That's right we played Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe last night!

Good afternoon everyone,

If there is any proof that I will feature some random nonsense on my Twitch channel last night proved it.

And yes as you can tell we played Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe last night, and it's a game I haven't fully touched in a very long time. I think maybe we took a quick look at the PS3 one last year at some point, but for me to sit down and play it for several hours I feel the last time I did that was maybe 10 years ago. For the stream, we used the digital 360 version that is on the list of X-Box's backwards compatible games

For those who don't know, MKvDC was like Midway's last gasp before they were bought out by Warner Brothers and became Nether Realm Studios, and is the rather unusual crossover between Mortal Kombat and DC Comics. The story is Shao Khan and Darkseid are merged into one being because at the same time Superman and Raiden try to stop them as they were teleporting away, and now the two universes are merging.

Gameplay wise... it's the 3D arena style that Midway was using for the Mortal Kombat series through out the PlayStation 2 era, and needless to say, while I can handle that in things like Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter or even Tekken, it never felt right for the Mortal Kombat series. MKvDC also has probably some of the most wonky A.I. I've ever seen, regardless of difficulty setting, it will suddenly have a spike where the game will beat your ass down. Graphically, it holds up fairly well, there are some weirdness where some stuff looks more like body paint than actual clothing, and some designs are rather odd out right,

But probably the thing that most people remember most about MKvDC is the story mode, as it is the game that basically launched the trend of every fighting game having a cinematic tale where you play as the majority of the roster. MKvDC is unique in that you can see the story from two different points of view, the Mortal Kombat side, and the DC Universe side... which is the one we did for the stream. Some of the story details are goofy, but then again the entire concept of the game itself is goofy.

We will be revisiting Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe again to do the Mortal Kombat side of the story, more than likely that will be next Saturday's stream

For the raid, we sent everyone over to Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal!  

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Achievements

• Free Fallin': Perform a Free-Fall Transition
• The Pugilist: Perform Klose Kombat
• Heroic Brutality!: Perform a Heroic Brutality!
• Fatality!: Perform a Fatality!
• Combo Champion: Perform a 10-hit combo in Arcade Mode
• Mortal Kombat Champion: Finish arcade mode with an MK character
• Strange Forces: Complete Chapter 1 - DC Universe
• Invasion: Complete Chapter 3 - DC Universe
• Unlikely Alliance: Complete Chapter 5 - DC Universe
• Universe Reborn: Complete DC Universe Story
• Super Hero: Finish arcade mode with a DC character

Twitch Clip Links

1. Heroic Brutality
2. Sonya Blade versus Dark Khan 
3. These are not the Bees Knees!
4. Fatality 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #2, Biceps Shape Focus Combo and Intermediate Combo #1 for 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 540 kcal

Played some Final Fantasy XIV last night off-stream, focused on the Main Story Quest, in particular the quests "For Thavnair Bound",  "On Low Tide" & "A Fisherman's Friend" which introduces a new open area and loads of ground to cover. I did like the NPC called Kytte who seems like a quirky genius who might end up getting someone killed with their experiments. Also discovered that some enemies are going to spawn at level 90... which means I'm going to be using my Chocobo companion quite a lot in the field

Also put in more of the grind towards completing all the achievements for Capcom Arcade Stadium while watching The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. At this point I have only one more class related achievement to reach.... but as I mentioned previously, it's to get 100,000,000 CASPO which will give the Class 20 rank, it'll take some serious grinding but it's reachable.

Capcom Arcade Stadium Achievements

• Top of the Class: Reach Class 15: Operator.
  

Now getting back to The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, the version I watched was the extended cut, which runs three hours... and yeah that's a big long. Still the musical score and the pacing makes it a great watch while casually doing something else. Now yes the movie stars Clint Eastwood... but I think the true star of it is Eli Wallach who plays Tuco... who probably gets the most screen time, we get to learn about him, and by the end of the film one is rooting for Blondie (Eastwood) to shoot him down from the noose he put him in. (as pay back for Tuco getting pay back on him... yeah it's complicated) 

It's a new week, which means the Twitch Bits video is here to showcase all the games we played over the last seven days. This past week we featured Overwatch, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, Life of Fly, Paladins, Kingdom Hearts III & Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe!

For tonight's stream we'll be featuring Overwatch, as we do every Sunday night.

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

Well that was Untangled

Good afternoon everyone,

Boy was yesterday weird, it was like in teens all day... and then things warmed up to the low 20s at night... yes I'm being sarcastic!

