A BattleGround Is Worth A RWBY

Good morning everybody, 

Last night's stream started around 8:30 PM Eastern due to work, so it was kind of a wild card night where I didn't totally make up my mind on what we we're going to do. But we ended up checking out WWE Battlegrounds and then doing a complete run of RWBY Grimm Eclipse (X-Box One version)

WWE Battlegrounds as I believe I said before is the bastard child of WWE All-Stars, over the top action with stylized graphics. We did check out a number of the game modes, with the cage match probably being the most fun, why the Royal Rumble seems like a frustrating mess. Did learn that the ring can be destroyed and there are various things that can be interacted with. One thing I can say for sure is that if WWE Battlegrounds had any type of 'online' community, that it's multiplayer would be a lot of fun... at least in theory.

Of course the rest of the stream was dedicated to RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, a game that I'm no stranger too. We played the X-Box One version as I indicated earlier, which meant that anyone who knew I played it and would use the Steam version was probably disappointed they couldn't join in. Still we got joined by a couple of randoms as we went through the game, start to finish with Blake Belladonna, as there are achievements associated with beating the game with every character at least once. But I am curious on if the Nintendo Switch version of RWBY Grimm Eclipse has a more active community since the game saw a fairly recent release earlier this year.  

But playing RWBY Grimm Eclipse does make me wish there was a new game, and I'd be more than happy with a game that had the same controls and character models. Enough time has passed and there are probably a lot of things that could be done based on all the stuff that has happened in the series. Hell if there is an official manga basically re-telling the entire story from the start, there should be a game that does the same thing! 

WWE Battlegrounds Achievements

1. Charismatic: Filled the crowd bar
   

RWBY Grimm Eclipse Achievements

1. A Little Respec: Refund all of your Ability Points
2. It Belongs in a Museum: Collect 10 artifacts during a single play session.
3. Cleverly Disguised Jumping Puzzle: Collect the artifact at the end of the jumping puzzle in Forever Fall.
4. Blake Belladonna: Complete the campaign using Blake
5. Butter and Butter: Do Blake's taunt right after killing the Mutant Deathstalker
   

Following the stream we sent everyone over to LifewithStand (twitch.tv/lifewithstan) who was playing Cyberpunk 2077. LifeWithStan typically starts his starts at 10:15 PM Eastern Mondays to Thursdays!  

Twitch Clip Links

• The Bexploder!
• Double Ax Handle!
• The Boogey-Slam?! 
• A Cleverly Disguised Jumping Puzzle
• Shadow Strike Mastery 
• Another Battle One... to the tune of Another One Bites The Dust
• That... was close
• Butter and Butter

A number of games was added to the collection yesterday, and the first three are for the PlayStation 3. First we have Zone of the Enders; HD Collection, brand new which includes a demon of Metal Gear Rising. We went after this mostly because we picked up Zone of the Enders 2nd Runner earlier in the year. It is a remaster of the original game released on the PS2, which was hard to find. Next, we added Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Saga, and I already add the the first two Lego Star Wars games released on the PS2 when they were released nearly 20 years ago, so adding  this made sense. Next we added the PlayStation 3 version of the Mass Effect Trilogy, which includes all three games. Since this was acquired used, I doubt any redemption codes included still work, but hey it's pretty much complete in box so that's cool. This is mostly for collectors purposes, although the idea of boosting my PlayStation trophy score is appealing. 

The remaining new additions are for the PlayStation 2, the first of which is Dino Stalker, which I believe was Capcom's last ditch attempt to get anything out of The Dino Crisis series by making it more action oriented. Not completely sure as I never played Dino Crisis 1 or 2, but after the release of Dino Stalker, Capcom pretty much gave up on that series of games. Next is Over the Hedge, published by Activision as a tie in to the movie of the same name.... added it because it was cheap. Lastly we added Tomb Raider: Legend... the game that pretty much was released as a make-good following the travesty that was Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. TR:L was the start of the last trilogy of the original incarnation of the Tomb Raider series before it's 2013 reboot.

Yesterday was the 55th Anniversary of Star Trek, and while Star Trek Online celebrated by discounting a number of Original Series things, GOG actually was able to re-release a number of Star Trek games from the late 90s early 2000s... but with out Star Trek: The Next Generation A Final Unity getting a re-release, there isn't much to get excited about sadly.

Did even more organizing of my DVDs, and managed to locate a few that I thought were missing, but I got the nagging feeling I'm still missing a few anime DVDs... namely as it relates to La Blue Girl and  Peacemaker Kurogane. I could be remembering wrong, because I swore I had Die Hard 2 in my collection, as well as Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 3... so unless when the last time I moved which was way back in 2006 things got left behind accidentally, or stuff got thrown out that wasn't suppose to over the years. Ah well, thank goodness for digital media right?

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 Results (Tank)

1. D.va - Havana - 8:59 - Win - 1-0
2. D.va - Oasis - 7:28 - Loss - 0-1
3. D.va - King's Row - 14/32 - Loss -0-3

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 454 kcal. The exercises for today were Beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. Timing felt a little off with how many motions registered as just being 'ok'. I will admit the one miss was because I need to use the rest room (LOL)

Last night's stream started late, but tonight's will not as I was told I'll have work during the day, so we'll start around the usual time! Not sure exactly what we're going to be doing, but we'll be up to something!

