More Mass Effect 2 Progress

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 went about well as planned, as went and picked up Mordin on Omega, and I was right, that triggered the start of the Horizon colony mission... which was a lot harder than I was use to, as Garrus and Miranda kept getting downed. I think I used more Medi-Gel in this one play through of Mass Effect 2 than I did the entire franchise up to this point. 

Anyway, once that mission was done, that unlocked the start up of the current squad's Loyalty missions, but I held off on doing that to tackle the Arrival DLC mission. Now technically that mission is supposed to take place after the Suicide mission of the main story, but I like to get it out of the way because it gives Shepard an extra level up if things go right, progress can be made to a few achievements during in and there are two things I hate about... sneaking around the prison camp... and then trying to survive five waves of enemies. 

Now I know the best strategy is to duck behind the L-Shape desk that is to the left from the side Shepard enters the room, the problem is I forget about how the enemies with the flamethrowers will get in close... plus I should've used the heavy weapon I was carrying to make it more possible... but I like to save it's ammo to deal with the mech when making the grand escape to the comm tower.

 

Once Arrival was done, I cleared out a couple of 'findable missions' that popped up and nabbed the final items I needed on Omega. At this point I will need to tackle some loyalty missions and find a few more side missions to try and get all the items I can that are on Ilium and Tuchanka.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Covert Action: Rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson without attracting hostile attention
• The Ultimate Sacrifice: Complete the Arrival DLC pack
• The Professor: Successfully recruit the Professor
• Scientist: Complete any research project in the Normandy's laboratory
• Colony Defense: Defend a human colony from attack
• Power Full: Evolve any power

Twitch Clip Links

• Sweet... oh wait there is one more!
• Oh great... the Scions
• It's not like it's going to explode... 

For the the raid we dropped in on Joliet4 who was playing Halo: Reach over on twitch.tv/joliet4! You know I have never play any games in the Halo franchise... it is on the to do list.  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1, and Beginner Combo #2.Also set a new personal best for Difficult Challenge Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. (895 Actions: 884 Perfect, 11 OK, 1 Miss)

Messed around with Super Night Riders off-stream laster, which actually has a connection to another game we played this year Light Fairytale Episode 1. It is an arcade style racer, similar to say Super Hang-On, where you race to each check point as quickly and efficiently as possible to continue. There are 20 achievements, and I managed to knock out 10 tonight. I figure we can go for one or or two night to help extend the Xbox daily achievement streak which is up to 55 days.

Super Night Riders Achievements

• That was Close!: Pass near a rival without crashing.
• 1st Stage Cleared: Cleared your first stage.
• Mélomane: Listened to all the music tracks.
• Hang On!: Keep trying after a game over.
• Hang On and Pass!: Keep trying and pass the stage you previously failed on.
• Course 1 Cleared: Cleared the course 1.
• Course 2 Cleared: Cleared the course 2.
• Max Score: Get a score of 75K in one second.
• Course 3 Cleared: Cleared the course 3.
• Forest Stage Cleared: Cleared the forest stage.

So the Overwatch Anniversary Remix event started and... boy the new looks for some classic legendary skins are a real mixed bag. Mercy's Mage skin variant of the Witch skin looks nice, as does D.va's White Cat variant of the existing Black Cat, but the new variants for Genji, Repaer, Reinhardt and Zenyatta are just... lazy with the new alternate color skin (Demon, Evermore, Steelhardt and Zealot). The second chance event for the limited challenge skins is fair play for those who missed it the first time around, as this week it is the D.va's Nano Cola Challenge.

For tonight's stream we will be focusing on Fallout 76, and seeing if some things that I read were correct regarding what I have to worry about in the game besides everything.

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

A Productive Night of Mass Effect 2: Project Overlord, The Convict and The Krogan

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 focused on three main objectives, Project Overlord, Recruiting Jack and Recruiting Grunt. Yes there was some searching for planets that had side missions involved plus  a few trips to the citadel to get some items needed for achievements, but we have done every possible before we have to pick up Mordin.

