How I Failed On Getting Blue Mage Spells Last Night

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw the usual things happen, with another successful run of the Fourth Circle Pandemonium Raid , some Fishing and Botany grinding , as well as getting use to the Dancer class. Also started up the Lancer class as something else to experiment with in game.. and as an excuse to go after low level enemies.

But things took a turn when it came to me trying to get some spell as a Blue Mage involving the trials, and I came oh so close to getting the spells from Titan and Shiva only to die in the last 30 seconds of the battle. That was frustrating as all hell. Still some folks were able to get the spells in the group I joined, so hopefully I'll have better luck with that in the future. Actually my luck on these would be better if I could have gotten more practice on some of the level 50 trials, but not many folks run them unless they pop up in the roulette dailies.

On the bright side, two of last nights clips are of my epic failures, so hey,  not every clips is me being successful folks!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Figuring out stuff as a Dancer
2. Died as a Blue Mage Against Titan right at the end... no new spell for me :(
3. How I died as a Blue Mage against Shiva... missing out on the spell... :( 
   

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV last night over on twitch.tv/oldish22!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Front-Back Step Combo, Beginner Combo #1 and Hook Combo #2.

It does amaze me how things can be done so out of order in New Jersey, as I damn near had a panic attack yesterday when something arrived in the mail that I typically would no receive until after I received something else to give me some key information.

Overwatch has announced that the Anniversary event starting on April 5 is going to be a 3-part event, and that there will be remixes of classic Legendary skins... that should be... interesting. I think. Granted it's all towards pushing up hype for Overwatch 2 

Messed around with Space Invaders Infinity Gene last night and managed to get the one achievement associated with the 'prologue' in shooting down the UFO which extends my achievement streak to today. 

Played a couple of games of Smite last night as Ra and Aphrodite  to see if I can figure out how to use them, I was not successful

I'm kicking around and idea of doing something related to Bruce Willis on Saturday's stream. As many know, it was revealed earlier this week that he has Aphasia, which is a condition that can affect the ability to produce and comprehend both written and spoken communication. There are a few variants of it: Expressive Aphasia which is having trouble getting the words out, Receptive Aphasia which which is having difficulty understand what is being heard, and then Total Aphasia which is a combination of the two. 

Now what I'm thinking is dedicating the stream to a game he was involved in making called Apocalypse, which was on the original PlayStation. I could also mess around with both Die Hard Trilogy games. Of course last week we checked out The Fifth Element, so that is also on the table.

For tonight's stream we'll be getting back to Persona 5 Royal, as we gradually work our way through the story that is building towards the next villain, whoever it may be! 

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

First Fallout 76 Experience, Fitness Boxing 2 Totals For March

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 was interesting, and it's a little quirky in a few ways. First the biggest issues I have is when using the PipBoy device because on almost every other game, to navigate menus it's pressing LB and RB... that is not the case with this game, and so it's going to take getting use to. Also I'm playing it in 3rd person mode, because it does allow to see things from different points of view.

That said, we really took our time getting started, roaming around and finding things to get a feel for the in-game world... where other players can attack you. I was aware of this, but since I have no intention of dealing with any PVP nonsense, I'll just leave the pacifist mode on to avoid that. We did see an example of this because Iceman joined in, and accidentally became wanted... and resulted in a higher level player coming along to get the bounty.

The game and story itself is pretty much open ended as to what approach one should take, but I think managing the hunger and hydration is going to be the biggest issues for me to contend with. Still the game itself does make a for a fun time to mess around with buddies while making casual progress towards getting things done.

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Reclamation Day!: Leave Vault 76
• A Fighting Chance: Craft a Weapon
• Tested Mettle: Complete 5 Challenges
• Happy C.A.M.P.er: Build a C.A.M.P.
• A Real Challenger: Complete 20 Challenges
• Second Skin: Craft 5 Pieces of Armor
• Junker Funk: Gather 200 Pieces of Junk

Twitch Clip Links

• The first achievement 
• He lost his head!
• We're doing the murder 
• Iceman was getting attack... he was wanted
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x  who was playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain over on twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive Combo #1, Double Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #2. With the extra free training I did today, I set a new personal best for Biceps Shape Focus Combo set to No Mercy, with the results of all 832 actions being 823 Perfect and 9 Okay.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats For March 2022

• Punches thrown: 56,922
• Punches thrown for March 2021: 43,985
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 24271.95 kcal
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn For Match 2021 : 19008.94 kcal
  

The totals I hit this month set a new best for a complete month, breaking the records I set for myself in May of last year when I three 56,436 punches and had an estimated calorie burn of 23,967.58 kcal. Funny enough, or tragically, the reason for the extra amount of workout time was because work got slow.