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

Is Rose Going To Be The Most Important Character in Street Fighter VI?

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream did start 'on time', only because an expected work assignment was cancelled, so it looks like tonight's stream may have that same uncertain 'start time', as I told my job I will be available fairly deep into the evening.

Anyway, what we did last night was go through every single character story in Street Fighter V, and while nearly all the initial characters from the game's release tie into one another to various degrees, but it's when I got into the 'DLC' characters where I started to ponder, particularly when it came to things involving G and Rose. Rose is drawn to face G after using Tarot Cards that labeled him 'The Fool', but the battle has her realize that the world is heading to its in, later when she is meeting with Oro, she wonders if things could be changed, if her younger-self could learn of what's to come it could lead to things being done different and that they had to get back to 'Zero'... hell her story is called 'Back to Alpha'. So this has me thinking the obvious.

Is Capcom Going To Use "Time Travel" In Street Fighter VI?

And I put 'Time Travel" in quotes, because actually going back in time isn't totally necessary given Rose's soul power and psychic abilities, all that would be required is her sending some sort of message to herself. It's a stretch, but it certainly an option considering all the seeds of an Armageddon plot being set considering that time line wise, Street Fighter VI is basically reaching the point of the events of Street Fighter III where Gill and the Secret Society was basically looking for 'subjects' to repopulate the world. So basically, Rose becomes Raiden from Mortal Kombat IX. And considering the questions I have about G and all the talk about Bison's Psycho power it just makes me think Rose is going to be the most important character in the next game.

Or course, there is the chestnut Oro says to Dhalsim about a pure warrior being the one to possibly be the one to save the world, and that basically is Ryu considering his character journey over the decades. So there's that clearly obvious path Capcom is going to go down.

Anyway, going through all the character stories you could tell who they had a lot of ideas for and who they didn't... as E.Honda's story was basically him 'beating the rules of the bathhouse into the skulls of Laura, Rashid and Ryu', and Abigail's was just him wondering where his car was. Then you have the grand interconnected stories that see all the Final Fight characters (Cody, Poison, Abigail, Lucia) crossing paths, along with things like the continued odd association of Sakura, Blanka and Dan which was humorous. 

Since we ere going through every characters' story, that meant we got to play as everyone, and I was pleased with how nearly every character felt 'pick up and play' in terms of being able to figure out some stuff fairly quick. Some character felt very awkward, in particular Necali, then you had the obvious filler of characters like 'Kage' whose only purpose seems to just further the fact Ryu is going to obviously save the world in Street Fighter VI.

Also... Birdie seemed to be universal punching bag, I mean seriously, I know he's a comic relief character in the general story of SFV, but I believe he gets beaten up by the majority of the default 16 characters.

Something that I did observe when it comes to a log of the dialog in the characters stories, you could replace the word 'fight' with the word 'fuck' and everything would still make sense.

One last observation, something that did surprise me about the character stories is how uneven it was, it took 6 hours to finish, with characters having anywhere from 1 to 5 fights to complete depending on their story. The average I believe was 2 to 3, but it certainly meant getting into a groove of going from story to story a bit uneven.

There is a question of when will I do another Street Fighter V stream and for sure after Luke debuts to see his story, but there are the various arcade endings to get for the characters considering how the arcade mode is set up.. So we'll see what ends up happening. Maybe some nights of doing ranked matches too.

Anyway we didn't do a raid last night, instead we hosted Maximilian_DOOD  (twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD) who is f the largest streamers I follow, he was featuring X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes.

Street Fighter V Achievements

1. Quantity Over Quality: Level up 5 characters! Up to level 5 should do the trick. When it comes to food and fightin', it's quantity over quality, mate.
2. Lucky We Met!: Whoa, I'm really mixing it with the celebrities here! C'mon, Rashid, you're the Raging Storm! Get out there and finish 5 Character Stories!
3. Vindicated Honor: Raise your player level to 50. Level up that much and you'll be about ready to exact you revenge.
4. Burning Spirit: Your player level is a reflection of your passion! Aim for the stars, and reach level 100!
5. No Rest For The Wicked: Your stats are as pitiful as your strength, maggot! Come back when you've raised all characters to level 5.
6. The 16 Trials: So you wish to learn Yoga? If that is truly the case, then first you must complete the Character Story with all characters. There is great merit in walking each of their individual paths.
7. Number 2 Is The New Number 1: Niiihehe! 2, 20, 200! Such a glorious sound, I could say it twice more! 200! Raise you player level to 200! I already have, niiihehe!
   

Twitch Clip Links

• Ken Introduces Ryu To The Wall
• Chun Li Destorys Charlie 
• Birdie Wants To Eat Something... Chun Li Appears
• R. Mika's Super Move... It's Bootiful
• Ibuki Makes Birdie 'Canon' 
• Ed's Super Nice Super
• Figuring Out Abigail's Super
• Figuring Out Cody's Super 

We managed to track down a copy of Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix for the PlayStation, which is a tough game to find in the United States (but it's fairly common in Europe). It does need a custom case made for it, so I'll check and see what customgamecase.com has listed, because I need a case for the PS3 versions of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag and BioShock Infinite as well. 