Project Overlord in and of itself was a mostly smooth run, as controlling the Hammerhead is easier with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard when it comes to platform jumping over lava. It really does set the tone for how ruthless Cerberus is when it comes to gaining an edge over alien species. There was a great moment where I got the Overload Specialist achievement for the 360 version in nearly the same spot as I did the for Legendary Edition version of Mass Effect 2.

Recruiting Jack was very straight forward, and a firm reminder that combining biotics is something one has to do for achievement purposes in Mass Effect 2. It's too bad that Jacob and Miranda's early available biotics are not exactly a great combo set. I'm not 100% sure if Jacob and Jack's biotics work or if there is a range where they have to be executed in because I was going for the achievement when Recruiting Grunt and not one apparently counted. Talk about weird.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Data Hound: Collect 6 Cerberus data packets scattered across Aite
• Digital Exorcist: Successfully shut down the rogue VI in Project Overlord
• Overload Specialist: Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies
• The Convict: Successfully recruit the biotic Convict
• The Krogan: Successfully recruit the krogan
• Technician: Obtain 10 technology upgrades

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Overload Specialist
2.  There she goes!
3.  That impresses him
   

For the raid we dropped in on RoseMaryShorn who was playing Dragon Age: Inquisition over at twitch.tv/RoseMaryShorn! I really should go back and play the DLC of that game.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1. During some Free Training, I set a new personal best for Difficult Challenge Combo #1 on No Mercy difficulty with 807 Perfectly performed actions with 5 actions performed only OK. 

My copy of Persona 5 Strikers for the PlayStation 4 arrived late yesterday afternoon, so once we're eventually finished with Persona 5 Royal we can jump into that. Even though Strikers is more of sequel to the original story of Persona 5, it will be cool to have more fun with the franchise

Switch all my skins in Overwatch last night to use Overwatch League skins, even got a play of the game as D.va as well for a bonus one this week.

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Mass Effect 2, with the first thing we're doing is picking up Mordin on Omega, and that should trigger the next phase of the game with Horizon.

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

Five Plays Of The Game In One Night

Good afternoon everyone,

Well last night's stream of Overwatch started off rocky, a few back fill matches as well as a lot of folks not choosing to push the attack, leading to me phoning in some matches. But once PandaSweet joined, things really picked up, hell we ended the night on a big six match win streak when we stopped trying to carry as Tanks and Supports and focused on playing Damage characters. Huge thanks to Panda as always for being apart of the fun!

I ended up with with five plays of the game last night, two as D.va, two as Cassidy and one as Reinhardt, so I certainly went all out when the opportunity was there. Actually, come on to think of it, those were the first POTG's I earned for Cassidy and Reinhardt  this year. Also obviously, managed to keep my personal streak of getting at least one POTG per stream which is always awesome. In addition to those characters listed, we also got in matches as Ana. Mercy & Mei during last night's stream, hence why the screenshot is from Ana's perspective.

In preparation for Overwatch 2, I also raised the settings of Overwatch back up to near top level, because I'm not really expecting Overwatch 2 to be that much more demanding on the hardware. 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Just going in as Mercy!
2. Things Happen! 
3. Panda Approves The Perfect Timing!
   

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

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Uppercut Combo #1. During Free Training, I set a new personal best for Waist Shape Focus Combo on No Mercy, with 580 perfectly performed actions out of 588... the other 8 were rated as OK. 

So apparently Persona 5 Strikers is a sequel to Persona 5 Royal... well, might well track that down, which means Fridays can be a long standing night dedicated to the that franchise. 

Did a quite skim through WrestleMania nights 1 and 2 to see if anything really stood out to me, and well it's clear that the results for every match needed to be reversed with the lone exception being of Austin vs Owens. And by a logic stand point, if Seth Rollins was being fed to Cody Rhodes, then Becky Lynch should have retained over Bianca 'Can't Cut A Promo' Belair.

Managed to figure out some cheat tactics in the Weapons Master campaign for SoulCalibur II HD, by using Nightmare instead of Ivy, his forward-foward-Y attack seems to work pretty well to just punish the A.I.

