Using More Than Just The Usual Heroes

Good afternoon everybody,

Yesterday was certainly a day, ending up watching Jingle All The Way during the afternoon... I refuse to put to Cookie Down. What prompted it is that I was playing some Jump Force during the day, and well I wanted something to act as some back ground noise. More notes on the Jump Force progress down below.

Now Last night's stream of Overwatch was also a bit different as I ended up using a lot of folks I never play, such as Sigma, Ana, Zenyatta, Wrecking Ball and Zarya. This lead to me trying different stuff with these characters to see if they can fit my play style. We were also joined by PandaSweet which is always awesome.

Also had a couple of Plays of the Games, one with D.va and the other as Brigitte, so we've kept a streak of getting a POTG once per every stream thus year... or at least it seems that way!

Following the steam we sent the fun over to Joilet4 who was doing a music stream while out on the road over at twitch.tv/joliet4! 

Twitch Clip Links

•  Oh Boy...
•  Really?!
•  A Little Back Door Dva Bomb

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Body Hook Combo and Body Uppercut Combo for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 425 kcal

And here's the update on the current EX Achievements I am chasing in Fitness Boxing 2, some are clearly a few weeks away from completing.

• 36/50 hours for Karen's Champion
• 367/400 stamps for Honored Stamper
• 501,620/540,000 HITs for Immortal Weight Puncher
• 84/100% for King EX Fighter
  

By my estimation, the next EX Achievement to be reached should be Karen's Champion somewhere around the 10th of January, while Honored Stamper should be reached around the 15th of January. 

Made some progress towards achievements in Jump Force yesterday afternoon as I'm starting to see patterns in the A.I. on the harder difficulties. Namely in that if I can lock them down with a ranged beam like a Kamehameha with my lead character, and have the 2nd character also do a beam attack every so often that basically keeps the enemy at the far side of the arena unless they charge in. Hell that's basically how I cleared a Free Mission on Expert difficulty.

Jump Force Achievements

1. The Frontiers of Battle: Cleared Free Mission on Expert one or more times.

So what is left is primarily things involving grinding for levels, gold and item drops in Free Missions, plus getting S ranks on 10 missions each for Hard, Very Hard and Expert difficulties. These are going to be quite difficult to pull off.

The off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures had a bit of a snag, as I was trying to get  The Whorleater on Extreme done... but no dice, so that was a wasted hour. But I did get the Main Story progressed to where the Minfilia of the First now has her own name in Ryne. I think I'm going to hold off on doing any of the weekly journal stuff until after I finally caught up on the Main Story.

For tonight's stream I'm not 100% sure what we're going to do yet, but I'll make up my mind before the start of the stream that is for sure.

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

Only i could combine Solitaire and Final Fantasy XIV...

Good afternoon everyone,

Thinking Square Enix actually got the log in congestion under control... but since during the week I play starting at a later hour, it confused me when I saw a 3000 long in queue minutes before tonight's stream.

So as we waited in the queue for two hours... we loaded up Microsoft Solitaire Collection and played that for a bit. Managed to win a couple of games, and turns out there were achievements I could earn that count towards my X-Box gamer score. So that was cool.

Once we got into Final Fantasy XIV at about 9 PM... and we mostly stuck with the Main Story Quest, even though it's certainly more text heavy and it meant a lot of down time in the action, but we covered what was basically the first half of the level 76-77 quests, from 'When It Rains' to 'A Convenient Distraction'. We also knocked out several things required for the Adventure Journal as well, tried to get  nine things done to turn it in, but some things were just not popping. 

This does raise a question of if I should move Final Fantasy XIV off of Saturday nights and maybe feature it during the week. Or maybe I should do the smart thing and log into it a few hours before I start the Saturday streams to avoid having to find filler!

Following the steam we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_Gaming who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Microsoft Solitaire Collection Achievements

1. On Parole: Won a game where you never had more than 2 cards in the cells at any given time in FreeCell
2. First of Many: Gained a level in any game
3. XP Chaser: Completed a game on Hard difficulty on a day that Bonus XP is available for that game
4. Perfectionist: Won an Expert difficulty game in any classic game mode without using an undo

Twitch Clip Links

• Getting that win :)
• We Play Like An Expert
• A Suspicious Man
• A Bard Versus Shiva
• Just another successful trip into Syrcus Tower

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Front-Back Step Combo, Hook Comb #2 and Beginner Combo #1 for a duration of 28 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 445 kcal

Looking over the stats for this year versus the last couple of years, the move back to the 6:30 PM Eastern start time did not do as well as it did prior 2020. Maybe I should consider doing 9:30 PM start times... would mean a change in my work schedule if i choose to do that in 2022.

