Today's Notes 8/7/21: Omno Is a great little game!

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night I wasn't completely sure what I was going to do with last night's stream until about 5:30 PM, an hour before start time, and since Iceman (who you often hear as part of the The Division streams), recommended Omno earlier in the week I gave it a shot.

The story is that you are on a pilgrimage on the path of Light, following the footsteps of those who went before you. Along the way you'll pick up skills like surfing, floating and teleportation that are all key to getting through the various puzzles and finding items. Each area is pretty open for exploration, and you will want to explore as there are normally three journals to be found that give some lore to journey you're on. 

Now I made the mistake of not checking out the achievement list before hand, because it turns out Omno is a game one can 100% complete in a single play-through (I will have to do a second play-through at some point so we will revisit Omno in the future). It looks gorgeous, has a great sound musical score, controls handle very well, and the puzzles, with the exception of one, are not designed to screw with the player. 

Extra note: Omno also has a really subtle story involving your companion, a little green floating squirrel type creature that actually plays into the ending of the game, which I'll admit made me tear up a little. 

Anyway, all in all, I highly recommend Omno to anyone looking for a quality game.!

Now I did happen to get raided once we finished Omno, and I extended the stream a bit with some Forza Horizon 4, did a few races and messed around for a bit, nothing major. 

Both games were playing using an X-Box console (my Series S), and so we got a lot of achievements last night.

OMNO Achievements

1. The Initiate: Rode the First Legendary Animal
2. Pit Master: Auqui Pit completed
3. The Apprentice: Rode the Second Legendary Animal
4. Plains Master: Malaha Plain completed
5. Valley Master: Sag'Ya Valley completed
6. The Disciple: Rode the Third Legendary Animal
7. Likeminded: Surfed with Scipuins for 30 seconds
8. Aggression management: Stomped a Lapicrab 5 times
9. Canyon Master: Cavulta Canyon completed
10. The Adept: Rode the Fourth Legendary Animal
11. Desert Master: Unkh-Tuur Desert completed
12. Ground is lava: Kept an Astendeon airborne for 10 seconds
13. Mesa Master: Yeccaph Mesa completed
14. Heights Master: Pulyang Heights completed
15. The Exalted: Rode the Fifth Legendary Animal
16. Cliff Master: Fluamao Cliffs completed

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

1. Colossus of Roads: Reach Round 10 in the Horizon Road Racing Series.

We do have a list of clips from last night's stream as well, which we'll now list for you to check out!

• Omno: That surprise sub jump scare
• Omno: No nope nope nope!
• Omno: Ah-ha... Ah-hahaha!
• Just Chatting: Found the strategy guide for Grandia III
• Omno: DUUUUUDE!!!!!
• Omno: A graceful dismount
• Omno: We're surfing with them! 
• Omno: I Can Walk On It! 
• Omno: Teleportation Things 
• Omno: The Ground Is Lava! 
• Omno: Did that say 6.66%?
• Omno: Whoa!!
• Omno: Cliff Master
• Forza Horizon 4: Coming in 2nd 
• Forza Horizon 4: Okay so we did get there... barely! 

Manage to track down a copy of the Grandia III strategy guide published by BrandyGames, it was used and was missing a huge chunk of it's back cover, but hey, when I get around to give that game a shot I have a better hope of figuing out where to go, because I remember Grandia III' being a lot tougher to navigate in an open desert area that the first two games in the series.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 488 kcal! Keeping things consistent is key don't you think?  

I did try my hand at the 'weekly championships' for Dr Kawashima's Brain Training... wonder how I'll bad I rank, maybe I'll post the results on Monday or Tuesday?

For tonight's stream we're back to Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee, as we'll try to figure out what out next objected should be and go through the hassle of catching many creatures to level up my main six.  

And on that note we'll see you later tonight around 7 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 8/6/21: Roblox and Rogue Lineage are Banned

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream got off to a very unusual start with over 70+ coming into my chat pushing for me to play Rogue Lineage which is apparently something based on Roblox, but because they were very aggressive with how they were spamming it, I can safely say I will not do anything related to Roblox on my channel ever. On the plus side, a good portion of those people chilled out once I said to stopped spamming... but those who didn't got banned, even folks who donated a couple of bucks to the the channel. That said, that entire fiasco did lead to me reaching a couple of milestones in Twitch.

1. Talk to Me: Get 25 People chatting at the same time to unlock additional VIP badges
2. Talk A Little: Get 20 people chatting at the same time to unlock additional VIP badges

So we had that going for us. But what's sad is that the Rogue Lineage thing looked interesting, and under normal circumstances I would have checked it out. But now Roblox and everything related to is is banned from my channel.

Now when things gradually settled down, last night's stream did feature Star Trek Online, and we were able to knock out all the endeavor quests, three were spaced focused... but one saw once again the need to play 'Assault on Terok Nor' and I wasted no time with that, basically sprinting from each major area, leaving the PUGs I was to clean up any left overs.

