Today's Notes 8/4/21: From The Viper Manor To The Hydra In The Marshes

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Chrono Cross saw us resume the journey in Viper Manor, and dealing with stuff involved with getting around it, getting ambushed by the same enemies a few times and dealing with boss battle after boss battle as we took everything up to the Hyrda in the Marshes in the 'Home World'.... I think we went through 7 boss battles. But oddly enough the longest battles were against the Beebas who pull in their buddies to help out and who seem to attack every two actions, which just draws things out.

Of course it may not seem like I got a lot done, remember I am reading every bit of dialog, and there was some... issues with me remembering to strip the equipment of party members I'm not using. We did pick up a handful of new companions... Greco, Luccia and Razzly. We would've picked up NeoFio but I missed someone in Guldove that would make getting through the Marshes easier, but we can get that on Monday's stream.

And you can probably tell we're going the save 'Kid' route with all the things I'm referencing, but considering how much of a magical power house Razzly can be against Yellow-inante enemies it seemed logical to me!

We do have plenty of clips from last night for you to check out and enjoy!

• 
  Chrono Cross: When a Resub Comes In While You're Ready Text
• Chrono Cross: It's a Tutorial 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Marcy 
• Chrono Cross: Harle And Kid Have The Same Face
• Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Lynx 
• Just Chatting: You Don't Mess With Wayne Brady
• Chrono Cross: We Ended Up In The Same Spot... Or Did We? 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Fight - Wingapede
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Pentapus 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Hi-Ho Dwarves
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Hyrda 

The Wayne Brady clip was from the 'Check The News' segment, which is something people can redeem on my channel, I'll look at news and react to it... and since Brady was in the news with someone messing with him, i just had me talking about it.

SO a bit of real work stuff: speaking with people yesterday about one of the proposals in President Biden's Build Back Better Plan... namely the issue of providing 400 Billion dollar to expand home care, so in this study, I'm having to read the arguments both sides are saying in support or opposition to this proposal... and the common answer is that neither side is very convincing.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 420 kcal, and we did do a little extra today, so the total was 34 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 521 kcal. It was surprisingly cool this morning and it felt tougher to get a good sweat going... normally my waist trainer belt would be drenched with sweat with a session like this... but not today it seems. We are now up to 61 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend achievement.

For tonight's stream we will do The Division around 9 PM / 9 30 PM Eastern with Iceman as we continue to work on whatever achievements we can, but before that we'll mess around with other things on the Xbox One. The stream itself will start around 6:30 PM Eastern.

 

Today's Notes 8/3/21: It's Been 20 Years

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream did indeed end up seeing my start up Chrono Cross, but the question was... which version? See I have the original release with the SquareSoft logo, then there was the Greatest Hits version that has the SquareEnix logo.... but in the end I went with the PlayStation Network 'PSOne Classic' digital version. Why? Well mostly because I did not want to delete anything off of my PS1 memory cards, but also I wanted a fresh play-through, and if I used the save files on my memory cards, that would've been going with a New Game+... plus with the odds being I'm going to pair Lupin The 3rd: Treasure of the Sorcerer King with Star Trek Online again this week for Thursday, I figure making use of the different console would be better. Also the PS3's disc drives kind of 'sticks' a bit... 

Anyway playing Chrono Cross for the first time in a long time didn't mean I forgot how the melody for the a lot of the music went, hell I damn near was able to vocalize (poorly) the entire opening theme... and I will say the music for Chrono Cross still holds up... as does the writing as characters have different accents and ways of speaking, which is just a nightmare for me since I'll be reading the dialog out loud for the majority of stuff. The game play mechanics didn't take long for me to remember how to play, and I was able to mostly remember how to recruit some early party members and I wanted to make sure I had certain people in my party early, namely Leena... which meant we didn't add Kid to the team until a bit further into the stream, also of the trio of Guile, Nikki and Pierre... the one I went with was Nikki because I remember his team up with Mikki to be pretty cool.

As far as how far we got, it did take the entire stream but we did make it into Viper Manor and reach the save point in the barracks, so that means tonight's stream is going to see quite a few boss battles. Along the way we did start a few side quests, such as getting the Bellflower for Glenn and Riddle, finding the first two parts for Skelly, nabbing the Big Egg from the Dodo Nest.

Since this was a PS1 game, that meant there were no achievements, but we do have a list of clips for you to check out.