Did some more organizing of DVDs and such... got basically all my anime DVDs put together, but going through my collection I feel as though I'm missing quite a few. It's probably just me over thinking considering I'm looking to have every DVD I have available to do watch-parties in my Discord. Anyway, I might put puts on one bookshelf (shocker) to free up shelf space on the one most people have seen on camera.

Overwatch has re-released the prior years All-Star skins, which meant I was able to grab the 2018 Pacific All-Stars Skin for Genji and the 2019 Pacific All-Stars skin for Lucio. Also made sure to grab every remaining Overwatch League team skin for D.va to complete that set... guess the next ones to gradually work on would Ana I guess.  

Overwatch Season 30 Competitive Results (Tank)

1. D.va - Route 66 - 13:01 - Win - 3-0
2. D.va - Nepal 00:25 - Tie - 0-0 - (Match thrown out)
   
3. D.va - King's Row - 14:32 - Win 3-2
   

So far this Season I have played 14 matches, winning 11 and losing 3, averaging 28.29 Elimination per 10 minutes with an average of 4.29 deaths per 10 minutes. 

We added Teen Titans for the PlayStation 2 to the collection today, and I was very much unaware that the animated series that made the ships of Robin/Starfire, Beast Boy/Raven, Cyborg/Jynx and so many more main stream in the 2000s had a game based on it. I should not be surprised but I am.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 472 kcal. The exercises for today were Weaving Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #1. As you can tell by the screen shot, today was a flawless session, every thing registered as perfect. Very rare when that happens.

For tonight's stream, I'm not sure what we'll be doing, let alone a start time, but I'll keep folks posted in the Discord and on Twitter (twitter.com/fredcasden).

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

How Do You Recap A Near 12 Hour Long Stream?!

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday we did an epic marathon stream r long stream of Life is Strange: Before The Storm, which started at 12:30 PM Eastern and ended at 12:20 AM Eastern... so nearly 12 hours. We covered all three episodes with 100% completion and the bonus episode entitled Farewell, which had no achievements, but we covered it pretty thoroughly. Clearly we got a lot of ground to cover, so I'm going to present a breakdown of each episode in the form of a Summary and then general thoughts. So this will be an incoherent mess!

Episode 1: Awake: We play As Chloe as she is heading off to a concert at a seedy old mill, and it's established that Chloe's power is her big mouth as she will confront and bully her way past people to get what she wants, and this is where she meets Rachel Amber who rescues her from an ugly situation. The next day, Rachel grabs Chloe to ditch school where Rachel's mood swings start being noticeable when they spot her father kissing a woman who is not her mother and where she starts a massive forest fire.

In terms of how it relates to how Chloe is established in Life is Strange, Episode 1 certainly shows Chloe being rebellious not just towards David, but also to folks at Blackwell as the episode basically documents her last day at the school. The chance meeting with Rachel certainly makes Chloe as someone easily infatuated as she's more than willing to hang with Chloe, but considering Chloe feels she has something missing in her life it certainly makes her an easy pawn for Rachel, who kind of exploits that to get what she wants. There is also the question of if Rachel has any powers considering how fast the fire she starts spreads considering how it ties to her screams of rage. Perhaps the most memorably thing about this episode is Chloe's optional involvement with Steph and Mikey in a Dungeons & Dragons type game.

Episode 2: Brave New Worlds: Taking place the very next day, Rachel and Chloe are in Principal Wells office with their parents, where Chloe faces suspension or expulsion (depending on choices made)  and David makes it know he is moving in, making Chloe rather upset. Chloe gets roped in by Frank Bowers into retrieving some owed money from Mikey's brother's Drew which leads to a major choice regarding what Chloe does with the money before getting roped in by Rachel to being involved in a Blackwell production of The Tempest. Episode ends with Chloe having dinner with Rachel's Family and Rachel's father revealing that the woman they saw him with was actually her mother. 

Episode 2 crams a fuck ton into it, with it basically showing how Rachel gets thrown out of Blackwell, how she gets her pick-up truck, her association with Frank Bowers as well as expanding on how liked or disliked she is when it comes to other students. The choice of either staying in Drew North's dorm room when he's confronted by Damon Merrick or stepping out to give him the money does play a major impact on the North family, since Drew has a full-ride scholarship based on his skills as a football player. If you don't give the money to Damon, Drew's knees are destroyed and it basically makes life impossible for his brother Mikey and their struggling father, so the best choice is to give Damon the money and have Mikey suffer a broken arm. (I'll explain more on this for Episode 3). The big thing most people remember about this episode is Chloe being apart of the Tempest as Ariel, and how it could lead to Chloe asking for a kiss from Rachel, which basically feeds into Chloe's desperation to find Rachel in the original Life is Strange game. The ending twist of Rachel learning that her mother is someone she never met was impactful on the episodes original release.