Since the stream last night was dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV... and getting back in after taking time to put the highlight reel over on facebook.com/fredCasdenGaming would've been impossible, I loaded up Jump Force to continue the grind towards getting as many of its achievements that I feel are possible. Granted all of them are possible, it's just a matter of my sanity.

Jump Force Achievements

1. At the Zenith: Cleared Free Mission on Very Hard one or more times.
   

Here are my favorite Twitch Clips from this past week, which featured Overwatch, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War 4, Jump Force 4, Mario Golf Super Rush, Pokemon Shining Pearl, Final Fantasy XIV and Microsoft Solitaire Collection!

For tonight's stream, we will of course be playing Overwatch...more than likely it'll only feature Quick Plays this week since I doubt Mayhem will be cycled through on the Arcade Modes.

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

Three Gyms In One Night

Good afternoon everyone,

You ever find yourself reaching a point you didn't plan on reaching in something you're doing?

Well that was the case last night for me during the stream of Pokemon: Shining Pearl. Now I knew I was going right for one gym at the start with the possibility of a second one... because I assumed there would be more of a straight forward path based on when various abilities were unlocked (namely the Surf ability)... but nope, after passing the fifth gym, I was basically told to go back to the beginning areas of the game to drop in on a town which happened to have the sixth gym.

Thankfully, my team of Pokemon were balanced enough to deal with it, as I prefer to over level my Pokemon to basically roll over the gym leaders... those of you who have seen the Pokemon Shield and Let's Go Eevee streams know this. So this raises the question for the next Pokemon Shining Pearl stream... do I just go straight for Valor Lake, or do I head into the underground and use the powerful Pokemon down there to level boost. With six gym badges I could easily level up my squad to 70.

Other notes is four members of my squad evolved, so the team now has Roselia, Staraptor, Prinplup, Rapidash to go along with Mew and Luxray. Kind of weak against Ground Type Pokemon, but for the most part by level boosting I should be able to steam roll anything with this lineup.

Following the stream we hosted Maxomilian_Dood who was mess around with one of the Halo Infinite over on twitch.tv/Maximilian_Dood!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Catching Marill
• And it dies just like that! 
• Victory Is Ours
  

Today marked one full year of Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm and Exercise, and for today's session, the exercises were Double Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Defensive Combo #1 for a duration of 29 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 438 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. One Year's Hard Work: Perform Daily Workouts for 365 Consecutive Days
   

What does a year of Fitness Boxing 2 look like? Well here are the totals the three important total.

• Total Punches Thrown: 498,755
• Estimated Calorie Burn:  211,235 kcal
• Exercise Duration: 223 Hours 38 Minutes

Since yesterday was a work day with no work for anyone (again figure that out) I put in some more time on Jump Force to get an idea of how the grind towards a lot of the remaining achievements is going to go.  The Level Training Missions are solid enough on Normal or Hard Difficulty to net a good amount of XP to do some boosting that way, and the Gold Missions seems to help for the ones related to in-game currency. Safe to say Jump Force will still be featured and might gets it's own dedicated night for grinding.

Jump Force Achievements

1. A Natural Fighter: Got S rank 10 or more times on Normal Free Missions.

Happy Birthday to my father who turned 67 years old. 

Rita Repulsa has been added to Power Rangers Battle For The Grid... and since there are achievements in that I still want to try and get I really should resume playing that at some point. 

My off-line Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued with a heavy push on the second-half of the level 74-75 quests in the Main Story... that saw Y'shtola nearly die... again. Seriously, it is a running joke at this point with how Y'shtola seems to have a fake-out death. Still another Lightwarden was defeated defeated, so that is three down and three to go... but I do suspect that my character absorbing all the light may lead to a calamity of some sort.