• Chrono Cross: I Think I Remember The Battle Mechanics
• Chrono Cross: Foreshadowing 
• Chrono Cross: We Get A Chest In Return... Eventually
• Chrono Cross: First Boss - Mama Komodo 
• Chrono Cross: Insert Dramatic Cut Scene Here
• Chrono Cross: Kid
• Chrono Cross: Boss Fight - Karsh Solt & Peppor 
• Chrono Cross: Get The Big Egg!
• Chrono Cross: Defeat The Dodo 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Fight - Solt & Peppor
• Just Chatting: Congrats To My Cousin 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Fight - Cassowaries 
• Chrono Cross: Defeat The Quaffid 
• Chrono Cross: Boss Battle - Zoah, Solt & Peppor

If you're wondering about the Just Chatting Clip, during the stream I got an email from my cousin Elissa who was announcing that she and her husband just had their first child! So big congrats to them!

On a side note, playing Chrono Cross means for the first time in a while I get to have an excuse to have an actual physical strategy guide on hand to help me remember how to recruit various characters. Some are locked into the story, while others involve actual decisions to be made and specific actions to be performed in terms of side quests. And considering the rarity of some of the games in my collection, find a few for some specific titles is not a bad idea...

Yesterday's mail arrived with another little item for the collection: Pitfall: The Lost Expedition for the PlayStation 2.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 438 kcal.We did do an extra set, so the the complete session was 34 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 526 kcal. We are now up to 58 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend achievement. Weight is still holding around 250 lbs.

Also started messing around with Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training... seems like a way to work my brain a bit either after a work out after dinner. And it's an excuse to use the Switch undocked. 

For tonight's stream, as mentioned earlier we'll be back to Chrono Cross, picking thing up at around 6:30 PM Eastern

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

Today's Notes 8/2/21: Well That Just Happened

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was straight up just quick play matches, and I do have a question regarding the guts of most people who play tanks, because there were several instances where I saw folks in the tanks roll no where in position to help out or to do their roles of holding the line or breaking the enemy line. That said we did have a lot of fun, as I got two plays of the game last night, one as D.va and one as Brigitte. As always big shout out to PandaSweet for joining in on the matches. 

Here's the run down of last night's match results, and yeah we loss more than we won this week.

1. Quick Play: Brigitte (Support) Win
2. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Loss
3. Quick Play: Brigitte (Support) Win
4. Quick Play: Moira  (Support) Win
5. Quick Play: Moira: (Support) Win
6. Quick Play: Brigitte / Moira (Support) Loss
7. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Win
8. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Loss 
9. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Loss
10. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Win
11. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Win
12. Quick Play: Moira (Support) Loss
13. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Loss
14. Quick Play: D.va (Tank) Win
15. Quick Play: Tracer / Torbjörn (Damage) Loss
16. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Loss
17. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Loss
18. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Win
19. Quick Play: Torbjörn / Mei (Damage)- Loss
20. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Loss
21. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Loss
22. Quick Play: Tracer (Damage) Loss
    

We also have a lot of clips from last night as well, the first two clips are actually from the same match just maybe a minute or two apart.

• Overwatch: Knocking Wrecking Ball Into The Water
• Overwatch: Knocking Wrecking Ball Into The Water Again... Only to be Booped too! 
• Overwatch: Panda Making Sure My Ult Takes Something Out! 
• Overwatch: Going Ham With Brig!
• Overwatch: Hello Mister Fancy Pants
• Overwatch: Trying To Hold The Line 
• Overwatch: That Was Just Sad
• Overwatch: Oops... That Went Wrong 
• Overwatch: I'm Unstoppable
• Overwatch: Follow The Rein 
• Overwatch: Noticing The Bastion
• Overwatch: Holding On! 
• Overwatch: Wow... That... happened...
• Overwatch: Run Away! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 434 kcal. We are now up to 55 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend Achievement.

Not completely sure what we're going to start up tonight as Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is bumped to Fridays... so I could easily start up an more standard game, or go for an RPG... and I'm leaning towards Chrono Cross... but I'm not totally sure if that's what we'll be doing... but I'll make up at mind at some point that's for sure!

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

Today's Notes 8/1/21: Ghosts, Gangsters and Pokemon

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream saw us continue Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, as we resumed the adventure in Lavender Town, entering the Pokemon Tower... and then being promptly booted from it because we needed a key item to continue that story. So it was off to Celadon City to deal directly with Team Rocket at their hidden base, which in it's own way is a bit of a gauntlet. Now there were a few things i liked about this, namely the fact Eevee gets their own little moment when they have to go through a vent to retrieve the lift key... not to mention they also get to scare off Jessie & James! The battle against Giovanni was a walk in the park for the most part.

