Today's Notes 5/23/21: Mortal Kombat 11, Ronda Rousey Can't Act & More

Good afternoon everyone,

Yes I slept in today, because I didn't go to bed until 4 AM, because it was all about Mortal Konbat 11 for me yesterday.

So for last night's stream, the big focus was on doing the story mode for Mortal Kombat 11, which picks up sometime after Mortal Kombat X, and we learn through the entire story that there have been multiple time lines in the Mortal Kombat Universe as part of an enternal plan to have a perfect time line as crafted by the villain of the story Kronika, who happens to be the mother Shinnok, and that she is reason behind the events seen in Mortal Kombat 9 where Raiden and Liu Kang go head in the final chapter. It's an okay plot that gives context to a lot of things such as Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe as well Scoprion and Sub-Zero appearing in the Injustice video games. It took me about 4 1/2 hours to get through the story mode, as each fight was two rounds, and most of the characters used in the story mode I have not used in the prior weeks in my achievement grinding. 

Speaking of which here are the achievements unlocked last night, some were done after the stream because they required some 'focused' attention.

1. Half Way There: Komplete 50% of Story Mode
2. What's Next?: Komplete Story Mode
3. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Pay 100 total respect points in King of the Hill
4. Hit The Dojo: Komplete all Basics Tutorials

Now I know I said I wasn't going to go for the Tutorial achievements, but I was only two away from completing Hit The Dojo, and it took me an half an hour to figure out the timing needed to do a combo using Scorpion's spear. Anyway, if all goes right after tonight's stream, I'll be going after the Victorious achievement, since I need to unlock just one more victory pose and equip it to its corresponding character.

Of course we do have clips from last night as well, so here a few highlights

Twitch Clips: Cassie Cage Brutality

Twitch Clips: You know what they say, it's better to burn out than to fade away

Twitch Clips: We pulled that one out of our backside

Twitch Clips: Cassie Cage: Fatal Blow To Fatality

Now let me turn my attention to Ronda Rousey, who puts in a dreadful performance as Sonya Blade where it comes across as her blatantly just reading lines off a piece of paper with little or no direction. This was obvious with her performance in the story more for WWE 2K20 and when having to cut promos on Monday Night RAW, but it's really exposed here because there are supposed to be some several emotionally intense moments for Sonya but because of Ronda's inability to put any emotion into anything she does, Sonya comes across as oddly disinterested in what's happening to her as a character and what she learns. You know what Netherealm Studios should have done was when they managed to get Bridgette Wilson for the Mortal Kombat 95 skin back, they should have had her record all of Sonya's lines for the story mode and patched Rousey's piss-poor acting out of the game. Believe me, if replacing Peter Dinklage with Nolan North improved the original Destiny, replacing Ronda Rousey would've helped give MK 11's story mode the emotional punch it needed.

Moving on, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was short for me for a Sunday as I felt a little sluggish at times. Still was a 40 minute workout, I just didn't do anything extra. Besides most people just do the dailies only, from what I've seen on Twitter anyone who is doing Fitness Boxing on a daily basis are not doing any free exercises to go with them. 

With it being Sunday that means our attention will be on Overwatch and since the anniversary event is going on, we might be able to work in one of the seasonal brawls that are PVE (depending on what the daily cycle in the arcade mode has listed). Otherwise, we'll stick with Quick Play matches.

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

 

Highlights For The Week May 16, 2021

 

Here are highlights from things that happened on http://twitch.tv/fredcasden for the week of May 16, 2021 which featured Overwatch, Ftiness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, Tom Clancy's The Division, Star Trek Online, WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game & Mortal Kombat 11! 

Today's Notes 5/22/21: Mass Effect, Mortal Kombat & More!

Good afternoon everybody,

No I didn't sleep in today, well, not by much, got up around 11:30 AM and have just been taking my time today.

Last night re-wrapped up Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, getting a bunch of achievements along the way. Now I did come across a couple of glitches, one that involved actually hitting an enemy that fell through the floor and the other that result in enemies after being killed spazing out in the air. All in all, in comparison to glitches found with the 360 and PC versions of Mass Effect, the Legendary Edition had a lot fewer. Perhaps my biggest issue so far is the audio mixing regarding dialog of some characters, Garrus and Kaiden, being very low regardless of surroundings. And here are the list of achievements we got for finishing the first game in the trilogy.

