adventure!

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

 

 

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Today's Notes 4/4/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma saw a lot being done, with the last of the apparent puzzle rooms being finished, so the rest of the way should be just remembering various facts and things for a couple of decision puzzles. There are 35 in game achievements, and we got 21 of them,and as far as I can tell the rest all involve just going through the story. That said, last night was a lot of fun because of things that happened such as Akane clocking Carlos with a fire extinguisher and beating him to death. Eric's creep factor when it comes to Miro, the revelation that Diane and Sigma are Phi's parents, that everyone is in the same area but are only awake at different times... and that Diane and Sigma's other child Delta is also there, but no one notices him. Hell I took a guess upon learning his name to enter it into a the decision box during the triangle stand off for Team Q to learn that Delta is there. I'ms ure all that will get explain when we wrap this game up next Saturday night.

Best Clip Of The Night: You See That Big Nuclear Reactor....

Following last night's stream I did load up Dragon Age Inquisition to work on one of the side quests that involved getting certain materials for a banner, and fuck me does the game penalize folks for advancing too far too quick because I had to look up on how to get Decorative Gems in the game, and it involved going to a certain spot, saving the game and reloading repeatedly to get a particular set of enemies to appear. Like what the fuck! Good thing I did not do this on stream! But of course Dragon Age Inquisition is on the line up for tomorrow night!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was real solid, but the actual workout length was an 1 hour 5 minutes , because I was hoping to wrap up the last of the achievements associated with Hiro, as we're at 99/100 for what's needed for his Best Friend achievement, so we'll get it tomorrow as part of the weekly Monday bonus stream. I ended up setting new records for myself with an Estimate Calorie Burn of 1033.64, but we did gain a little weight as well over this two weeks. 

Tonight we'll be playing Overwatch, and it'll mostly be quick play with maybe some arcade matches as well. There's not an event going on, so it should be a chill yet intense stream because ya'll know how I suspicious I become when I see 'new accounts' playing as if they have put in 1000 hours of practice time into using various characters. 

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


Highlights For The Week of March 28, 2021

 Here are the best moments from my twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of March 28, 2021 which featured Overwatch, Dragon Age Inquisition, Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Music, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online, Forza Horizon 4 and Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma!

 

 

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Today's Notes 4/3/21

 Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream featured Forza Horizon 4 which means last night marked the first time we used the Xbox Series S on stream, and outside of when I was going into photo mode to take pictures of cars, there was barely any loading times. We spent a good chunk of the stream on Lego Island because the Lego Mini Cooper is clearly the best car in the game for just about everything. We certainly had a lot of fun to the point we'll have to keep Forza Horizon 4 in mind for nights where I have no real plans.

Clip Of The Night: That Photo Finish!

My copy of My Little Pony / Transformers: Friendship in Disguise arrived yesterday afternoon, and it's a nice brisk read, with short comics pairing up various cast members of both shows, such as Rarity and Arcee, Discord, Fluttershy & Soundwave, etc, and it does come across as we're seeing more side-stories that would take place along side a bigger plot. That's not a bad thing, because it fits the tone of My Little Pony perfectly, however considering some of that shows more epic tales (the Canterlot Wedding episode for example), I would imagine an animated featured would be epic. And I found out there is a sequel mini-series in production with the trade collection coming out in November with it seeming like it's gonna take place in the Transformer's universe. So I wonder if the style of the story for that will be reflective of that franchise.

Republicans and Conservatives should be ashamed of themselves for being happy about Georgia's blatant voter suppression actions, and you know companies like Coca-Cola and Delta are going to feel it. But the funny thing is Republicans and Conservatives are really pissed that Major League Baseball has moved the All-Star game that was scheduled to be in Atlanta this year, and are using the hash tag of Cancel MLB for making that decision. Think about it what the All-Star game involves, it's three-days of Baseball games coming to one major city for at least three days, which means a shit ton of revenue for local businesses, hotels, restaurants and such. All of that will go to another city, and the people of Atlanta have their own governor to blame for it because he's a Trump supporter.

Today's Ftiness Boxing 2 session was a long one with two bonus exercises being done and a realization that the 'Best Friend' achievement for each trainer is very weird in how it is scored. That said, the daily set was mostly on point, with a few misses here and there, but nothing to bad. It is funny on how I feel I'm not getting a good rotation for when doing Right handed movements from the Southpaw stance as of late. It's probably due to my stance and trying to keep a good view of the monitor, because I had the same issue before with regard to Left handed movements from the Orthodox stance when I was in a different corner of the room.

Tonight's stream will be focused on Zero Escape Zero Time Dilemma as we resume the story with Team D (Diana, Sigma and Phi) as we work our way through the different timelines and such. Once we covered all we can with them we'll turn our focus back to Team C (Carlos, Junpei and Akane) because we did unlock some new plot points for them last week. 