Along the way we also tackled the Celadon City gym, which is a real maze to get through, and unlike the Pokemon Blue & Yellow form back in the 90s, navigating it was a lot easier because of the wide screen perspective. Erika was no real challenge, granted I have only one fire-type in my lineup, but still, my squad ranges in the low 40s down to the mid 30s.... with the exception of Raichu... now I had a level 36 Raichu but I traded it for its Aloha counterpart, so it's playing catch-up.  

Anyway, once things in Celadon City were done it was back to Lavender Town to tackle the Pokemon Tower, and the battles within it were pretty one sided. I did like the animation regarding the Cubone and it's mother, plus the battles against Jessie & James at re now pretty much straight forward.

We have several clips from last night's stream, which I'll now list

• Just Chatting: Eventually We'll Have To Find Out 
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: On The Road Again
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: I'll Show You My Pokemon... In Battle! 
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: We're All Within A Game Man! 
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: Earning That Rainbow Badge 
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: I Do Know You're Team Rocket 
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: Blastoise To Deal With Rhyhorn
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: Eevee Vs Poliwrath 
  
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: Playing With Eevee
• Pokemon Let's Go Eevee: The Haunter Is Gonna Regret That 
  

It's Sunday, which means a new recap video featuring everything we did last week on Twitch, which includes Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Tom Clancy's The Division, Lupin The 3rd: Treasure Of the Sorcerer King, Star Trek Online, Streets of Rage 4 & Pokemon Let's Go Eevee, plus there are couple of Just Chatting clips included as well!  

We added two games to the collection yesterday.. The first is Pitfall 3D: Beyond The Jungle for the PlayStation, and the second was Aeon Flux for the PlayStation 2. The Aeon Flux game is based more on the movie starring Charlize Theron... and the game's manual does indicate that she supplies voice acting for Aeon in the game... which makes me wonder just how bad is her voice acting, because their is a huge fucking difference between on-screen acting and voice acting, with voice acting you have to use your voice to actually convey everything the character is saying with actual emotion, it's not about doing a 'silly voice', it's about putting the mark on what's being said. I don't have that concern with Pitfall 3D... because Pitfall Harry is voiced by Bruce Campbell, someone who actually knows what the hell he's doing when he's doing voice work.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout was streamed on Twitch with the session lasting 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 534 kcal. I didn't even look to see what the updated progress was on for the Karen's Best Friend achievement... because it was more of a spur of the moment decision to stream. Didn't really feel like doing extra as I wanted to tackle a few things right after lunch. But we do have clips for the session.

• Fitness Boxing 2 8/1/21: Clip 1
• Fitness Boxing 2 8/1/21: Clip 2 
• Fitness Boxing 2 8/1/21: Clip 3
  

For tonight's stream, we're of course going to be playing Overwatch and we'll get started around 7 PM Eastern...

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

Today's Notes 7/30/21: No Rage On The Streets Of Rage

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night I really didn't have a plan, so I decided to finally sit down and play Streets of Rage 4, and boy do I regret not playing it sooner. We went through the entire story using Blaze Fielding (whose rack is noticeably larger in this game that it was in the original trilogy... I'm a guy, I will notice these things) and I was surprised at how fair and balance the game was. It really wasn't until the second half of the game where I had to use the assist modes, which penalized my score, but at best I was getting only a C-Rank on the stages I was clearing normally, so I'm not to broken up about that.

There were certainly a lot of familiar enemies, but when I looked at the concept art, I was surprised at how many from the original games were missing during the campaign... then I realized  there is a survivor mode, and that some of the missing enemies might be in that. Also checked out the online mode, and when I was able to play with others, I was impressed with how smooth the game play was with no noticeable lag (unlocked the most recent Sega Genesis Compilation from a few years ago which had terrible online play).

Since I was playing the Xbox version, that meant there were achievements to be unlocked, a total of 45 (counting the recent Mr X's Nightmare DLC)... and on a single night I was able to bang out 20 of them. Some involve completing the single player mode with each playable character, so it warrants revisiting. 