Episode 3: Hell is Empty: Rachel is determined to meet her mother, and because of it she and Chloe end up in a very dangerous situation with Damon Merrick who nearly kills Rachel. Chloe learns Rachel's father hired Merrick to keep her real mother away from her and goes to save her, with surprised help from Frank Bowers. Chloe has a choice of either to tell Rachel the truth about her father or to hide it to let her have a happy life.

Episode 3 comes across as rushed because of how it focuses a lot on dealing with Sera (Rachel's Mother), and quite frankly it's not all that interesting, especially if you can get Chloe into good graces with Rachel's father when it comes to looking out for her. The best part about this episode is if you played the DnD game with Steph and Mikey in episode 1 and gave the money to Merrick in episode 2, you get to continue the DnD game in episode 3 that sees Drew wanting to get involved in playing it and thus making his bond with his younger brother stronger plus making them along with Steph a pretty cool trio. The choice of either to tell Rachel the truth or to hide it is basically inconsequential because Rachel does end up in the Dark Room. You do get a montage of Chloe and Rachel hanging out doing stuff like getting tattoos and so forth, but no real explanation as to how Mark Jefferson lured her into the Dark Room in the first place.

Bonus Episode: Farewell: Max struggles to tell Chloe she is moving away to Seattle on a day that ends up being  the worse in Chloe's life.

This mini-episode takes place on the same day Chloe's father is killed, making it the earliest point in the Life is Strange timeline, and it does establish something that is very clear if you pay attention to Chloe's SMS messages in Before the Storm and Max's test message in Life is Strange... and that's Max stopped maxing an effort to stay in contact with Chloe. This episode basically cements the fact Chloe basically had her world ripped apart and just how bad it actually was.

Twitch Clip Links

• It's Totally Not A....
• Genius Is...
• Had to think about that one
• Ain't nothing like the real thing baby....
• So it's a thing that makes things do things!
• Don't Worry You'll Be The Love Interest In True Colors
• Under the street light
• I don't think he's going to be okay after that one 
• Sure Steph...
• And this is where it ties to the first game 
  

Believe me when I said, I had probably 50 clips from last night that I filtered down to just these select few which I thought were the best moments of the night, and I deleted the ones I didn't like as much. 

Big thanks to MarvelMaven (twitch.tv/marvelmaven) who raided the stream after playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Marvel often streams mid-days and she is awesome!

Following the stream we raided Phoenix_face (twitch.tv/phoenix_face) who was playing A Plague Tale: Innocence, which looks like it would be a really great game! Phoenix tends to stream in the late evenings! 

Life is Strange: Before The Storm Achievements

1. Recreational Vandalism: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 1: Awake
2. I See U Saw: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 1: Awake
3. The Last Unicorn: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 1: Awake
4. Home Unimprovement: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 1: Awake
5. Rock Idol: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 1: Awake
6. Dramatis Personae: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 1: Awake
7. Mulligan Stew: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 1: Awake
8. Pioneer Spirit: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 1: Awake
9. Face Your Anger: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 1: Awake
10. Lucid Writing: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 1: Awake
11. Awake, Dear Heart: Complete Episode 1: Awake
12. Stagehandwriting: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 2: Brave New World
13. Radical Piratical: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 2: Brave New World
14. Feels on Wheels: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 2: Brave New World
15. Canon Wall: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 2: Brave New World
16. Wishlist: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 2: Brave New World
17. Tread Harshly: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 2: Brave New World
18. Friendly Forest Friends: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 2: Brave New World
19. Permanent Record: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 2: Brave New World
20. Vanity Fare: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 2: Brave New World
21. Creature Feature: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 2: Brave New World
22. O, Wonder!: Complete Episode 2: Brave New World
23. Extra Credit: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
24. American Graffiti: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
25. Peer Review: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
26. Monthly Masterpiece: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
27. Spit Take: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
28. Hello Nurse: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
29. Venting Machine: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
30. A Penned Appendage: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
31. Drunk Drawer: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
32. Messed Up: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
33. Before the Storm: Complete Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 of Life is Strange: Before the Storm
34. All the Devils are Here: Complete Episode 3: Hell Is Empty

Whew... that was a lot of ground to cover, I can't remember the last time I did a stream that long, I think maybe I had a few Twitch Sings streams come close to the 10 hour mark... but nothing close to breaking the 12 hour barrier in like maybe two years.

Didn't do any Season 30 ranked matches for Overwatch yesterday because of the marathon nature of the stream.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn 419 kcal. The exercises for today was Body Straight Combo, Triple Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #1.

Because of work tonight's stream will not start at 6:30 PM Eastern time, it's looking like possibly an 8 PM or 9 PM Eastern start time, depending on work. We'll more than likely are going to mess around with Street Fighter V to doing some character story stuff (the mini-arcade modes) that the game has.  I'll also have to check to see if I'm going to have to adjust my schedule if there is more work in the early evenings going forward than my normal after noon shifts, since some side stuff I was doing has also dried up.

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

 

Up So Early I Woke The Roosters

Good morning everybody,

Yeah it's not even 7 AM when I'm posting this...