1. Charismatic: ME1: Use Charm or Intimidate to resolve an impossible situation
2. Council Legion of Merit: ME1: Complete Virmire
3. Paramour I: Establish a romantic relationship in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3
4. Meritorious Service Medal: ME1: Complete Ilos
5. Medal of Honor: ME1: Complete the game on any difficulty

The remaining achievements for Mass Effect are mostly associated with using biotic and tech powers which means playing as and Adept and Engineer and spamming the hell out of the abilities both use, so that would be two separate runs, and maybe one will be a BroShep / Paragon only path. And of course there is the insanity achievement, which is something I never could accomplish on the PC version.

Anyway, here are some clips from last night's stream!

Twitch Clip: The Shoty Is So Over Powered Against The Husk... We Even Shoot 'Em Through The Floor!

Twitch Clip: Achievement: Charismatic

Twitch Clip: Should Have Picked A Different Rock

Now we'll start up Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition on Monday's stream, and since I never played the console version of it, it's going to be a real challenge for me.

Following last night's stream, I did put in some more work on Mortal Kombat 11, getting one achievement.

1. Tower Champion: Komplete 125 Towers

This means I'm about half-way towards the the Master of Time achievement is is to complete 250 towers. Also will be using Sonya Blade a lot off-stream as I'm working on getting her victory pose via the tower method, but that has a separate set of requirements that are a pain in the ass to get.

Staying on the subject of Mortal Kombat 11, we'll be going through the story mode for tonight's stream which means there will be blood and gore and such. If all goes right we should get the two story achievements associated with the story mode, and probably to make sure that happens, I might just knock down the difficulty setting to easy.

And still on the subject of Mortal Kombat as a hole, I managed to track down a copy of Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero for the Playstation. Easily one of the worse games I've ever played, I figure I can get one stream out of it.... why just one stream? Because I know the controls are so jacked up that it would probably take me 4 hours to get through the first two stages.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was really production going over an hour with 45 minutes being apart of the daily exercises. We're up to 56 out of 100 points towards Martina's Best Friend Achievement. 

Currently in the process of trying to find replacement cases with artwork for a bunch of PS1 games I currently have in a CD holder. Why? Because I would actually like to have all my games in one spot and looking nice since I've been going out of my way to clear out old junk! Besides, finding games complete in case or in box from the late 90s to mid-00s is not exactly easy

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

Today's Notes 5/21/21: Star Trek Online, WWF WrestleMania The Arcade Game & More!

Good afternoon everybody, 

Well work continues to be a bit on the slow side as we chug along here in late May, I do find it funny that one of the monitors called the other day saying to make sure you put my schedule in for next week otherwise I won't work.... but considering there has been only a limited number of people working during the day and no one has worked in the evenings at all this week, that was probably the worst phrasing they could have used. 

Last night's stream kicked off with Star Trek Online, with the usual focus on endeavors. There were no noticeable glitches, but there was a big reminder of how poorly implemented the endeavors quests are when one is focused on dealing with a certain class of ship for a particular enemy, namely Hur'q frigates. Not only are the options to chase those down are limited to one main line Task Force Operation (Swarm) and a trio of Gamma Quadrant mini-ops that no one actually plays, but there isn't a clear indication of which ships count as frigates for the Hur'q. But we have a couple of clips of things that happened during this part of the stream, which I'll list now:  

Twitch Clip: Well... that's science?

Twitch Clip: Jump out the side, down below, guns blazing!

Anyway, after Star Trek Online, I randomly pulled WWF WrestleMania The Arcade game off of the shelf for the second half of the stream, going down the path of Intercontinental Champion, and boy did that take some effort to get through. For those who don't know, in this game, the level of difficulty increases by the number of opponents you have to deal with, so it starts with a 4 one-on-one matches, then 2 two-on-one matches and finally 1 three-on-one match, while on the WWF Championship path, it's 4 two-on-one matches, 2 three-on-one matches and then a three-on-one gauntlet where each person you defeat is defeated by another until all 8 in game characters are defeated. So who did we end up clearing the IC path with? Bam Bam Bigelow.... of course I'd get through it using a fellow New Jersey native. And of course we got some clips of that.