Anyway last night's stream featured Kingdom Hearts III, with the big focused on The Kingdom of Corona... (or cheap beer, which was a running gag). Since I have no familiarity with the movie Tangled. I'm not to keen on Flynn's design, but Rapunzel and Gothel had pretty cool looks. The open world when going from Rapunzel's tower to the Kingdom of Corona certainly felt worth of exploring, and the enemy spawn rate wasn't too which meant back tracking or making up for mistakes wasn't as brutal in comparison to Toy Box.

I did like how Rapunzel's long hair was used into exploring the world, as she uses it as way to swing Sora and company over some large gaps. The boss at the end of the world, which was formed from Gothel's cloak after she falls out of a window was unique... but I don't quite kick how or why it was causing sneezing.

In terms of the impressions of Tangled based on what I saw, it certainly seems like it would be good for a casual watch. Nothing really made me say I want to go see it based on the story elements presented... and of course, Rapunzel's realization of who she is by holding a cloth with a sun on it while looking up at the ceiling was too much of a leap, even more... if that is how it plays out in the movie then... wow, that is some 'we need to an emotional trigger moment' style writing.

On a side note, I'm keeping Kingdom Hearts III on Friday nights, which gives a nice end of the week 'feature' vibe... plus it means less things to fight on YouTube for copyright claims.

For the raid, we sent things over to Glorifiedthief who was playing Persona 5 Royal over at twitch.tv/Glorifiedthief!  They are super awesome.!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Happily Ever After: Adventure through the Kingdom of Corona and complete the story.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Tangled Twist?
2. Keep Dancing 
3. Just Beat The Tar Out Of It!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #3, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficult Challenge Combo #2 for a duration of 34 minutes an a calorie burn estimated to be about 653 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2 Totals For Week Of 1/16 to 1/22

• Punches Thrown: 9,017
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4010.75 kcal
  

Wisconsin is full of some really special people... special as in anyone I spoke to in the that state who happened to be a Trump support clearly was on the short bus as a youth. Some folks have their heads so far up their own ass that they totally approve of what happened back on January 6 of 2021...  again, special people... that need to be put in a special place... like a fucking mental asylum. 

Did some long play time of Final Fantasy XIV last night after the stream, knocking out the entire Old Sharlayan Quest chain that sees Alphinaud and Alisaie getting to see their mother and also new clothes. Have to say that getting around Labyrinthos is a pain in the ass because of how it's 'layered', and there is really only one way up and down and that is a long mount ride through a mine. Still there was a great little moment when myself and twins were turn into frogs. Also hit the level cap of 90 for Bard... so now the worry will be about getting gear that kind of equals that!

Some stuff added to the X-Box digital library: Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle, Capcom Arcade Cabinet, Duke Nukem Forever, Tomb Raider Underworld and Saints Row. Wait... Capcom Arcade Cabinet... isn't that the same thing as Capcom Arcade Stadium... well yes and no, think of it as the 360 era version, but with fewer games, actual achievements for the games in the collection... but also some different titles. 

And speaking of Capcom Arcade Stadium... I was up till about 6 AM playing 1942 to get to where I can use the rewind exploit to farm the 10 Million Point Bonus.... which converts to about 38,000 CASPO (Capcom Arcade Stadium Points)... and the end goal is to get 100,000,000 CASPO. Good news is I'm at 10,000.000 CASPO... but the grind is real people... the grind is real!

Capcom Arcade Stadium Achievements

• C Average: Reach Class 10: Jurist.
  

For tonight's stream, I have not made up my mind of what we're going to do yet. I'm learning towards a few things but I do want to save some stuff for weeknight features. I'll figure something out, I always do.

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

Life of Fly Is A Nice Little Experience

Good morning everyone,

It's Friday! Yay!

Last night's stream featured three games, the main feature was Life of Fly... which lasted all of an hour. It's basically a simulator where you fly as a fly from point to point, hearing its thoughts on various topics related to different things. It's a really short game, and if you're looking for games to 100% complete easily, it's the perfect game to grab when it's on sale. Other notes are that is has an awesome musical score and the stories told by the fly in each chapter are rather clever.

And apparently there is a sequel to Life of Fly as well... might have to look into that!

Played some Dead or Alive 5: Last Round on stream, and the last time it was featured was probably back at the start of 2019 when I was doing the story mode of the Steam Version. So doing the story mode on the X-Box version seems like a good idea for something this year. Had a couple of matches against other people that did not go well at all. On the plus side, since I was messing around with Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore last week, some of the stuff I realized that work with Tina in that sure enough still worked in this.

