Getting Lost In The Shadows Of A Raided Tomb

Good Morning Everyone,

If you're going to get lost might as well have fun doing it!

That was basically the theme of last night's stream of Shadows of the Tomb Raider, which again ran longer than I was planning to mostly because a) I kept getting lost even while checking the map and using the Survival Instinct and b) I kept distracting myself trying to find little collectables and goodies while realizing some of the stuff could have been disposed of to get better items! 

Still, we found a few side missions and progressed the main story to where Lara is now disguised as the villains to try and sneak into their temple to free an ally, but if I'm looking at a list of chapters correctly, I should be about half way through the game, which means things certainly slowed down a lot when compared to the first two games in the trilogy.

The funny thing is this, since reaching the Hidden City, the game really opened up for exploration, hence getting lost and distracted... and this is where Shadows of the Tomb Raider shines. Granted the exploration does distract for the sense of urgency to stop Trinity... hell it does raises a lot of questions about the in-game time line (as in over how many days). Way I figure, none of the adventures of the 'Survivor Trilogy' seem to be more than a handful of fays if cut scenes are anything to go by.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to LifeWithStan who was playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt over on twitch.tv/lifewithstan!  

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Untold Riches: Gather 40 gold ore
2. Better Equipped: Get 3 pieces of equipment
3. Makeshift Arsenal: Fully upgrade a weapon
4. Resting Places: Uncover 3 Crypts' secrets
5. Hearts and Minds: Retrieve Manko's Necklace
6. The Underworld: Get out of the Cenotes alive
7. New Heights: Complete a climb after finding the Overhang Climbing Gear
8. Como Te Llama: Pet 5 llamas

Twitch Clip Links

• That is one way to get up there!
• RUN!!!! 
• Como Te Llama Lamma Lamma...
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Hook Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Beginner Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 449 kcal!

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Karen's Contender: Train With Karen for over 30 Hours
   

Instead of switching trainers, I'm going to continue with Karen as the trainer to go after the Karen's Champion achievement which is train with her for over 50 hours, then we'll cycle back to Janice and Hiro to get their champion achievements before focusing on the other trainers.

Just going to saw it, you lose the right to say someone is misusing aspect of your culture the second you start misusing the culture of someone else. Let us all remember that somethings are meant for a particular audience and just because you happen to like it, it doesn't mean it should change just because your feelings are hurt.  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures to wrap up Stormbringer brought forward a rather turn of the redemption of villains, as I got to play as Alphinaud when the airship was on was shot down, and he is rescued by someone who calls himself Shadowhunter... but it's obvious that he is Gaius van Baelsar, who was a heavily featured villain in the A Realm Reborn arc of the story. While clearly more of a bad-ass anti-hero, the fact that he's popped up means more teaming up with old foes in Shadowbringer when I get to it.

Also found a real interesting side quest called the Corpse Groom that ties in with some NPCs I saw real early in the game. Goes to show there are quests linking to just about every damn thing in this game and no characters are truly pointless!

Now I was hoping to finish the 4.4 content last night, but I had some trouble with the battle where we have to play as Y'shtola for story purposes... however unlike when it came to having to use Alphinaud, the stakes were higher and there was a dedicated enemy attacking me at all times. Still it was worth it to see Y'shtola saying the following to Magnai "I am... not interested, little sun. Try again when you have become a man."

For tonight's stream we'll be leading off with Jump Force, getting in the first wave of any online matches we can get to try and get the achievements associated with online play, then around nine we've got Gears of War 4 with Iceman!

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

A Shadow Falls Over A Raided Tomb

Good morning everybody,

Last day of November... wonder how many people actually completed the No Nut November nonsense?  My guess is no on!

Anyway, last night we started up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and boy does it tease with the whole Lara is gonna start with all her gear prologue... only for her to have just her bow at the start of the main story. At the very least it is acknowledged with in the game that Lara doesn't pack all her gear together, so there is a justified, if not silly, reasons for her to have to re-acquire all her abilities from the first two games.

In terms of scope, it does feel like Shadow of the Tomb Raider is much smaller in scale than Rise of the Tomb Raider, despite the stakes being higher, since Lara accidentally started the apocalypse, as I seem to be almost shuffled along from major story point to major story point.. Even as I'm taking my time, nothing much is drawing my attention to find tombs and crypts to knock out bonus challenges.