Twitch Clip: Tombstone!

Twitch Clip: Banzai!

Twitch Clip: Bam Bam!

On a whim during the stream, I also checked out one of the old PlayStation magazine demo discs I happen to still have, and checked out a couple of trailers, which were for Resident Evil Online, which I believe became Resident Evil Outbreak, and Resident Evil: Dead Aim, a game that required the use of a light-gun. Since I have a few of these discs, I could easily do a stream just going through them and seeing what trailers were on each one.

Off-Stream, the grind continued with Mortal Kombat 11, as I picked up two achievements and got a little closer on a few others. I can however safely say there will be three achievements in this game I will not get, and they are related to going through the tutorial. I'll never understand why fighting games tie achievements to the tutorials, other than maybe wanting to make some programmer feel good about themselves for coming up with an in-game mechanic than no one will use! Anyway, here are the the achievements I accomplished last night.

1. Psychopath: Perform 100 BRUTALITIES
2. Skull Kabob: Impale a head in the warrior shrine
   

On a side note, I'm mostly using Cassie Cage to get these done, because I have one of her fatalities memorized (down-down-foward-B)

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was 34 minutes, pretty much a standard stamina based workout. We're up to 51 out of 100 for the Martina's Best Friend achievement, so there is no real rhyme or reason to how those points are given. My weight has been hovering around the 248-251 pound range, so slight increases and decreases day to day. Now while I didn't throw as many punches as last week, we did burn a few more calories... granted this is thanks to work being real slow as of late, which allowed for an extra extended session. 

I made up my mind, for tonight's stream we're going to do the big push on finishing up Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, since i have just a couple of side-quests and two big missions left to go through (Virmire and Illos) so that shouldn't take me too long to tackle.

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

Today's Notes 5/20/21: The Division, New Games & More

Good morning everyone,

Well it's one of those 'up early but turns out there are no work assignments' type of days. But I took advantage of this yesterday by clearing out a bunch of stuff. Going to have to figure out the best way to dispose of some old VGA monitors that date back to the 90s. 

Anyway last night's stream featured Tom Clancy's The Division, where it was more of a casual night, just picking off enemies. Big thanks to Iceman for joining in on the fun. We did clear out the area of the game listed as Gramercy, and near as I can tell there are five more areas left in the game. Did not pick up any achievements last night related to the Division, but there are 7 story based achievements left and several related to collectables, so these are gradual over the course of game play. But we have some clips from last night for you to check out.

Twitch Clips: Bang! You're Dead! And Bang... You're Dead Too!

Twitch Clips:  I'll just hide right here... huddling the car for comfort

Of course all was not lost on the achievement front, as I did a lot of grinding in Mortal Kombat 11, to the point I'm on the doorstep of getting the Tower Champion achievement which I should be able to knock out tomorrow. Still we got one achievement last night. 

1. Have We Met: Equip 5 different character intros

That said, I am considering doing at least three Mortal Kombat 11 streams, one for chasing the achievement for playing online matches and two based on the story mode and Aftermath DLC (granted Aftermath does not have any achievements associated with it). 

We added a couple of old game games to my collection, after coming across www.j2games.com, which is a retro game dealer here in New Jersey. What was added was Forsaken, Triple Play 97, Triple Play 98, Power Rangers: Time Force and Power Rangers: Dino Thunder. The first four games were for the original PlayStation, while the fifth game was for the PlayStation 2. I'm also on the hunt for a few other odd gems. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was solid, a big focus on lower body (double step, front back, and left right step combos), and it lasted about 30 minutes. We're up to 49 points out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement. Considering how wacky this week has been work wise, because we did an extended work out on Tuesday we're kind of on-par to equal last week's total out put.

Today is Thursday, which means the lead off for tonight's stream will be Star Trek Online, and I'm not 100% sure what will be second game we're going to feature. I could go several ways, with a lot of options, but figuring out what will be good contrast to STO is always an interesting challenge.

