Life is Strange But The Colors Are True

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream featured Life is Strange; True Colors, and we got through three chapters in a stream that went 7.5 hours. This will contain spoilers for the game! You have been warned.

Our hero is Alex Chen who is going to live with her brother Gabe in Colorado, her power is based on empathy, she can read other people's emotions and use it to piece together what is either making them sad, angry and scared. This does have a draw back because she can feel those emotions and sometimes it will cause her to have a corresponding outburst (I came across two such instances, 1 is part of the story and the other towards the end of episode 3 seems to be avoidable). The town of Haven Springs is certainly a lovely little town, and we certainly have a lot of room to explore when we're outdoors. It's a lot 'bigger' than what we've seen in the other Life is Strange games by far, and you can use Alex's power to get a great deal of insight on the town.. Hell Exploring every thing and interacting with stuff such has finding spots for Alex to sit down and think about stuff are counted towards decisions made.

Anyway, Episode 1 is really a long drawn out introduction, I meant you basically are introduced to everyone important in Haven Springs, from Ethan and Charlotte, to Ryan and Steph, to Duckie and Diane... it all feels very genuine... if you ignore the fact that Gabe basically has been hyped about the arrival of Alex for some time. The story itself doesn't really get rolling until the end of episode 1 when Alex, Ryan and Gabe go to find Ethan who sneaked off to go into a closed off mine around the same time some mining excavations were going to take place. Gabe is killed,despite him phoning in a request for the excavations to be delayed... and the episode two opens with a clear conspiracy in place when the person Gabe talked to says 'there was no call'.Turns out the company doing the mining is up to some super shady shit, which becomes slowly more obvious over episodes two and three, but is fully revealed that they want to hide something at the end of episode three. 

Now between the main plot there are several awesome sub plots and mini things that are peppered through out the game, you can interact with arcade machines for mini-games, find collectables that give further insight into the town and people of Haven Springs, and lot of these collectables are found by using Alex's powers, so in every area you can roam around in, always do a full search. Also there are some events tied to things people say, such as taking a lunch order or answering a riddle.

Regarding Alex's personality, she is certainly a medium between Max and Chloe as being kind of the most well adjusted... and she is certainly way more likeable than Sean from Life is Strange 2. Just over the first three episodes we see Alex come out of her shell from being unsure about moving to Haven Springs to being an big part of the small town community.

Unlike the first three Life is Strange games, True Colors does have a 'streamer' friendly mode.... however there are at least two instances I found in regards to there being awkward with no music at all instead of a non-licensed fill in. Both happen in Episode 1, one is when Alex and Gave are listening to a Kings of Leon record... and the other is when Alex finds the guitar beneath the bed.

You might have guess but I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens in episodes 4 and 5!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Sheepfuzz (twitch.tv/sheepfuzz) who was playing Jackbox Party Packs! Sheepfuzz does a lot of community streams and is just an awesome streamer with a great personality! 

Life is Strange: True Colors Achievements

1. A Letter To Riley: Find the “Riley Letter” Memory in Chapter 1
2. Head Count: Find the “Helmet” Memory in Chapter 1
3. I Thought I Could Hunt The Monster: Complete Chapter 1 of Life is Strange: True Colors
4. Umbrella: Find the “Umbrella” Memory in Chapter 2
5. No Handouts: Find the “Rent Check” Memory in Chapter 2
6. Time For Something New: Find the “Button” Memory in Chapter 2
7. Bird Spotting: Help the Birdwatcher find her bird
8. Pro Tip: Find the “Gummies” Memory in Chapter 2 
9. Found Dog!: Help the Hoodie Guy find his dog
10. Something You Build: Complete Chapter 2 of Life is Strange: True Colors
11. Earworm Squasher: Find and play the Student's lost song
12. Hell Divers: Find the “Bomber Jacket” Memory in Chapter 3
13. Ethan's Dollar: Find the “Dollar” Memory in Chapter 3
14. And How Does That Make You Feel?: Find the “Appointment Slip” Memory in Chapter 3
15. Upright and Above Ground: Find the “Old Paper” Memory in Chapter 3
16. Valkyrie's Dish: Find the “Valkyrie's Dish” Memory in Chapter 3
17. Memory Collector: Find all Memory Collectibles in Chapter 3
18. Burying Something: Complete Chapter 3 of Life is Strange: True Colors 

Twitch Clip Links

• Bad To The Gnome! 
• Death has been cheated!
• Alex Sings... Yes She Is Singing... What is she singing we don't know 
• I Got It Right!
• Alex's Glasses Have No Lens
• Sitting At The Dock Of The Bay 
• Let's Do A Good Thing!
• Sorry Alex You Don't Have Time Travel Powers
• My Expectations of the Shipping Community
• I Have The Power... HE-MAN!!!!
  