That said, some of the returning gimmicks from Rise and the new stuff introduced in Shadow certainly has resulted in a number of my deaths. The grapple hook swing is a bit of a pain to get right, and swimming with enemies under the way (namely the piranhas) certainly weren't needed considering the panic inducing nature of wanting to get from point and to point b as quickly as possible due to Lara's limited air supply.

I do have to say, I enjoy some of the striking while unseen, as one would expect in the good Rambo movies, there are more logical ways to deal with enemies than in Rise. Some of the puzzles are creative, even if more trial and error is involved.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how much of the story we can knock out tonight. considering the pace the game seems to be set on to get the player moving in the right directions.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf! 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Path of the Stars: Decipher the Path of the Stars
2. Día de Muertos: Remove the dagger from the Temple of the Moon
3. Recipe for Disaster: Survive the flood
4. First Steps: Purchase a Skill
5. Survival Instincts: Defeat the Empress Jaguar
6. Asking Price: Buy an item from a merchant
7. Point of Interest: Learn of 5 interesting locations from civilians
8. Unwelcome Guests: Get rid of the pillagers outside of Kuwaq Yaku
9. Help thy Neighbor: Complete a Side Mission
10. Treasures from the Past: Decipher a Monolith
11. Look, Over There!: Kill 3 enemies while they are distracted
12. First Blood: Perform a Stealth Takedown from a mud-covered wall
13. Tables Turned: Kill 5 enemies while they are searching for Lara
14. Fire of Life: Enter the Temple of Life's inner chamber
15. The Hidden City: Find Paititi 

 Twitch Clip Links

• Can We Go Down The Slide?!
• First Blood... Rambo Style! 
• The Slide and The Sudden Drop
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Defensive Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 439 kcal. Also turns out only the time spent 'Daily Exercises' count towards the trainers' challenger and champion achievements, as I've only trained with Karen 177 times to close in on her challenger achievement, but with Hiro I've trained 233 times and with Karen 243 times.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw surprising yet not surprising fight against Yotsuyu who regained her memory, at the behest of her step brother as part of a plot to get her to turn into the primal Tsukuyomi. A lot of these events are certainly set up for Shadowbringers, the next part of the story I'll be reaching either by the end of this week or early next. Now I will partially stand corrected in regards to Yotsuyu being redeemed, because in the trial against Tsukuyomi and in it's aftermath, it is quite clear her time with Gosetsu meant something to her.

I still have several main story quests to knock out before wrapping up everything associated with the main plot of Stormblood, and that's not counting any side quests I happen to find that will distract me

For tonight's stream as indicated earlier, we'll be resuming Shadow of the Tomb Raider! We'll try and start around 6:30 PM Eastern, but if I can start earlier I will!

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

From Sunday To Monday

 Good afternoon everyone,

A new week begins and we'll be featuring some new stuff over on my Twitch Channel this week.

But first, last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, as we finished with sevens wins in the last ten matches that were played. I ended up with three plays of the game, two as D.va and one as Junkrat. Big thanks to PandaSweet and SpeedyGamer for joining in on matches from the start of the stream! 

Now let's address the title of today's blog, when you really think about it, Blizzard's BattleNet name filter to prevent obscene and offensive handles for players has never really been good. In fact, the only way it works is if people actually reports the handles that clearly break Terms of Service along. Folks have gotten around it by using specific fonts and alternate spellings, but one has to think the fact this has been the way it has for so long is because of how clearly backwater the corporate officials at Blizzard are. 

This is starting to concern be a bit as I wonder on if I should start taking time on stream to report those players who breaks Blizzard's own TOS when it comes to BattleNet name. Hell maybe I should leave it to a vote for the viewing audience.

Anyway following the stream we sent the fun over to Daemonsw0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over on twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf! 

Twitch Clip Links

• 1... 2... 3.... We win!
• Aw you shouldn't have! 
• Give Me All The Beer 

I have decided that Jump Force is going to hang around to be featured on Wednesday's to feature my chase for some of the on-line achievements that I feel I could get. With the long load times, I'm sure time will fly by to the second half of the stream where we are often teaming with Iceman in something.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes an a estimated calorie burn of 517 kcal

Progress Update on Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise Achievements

• 353/365 Consecutive Days For One Year's Hard Work
• 29/30 hours for Karen's Contender
• 353/400 STamps for Honored Stamper
• 483,595/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5
• 81/100 Percent for King EX Fighter

More than likely we'll hit the Karen's Contender achievement on Wednesday, and it looks like Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5 and One Year's Hard Work will both be reached towards the end of next week.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw a big focus on the Four Lords side-story which takes place in the aftermath of Stormblood where four long lived animal spirits seek help to reinforce the bindings on the fifth of their kind. This side story was quite notable for the fact that it features a battle where Tataru fights along side the player... granted she doesn't do much, but it stands out as something really different! 