Last night's stream of Overwatch featured Total Mayhem and Quick Play matches, and was a lot of fun, earned three Plays of the Game last night, two as D.va and one as Moira... and big thanks as always to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun!

I've become increasingly aware of the fact I'm not going to get the help I need from the damage role players or the other tank. Yes I'm mostly playing as D.va but I do need her boosters to get out of trouble or to get some cheap eliminations in a pinch.Also, since I've been playing a lot of D.va as of late, making use of her boosters to get out of trouble, there's also an increasing reliance of her Defensive Matrix. Now yes, the likes of Genji, Hanzo, Anna and Zenyatta can kind of pick me apart at a great distance unless I'm diving on to them with only Hanzo being dangerous up close, but at the same time this does mean I can provide some time for a Reinhardt or Sigma to recharge their shields or for a Orissa on Winston's cool down for their shield barrier to complete.

Overwatch Total Mayhem Results

1. Mercy& Reinhardt   Loss
2. D.va: Loss 
3. D.va - Win 
4. D.va - Win
5. D.va - Win

Overwatch Quick Play Results

1. Reinhardt  - Win
2. Moira - Win
3. D.va - Win
4. D.va - Win
5. D.va - Win
6. D.va - Win
7. D.va - Loss
8. D.va - Win
9. Brigitte - Loss
10. D.va - Loss
11. D.va - Loss
12. Tracer - Win
13. Moria - Loss
14. D.va - Win
15. Moira - Loss
16. D.va -  Loss
17. D.va - Loss
18. Moira - Loss
19. Moira - Win

Twitch Clip Links

• Triple Kill! 
• The most epic or luckiest 30 seconds as D.va ever 
• And now we leave
• Gotcha! That was funny
• Tracer Pulse Bomb! There we Go!
• I'm Very Much Aware I'm On My Own 
• Panda's Epic Flight As Mercy
• Surrender to my will! A Pair of Double Kills!
  

Following the stream we raided Sw33ts_gaming (twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming) who was playing Naraka: Bladepoint, and near as I can tell it's a 3 on 3 battle royal type game. Anyways Sweets is really cool and over streams in the late nights to early mornings. 

There might be a change in the streams start times for Mondays to Fridays coming in the near future, I'll have to double check with somethings at work, but we could end up back at 9:30 PM Eastern Start Times starting next week once again. I'll find out for sure by the end of this week..

I have considered going through a YouTube compilation of Top Gear's 'Some Say...' Intros for The Stig to create another sound button to the Stream Deck. The biggest problem is that a lot of things Jeremy Clarkson and to a lesser extent Richard Hammond said were a bit to topical to be used in the modern day without context.

There is false hope in the National League East for the Phillies to maybe get hot and take the division which is up for grabs, because at the time of this post, they are only two games behind the Atlanta Braves, but since they just dropped 2 of 3 to the lowly Miami Marlins, I'm just not buying into the team, particularly since they don't play well on the road and most of the remaining games see the team going into enemy territory!.

I took one look at the results for AEW All Out which aired last night, and I can once again safely say that they are running the TNA Wrestling playbook of having ex-WWE stars going over people they should be pushing to a higher level. Out of 9 matches that aired on the main-show, 6 were won by ex-WWE Talent, and the biggest surprises of the night were that AEW debuted two more ex-WWE stars. As a long time wrestling fan who has been burned out on hot shot booking and who has seen this shit of relying on ex-WWE talent being brought in at the expense of an existing roster, I can safely say I've seen this moving before, I know how it ends. 

Now truth be told I couldn't quite get to sleep so around 5:30 AM I figured why not do some boxing. Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 568 kcal. The exercises for today were Double Combo #2, Left Right Step Combo and Advance Combo #2.

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 Results (Tank) 

1. D.va - Eichenwalde - 18:04 - Win - 3-2
   

For today's stream we'll be starting as soon as possible for a special Labor Day stream, just to see what the audience is like if I were to do a mid-day afternoon stream. Don't know what's on tap as of yet, but we'll see what I come up with... granted I teased playing Life is Strange: Before the Storm on Saturday but I'm not sure if I want to tackle all three episodes in one day.

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

Bae Before Bay

 Good afternoon everybody,

Last night we wrapped up Life is Strange and went for 100% completion with Episode 5, and needless to say there were two things about that I didn't care for which was the two achievements tied to the stealth game play aspect in the Nightmare section. I'm sorry, but if there is one reason why I never could give Life is Strange a perfect 5-star rating it's because of that... and the fact that in episode 5 there are moments where Max is talking and her lips aren't moving

That said, episode 5 has always severed as a satisfying conclusion to the story of Max Caufiled, in that she either chooses to save Chloe Price or save Arcadia Bay, and while 52% choose to save Arcadia Bay, the ending to save Chloe is considered to be the true ending because a) Max and Chloe are such a ship-able couple and b) the comic book series follows the save Chloe ending. 

But because Life is Strange has a collectable mode with the option to jump to the final decision without it over writing the choice, we were able to look at the ending of sacrificing Chloe to save Arcadia Bay,, which does see the fall of Nathan Prescott, the arrest of Mr. Jefferson and Chloe's funeral... but the more up beat tempo of the song used for it always bothered me.