1. Eating off the Ground: Consume a healing item.
2. Dude, My Car!: Break the car in The Streets.
3. Combo Pro: Achieve a "Super!" combo.
4. Birth of the Cool: Catch a weapon in the air.
5. Wasted Wine: Break a wine bottle.
6. THIS IS WOOD OAK CITY!!!: Kill an enemy by tossing them in a hole.
7. Miss Me?: Meet Adam.
8. Broke My Toy: Break a spear
9. Dojo Master: Beat Shiva.
10. Life's a Struggle: Free yourself from a grab.
11. It's Chilly in Here: Break both elevator window panes.
12. Snap Out of It: Beat possessed Max.
13. Demolition Man: Use a wrecking ball to kill an enemy.
14. Combo Expert: Achieve an "Amazing!!" combo.
15. An Elegant Death: Use a chandelier to kill an enemy.
16. Old-Schooled: Beat Mr. and Ms. Y.
17. All Clear: Blaze: Complete the campaign in single-player mode as Blaze.
18. Oops: Hit an ally.
19. Throwback: Discover a retro level.
20. Collateral Damage: Use a barrel or a grenade explosion to kill 3 enemies at the same time.

And of course we got a lot of clips from last night as well.

• Streets of Rage 4: Stating The Obvious About Blaze
• Streets of Rage 4: Eating Off The Ground! 
• Streets of Rage 4: Murphy... You Are No Robocop!
• Streets of Rage 4: This is Wood Oak City! 
• Streets of Rage 4: Using The Environment
• Streets of Rage 4: Dojo Master 
• Streets of Rage 4: Snap Out Of It!
• Streets of Rage 4: Bad Cut Scene Dubbing 
• Streets of Rage 4: Combo Expert!
• Streets of Rage 4: The Chicken IS NOT THERE! 
• Streets of Rage 4: Old School!
• Streets of Rage 4: Shout out to Drace For Recommending SoR4! 
• Streets of Rage 4: Throwback
• Streets of Rage 4: Collateral Damage 

You know it's a good thing I started writing these blogs at night following the stream and before I go to bed, could you imagine getting all these things together when I'm pressed for time like right before work? 

Moving on, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 473 kcal. Because I do have a habit of powering off the Switch completely, my Joy-Cons were not fully charged (for the first time ever) so I kept getting notifications of low battery life. In fact the battery of the right joy con drained out totally Good thing this was not a session I was streaming! We are now up to 50 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend Achievement.

For tonight's stream, we are returning to Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee as we'll be picking up things in Lavender Town... we're going into the Tower, which means Ghost Pokemon! 

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

Today's Note 7/30/21: Bad Camera Controls Are Bad

 Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream lead off with Star Trek Online, as we tackled the four endeavor quests, and we gained a little boost for ships turn rate, which is every useful considering I tend to equip my ships with consoles that boost the speed at which my ships turns... and let me tell you cruisers due need all the help needed to turn! It is rather annoying that Gravity Kills seems to be frequently featured on the endeavor quests. We'll probably be switching ships on both Zagreus and Sorra in a couple of weeks.

Anyway here are clips from the STO part of the stream

• A lot of Lupin The 3rd Games are listed on Twitch but not Street Fighter 30th Anniversary
• Star Trek Online: Every Thing (D)ucks 
• Star Trek Online: Did They Just Shift Positions!
• Star Trek Online: Realized A Giant Torpedo Was Behind Me 
• Star Trek Online: Just Stand Right There
  
• Star Trek Online: We Know They Are Attacking From The South!
  

In the second half of the stream, dedicated to checking out Lupin The 3rd: Treasure of the Sorcerer King. Released in 2004 when Lupin The 3rd was airing on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, in theory it should be a very straight forward stealth adventure game with various styles of puzzles.... however, the camera controls are very picky, like you can move it but the camera is really confined to space of what room you're in and what objects are around you. It did take me an hour and 45 minutes to clear Chapter 1. Now the game's CGI cut scenes and voice acting are great, and the musical score which I believe pulls from the actual show is incredible. Not sure if we'll keep going back to it to gradually work through it one chapter at a time.

Here are clips from that part of the stream!

• Lupin The 3rd: It's Lupin! 
• Lupin The 3rd: Escape! 
• Lupin The 3rd: He Ain't That Bright 
• Lupin The 3rd: Globe Puzzle 
• Lupin The 3rd: Took Long Enough To Remove The Disguise 
• Lupin The 3rd: Puzzle Solving 

Work seems to be focused on trying to get people's thoughts on a particular school district, and it's amazing how few people are interested. But if only they give the study a chance they will see it's very informative! Ah well.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 484 kcal, and we did do some extra so the complete session was 40 minutes with the estimated calorie burn total of 619 kcal. We did score a new achievement this morning

1. Karen's Buddy: Perform 10 free exercises with Karen

With that done, we've unlocked progress for the Karen's Best Friend achievement, we are up to 47 out of 100 for it already, and we're now at 99 out of 100 for the King Fit Fighter achievement. So when the first one is done, we complete the later. 