The main story was also continued as Yotsuyu's brother has shown up, and considering what I know of Yotsuyu's back story, and how her brother was acting it just means something majorly bad is going to happen... and I suspect her lost memory is going to end in some sort of tragic event. Also finally got an in-game apartment in Kugane of all places because it took a long time to figure out how to get one. So at the very least I have a little in game space to store little things I happen to find!

Big congrats to Kalenal (twitch.tv/Kalenal) for clearing the Ultima Weapson: Ultimate late last night. Kal has been working on that particular raid endlessly for the past month, and I know they were super determined to get it done.

For tonight's stream, we will be featuring a game I have not played before in Shadows of the Tomb Raider, the third game in what is called the Survivor Trilogy. As indicated before, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be revisited down the line to chase other achievements and stuff!

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

A Gentlemanly Stream

Good morning everybody,

You know that happy feeling you get when you have that last slice of pumpkin pie... that is a good feeling right?

Anyway, last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV mostly focused around the Even Further Hildibrand Adventures Quests, which takes place after the events of Stormblood, and certainly is an interesting adventure that involves stolen goods, mind control and gentleman like behavior! I've enjoy going through the these little side stories as it adds more flavor and comedy to the at times rather dark and brooding world that is Final Fantasy XIV.

I am a bit sad though, because of COVID-19, a lot stuff that was expected for Shadowbringers post-story that takes place before Endwalker ended up getting cut... and among that content were the next set of Hildibrand adventures. I'm hoping they will be worked into Endwalkers post-story content.

Now once we wrapped up the adventures with Hildi, I started back work on the Main Story Quest, where Gosetsu and Yotsuyu are being reintroduced as their status of being alive is not intersecting with the story, and thus we're having to track them down. Again, I was surprised when I first saw that they were alive via cut scene, so it's nice to see that even with my side questing that they are not being left in the wind as far as the main story goes. The interesting thing about this, is that Yotsuyu has apparently lost her memory, and a lot of the story involves people from her past that drove her to be the mega bitch overseeing Doma. Some want to be as far a way from her as possible while others want to kill her.

But this does bring up something regarding Final Fantasy XIV that I think I mentioned before, in that there does seem to be a pattern of villains being redeemed in someway if they happen to survive a major battle, Nero and Fordola both come to mind here.

Also did a couple of dungeons and trials as well during the stream last night, a couple of which were from the Alexander series, so it was nice to replay them and this time knowing whats involved instead of going in blind! 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Finished Kugane Ohashi
• A Gentlemanly Clip 
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficulty Challenge Combo #3 for a duration of 34 minutes an estimated calorie burn of 643 kcal.

It's Sunday which meas it's time for this week's Twitch Bits! This past week we played Overwatch, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Jump Force, Mario Golf Super Rush, Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix, Smite, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Pokemon Shining Pearl and Final Fantasy XIV! 

For tonight's stream we will be playing Overwatch as we do every Sunday night. I know most folks think the game is dead in the water, but I do enjoy it as some of my best moments for any given week involved playing it! And of course, I get to play with members of my community! So that is always a plus!

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

I See Why So Few People Finished Jump Force's Story

Good afternoon everybody,

If you ever want to know what its like to slam your head into a brick wall, just go and play the story mode for Jump Force folks...

Now last night's stream ended up being all about Jump Force, and thankfully no game freezes or crashes on the X-Box One... there were a few rendering issues, such as Hancock's head being missing in a cut scene in Chapter 8... but the biggest problem with the story mode for Jump Force, aside from the loading times and reliance on cheap tactics towards the end... is the jobber fights.

Much like Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Jump Force is a fun game that has some interesting mechanics... but the story mode gets bogged down to the repetitive nature of fighting the Venoms... the minions of the villains. I get it, you don't want the limited (at launch) characters constantly fighting one another, but considering the story line gimmick that replicas are being created by the villains, and you fight a handful of them in the middle chapters... that would have been a hell of a lot more preferable than facing randomly generated opponents that have some very wonky combinations of moves that could make some way over powered and others barley anything.