Afterward, my attention turned to Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes on the PlayStation 2. It it was one the rarest games I own, and we had some fun with it. It is amazing how block heavy the AI becomes once you reach the 4th battle in the arcade mode, it basically becomes a battle against the clock. So I resorted to adjusting the in-game timer from 99 to 60, and even then time out losses were quite possible but any advantage i could get I was able to keep for the most part.

Anyway, here is the list of clips of things from last night.

• Just Chatting: Interesting But Not For Me
• Just Chatting: Verification To Be In The Chat Is A Thing
• Star Trek Online: I will get the correct sequence 
• Star Trek Online: Wonder what that was for
• Star Trek Online: Together They Fall
• Star Trek Online: Power Sliding
• Star Trek Online: I'm Only A Fool For You
• MVC2: Sakura Finishes Off Doctor Doom
  
• MVC2: That was Less Than Stellar
• MVC2: Brought Out The Big Hand
• MVC2: Taking on Abyss
• MVC2: Putting down Dan with Jill's super!
• MVC2: Ken just goes right into the Sentinel 's Super...
  
• MVC2: Trying to figure out Venom
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 408 kcal. I was moving a little... shall we say, slowly this morning, more so to how cool it felt today, so we did not do anything extra. We're now up to 66 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend achievement. 

Of course I have also been messing around with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training as well this week...  and if I ever needed insulting about how my brain works, that has become a daily reminder.

For tonight's stream, I'm not completely feeling like messing around with Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep... and I'm leaning towards placing that game with Dead Space as something I played 1/3 of and figured it's just not for me because of the game play. We mess around with a short game of some kind tonight. We'll see see.

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

Today's Notes 8/5/21: Smited Division

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream was pretty interesting, as for the first time in a very long time... I played Smite. I stuck with the Arena game mode, and it took me awhile to remember how to do things, like upgrade the gods powers and so forth, but once I got back into it was like I haven't stopped playing it. Of course went and used Athena and Artemis in all the matches played, and it didn't click with me to actually write down the results of the matches, but I think I know I was on the winning side a few times and lost a few times. 

Using Athena was a good call for me I think because one of her abilities forces the players on the other team to look towards me and another of her abilities brings down a semi-circle of shields to collapse on them. Surprisingly some people on the teams I was on were able to realize I had a semi-idea of what I was doing. With Artemis... well not so much the same luck as aiming with the analog sticks is pretty tough when it comes to lining stuff up. I use to put down 30K+ damage with her when I played Smite on PC, but on console I barely cracked 25K damage.

Amazingly I was able to knock out one achievement when it came to Smite last night with Artemis.

1.   Double Tap: Get 10 double kills in qualifying matches.

So about 9 PM Eastern I took a break to switch over to The Division, and as always big thanks to Iceman for all his help as we were on the achievement hunt as we look to knock out as much as possible with that game before retiring it from the rotation.There was some real hilarious moments regarding the enemy A.I. and how the game is programmed to relay dialog in relation to enemies being defeated. Anyway, here's the list of achievements knocked out for The Division last night.

1. Know No Fear: Finish all of the missions at Level 30 on the Hard difficulty.
2. Hardened Combatant: Complete a mission in Challenge mode.
3. Begin with a BANG: Access the Tactical Operations Center.
   

Of course we do have a list of clips for you to check out from mast night.

• Just Chatting: New Custom Game Cases For Tekken and Tekken 2 
• Smite: Returning From Checking The Mail
• Just Chatting: What Arrived In The Mail 
• Smite Excuse Me I Need To Get Out Of Here!
• Smite Thank You Kukulkan 
• Smite: I Got My Reven
• Smite: Come To Me! 
• Smite: Got Them To Seal The Win!
• Smite: Double Tap Achievement 
• The Division: Working Our Way Through A Glitch
• The Division: Jerk stepped on my turret 
• The Division: This Is Not Going To Last Long
• The Division: Benitez WIll Get His Dialog In! 
• The Division: This is turning into an adventure
• The Division: That was... yours 
• The Division: Say Hello To My Little Friend
  

Yesterday, during the start of the stream, a package through UPS arrived with a factory sealed copy of Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. Now here's the funny thing about that, when it happened, the first match for Smite was loading, so I had more than enough time to sprint up the stairs to the front door to grab it. Now I remember Smite matches loading quick, so I was surprised that I had the time to do that. For collectors purposes, and much like Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect Legendary Edition, this game will remained sealed. I just wanted to have the complete set

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily worked out lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 549 kcal. I set a new personal best by getting a completely perfect score on Advanced Combo #2, that particular part of the workout took 11 minutes 30 seconds and is where we had an estimated calorie burn of 215 kcal. No extra sets were done today. We are now up to 63 out of 100 for the Karen's Best Friend achievement.

For tonight's stream we'll start with Star Trek Online and knocked out the endeavor quests, and work in something else to pair with it, not sure what yet. But I do knock we're gonna end the stream shortly after 10 PM eastern, because my good friend FN_Dante_Savage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) will be doing a live music stream! So I do want to show my support for that!

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

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!