Since Peacock is included with my Cable and Internet service through Comcast Xfinity, Let me say this, the TV interface sucks, and the Web browser variate is only marginally better. One does not really realize who limited the Universal Film and TV Library is until you start looking through what is on Peacock. I checked out the WWE Network stuff, watch a random episode of WCW Thunder, and episode of the Broken Skull Sessions.  

Speaking of WWE stuff, my progress in the MyCareer mode of 2K15 continued to where I had a run in with the Shield. It was a nice little story, but I wonder if the limit of being on 'three big events' actually is a hindrance or if of just waiting for major story lines while grinding out various matches.

My Xbox achievement streak continued to today by knock out two achievements in Aaero last night, which extended the streak to 49 days..

Aaero Achievements

• No brakes: Complete 'I Can't Stop' on Normal
• 25 Normal Stars: Earn 25 stars on Normal

I am disappointed that Twitch is discontinuing the Desktop App, I found it to be a very useful tool when it came to watching other people stream while I was working on other things.

For tonight's stream we'll be having a nice casual night of Final Fantasy XIV, a raid or two, some level grinding on different stuff, but you know we'll be keeping it chill.

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

The Loyalty Of The Thief And The Mercenary

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 was focused on every not associated with the main story of the game, as we went to nearly every system we could and put in a good deal of time on things associated with the game's DLC. I'll get the Firewalker content out of the way first, I'm not a fan of the Hammerhead vehicle, but having played Mass Effect 2 enough times I can basically tear though its missions rather quickly to get it out of the way.

Zaaed's mission of revenge is probably the one where I can easily flip flop on saving the refinery workers or just getting Zaaed to Santiago so that he can have some closure. Granted the later has the awesome sight of Zaaed walking away from an explosion like a total bad ass.Which was the choice we made.

Kasumi's mission is probably a lot more convoluted than it needed to be, it certain has a lot more combat than Zaaed's by a large margin, and is more difficult because instead of having a squad of three, it's you as Shepard and Kasumi. The issue of the Gray Box is certainly debatable when it comes to choosing to destroy it or let Kasumi keep it. We went with letting her keep it.

Beyond that, we found a couple of side missions. located the Normandy crash site and just held off on picking up Jack, Grunt and Morden. Way I figure by picking up Jack and Grunt first, then Morden, that should allow me to deal with Project: Overlord before Horizon colony. At least that's the theory I have based on how I am looking to pace things out.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Merciless: Make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire
• Head Hunter: Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets
• Agent: Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds
• Broke, Blind and Bedlam: Gain the loyalty of the thief
• Revenge!: Gain the loyalty of the mercenary

Twitch Clip Links

1. This Is Mandatory
2. Shepard Meets The Press 
3. Head Hunter
   

For the raid, we dropped in on Redneck_23 who was doing things with Farming Simulator 22 over at twitch.tv/redneck_23!   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Biceps Shape Focus Combo, Triple Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #1. Also set a new personal best by scoring a perfect on Advanced Combo #2 set on Low.

I'm not surprised at all with how lackluster Sony's updated PlayStation Plus service is going to be in comparison to what folks get with Xbox's GamePass... this is because of Sony's attitude towards older content. Just remember, Sony is the company who had a CEO who insulted those who like to go back and play older games.

So when checking out games, I  checked Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption, which is one of the many Indy-developed platformer that has a bit of Metroid approach to it. While it only took 30 minutes to get all the achievements, I can safely say it is very buggy, as any time I paused or pressed the central button on the controller to check my progress. I can safely say this is a game that is not worth featuring on stream with the issues I had with it.

Enter Digiton: Heart of Corruption Achievements

• Opener I: Open 1 door with a key
• Cleaner I: Destroy 25 obstacles
• Hunter I: Kill 6 enemies
• Cleaner II: Destroy 75 obstacles
• Opener II: Open 2 doors with a key
• Clearer I: Die 6 times
• Clearer II: Die 12 times
• Hunter II: Kill 24 enemies
• Cleaner III: Destroy 200 obstacles
• Clearer III: Die 24 times
• Hunter III: Kill 48 enemies
• Opener III: Open 5 doors with a key

For tonight's stream we're going to do something different, we're going to check out Fallout 76.. ad game's whose initial launch was... troubled. But it's been around for a while, which means there was plenty of time for patches and fixes to be applied to it by its developers.