Then there is the other issue of the story mode, and that is the 'where the hell are they' factor when it comes to characters who were in the game at launch having little or no impact or involvement in the story. Two that spring to mind are Cell from Dragon Ball and Yugi from Yu-gi-oh. I get that you can't get screen time to everyone, but Cell isn't introduced until the back end of the story and you only have one direct fight with him.

Now yes, probably these are explored more in the side stories, but just because the side stories are there to add further color to the world of Jump Force, it doesn't excuse the fact that some characters got way too much screen... Frieza and Blackbeard in particular as the most prominent villains in the game that were franchise related . 

I stand by what I said before two weeks ago that if Jump Force was more of a action adventure that had a fighting game element included like Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 and 2, then it would've done a lot better, because hell, people are still playing Xenoverse 2 to this day! Hell it would justify the constant battles against the Venoms much like how in the Xenoverse games facing the Sabiamen and Cell Juniors was reoccurring.

Also for those wondering how I beat the Keyman / Prometheous in Chapter 9... basically spammed B for grabbing and throwing him while dashing, rinse and repeat. 

I can safely say I will never replay the story mode of Jump Force ever again, the game does have some filler qualities in terms of chase-able achievements, particularly off-line. Hell ast he title says, less than 2.5% of X-Box players finished the story mode, and a lot of the other achievement that do-able but require grinding can be accomplished.... so don't be surprised if Jump Force pops up as filler on future streams! Actually come to think of it, we'll need to figure out what is going to replace Jump Force in the line up, since it's being regulated to filler... that will take some pondering!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf! 

Jump Force Achievements

1. Replicas: Cleared Chapter 5
2. The Twisted Entourage: Cleared Chapter 6.
3. Ability Master: Obtained 50 or more abilities.
4. Creation: Cleared Chapter 7.
5. The Puppetmaster: Cleared Chapter 8.
6. Darkness & Light: Cleared Chapter 9.
7. Building an Army: Registered characters in all preset team slots.

Twitch Clip Links

• Did it catch him?
• What happened to her head?! 
• Finishing off the story mode for Jump Force

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo for 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 454 kcal.

Someone posted a shaky cam bootleg video the final battle in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, safe to say it really makes me excited to see it... when it hits digital release (as well as DVD). 

My Final Fantasy XIV off-stream adventures were mostly focused on the additional Hildibrand side stories with not much done in the way of dungeons, raids and stuff as I found these comedy side-quest series to be a lot of fun! At the time of this posting, I'm about a quarter of the way into Even Further Hildibrand Adventures Quests, which is the most recent sent.

Of course for tonight's stream, I will be playing Final Fantasy XIV, and I'll most certainly be focused on Dungeons, Raids and Trials, as I don't want to dive further into the Main Story Quest until I fully wrapped up any 'featured' side stories I've missed that doesn't involve unlocking another 'class' within the game. Plus the big patch to prep the game for Endwalker is this week, so holding off on main story stuff seems logical

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

A New Pokemon Journey Begins

Good afternoon everybody,

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday...

Last night stream featured Pokemon Shining Pearl, and needless to say, there is something about it that bugs me and that is the apparent day / night dynamic that may prevent me from putting together a well rounded team of Pokemon... which also is making me regret picking Piplup as the starter, as a water type, because I have read that fire types are few and far between in this game. I've also noticed some weird balance issues where the game will make the final Pokemon of major encounters a lot tougher than it probably should be to deal with.

I think one of the most divisive things I've read about Pokemon Shining Pearl (and it's counterpart Brilliant Diamond) is the art style is the chibi format for mostly everything except battles and major cut scenes. I get why this is the case, as it resembles the original release... but when you look at Pokemon Shield and Let's Go Eevee where there was an uniformed look from world to cut scenes to battles, the Chibi art style can look very jarring 

That said, I am intrigued by what the hell Team Galactic is up too of capturing Pokemon, creating energy and having their sights set on the stars and on ruling the world (or region). Of the 43 Pokemon I've seen, I've caught about 22 of them, the biggest missed opportunity was an Abra. But I did discover that since I've played both Pokemon Shield and Let's Go Eevee, I was able to get two Pokemon, them being Mew and Jirachi, which means having two Psychic type early could make things a lot more straight forward.

Also leveling up a low level Pokemon is a lot more accommodating in Shining Pearl than it was  in both Shield and Eevee, once I had Mew and Jirachi, I put Mew in the party, and it didn't take too long to get it caught up to the rest of my squad... where as in Shield it would take a while to get a new Pokemon caught up and in Eevee it was just better to catch a higher level version of something that fit into the party.