For tonight's stream, we will be playing Final Fantasy XIV, and since I'm in the Shadowbringers part of the game, no one has to worry about spoilers unless you have not reached that part of the game yet! Still I might just do random stuff, maybe fill out an adventure journal and such.

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

Poorly Putting With Pauline

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was a work day that was not a work day, so figure that one out...

Anyway, last night's stream did indeed feature Mario Golf Super Rush, as we spent the night working on seeing how high we can get on the leader board. I focused on playing as Pauline as it turns out you can unlock club sets by playing enough for each character. So basically we have excuses to keep featuring Mario Golf Super Rush in the future!

Now as I've gottne better with teeing off and driving the ball, I have not improved on putting... resorting to POWER to get things done. That said even when I'm trying to line everything up, more often my puts go off the hole, which is both hilarious and sad at the same thing. 

I did finally figure out how to put a backspin on the ball, which has helped in terms of me choosing to aim a little more creatively to get from point A to point B.

Following the fun we sent the fun over to Swiftsupafly who was playing Super Dodge Ball over at twitch.tv/Swiftsupafly  

Twitch Clip Links

•  It's In the Hole!
•  We'll take the Birdie
•  Nice Birdie

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes with the exercises being Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 519 kcal.

Was really happy to see that Life is Strange: True Colors won some awards last night for the Game Awards, and that Square Enix basically cleaned up with Final Fantasy XIV and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

TellTale Games is doing a Star Trek game which is due out next year, safe to say that will be on my list of things to get as early as possible.

So it took all afternoon, but I got the two final online achievements for Jump Force... which means every other achievement left involves doing the Missions to grind. 

Jump Force Achievements

1. Our Bonds: Fought other players online 100 or more times.
2. Challenger: Challenged other players 10 or more times.
   

Get use to that sweater I've worn the last couple of nights, if it's like below 40 I'm putting it on... or the Mass Effect jacket.... whichever is closer!

My Final Fantasy XIV progress last night saw us finally catch up with Y'shtola not to mention find out that obvious fact that by slaying the Lightwardens, we might be dooming the world of the first... if anything by one cut scene is to go by. That said, the part of the Main Story Quest done last night, A Party Soon Divided up through An Unwanted Proposal, may have been the the first half of the level 74-75 quests for Shadowbringers, but it was mostly text and lore with very little 'doing things'.

Not surprised Jeff Hardy fell off the wagon again, dude never changed his in-ring style enough to where he wasn't risking having to self-prescribe. 

For tonight's stream we will be playing Pokemon Shining Pearl, with Budew in the lead off spot to try and improve the friendship rating with it in order to evolve it during the day at some point.

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

The Jump Force Grind Is Real As Are The Gears Of War

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was so cold I actually grabbed a sweater to put it on, well it's kind of like a sweater vest... but hell, folks know I don't normally wear long sleeves! 

Anyway last night's stream lead off with Jump Force as we put the grind on towards knocking off some achievements. Actually a couple of matches, even if I was going through the motion but folks could tell I was making an effort to try and win. The end result was my Rank being D1, which is just below the C-tier. So I assume there are S-Tier for the very top players... because I've seen B-Tier and A-Tier players. Anyway, near as I can tell (because the X-Box servers were having some issues), I should need only about 15 matches to get the achievement for playing 100 online matches. That would leave only the achievement for challenging other players 10 times to be done, but I don't think that's really possible.

The second half of last night's stream saw Iceman join in as we tackled ACT IV of Gears of War 4, and there was silliness to be had, with some accidental deaths, a few well time moments and lots of guts and gore. We'll actually wrap up Gears of War 4 on next Wednesday's stream with the fifth and final act. depending on how long that takes, we'll also check out the horde mode as well.

Now I did mention the X-Box servers were having some issues, a lot of it pertained to tracking of achievements, as they are not fully updating despite progress being made. Good thing I remember what achievements did pop for me, because as it relates to Jump Force, I would hate to lose the fact we did a bunch of matches for no gain!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to ErikaMonky who was doing a Just Chatting session over on twitch.tv/erikamonky!  