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

The Return Of Mass Effect 2

Good morning everyone 

Last night we started up the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2, which I'm referring to as 'Classic' because we have to make sure folks are aware I'm not playing the Legendary Edition version. That said, the controls do feel a little sluggish in comparison to Legendary Edition, but beyond that it was a good experience as I got to make all the usual jokes such as Shepard's death being Joker's fault, calling the Illusive Man 'Tim', in addition to getting some things out of the way early.

Now there was an issue with the DLC of Mass Effect 2 in that I know I had a lot of it, but apparently not everything was installed before had... I had to go into the game and confirm I wanted what I knew I had and then install it. That really is a clunky interface by any and all measures. Still we'll be able to go through all the DLC content gradually.

For the story, we ended up recruiting Garrus off Omega first, because I really hate that mission, I always die in the large garage portion of the mission because of how quickly the enemies spawn in before the shutters are closed. I also screwed up and forgot to talk to the Blue Suns leader, so I missed some a few things in that mission as well.

I think in terms of pacing we're going to feature Mass Effect 2 twice a week, the way we normally would, on Mondays and Tuesdays. This way Wednesdays can be a variety day with potential team up options with Iceman. Also in case I have to make a tough judgement call regarding my work schedule, it'll be easy to have Mass Effect 2 be the early feature.

By the way, in case you're wondering how I'm getting the screen shots, it's through OBS, which has a way to set a hot-key to screen shot a specific source. 

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Missing in Action: Save your crew from an overwhelming attack
• Fashionista: Personalize your armor in your quarters on the Normandy
• Very Elusive: Return to active duty
• Highly Trained: View all advanced combat training videos at Shepard's private terminal.
• Prospector: Retrieve mineral resources by scanning and probing a planet in the galaxy map
• Operative: Complete a mission discovered by scanning an unexplored world
• Explorer: Visit 100% of the planets in an unexplored cluster
• Scholar: Unlock 15 new Mass Effect 2 codex entries
• The Archangel: Successfully recruit Archangel

Twitch Clip Links

1. You better drink it dude... and well... he dead! 
2. Critical Mission Failure... 
3. Nice! 

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Pokemon: Brilliant Diamond over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

Let me say this, setting up the Id.Me stuff which is mandatory for dealing with any government sits (like irs.gov for example) is such a fucking pain in the ass!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficulty Challenge Combo #3, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1.

Messed around with Smite after the stream last night to play a couple of matches, it went about as well as expected as I just played at a few different characters.

Knocked out another achievement in Aaero last night, and the levels in that are getting harder in terms of recognizing what obstacles are coming and keeping the ship on the light beams, not to mention getting weapons to lock onto enemy ships when they appear. 

Aaero Achievements

• Gone fission: Complete 'Split the Atom' on Normal

As far as my off-stream progress in WWE 2K15 goes, well I unlocked William Regal in the MyCareer mode, but beyond that, no achievements were unlocked. There are a couple associated with this particular mode

For tonight's stream we're going to do another night of Mass Effect 2 as indicated earlier on today's post, and we're not going to go after Mordin right away, instead we'll go around to pick up Jack, Kasumi, Grunt and get other things done!

There's a great video of YouTube as Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett break down Will Smith's attack on Chris Rock, with the suspicion that it's all a work, and that it was pre-planned as if was a wrestling angle. 

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

Overwatch On A Night Where Will Smith Goes Insane

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was interesting as I picked up three plays of the game, two as D.va and one as Junkrat, and got in matches as them as well as Mercy, Anna, Symmetra.I'd say we'd probably had about a 50-50 split in terms of wins and losses, at least by what I remember based on when I'm writing this.

Now that said, I do believe both the Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony Maps need to be brought back to Overwatch for a couple of reasons, one being no one can justify their removal when their are similar maps still in the games, and two, being that there are a few tricks I can do on both maps as D.va and Moira that I miss doing. 

Particularly on the Paris maps while being on Attack, as D.va I can hop over a wall that really only she can get over and not instantly die if their is a turret other other side, and on the same map, with Moira I can use her Fade to  almost do the same thing to get past the first choke to get behind the enemy team by going to the right, or just going for the point to get their attention which allows my team to push through the choke (if my teammates have any brains on realizing what the situation was... which was only the case 20% of the time) 

Ah well, hopefully both maps will be in Overwatch 2 when that officially launches.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Call Mech, Ult, Get Get Mech, Use Pistol!
2. Quad Kill! 
3. A Quick Push
   

For last night's raid we dropped in on Flint_Locke who was continuing their voice acting streams of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Minagoroshi over on twitch.tv/flint_locke!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo

So Will Smith smacked the shit out of Chris Rock for a joke that involved his wife and a supposed sequel to G.I. Jane. Now I've seen the clip, and well, Smith should've known better... and the night he wins an Oscar for Best Actor will forever be known as the night he threw a hissy fit over an unfunny joke. But to be fair, Chris Rock hasn't been funny since his small part in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. That said, Smith is clearly in the wrong here, there is no logical way anyone can take his side and under any other circumstances, Smith probably would have been ejected. For better or worse, Rock did his job as a comedian and was a professional... and while many disagree about him choosing not to press charges, Rock proved to be the bigger man.