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


Friday, April 2, 2021

Today's Notes 4/2/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream was the shortest one we had in a while that did not involve starting at 9:30 PM EST... part of it, well a huge part of it is because Star Trek Online doesn't have the content where one could just lose themselves in the game and just have a good time. Hell just to prove a point when chatting with a viewer who plays the console version of STO when they indicate that PVP (player versus player) is very much an active thing on the console version, we tried to get into a PVP match last night to show what I've said, that on the PC version of Star Trek Online, PVP is dead. Waited for 5 minutes in every queue and got nothing.

So the stream ended at about 10 PM, which was fine, someone wants me to write a fan fic forum featuring Kelly Kelly and Randy Orton set somewhere in 2007/2008... and since they are going to pay me for it, I took some time to start work on it. It'll pop up in the usual place once it's done.

Speaking of fan fiction, Drace Domino (author of Rise of the Battlebitch) posted on twitter that there was actually a My Little Pony / Transformers crossover comic mini-series... and yeah I went out of my way to track that down because, when you think of things that Hasbro own and realize there have been very view crossovers between their own properties... and then realize this crossover involves the Gen 5 Mane 6 ponies dealing with the likes of Optimus Prime, Soundwave and Arcee.... yeah that sounds awesome. 

While I was at it, I went and put down the order for the Life Is Strange comic collection set and RWBY the Manga Volume 2 because what can I say, I like what I like

Which brings me to the Mass Effect Legendary Cache collection BioWare is selling, and I went back and forth about putting an order in for it, then I realized since I'm getting the digital version of the game because I have the Series S console, and could easily get the physical copy when it's price drops down the road... which in terms meant justifying putting in the order for Cache collection. Now what bugged a lot of folks was the fact the Cache collection didn't have the game with it. but when you think about it, more people buy the digital versions of games than the physical copies these days, plus it's a celebration of the Mass Effect trilogy. If the game was included the Cache collection probably would've been $225-250 after shipping charges were included to make sure people received it day one of the Legendary Edition's release date.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session did involved a a few misses happening, all of which involving blocking motions , because it all relates to how I'm standing in regards to the Switch while trying to keep a good view on my main monitor. That said, it was a solid 30 minute work out and the way I figure just doing normal long sets tomorrow and Sunday would mean for Monday's bonus stream we'll have a new trainer to feature.

Not totally sure what will be on the agenda for tonight, debating doing something either using the PS3, Switch of Series S. I could easily switch between the three consoles but that would be over kill for one night.

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


Thursday, April 1, 2021

Today's Notes 4/1/21

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball was rather interesting, and mostly involved high scoring games as we finally reached the half-way point of the 2004 season. We had two extra inning games, the first lasting 15 innings and it was that game that made me go 'Alright, from this point on, we play the first two games of each series and simulated the third in a three game series (or the last two games of a four game series). We had some great moments throughout the stream, including back to back inside the park home runs... while coming up short on hitting out of the park home runs. Yeah we can give up home runs but hitting them, yeah that's a problem.

Knocked out some more things off stream last night for Forza Horizon 4, and just so far loading into that daily is a challenge because every time I finish one thing two more pop up. Also did some War Table things in Dragon Age Inquisition while also advancing some side-character plots for Cole, having him become more human. Yes I should have done it on stream, but... considering most of Sera's initial romance build took place off stream, it is what it is. Also locked in the Champion specialization as well.

Put in my pre-order for Life Is Strange True Colors Ultimate Edition which will included the remasters of the Life Is Strange and Life Is Strange Before The Storm, so basically a three-for-one shot there. I'm really glad I was able to discover the franchise in its first year over on Steam as it's become one of my favorite story driven games, where the choices certainly play into the end results.

I am nearly finished  removing line breaks from the majority of the fan fiction that I wrote and co-wrote along side Kristi from 2004-2018, still got about 350 to go, but at least now I'll be able to go through and try edit them to be a little less reliant on verbal exclamations.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was really damn good I feel, as we didn't have a single miss, which is very rare. That said... as nearly perfect as was, the fitness age score still came up as 20, so I guess it will only go down that far and I'm guessing it's based on my age combined with how well I perform the exercise sets. Again, it's funny when one back tracks and sees that I was getting fitness age scores of 18-19 with the original Fitness Boxing game.

The plan for tonight is more Star Trek Online things, bouncing between the four characters we have in place and hoping any special task force missions we're apart of go smoothly. Considering what happened last week I don't have my hopes up for that.

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


Wednesday, March 31, 2021

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


DS9 Reactions: Dax