How fare did we get in the first night? Well we cleared the first two gyms as well as had the first two major encounters with Team Galactic... and I believe my usual approach to Pokemon games of over level every one to compensate for match-up difficulties should be able to carry me through to the end of the game... which means a lot of grinding in terms of battling wild Pokemon in addition to trainer battles on the way to the next gym. Which I suspect would be around level 30... and my team at the moment is like 20-25. 

Now when will Pokemon Shining Pearl be featured, well at the moment I believe it will settle in to the Friday night slot starting next week. So that will shake out the rest of the week like this.... Saturday for Final Fantasy XIV... Sunday Night with Overwatch... Monday & Tuesday for Shadow of the Tomb Raider... Wednesday split between Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2 & Gears of War 4... Thursday for Jump Force. Seems like a logical lineup!

Anyway, following the stream we sent he fun over to Hawleigh who was playing Kingdom Hearts III over at twitch.tv/hawleigh! 

Twitch Clip Links

1. We win the rematch!
2. Let's Hope It Stays In The Ball 
3. It's Super Effective! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Block Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of479 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Unparalleled Stamper: Acquire 350 Stamps
   

As indicated the Unparalleled Stamper achievement is apart of the EX set in Fitness Boxing 2, which becomes available once you unlock all of the normal achievements within the game. It does bring forward a new achievement to chase, which is Honored Stamper, which is to  Acquire 400 stamps.

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures following last night's stream was focused on the Manderville quests... and without question, it was the most gentlemanly adventure within Final Fantasy XIV. With it's own unique trials and a hilarious mystery that involves revenges, sisters and zombies, it certainly is worth checking out. But now I find out there are two more quests lines associated with the most gentlemanly of investigators for both Heavansward and Stormblood... I'm eager to track those down!

Grabbed a few things on-sale for Black Friday: Garfield Kart Racing, Fight Night Champions, The Witcher 2 & 3. Figure we can pair up the first two games on a special double header to look at, while The Witcher games would be for larger campaigns.

For tonight's stream, well we're going to try and make it a Jump Force stream to continue it's story, if it gets bogged down with the issues from Tuesday then we'll do some random stuff! 

Either way see ya over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Smite, The Division and a long Weekend

Good afternoon and Happy Thanksgiving,

Well I now have a long weekend because of the Thanksgiving holiday... so this means we'll have early streams today and tomorrow!

Last night's lead off with Smite, nothing major, as we stuck to the arena modes and got in several matches as a few different characters. I kind of figured out a little something with using Nox and Medusa that I feel could be effective with if I ever put in a lot of practice. Didn't get many wins last night, and we ran into quite a lot of people leaving matches.

Also, we did play The Division 2, with Iceman and PowerThumbz, to tackle stuff associated with the Reanimated Event. Which was I think fourth time that event was done this year, I know it was done in February and May, and I want to say sometime in the summer but I'm not to sure on the last one. Still it was fun and hilarious.

Still not sure how much more I personally can get out of The Division 2, its next expansion would need to have some sort of story content to really justify me keeping it on my X-Box One at this point. 

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal over at twitch.tv/kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV! 

SMITE Achievements

1. Where Did I Go?: Unlock the Smite Award "Where Did I Go?"

Twitch Clip Links

• Where Did I Go?
• STRIKE! 
• Everyone is on fire...
  

Today's daily Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Beginner Combo #1, Straight Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimate calorie burn of 445 kcal. For sure we'll knock out one more of the EX Achievements with tomorrow's session

If you got a dark and twisted sense of humor, then look up Dark Simpsons on YouTube, you will never look at the characters on that show again the same way.

How do I know it's going to be a very cold winter... simple, it's the end of November and I have to put sweat pants on! Normally I'm in shorts in my office space.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures was very straight forward, as I did the Battle of the Bridge trail that is apart of the hilarious Manderville series of quests, as well as knocked out the First, Third and Fourth Binding Coils of Bahamut via the un-synced method, which meant for me to do them solo. The third is a very weird jumping puzzle in figuring out which triggers leading to getting down further... and the fourth was a bit tough solo, but I succeed and now I never want to see those trials again!

For tonight's stream, I believe we are going to start up Pokemon Shining Pearl, which recently came out. I am not at all familiar with the Generation five era of Pokemon, so this will be a new experience... I don't even know which start I'm going to go with! 

So we'll find out later today over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!