Jump Force Achievements

1. J-Skill Master: Obtained 50 or more J-Skills

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. Triple Threat: Upgrade 3 skill cards
2. Gone With The Windflare: Kill 15 enemies using the environment during a windflare
   

Twitch Clip Links

•  Just Back and Forth!
•  Somehow We Won
•  Let's Try Not To Disturb Anything... Ooops!
•  I'm going to wait before going forward...

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for a duration of 34 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 634 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5: Reach a total punch count of 495,000 HITs
   

The next tier of Weight Puncher is called 'Immortal Weight Puncher', with the next objective being to reach 540,000 HITs, at the moment I'm at 496,239. That said, I should have the One Year's Hard Work achievement unlocked on Saturday

Work was really weird, start on one assignment, but it was basically a production killer, then switch to its variant 1/2 way through the shift and things pick up. It's a conspiracy I tell you! 

Figured out what to get my nieces for Christmas, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain and L.O.L. Surprise! Movie Night.... of the two games, the first would be something I would figure I would get for myself at some point.

Got in some Final Fantasy XIV last night, covering the everything from A Visit to the Nu Mou up through The Wheel Turns, which meant The Dancing Plague Trial was done. If there was something I learned is that one does not fuck with the Fae folk. It certainly was eventful. So now I will be entering the level 74-75 quests, and looking ahead, I only see one Dungeon... which means there are probably a lot of solo combat stuff to deal with.

My buddy Dax has been busy with his fan fic writing as he's been knocking out a few commission pieces as of late. I'm still waiting on the outline of what someone is wanting me to write.

For tonight's stream we're probably going to chill with something casual, Mario Golf Super Rush is a strong possibility but at this time I'm not 100% sure. 

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

 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Finished!

Good morning everyone,

Well, we've reached a new high score for games finished with 70 this year... and with a few weeks left, that number will increased.

So yes, we did finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider last night, and I'm really surprised I did finish it, because of how distracted I would get with side quests, tombs and challenges. Hell an hour of tonight's stream was dedicated to just ONE TOMB because of my tendency of not realizing where to jump, a fact that came up repeatedly towards the end of the game!

That said, much like the first two games in the Survivor trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider's 3rd act is really short when all things considered, but the plus side is the game does have a New Game Plus, which allows to start a new campaign with all the abilities unlocked you earned. So there's a nice incentive to play again at some point on a harder difficulty setting.

In terms of the actual story, Shadow of the Tomb Raider served to give Lara closure on the death of her father and the short amount of time she had with her mother, in addition to closing the book on Trinity... even though there is no real connection to the 2013 game beyond a passing mention in Rise of the Tomb Raider. But the question is, where does Lara' story go next, because I would assume there will be a Tomb Raider game on the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles coming in a year or two. 

I was asked how I would the Survivor Trilogy... so first would be Tomb Raider, second would be Rise of the Tomb Raider and third would be Shadow of the Tomb Raider... It's not like I liked the trilogy less as it went along, but I really did enjoy the first game in the saga the most, as I feel it had the best layout of being able to find the tombs without having to go off the beaten path too much.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Phoenix_face who was playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive over on twitch.tv/phoenix_face! 

On a side note: turns out some of the achievements from last night's stream were part of a DLC pack, and they were diamond achievements. Anyway, two achievements were earned this morning when I was going down the list of what was earned and realized I could pop into the game to get two pretty easy!

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Thanksgiving: Shoot a turkey with a Flare Round
2. The Chosen One: Find the Silver Box of Ix Chel
3. Total Party Kill: Kill 5 enemies with friendly fire
4. Back to Where We Started: Return to Paititi
5. To the Nines: Restore and equip a matching vestige outfitQueen of the Damned: Make an unlikely ally
6. Marksman: Perform 20 headshots with the bow
7. On the Go: Craft special ammunition 50 times
8. Smart and Resourceful: Complete Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Smart and Resourceful difficulty
9. Quite the Adventure: Finish the main storyline
10. Underwater Archeologist: Collect 5 underwater Artifacts
11. That Was A Breeze: Complete the Path of Huracan Challenge Tomb
12. Go With The Flow: Complete The Age Makers Side Mission
13. Eyes Of The Storm*: Obtain A Thousand Eyes skill, equip elite versions of Oathtaker's Bow and Sinchi Chiqa Battle Dress 
14. That's a Knife!*: Fully upgrade the knife
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Achievement: Thanksgiving!
• Get to the Choppa!!! 
• Will he die this time!