We actually broke out Paladins for the third game, and boy do I remember why I stopped playing it full time once I got into Overwatch. The balancing of some of the characters just doesn't make any damn sense. The things that do bother me more than anything when it comes to Paladins is how, like Smite, it it is designed to screw over players if someone on a team leaves for some reason. On the plus side we were joined by Reaper for several matches.

Big thanks to Sw33ts_Gaming for choosing to re-subscribe to my Twitch channel for the 33rd straight month!

For the raid last night we sent the fun over to sw33ts_gaming who was also playing Paladins over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! And I even joined in on a few matches as well.

Life of Fly Achievements

• The 1st Fly: Finish the story of the first Fly
• The 2nd Fly: Finish the story of the second fly
• The 3rd Fly: Finish the story of the third fly
• The 4th Fly: Finish the story of the forth fly
• The 5th Fly: Finish the story of the 5th fly
• The 6th Fly: Finish the story of the 6th fly
• The 7th Fly: Finish the story of the 7th fly
• The 8th Fly: Finish the story of the 8th fly
• The 9th Fly: Finish the story of the 9th fly
• The 10th Fly: Finish the story of the 10th fly
• The 11th Fly: Finish the story of the 11th fly
• The 12th Fly: Finish the story of the 12th fly

Twitch Clip Links

1. And we're going to crash into the window...
2. That's an Explosive Finish! 
3. Unstoppable!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Hip Shape Focus Combo, Sway Back Combo and Straight Combo #2 for 31 minutes and an estimate calorie burn of 472 kcal.

Taxes were filed and the payment of money owed to the IRS was scheduled... fucking bastards. You know, I am fully aware that that many folks, particularly parents who got assistance during the pandemic are going to get hit hard, makes me wonder why steps to protect folks from this nonsense wasn't taken since the same thing basically happened to millions of people last year. 

Meat Loaf and Louie Anderson both passed away. I clearly associate Meat Loaf with a few of his big songs, like Bat out of Hell and I'll Do Anything For Love, but also the Rocky Horror Picture Show. With Anderson, I associate a cartoon that aired on Fox Kids back in the early 90s called Life with Louie... which spawned the 'My Head Looks Like A Tomato' line.

For tonight's stream we will be playing Kingdom Hearts III, as we'll be heading to the world that I believe ties in with the movie Tangled... which I have never seen

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

Gears, Horizons and Things Dumber Than Buffalo

Good morning everyone,

Interesting title for today's blog? Well it's more to do with the fine folks of Wyoming... now I don't want to pick on them too much, but I was shocked at how many people feel the stuff that went down back on January 6 of 2021 was justified. I mean there's drinking the Kool-Aid, and then there is being blind to the fucking obvious... but, I guess the fine folks of Wyoming aren't so fine.

Anyway, last night's stream featured Gears 5, as I was joined by Iceman and Striker for more fun as we covered the first half of Act III, finding the water supply missions and one of the Nomad missions, as well as a beacon for Baird missions, before dealing with the main mission of exploring a rocket hanger. There were a few issues of the game de-syncing and a few odd glitches, notably with Striker who got stuck in the floor since he's playing as Jack.

I'm not however buying into JD suddenly being remorseful about his actions and attitude following the stunt he pulled in Act I of Gears 5, I'm sorry but it really comes across as forced as if to sway the player for a major decision later in the game... which is to either save JD or Del. If there is supposed to be some romance thing happening between JD and Kait it certainly isn't clear in either Gears of War 4 or Gears 5!

Of course we continued the trend of pairing Forza Horizon 4 with Gears 5 on Wednesdays, and I knocked out a few things there, such as the last chapter of the Upgrade Heroes, and reaching the 10th marker as it relates to all to the Cross Country series of races. It does seem that whenever I complete something in this game, more is added... so I'm wondering how nuts things are in Forza Horizon 5!

For the raid we sent things over to Lifewithstan who was playing Outlast II and clearly regretting it! He streams over at twitch.tv/lifewithstan!  

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• Bouncy Bouncy, Having Such a Good Time!: Reach Round 10 in the Horizon Cross Country Series
• Coronation Trickin': Bank a Skill Chain of 195,300 or more points.
• Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Complete all chapters of the "Upgrade Heroes" story.
  

Gears 5 Achievements

• Safe and Sound: Secured the UIR satellites
  

Twitch Clip Links

1. Well... we got water logged!
2. WHOA! 
3. We did it... but not fast enough 
4. Jack is stuck in the floor! 
5. Oh no! 
6. You got an ugly face... on your face! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Hook Combo #2, &  Block Combo for 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 489 kcal.