Messed around more with Aaero, managing to clear another stage in it , and also put in more time with the MyCareer mode of WWE 2K15, picking up two achievements with that.

Aaero Achievements

• Sequenz abgeschlossen: Complete 'Sequenz' on Normal

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Hard worker: MyCAREER - Have 5 attributes reach a value of 80 or higher.
• The next big thing: MyCAREER - Reach SmackDown.

For tonight's stream we're going to start up the classic Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2. As you know, I've played the PC / Origin version, and I've played the Legendary Edition last year. So it was a matter of time of playing the 360 version.

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

The Fifth Element... Is Not A Completely Terrible Game

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream did indeed open with The Fifth Element, and perhaps, from what I've seen, it doesn't deserve it's reputation for being a terrible video game. Don't get me wrong it's a good game, just an... average one for the era it came out in (1998 on the original PlayStation) where the camera can be either a help or a hindrance, particularly if you realize you can use the analog sticks! See if you accidentally move the camera to be anywhere from being behind you and don't set it back, you basically will screw yourself  in not being able to see enemies in front of you. Sure that doesn't help when it comes to the fact enemies can shoot you at range when they haven't even spawned fully, but once I realized how to work the camera to my advantage, things worked out a bit.

Now the controls are a little wonky and take some getting use to, particularly with Korbin... but with Leeloo, they make a little more sense since she has more of a move set for exploration. Her combat hit dedication takes some getting use to, and it seems running might be a better in some situations than others. Visually, the game is pretty good looking for its time, both of the character models for Korbin and Leeloo look close their movie counterparts. The sound mix is pretty decent in terms of how the music and sound effects are presented. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the use of footage from the movie, where careful care was taken to not show Bruce Willis's face... however Milla Jovovich was on full display... and I do mean full. Since the movie was being adapted to a game, there was some re-working of the plot to make it fit a video game, such as the first level is Korbin going to activate Leeloo, then level two and three is Leeloo looking to bust Korbin out of jail and escape. 

Also, with this being an older game, there are cheat codes... and activating infinite lives is almost a must for this game, mostly because of how much perfect timing is needed to make various jumps. Good news is that when you die, enemies you have dealt with are not re-spawned, which is just awesome. 

Now we didn't spent the entire stream with The Fifth Element, we switched over to the PlayStation 2 to mess around with WWF Just Bring It... and I'm surprised that I don't have a save file for it on either of my older memory cards. I can't imagine as to why or when I would have deleted the older save file, but it was disappointing to realize that I would at some point need to do 'story mode' runs to unlock everything. Well it gives us an excuse to dedicate serious time to in the future. That said, the arcade style game play still holds up once one remembers what the controls are. Also, I'm surprised there were intergender matches possible. But of course everyone remembers this game for the terrible commentary provided by Michael Cole and Tazz with how some words have more emphasis than others.

We also jumped to the Xbox One to mess around with Space Invaders Infinity Gene, which I talked about on yesterday's blog. Didn't get a screen shot of it, but we did unlock a few weapons options and the ability to start with 5 lives instead of 3, so that should make a couple of things easier. Probably... maybe not. 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Good Platform Jumping Followed By Plummeting To My Death 
2. Oh... wow....
3. Molly Wins! 
4. Wow That Was Quick! 
5. Dealing with Invaders... From Space 

For last night's raid we dropped in on Kalenal as they were playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! In particularly they were doing alternate job leveling as well as mentor roulettes!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Hook Combo #1 and Block Combo. Having reached 30+ hours for the Evan's Contender achievement, I switched to having Martina as the trainer. With Martina, I'm already at 17 hours out of 30 for her Contender related achievement. I also set a new personal best on Advanced Combo #1 on No Mercy Difficulty. out of 748 actions, 745 were perfect 13 were only okay.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Evan's Contender: Train with Evan for over 30 hours.
• King EX Fighter Progress: 90% of all EX Achievement Acquired
  

My off-stream gaming last night saw more progress made in WWE 2K15's my career mode, got my character up to the 'Main Event' level of shows and gradually working towards a few other achievements. Speaking of which, knock out one in Aaero and one in Gears of War 3, so the achievement streak managed to continue!