With Shadow of the Tomb Raider finished, what will be the next major game to be played? Well Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is the leading candidate at this point. Other contenders include Persona 3, Final Fantasy VII Remake and several other huge games., 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Work Out Featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 464 kcal.

Just going to say if: the person to blame for the current situation in Major League Baseball is Scott Boris, who has three clients as leaders of the MLBPA.

Didn't play any Final Fantasy XIV last night because of the All Worlds Emergency Maintenance.

So instead my post-stream gaming was focused on Jump Force and I did get two achievements done.

Jump Force Achievements

1. The Curtain Rises: Won friendly match one or more times.
2. Fanfare: Used emotions 100 or more times.

Which means the one achievement that will be a pain in the ass to do as it relates to the online ones would be challenging someone, have them accept and completing the match ten times... managed to get one, but I can't imagine that being possible at this point. 

For Tonight's stream, we will be achievement hunting with Jump Force to lead things off, playing online matches to grind towards that achievement of playing 100 of them and then Iceman and I will be resuming Gears of War 4 with Act IV! 

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

More Shadows Fewer Tombs Raided

Good morning everybody,

Near as I can tell the dropped frames that I experienced during last night's stream was due to the weather, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Anyway, we resumed Shadow of the Tomb Raider as we did a bunch of side quests and pushed the story forward so we're out of the Hidden City and are now in a Mission of San Juan. At this point I have no clue how many chapters of major set pieces are left in the game, as any wikis and guides I'm seeing aren't making it clear, but with my tendency of going off the beaten path and searching for Tombs and Crypts, plus wanting to do the side missions, I could be making the game a lot longer than it needs to be!  

Still there were some awesome moments, the shot of Lara coming up from the water with the fire behind her was just bad ass, and clear indication that Lara wants to stick Roark's head on a pike is a great call back of how she was on a rampage in the 2013 game when she made a make-shift grenade launcher and screaming she's coming for them all. There was a fake out of Jonah possible being killed off, but as Iceman said, if Jonah dies a lot of people stop caring about Tomb Raider.

This does raise a question about when we will see the next game from the franchise and which direction it would go. I can't imagine re-doing the original game as that was done in with Tomb Raider Legend I think.

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. Zoologist: Collect 20 critters
2. Thread the Past: Restore 5 vestige outfit pieces
3. Sixth Sense: Hunt and kill 10 enemies while Perception is active
4. I Believe Hakan Fly: Rescue Hakan from the cultists
5. Family Ties: Free Unuratu from prison
6. Stele Hunter: Complete 3 Challenge Tombs
7. Like a Shadow: Stealth takedown 25 enemies
8. Last Known Position: Lose the enemy 10 times
9. Chain Gang: Perform the Serpent's Fury 3 times
10. Playing with Fire: Burn 2 enemies simultaneously
11. Heart of the Serpent: Find the Mission of San Juan
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Llama llama llama....
• You're not dissuading her 
• Timed Puzzle Ends In A Roll
•  Lara goes on a rampage... again
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Block Combo and Waist Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 477 kcal.

Got a request to do a commissioned fan fic based around the WWE... going to consider it since the person wanting me to d a story for them knows when I stopped watching regularly.  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw main story progress from Warrior of Darkness up through A Visit to Nu Mou. I have to say upon arriving in the fourth land of the Shadowbringers content called Il Mheg, I had a hard time seeing because of the Fae cloaking field or whatever, as it was a really bright shade of white that made it really tough to see any damn thing, let alone read the objectives. Beyond that, the story of that we're on our way of slaying the second Lightwarden is pretty cool, considering all out war is going to break out in the World of the First. Urianger being a lot more proactive out in the field is a nice change of pace as well.

So far I have not had to use the 'Trusts' system to get through the Dungeons of Shadowbringers, but Kalenal did say they are work doing because the In-game companions say unique things that tie into the story... so maybe we'll replay any dungeons I do on stream using the Trust system at some point.

For tonight's stream we will be resuming Shadows of the Tomb Raider, as I'll be lead off with doing side quests... we might jump back to the Hidden City to finish one that was in progress that we couldn't get to because we didn't have the knife upgrade.

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