Perhaps the thing about saving Arcadia Bay that makes it most realistic choice for most people is that prior to when Max has a conversation with herself at the Two Whales Diner during the Nightmare sequence, you have a bunch of people begging for Max not to kill them as a prelude to the final choice... but at the same time you have others thanking her for saving them during the events of when she is heading to the Two Whales Diner (such as Truck Driver and Fisherman)... and a lot of folks go for the 'needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few). Trust me on a first time play through it can be gut wrenching, but this was my third play through (the first two were using the Steam version).

I do understand that the remastered collection has been delayed till early next year, and there is one thing I hope it fixes and that is how plastic the hair looks, particularly for those with more elaborate hair styles (Chloe, Max, Alyssa all immediate come to mind.) 

Life Is Strange Achievements

1. Incandescent: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 5: Polarized
2. Night Vision: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 5: Polarized
3. Framed: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 5: Polarized
4. Camera Obscura: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 5: Polarized
5. Blowup: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 5: Polarized
6. Iris: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 5: Polarized
7. Sensor: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 5: Polarized
8. On Display: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 5: Polarized
9. Light Meter: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 5: Polarized
10. Selfie Awareness: Take all optional photos in Episode 5: Polarized
11. Silhouettes: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 5: Polarized
12. Polarized: Finish Episode 5: Polarized
    

Now something funny, Episode 4 took me 4 hours to tackle on Friday night, and Episode 5 took me a bit over 3 hours... so to extend the stream out, we played some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, playing in the world wide open races... and at best I finished 6th a couple of times, and for a brief moment in one race I was as high as 2nd... but things went horribly wrong, because I cannot for whatever reason figure out how to drift consistently, which makes cornering a real problem.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaWorstGamerEver25 (twitch.tv/DaWorstGamerEver25) who was celebrating their birthday and playing Police Simulator: Patrol Officers! 

Twitch Clip Links

• Funny but you sound like a 30 year old Actress!
• RUDE! 
• That is not the weather in San Francisco!
• Knocked his (BLEEP) Out
• And if you believe that I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you
• Max you're talking without moving your lips!
• Perfect Moment For a Dab 
• I love you but I Killed you!
• We like big squirrels and I cannot lie
• Warren has issues 
• The Bottles Were Out To Get Her
• Finding the code... boo-yah!
• That's kind of the whole point 
• It is the canon choice! 
• Bae...
• It would have helped if I didn't run into the building
• Well we finished in 7th 
• Aw come on really come on Dudes!

Something weird, yesterday I received a delivery from BioWare of three Mass Effect t-shirts... which I already received. Back at the end of August... in fact the tracking number and everything is exactly the same. Someone must have screwed up somewhere and it certainly wasn't me.

People are getting on their high horse regarding the 'sexualization' of fictional characters, to which which I say 'Welcome to Earth, you must be new here. It's not really worth crying about because sex appeal sells, it always had, and it always will. Hell 99% of casting for television shows and movies is based around how someone looks, the actual acting is clearly a 'bonus', how else does one explain the careers of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart

In terms of how I'm feeling following the 2nd Covid shot on Friday, just some stiffness here and there nothing major.

Since it's Sunday, that means a new highlight reel, and this week we actually stayed focus on things, so this week's highlights include clips from Overwatch, Chrono Cross, Life is Strange, X-Men vs Street Fighter EX Edition and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!  

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 Match Results 

1. D.va - Eichenwalde - 14:02 - Win - 3-0
2. D.va - Lijiang Tower - 8:59 - Win - 2-0
3. D.va - Temple of Anubis - 8:59 - Win - 2-0

 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 413 kcal. Today's exercises involved Body Hook Combo, Body Uppercut Combo and Uppercut Combo #2. In terms of chasing the EX Achievements, if I stick with Hiro for the next 32 days I should knock out his challenger combo as well as the next achievements for 300 consecutive days and 300 stamps.

For tonight's stream, we'll be playing Overwatch, mostly standard Quick Play matches, as I'm focusing on Ranked Matches off stream.

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

 

Time-Lapsed And Vaccinated

Good afternoon everybody 

Last night's stream featured Life is Strange Episode 4, and we 100% completed it, finding all the optional photos along the way with the help of the list of achievements. Considering how many were diamond achievements, I doubt I would have come across them... but then again I have played Life is Strange before, and maybe I should have checked my Steam achievements list before writing this. Ah well.

Anyway, Episode 4 certainly goes out of it's way to label Nathan Prescott as the big bad of the game, with how everything revolves around him, from the conversation with Frank Bowers, to how the Prescott family e just something everyone wants to go away going back 100 years, to the 'dark room' pretty much being in a barn in the middle of nowhere. But the twist of Mr. Jefferson being the true villain both works and at the same time doesn't work.

And here's why it never worked for me: it's because Jefferson as a character always comes across as a creep, and this goes back to episode 1 when he is always pestering Max about submitting a photo for the everyday heroes contest to just happening to be talking to Kate before she attempts to jump off the dorm building in episode 2 to being all to chilled with what was happening at the Vortex Party at the end of episode 4. It just comes across as being way out of place to me.