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

 

No Need To Politicize What You Choose Shepard To Be

Earlier today, over on Twitter, I stumbled across an article written by Evan Urquhart, which you can read here (https://slate.com/culture/2021/05/mass-effect-legendary-edition-ps4-xbox-pc-femshep.html) and in it he does everything possible to politicize why players should choose to play one gender of Commander Shepard over another. Yes he does make mention of Jennifer Hale's performance, but the fact that he links the majority of his reasoning to his own political views is a sign he wants to kick the hornet's nest and piss people off. 

As many of you know, over on my Twitch Channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) I've played a lot of video games that have featured a female protagonist or if I'm given the choice, I'll freely choose to have the lead character be female. The way I select the genders of these characters is based on what basic details I learn about the game's story and how I would envision the character to be.

Case in point, knowing the Mass Effect has Paragon and Renegade personalty path, that leads to me figuring out how I want my version of Commander Shepard to be, and that is a kick-ass, mostly abrasive military grunt who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Based on that, I pick Shepard to be female because it falls better in line with how I picture the character to be.

So I'm not making a political statement, I'm just making a decision based on actually thinking about the game and the way I want to experience it. And I think that's how most people should make their choice, go with what your imagination tell you. If it doesn't work out, you can just restart the game and choose differently.

Granted this will be where people will point that I've only done one BroShep run on stream of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, to which I say it's because Mark Meer doesn't have the 'voice' to carry the lead role of a video game. If you check out his credits, he's more often than not, providing the voices for NPCs and such and that his performance is not as good as Jennifer Hale's. 

Of course that's just my opinion. 

Today's Notes 5/19/21: Mass Effect, Mortal Kombat & More

Good morning everybody,

You know how it is you expect to do something, but when you wake up and check something out you realize that you won't be doing something because of bad notifications because someone said 'expect' to do something? Yeah that happened to me this morning.

ANyway, last night's stream of Mass Effect Legendary Edition saw a big focus on actual story progression as we tackled Noveria and Feros, plus a handful of side missions which meant we got the story achievements associated with both major story areas as well as completing the majority of the game. Here's the full list of achievements done last night.

1. Honorarium of Corporate Service: ME1: Complete Noveria
2. Completionist: ME1: Complete the majority of the game
3. Recruit: Kill 250 enemies in Mass Effect 1, 2 or 3
4. Principled: ME1: Accumulate 75% of total possible Paragon or Renegade points
5. Medal of Heroism: ME1: Complete Feros

Now in terms of changes, probably the most notable was on Feros, where the Asari Clone actually spawns as an enemy when we're running around blasting the Thorian tendril connector. I make note of that because on the PC and 360 versions of Mass Effect, I don't think it ever spawned in fully. Also, since I had the VII level Specter gear, namely the shotgun, that entire area was basically a series of one-shot kills. Which leads me to point out that while there were some changes in Mass Effect for the Legendary Edition, they are very few and far between.

We also have a few clips from last night's stream as well

Twitch Clip: You can't tell that I've done this before

Twitch Clip: Shoot Her!

Twitch Clip: Achievement: Recruit

Twitch Clip: This is my Boom Stick! It Goes Boom!

Twitch Clip: Wrex What Are You Doing Up There?

Following last night's stream, I put in some more work on Mortal Kombat 11, I'm about half way towards the Tower Champion achievement (which is to complete 125 towers), which means I'm a quarter of the way towards the Master of Time achievement (which is to complete 250 towers), made some progress towards the Have We Met Achievement (2 out of 5 intros equipped). It wasn't totally pointless last night, as I did get one achievement.

1. Not Dead Yet: Show MERCY 10 times

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was about 28 minutes, after 5 days of 40+ workouts, I needed a light day... which meant today was kind of normal for a Wednesday anyway. We're up to 46 points for Martina's Best Friend Achievement, so the progress is going to probably be a little more gradual, unless my theory is right in that you get 3 points for a 30 minute plus work out. I say that because the game does ask if 30 minutes is enough for today any time you're doing a longer session. 

I am expecting a couple of things in the mail, but it hasn't arrived yet, which means any announcements in terms of things being added to my collection will have to wait for tomorrow. Needless to say I believe I tracked down the only baseball games on the PlayStation One that would have featured Lenny Dystrka and Darren Daulton. 

For tonight's stream, we'll be back to the Division, as we'll be roaming around, doing things, finding collectables and such. More than likely we'll be joined by Iceman to really put some progression into things for my one character and his secondary one. 

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