Went through a couple main story quests in Final Fantasy XIV last night, the first being the one that that shows off where everything is in Sharlayan, as well as introduces a 'travel with companions' feature, which I guess means we can walk around major cities with a couple of the other Scions, then there wast he second quest which basically was getting a history lesson on Sharlayan, which interesting was a bit bleh in regards to how it was presented. 

For tonight's stream I'm not 100% sure what's going to be featured, I have a few ideas, but I'm not sure if it's going to be something I can do in one night. I know I don't want to hook up one of the older consoles, and I'm saving Kingdom Hearts III for Friday nights. So I guess I'll figure something out later!

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

 

It Took Me How Long To Reach the Start of Endwalker

Good morning everyone,

Working in market research is always fun when the quotas work against you in terms of reaching goals... but that is life!

Anyway last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV finally saw me reached the start of Endwalker, and by start I mean I completed the first quest of the latest expansion (The Next Ship to Sail) . It's been a long road, from when I started the game back in early October... and its taken 320 + hours to reach this point. Keeping in mind I played through the entire Main Story Questline plus several Featured Side Quests not associated with unlocking new class types, not to mention times I spent dedicated to doing raids and other things.

As far as the ending to the Post-Shadowbringers content is concerned, it certainly is interesting to see that we can basically stop Fandaniel's schemes, but the showdown with Zenos is clearly the driving force for Endwalker, there is no question about that since he is the narrator. There was some nice artwork in the end-credits, plus the battle in Death Unto Dawn was interesting.

Beyond that, I did finally clear out the Gunbreaker quest that has been sitting in my 'to do' list for several weeks, as well as unlocked the Fisher class to start messing around with that. Also came across another level 50 dungeon that I apparently missed first time through.

How much of Endwalker is going to be on stream... probably not much to avoid giving spoilers, but you know I will update progress here in the blog!

For last night's raid, the fun was sent over to Sw33ts_Gaming who was playing Paladins over at twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! 

Twitch Clip Links

• Excuse You?!
• Death from above!
• We Caught A Fish!

Started work on my taxes and because of a screw-up from 2020 by the New Jersey Department of Labor that gave me an amount they owed me in 2021 as a result of their screw up the previous year, I now have a fat tax bill that I wasn't expecting and that's not counting the $30 filing charge through H&R Block. Would not have been so bad if work resumed for me two weeks ago as it should have instead of last week, because I would not have gone into my savings to get a jump on another bill. I tell ya if it ain't one thing its' another

Now I know what you're going to say, how could I not expect it considering how the tax season last year went with the IRS having to correct millions of tax returns. Simple, all my documentation didn't indicate the carry over from 2020, as it all goes year to date, so everything read 2021 with no reference to the previous year.

So since I was doing my taxes this morning, I got a late start on today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout. The exercises for today were beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1 of 497 kcal.

The using the broken controller to grind out hours in Capcom Arcade Stadium is working, doing 4-5 hour bursts will meant the 100 hour achievement will be knocked our gradually over the course of the next couple of weeks.

For tonight's stream, we shall lead off with more goofing around in Forza Horizon 4 and then continue Gears 5 with Iceman and Striker!

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

Finished Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise!

Good morning everyone,

You know, I'm not one to consider doing New Game+ runs, however Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise certainly has me considering it.

Last night's stream of said game was basically me messing around at first, going to the final areas of the Wasteland that I have no visited and realizing the enemies there are certainly tougher... and I'm going to guess that maybe bounties take place in those places, because outside of the main story, there is no reason to head south unless one wants to do some level grinding... which can be done in Eden through the Bounty side-quests.

That said the Final Chapter of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise certainly reveals some big plot points that goes out of their way to paint Jagre and Lyra in a bad light, granted they have sort of a change of heart, but the fact they were working with the Tagra for a revenge plot kind of works. The final two big fights, against Nadai and Tagra certainly feel epic, particularly when one actually performs the quick time events correctly, and the gauntlet of enemies between the two certainly builds a lot of anticipation for the game's climax.

There is a bit of a fake out with the ending, as the game appears to end with Kenshirio and Yuria reuniting only to die in a nuclear explosion, but thankfully after the credits roll it's revealed they were saved by Nadai, and the city of Eden gets back to normal while Ken and Yuria drive off to deliver some apples to a kid Ken meets at the beginning of the game.

Now I did start messing around with the Endless Eden mode, and I'm confused by the fact that no roaming enemies and people in need of help are not in the streets. Are those elements really locked to certain chapters of the game? It certainly appears that way, also several of the remaining side stories requires a lot of grinding for materials for the buggy, IDL for Kenshiro's debt and other stuff which means... I can always come back to the Endless Eden mode for chill streams.