I will admit I do like the fact that if you save Kate in episode 2 you get to visit her in the hospital in episode 4, which also having the benefit of her helping out when Max and Chloe sneak into the boys dorm. Actually if you play things 'right', you can end up giving Max one hell of a large social circle. 

After the stream we sent everyone over to Kalenal (twitch.tv/kalenal) who was doing a bonus stream this week featuring Final Fantasy XIV! Kal also announced that she won't be streaming tonight or this upcoming Monday, but will be back on Wendesday (September 8th)

Twitch Clip Links

• I believe It Max....
• Bacon Pancakes
• It's What You Get At Starbucks... 
• Bird Don't Make Me Flip You
• Nathan Is The Devil... CONFIRMED! 
• Totally Trespassing 
• Good Evening Doctor Hoo
• We found Rachel Amber
• Save Alyssa... Again!
• Double Achievement In Episode 4!
• Max's Name Is On The List!
• Warning Victoria About The Dark Room
  

 Life is Strange Achievements

1. Ambient: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 4: Dark Room
2. Time-Lapsed: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 4: Dark Room
3. Balance: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 4: Dark Room
4. Rangefinder: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 4: Dark Room
5. Gamma Value: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 4: Dark Room
6. Dioptric Power: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 4: Dark Room
7. Fisheye: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 4: Dark Room
8. Manually Exposed: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 4: Dark Room
9. Tripod: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 4: Dark Room
10. Shutterbug: Take all optional photos in Episode 4: Dark Room
11. Slideshow: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 4: Dark Room
12. Dark Room: Finish Episode 4: Dark Room
    

Went and got COVID-19 vaccination shot number two at the closest CVS Pharmacy yesterday, granted, making sure they had vaccination shots on hand was frustrating, considering on Thursday I walked over there and they said they had none. Once I had confirmation they had shots, I rushed over to get mine done. Now opposed to the first shot, they gave me a little 'stop watch' like item to track the 15 minutes they wanted folks to wait for observation after getting the shot... but if they were observing those they have vaccinated, shouldn't a member of the staff actually been... observing? Because they weren't.

Was able to add ,hack//Outbreak to the collection yesterday, which means the quest to find and add .hack//Quarantine begins. That is easily one of the rarest games to find for the PlayStation 2 because the the original .hack series of games didn't really do to well because of the episodic nature of them. In short they were ahead of their time in a big way.

Also added an alternate PlayStation 2 (Slim version) that has a MODBO Chip within it to make it region free. While obviously most of my PS2 library consists of North American released games, there are still some things that were exclusive to Japan and Europe that I would like to track down, and having the hardware on hand to play them is a step in the right direction. However a test run of this PS2 didn't exactly present promising results as I think the laser to read the discs may have gotten misaligned by how the United States Postal Service treated the package. So that would be possibly 2 PS2s broken in transit by the USPS...

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 (Tank)

1. D.va - Busan - Downtown - 14:02 - Loss - 2-1
2. D.va - Oasis - 18:04 - Win - 2-1
3. D.va - Blizzard World - 19:03 - Win - 3-2

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 423 kcal. The exercises for this sessions was Hook Combo #2, Front Back Step Combo and Beginner Combo #1. Progress for Hiro's Contender is that we're at 15 hours out of 30. Weighted in yesterday at about 248 lb from what I could tell, it was clearly below the 250 lb mark

We've added Extreme Ghostbustes: The Ultimate Invasion to the collection, this was released on the original PlayStation but it was a PAL/Europe Exlcusive, and is a game that can make use of the PSOne's light-gun... which is something I don't have.

For tonight's stream we'll be will wrap up Life is Strange, with Episode 5: Polarized, and I'm really debating wanting to go for all the photo opportunities on stream or note because of how episode 5 relies a lot on a half-ass stealth game play. Since I know I can just go after the collectables after the fact, it's no pressure to 100% complete it.

Anyway, that's what we're doing and if it doesn't take me 4 hours to get through the final episode, we may do something else!

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

The Theory Of Chaos Could Be The Apocalypse

Good morning everyone,

Last night we were back in Twitch playing Life is Strange, with episode 3: Chaos Theory. This episode further expands on Max's powers with its big climax of her being able to go back to a moment in time via a photograph to change history, which leads to a lot of things changing... namely Chloe being paralyzed. It's certainly a reminder as to why one does not change history in time travel stories because just because one thing could be avoid, the changes could have far greater consequences that cannot be predicted.

That said, episode 3 does give many reasons to not like Chloe, particularly in regards to how bitchy she can be on a number of subjects, such as the situation regarding Rachel and Frank, plus her own hang ups over how her father died, not to mention complaining about Max letter her down. Believe me as much as the game gives options for reasons to chose Chloe over Arcadia Bay, it certainly gives a lot of reasons to choose the town over her.