Aaero Achievements

• Brightness: Complete 'Pure Sunlight' on Normal

Gears of War 3 Achievements

• Welcome to Versus: Killed 10 enemies in Team Deathmatch.

It's the start of a new week, but let's look back at all the stuff we featured over the past seven days which included: Overwatch, Contrast, Gears 5, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, Paladins, WWE 2K15, #SincuaAttack, Dead or Alive 1 Ultimate, Gears of War Ultimate Edition, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Space Invaders Infinity Gene, The Fifth Element and WWF SmackDown Just Bring It! 

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday so you know Overwatch is on deck!

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

A Whole Lot Of Plot Build Up

Good afternoon everyone, 

You know what can and is very frustrating is when you're told something will last till a certain time and then 15 minutes after you start, the rug is pulled out from under you. That happened to me yesterday afternoon...

Anyway, last night's stream of Persona 5 Royal went rather well in terms of actual trophies being earned, but also in terms of getting a lot of plot and exposition done regarding various characters... or rather the confidants. Granted there is a lot of unease when it comes to Kawakami being a 'sexy maid', with half of her dialog just coming off as really weird, and the scene where Morgana and Ryuji were apparently trying to look up Ann's skirt during the 'party' on June 11th, there was some great insight being given.

During the stream there was more direct interaction with Makoto, whose obvious 'stalking' tactics involved pretending to read an upside down Manga which I had some questions about. There was also now having to take the Wardens out around town, such as the burger place and the movie theater, and also coming across various in game activities such as the 'Darts' mini game which seems to be a bit interesting in terms of trying to hit targets.

I should talk about Goro Akechi, who really comes across an arrogant jerk as well as someone we're going to have on the team at some point. Much like Yusuke, his personally just grates me on first impressions. 

On a side note, after 30 hours of game time, Persona 5 Royal is certainly a lot more 'straight forward' than one would assume, and it's really clear that if one isn't careful, missing various things becomes really apparent. Yes I'm using a guide, but even with it, one screw up can throw everything off.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Museum of Vanity: Repossessed: Completed the museum Palace.
• Easy Money: Won the lottery.
• Dartslinger: Played a game of darts.
• A Hustler's Journey: Played a game of billiards.

Twitch Clip Links

1. The Cake Man Rises
2. What the hell is Makoto Pretending to Read? 
3. I Feel A Murderous Intent!
4. The hell are they doing?! 
   

For the raid we dropped in on Redneck_23, who is a long time friend of the channel! He was featuring Farming Simulator 22 over on twitch.tv/redneck_23!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. I am surprised we didn't unlock the Evan's Contender achievement today But we have an excellent shot of doing it tomorrow

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For The Week of  3/20 to 3/26/2022

• 29/30 hours trained with Evan for 'Evan's Contender' (EX Achievement)
• Punches Thrown 12,454
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 5622.57
  

Checked out  Aaero last night, and it's an odd little twin stick and apparently one button shooter that is to the 'beat' of a lot of techno, heavy bass style music. It's unique for what it is, I figure we'll check it out on stream this upcoming week.. In theory there are a lot of possible achievements to get in this game... I say in theory because there is a lot of memorizing, needing quick reflexes and getting use to what each level is like. I'll also have to check the sound settings for this game, because damn the music is loud!

Aaero Achievements

• Kicking It: Complete 'Bass Cannon' on Normal
• No points for you!: Fail a track

I did try to go for what would seem like an 'easy' achievement in Gears of War 3, titled 'Welcome to the Big Leagues', and it didn't pop after doing a few matches in it. Could try to show case during this week as well. 

And speaking of things we could also take a look at, how about Space Invaders, with a game called Space Invaders: IG... the IG standing for Infinity Gene. This is a real oddity as it takes the concept of Space Invaders and then gradually turns it into a bullet hell type game. Again it is quite odd. 

Put in some time with the MyCareer mode in WWE 2K15, and during the course of unlocked the Ringmaster achievement... which I was attempt to do the previous night. Sometimes with these things are best not to 'try' and just let things happen naturally. At the moment my character is in the 'Superstars' phase of the mode.

WWE 2K15 Achievements

• Ringmaster: Strike or wrench an opponent in 5 different chain hold positions. (Single play)

For tonight's stream we're going to hook the original PlayStation up and we're going to check out a few games, starting with The Fifth Element.

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