For the raid, we sent the fun over to AnnieTalksShow over at twitch.tv/annietalksshow who was playing Words on Stream!

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Trophies

• Drive Backwards Into Hell: Drive backwards in the buggy for a total of 10km.
• The Man of Hokuto: Completed the Final Chapter.
• Overachiever: Completed 50% of the achievements.

Twitch Clip Links

1. That was cool
2. Phantom Channeling Point On The Final Boss
3. Hokuto no Ken: Defeating Shin! 
4. The Burst version of the Hundred Fist Rush
5. Hokuto: Eight Pains Nine Hells! 
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #1, Weaving Combo #1 and Intermediate Combo #2 for 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of around 499 kcal.

Got curious as to why there has been no news related to Star Trek Online's anniversary, and it turns out Cryptic Studios has been sold again, as Perfect World Entertainment (the overall publisher of not just STO, but numerous other MMOs) is being sold wholesale to another company. This is the second time in Star Trek Online's history when things got shelved because of corporate business, the first was back in 2011 or 2012, when Atari went belly up and many of its studios and projects were sold off.

And staying on this subject... Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard...which considering all the issues at that company in the past few years is a good thing in my opinion. And since Overwatch comes with that deal, I'm sure Microsoft will make good use of it. 

Got asked about doing a commissioned fan fic featuring Peter 'Spider-Man' Parker and Laura 'X-23' Kinney. I know they had a couple of run-ins in the comics, but didn't think they would be something people would want shipped. I have a rough idea for a set up, so hopefully I can piece it together.

Making use of a broken wired X-Box controller (the X button collapsed in on itself), I've been doing some 'automatic' sessions of Capcom Arcade Stadium, since said X button registers as constantly being pressed, that means turbo auto-fire, combined with Invincibility, I can just let the Vulgus run for several hours as I do other stuff to grind towards the 100 hours achievement. Granted because of the Invincibility, only 10% of possibility CAPSO rewards are earned... but hey, one thing at a time.

Off-Stream Final Fantasy XIV progress saw me actually put some effort into the Blue Mage grind, and I managed to find several spells, but it does appear a lot of the good spells require a number of loops to jump through a number of hoops to get into dungeons, raids and trials to make the class worth the hassle.

For tonight's stream, we'll play Final Fantasy XIV, to wrap up the Shadowbringers post-story and probably mess around with some side quests if I choose not to jump into Endwalker straight away

So  well unless something weird happens we'll see you tonight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Fun With Overwatch And Other Stuff

Good evening everyone,

I forgot to hit publish earlier today!

Anyway last night's stream of Overwatch was all the usual shenanigans! Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of fun. Picked up two Plays of the Game last night, one as D.va and one as Junkrat! Characters that I used were mostly D.va, Junkrat, Mei and Moira.

In terms of how good the randoms were, well, they were certainly a mixed bag with quite a few making questionable choices. Had a couple of matches where I could read the way things were going that I will admit I phoned it in, but for the most part things were solid with now really solid where I felt every match was evenly fought, regardless of wins or losses.

For the raid, we sent every over to Glorifiedthief who was playing Persona 5 Royal over at twitch.tv/Glorifiedthief!  

Speaking of the raid, anyone who has seen the end of my streams, knows there is an outro that plays, and we got a raid from wifeylovesnerd who also was playing Overwatch! I hope to return the favor to them down the road on their channel over at twitch.tv/wifeylovesnerd!

Twitch Clip Links

•  We dropped The Bomb On Them!
•  A Moira and a Winston Break On Through
•  Getting the Mei Ultimate at the right moment

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Triple Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Uppercut Combo #1 for 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 457 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievement Progress

• 37 out of 50 hours trained with Janice for 'Janice's Champion'
• 87% of EX Achievement Acquired for King EX Fighter
  

One of my favorite content creators, Maximilian_DOOD, hit one million followers last night, and I managed to grab a clip of it while watching. He streams over at twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD!  

• Max hits 1 Million!
  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures continued off-stream off course, by reaching the Quest 'The Flames of War' and the dungeon, 'Paglth'an' which certainly was a challenge for me to get through in one piece. I really am not a fan of things that makes me have to run for some pillar because of some status effect, as I will not be aware of it on the first time through. Still, near as I can tell, the remaining quests are mostly story and lore, with one major 'level sync' solo duty to close out the gap of events between the end of Shadowbringers and the start of Endwalker.

For tonight's stream, we'll be resuming Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, and there is a possibility we can finish it tonight! 

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