We have two new additions to the collection that arrived yesterday from Japan. The first is Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.... for the Sega Dreamcast. As you might know... I don't have a Sega Dreamcast, nor is my intention to get one that would play the Japan-release version of MvC. See I was expecting to get the PlayStation version, the one that is a very unique version of Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes that is a full on conversion to a 1 on 1 fighter with different gameplay mechanics and balancing. That said, it is cool to have a version of Marvel Vs Capcom that was released to the Sega Dreamcast because it is nearly arcade perfect in that is has the full 2 on 2 experience... but we kind of already have that with Marvel vs Capcom Origins that have I in my digital PS3 collection.

I have not given up hope on finding the unique version of Marvel vs Capcom for the original PlayStation, but the only way to find it is to look through imports from Japan, because the North American releases are way too overpriced.

Anyway, the other addition we have Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2... which translates to  "Private Justice Academy: Hot-Blooded Youthful Diary 2".... but it's actually version 2.0 of Disc 2 for Rival Schools: United By Fate. It includes all the mini-games from the older version, along with two additional characters.The novelty here is the extra characters and having an 'updated' version of the Rival Schools is pretty neat... considering that the true sequel Project Justice has only ever seen a home release on the Sega Dreamcast.

Former Chicago Cub and Montreal Expo Andrew Dawson runs a funeral home in Florida and business is way to good for him because of how many knuckleheads in that state refuse to have any commonsense when it comes to protecting themselves from COVID and it's variants that are popping up. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 437 kcal. The exercises for today were Hip Shape Focus Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Swayback Combo. I did step on the scale yesterday and my weight is down to 246 lbs.

Didn't do any ranked matches in Overwatch yesterday or today (so far), so no results to report.  

For tonight's stream we will be continuing Life is Strange: True Colors and we will finish episode 4 and 5! This is gonna be awesome!

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

For Mario Golf Is A Full Contact Sport

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream feature Mario Golf Super Rush for the Nintendo Switch, making it both the first Mario Golf franchise related game as well as the first golf game in general I have ever played. So this was a learning experience in terms of learning how to play the game and figuring out what is the best approach to smacking a small white ball hundreds of yards into a small hole.

Thankfully, Mario Golf Super Rush is a pick up and play game, it keeps everything simple, so even if you have no clue what you're doing, it's possible to have fun. That said, the limited number of course available for general play is disappointing as you have to go through the 'Adventure Mode' to unlock the other course. Yes, this game has an 'adventure mode' which seems like its an extended tutorial from what I saw, but hell, there was enough people playing online to where I could see some other course.

Yes, Mario Golf Super Rush has an online mode, and boy is it a lot fun, you don't have to take turns, as it can be set for everyone to take their shots at once in a regular game, so no waiting, and the connectivity is pretty solid in my opinion. Playing the Battle Golf mode online with other people is certainly chaotic fun as you have to try to figure out what would be the best way to win and being able to adapt on the fly to different factors like ice and bombs coming your way.

I did enjoy the look of all the character models , and those who have some actual voice lines certainly sound clear (Daisy, Pauline). I am a little disappointed at the size of the roster of characters, because one has to figure that some characters that were in Mario Kart would be in this, say for example Link from the Legend of Zelda, but I guess keeping it only focused on the Mario characters makes sense to some degree.

All that said, if I knew folks who had Mario Golf Super Rush I believe it would make for a great community game night feature, since up to four players could play at once. Maybe some day that may happen, who knows.

After the stream we sent my audience over to TheLadyPhoenix (Twitch.tv/TheLadyPhoenix) who was playing Genshin Impact. Now there is a game a lot of folks said I should play 

Twitch Clip Links

• Chip In For The Eagle!
• It was a Long Bomb For A Birdie 
• A Birdie For Daisy!
• Winning at Battle Golf!
  

Going to be more selective (if possible) with the Twitch Clip Links list, but trying to narrow things down to a short list is often impossible when I feel I had a lot of great moments!

Since working is picking up a little bit, the assignment I was working on today concerned a Major League Baseball team and their quest to figure out where they are going to play in a few years, would they remain where they have always been, or will they start having to look for a new home elsewhere. It's going to be an real interesting to see if this results in the major leagues having another realignment to balance things out.

You may have noticed the list of 'tags' for this blog has decreased some, that's because I went through many posts to combine various subjects into one, such as all Saints Row related posts are filed under Saints Row instead for each individual game, It's a way to help me keep my sanity. 

Overwatch Competitive Season 30

1. D.va - Blizzard World - 16:04 - Loss - 2-3
2. D.va - Hollywood - 15:33 - Win - 3-1
3. D.va - Volskaya Industries - Win - 13:02 - 2-1
4. D.va - Busan - 7:28 - Win - 2-0
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 448 kcal. The exercise line up for today featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Hook Combo #1 and Black Combo. Achievement Progress update, we're up to 19 out of 30 hours for the Hiro's Contender achievement, day 273 out o 300 for Ten Month's Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper,

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Life is Strange: True Colors! We'll get started around 6:30 PM Eastern since I will be working this afternoon!

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

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!