In terms of optional photos, we managed to find several of them,

 Life Is Strange Achievements (earned on stream)

1. The Reflex: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
2. Histogrammar: Take optional photo #4 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
3. Pinholed: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
4. RAW Strength: Take optional photo #7 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
5. Optican: Take optional photo #9 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
6. Flash!: Take optional photo #10 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
7. Chaos Theory: Finish Episode 3: Chaos Theory

Now when we finished episode three, I hooked up the PSOne so that we coul d play X-Men vs Street Fighter: EX Edition for the first time on stream. We went through the standard arcade mode twice, once as Ryu (with Cyclops as the back up), and the other mostly as Wolverine (with Ken as the back up) before realizing I did not know how to do any of Wolverine's supers in the air, so switched it to Cyclops (with Ryu) to finish the second run. Did get some great clips of some match endings involving Supers, including a couple of Ultra Super Finishes! 

I do think like a lot of fighting games, the novelty of X-Men vs Street Fighter: EX Edition is to pair it with stuff that ends early, since it serves as a great way to make sure a stream fills out to my preferred time length.

Following the stream we raided SmoresDaFloof who was playing a unique RPG / Platformer called Blue Fire, which seems to have a lot of Legend of Zelda vibes to it! Smores is awesome and I hope you check them out at twitch.tv/SmoresDaFloof

Twitch Clips Links

• Max The Ninja Strikes Again
• God Damn It Chloe! 
• Time Travel: Never Leave Home Without It
• Hey there's Fan Fiction About That
• Give me the Eggs and Bacon NOW!!!! 
  
• Max Earns A Truck Ride
  
• Warning The Homeless
  
• Saving Alyssa... Yet Again
• X-Men Vs Street Fighter EX Edition Intro!
• Catching Rouge with both Ryu & Cyclops' Super!
• The Chip Damage! 
• Might as well hit it again in mid-air!
• Caught Cyclops In Mid-air! 
• Would I Make Something Up Because I don't Read Japanese? 
• Wolverine and Ken: Ultra Combo Finish! 
• Cyclops Finishis Apocalypse
• Defeating Ryu as a we get a new follower! 

Sad to hear that Daffney Unger (real name: Shannon Spruill) who I first saw on WCW Programming in late 1999, passed away. She made headlines on Wednesday night regarding a live video she was doing on Instagram which made people extremely concerned. It's always upsetting when you hear about someone going that far because of the circumstances they are in... so I encourage folks to seek help if you ever need it. 1-800-273-8255 is the number for the Suicide Prevention Hotline

That said, what I remember of Daffney was she made her debut during a skit for a 'WCW Nitro Party' where she was basically worshiping David Flair, and then showed up like a week or two later. I thought the pairing of her Flair, was great and then when Crowbar was added to the mix, it made them real entertaining. Daffney was so over the top with her screams and antics around ring side, it made her stand out in a big way. 

Let's circle back to Life is Strange and the fact features a collectable mode which I totally forgot about, which means going back to get the optional photos missed in episodes already played is fairly easy, depending on the circumstances needed to get to the photo opportunities. So a few hours after the stream, I went back to episodes 1, 2 & 3 to go collectable hunting to 100% complete each episode without effecting the story we already have in progress. 

Life is Strange Achievements (Earned off-stream)

1. Visionary: Take all optional photos in Episode 1: Chrysalis
2. Focused: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 1: Chrysalis
3. Processor: Take optional photo #3 in Episode 2: Out of Time
4. Lab Master: Take all optional photos in Episode 2: Out of Time
5. Pixelated: Take optional photo #6 in Episode 2: Out of Time
6. Parallax View: Take optional photo #1 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
7. Lenscrafted: Take optional photo #2 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
8. Bokeh: Take optional photo #5 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
9. Viewfinder: Take optional photo #8 in Episode 3: Chaos Theory
10. Camera Eye: Take all optional photos in Episode 3: Chaos Theory 

Overwatch's 29 Competitive Season ended yesterday with my final SR as a Tank being 1641, with my season high being 1681. 22 matches were played, and 11 matches were one, so I easily batted .500. So with the season ended I went a head and did the qualifiers for season 30, off to a good start of 3 wins and 2 losses

Overwatch Season 30 Competitive Matches

1. D.va - Kings Rows - 11:31 - Win - 3-0
2. D.va - Hollywood - 11:00 - Loss - 0-3
3. D.va - Oasis - - 15:32 - Loss - 2-1
4. D.va - Junkertown - 11-:00 - Win 2-1 - Play of the Game
5. D.va - Ilios - 8:59 - Win - 2-0 - Play of the Game

Yesterday I went to CVS to get the second Covid-19 vaccine shot... and they didn't have any available, so I have to step out again today, this time I going to call before hand. I was told they were expecting a fresh batch in the early evening yesterday, so hopefully that is true.

I know right now Tuesday night's stream will have a late start of 7:30 PM / 8 PM Eastern because of work. Got to take what I can get these days.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 28 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 431 kcal. The exercises for today were Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2. Since turning off the vibration function on the joy cons, there has not been the random de-syncing of the left joy con. Still a couple of odd misses, but that might be on my own timing (or lack there of).

For tonight's stream we will play Life Is Strange Episode 4: Dark Room, and we'll pair it with something else once we finish the episode

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