Did talk to my primary care physician yesterday to see if I was at risk of any side effects regarding the Covid vaccines, he guesses no based  on my medical history. Problem is the guy tried to book tests without my authorization. And people wonder why I hate dealing with doctors...

For tonight's stream I'm not completely sure what we'll be up to, I'm considering starting up a JRPG of some sort, but I could end up starting up another large adventure game. We'll see.

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

Today's Notes 7/29/21: Fighting In The Streets

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream featured Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, which oddly enough is not listed on Twitch as a select able category.... which is really weird! Anyway we started by doing an arcade run of Street Fighter Alpha 2, my favorite of all the Capcom fighting games, and of course we've done it with Sakura, because she is my favorite character to use. If she's in a Capcom fighting game you cane bet your ass we're going to use her. There were a few interesting moments, such as my historic problems with dealing with Ken and always needing a handful of tries when facing Ryu.

Beyond that, we messed around with Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III 3rd Strike, Street Fighter III 2nd Impact, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, Super Street Fighter II Turbo & the original Street Fighter. We even got in four online matches, winning 3 of them. All and all it was a good night with variety of the Capcom fighting games. 

Since were playing the 30th Anniversary Collection on the Xbox One, we earned a couple of achievements.

1. Find Your Match: Completed an Online Match.
2. Everything's Custom: Beat Street Fighter Alpha 2.

And of course we have some clips from last night as well.

• Street Fighter Alpha 2: Sakura vs Charlie (Custom Combo Finish) 
• Street Fighter Alpha 2: Sakua vs Ryu (Chased By Ryu's Hadoken) 
• Street Fighter Alpha 2 : Sakura vs Ryu 
• Street Fighter Alpha 3: Sakura vs Dhalsim (Online Match) 
• Street Fighter Alpha 3: Ken vs Cammy (Super Finish)
• Street Fighter Alpha 3: Sakura vs Zangief (Online Match) 
• Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Ryu vs Dudley (Online Match)
• Street Fighter III 3rd Strike: Chun Li vs Ken (Online Match) 
• Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Elena vs Necro (Super Finish)
• Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Ken vs Urien (Super Finish) 
• Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Dudley vs Ibuki (Super Finish)
  

About half way into the stream we did switch over to Tom Clancy's The Division with Iceman, as we continued on doing post-game stuff, replaying missions on the Hard difficulty setting and messing around the piers. This is mostly to chase a couple of achievements and for sure, we're going to wrap up doing the missions on hard next week. Also here are some clips from that portion of the stream!

• The Division: That's not the only thing on my left 
• The Division: How Beefy Is The Turret?
  
• The Division: Did You Call For Back Up
  

Started work on a Space Jam related fan fic, this is a non-commission piece that will be on HF when it's done, the physical logistics of some things will be a bit questionable to say the least.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 458 kcal, and we did do some extra free training, so the complete session was 43 minutes with the estimated calorie burn being 667 kcal. We did earn one achievement which lead to another one of Karen's attire options being unlocked.

1. Karen's Trainee: Perform 10 daily workouts with Karen

Other progress update is that we're up to 8 out of 10 for the Karen's Buddy achievement, which we should knock out tomorrow depending on how I'm feeling following the daily workout. We are also up to 98 out of 100 for the King Fit Fighter achievement. So we're two achievements away from 100% completing the game.

During the stream, I had a delivery, and we added physical editions of Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360), Mass Effect Legendary Edition (Xbox One/Series) and Mass Effect Andromeda (Xbox One). Why would I add the physical copies of games I own digitally to my collection? Well mostly for collectors purposes.

There's a lot being said about things that happened behind the scenes as Activision Blizzard, and the question of if I should no longer feature Overwatch on stream has crossed my mind. But Overwatch is one of the few games I am willing to play online with others on stream... and I'll have to really think hard about what I would want to replace it with. Paladins and Smite are both strong nos as I'm concerned, and I really ave zero interest in other similar MOBA games.

Tonight's stream will of course lead off with Star Trek Online and we'll pair it up with something else, maybe we'll pick a single game to focus the second half of the stream on.

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