SoulCalibur II HD Online Achievements

• Skilled Shopper: Purchased New Weapon in Weapon Master Shop
• Incessant Swordsman: Became Lv 6 "Platinum Neophyte" in Weapon Master

It took a few months with all the focus on smaller games, but we're going to be settling back into the old routine of Mondays & Tuesdays dedicated to one game, in this case Mass Effect 2, Wednesdays either being exclusively Fallout 76 or continuing to split that night with other games (Really depends on my mood), Thursdays being for Final Fantasy XIV, Friday for Persona 5 Royal, Saturday being some randomness and Sunday's for Overwatch 

So obviously for tonight's stream, we're back to Mass Effect 2, as we'll be doing as much as possible before the plot advances! We might just go about getting Project Overlord out of the way

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

Well we played Apocalypse last night

Good afternoon everyone,

Well last night's stream featured Apocalypse, and it wasn't until I want to say the third level where the platforming starting to become more of a hindrance forced me to go to the good old cheat code, but that actually just enhanced the experience. Sure it made the combat easier, but the platforming is what kills me, particularly when in some battles you're having to run towards the camera (such as during the famous Sonic / Kill Whale segments in the Sonic Adventure games) .

That said, I thought the game looked and sounded great, the inclusion of a few licensed songs were injected quite nicely into the game where you didn't really noticed they were there and they only show up in one part of the game.  Bruce Willis' performance, while limited did more than serviceable job of keeping things moving, like Duke Nukem. Also the controls were really tight, with the use of the analog sticks and being able to shoot in eight different directions it certainly helped prevent getting surrounded. And since this game was a twin stick shooter, the use of the two bumper and two trigger buttons was really well done when it came to selecting weapons, using smart bombs, dodging and jumping.

I will admit I was not a fan of the ending, but it does make sense when it comes to the entire Apocalypse prophecy, since before every level there is a quote that basically tells you the 'theme' of what you're going to be experiencing . So I have to give kudos on making things fit together in a nice little package.

We also messed around with Die Hard Trilogy, in particular the Die Harder (aka Die Hard 2) portion of it, which had the theme of a 'light gun' shooter. We went through the whole campaign and it was a nice look back at what was the best part of the Die Hard Trilogy game. Now my question is this, how come there were so many civilians around?! Maybe we'lll go back and do the Die Hard and With A Vengeance sections at some point

As revealed the start of the stream, we do have a new item in the collection, the jumbo sized Ranch plush based on MasakoX's Dragon Ball What If Raditz Turned Good series. The oversized head does make it a bit hard to place to have it sitting without something else propping it up, but hey, there were only 238 made, so I'm glad I contributed to the campaign!

Twitch Clip Links:

• Oh I am liking this! 
• It's Time To Jam
• Die Harder 
• Only 238 Made...
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on CirceCroft who was playing Silent Hill 2 over on twitch.tv/circecroft! We actually found them over on Hover. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo. The daily workout was perfect as in all 1492 actions were done without one OK or one miss. Of course I did put in some extra Free Training as well.

Since Friday night's stream went so long, yesterday afternoon, I messed around with the Xbox 360 version of SoulCalibur II HD Online, to knock out a couple of easy achievements to extended my daily streak to 51 days.

SoulCalibur II HD Online Achievements

• First Trial: First Trial Point Cleared in Weapon Master
• Comeback Kid: Ten Successful Counter Hits 

Now as for today is concerned, I used Gears 5 to keep the streak going for 52 days by picking up a few multiplayer achievements.You know what's funny is that I had to use the LAN party method to get the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship achievement to pop, despite playing a match of arcade several weeks ago!

Gears 5 Achievements

• Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship: Played a match of Arcade
• Ring Leader: Won a Match of Arcade Blitz with the most Points earned in a Ring
• Sampler: Completed a Match of Free For All, Arcade Blitz and Gridiron

A new week begins, but here is a recap of last week which featured Overwatch, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Apocalypse, Die Hard Trilogy and some Just Chatting Moments.

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which means Overwatch is on deck to kick off the new week!

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

A Near Nine Hour Long Stream

Good morning everyone,

The title of today's blog is accurate, last night's stream was nearly nine hours and there's a very good reason for... you see on Fridays as you know I've been focused on Persona 5 Royal, a game that is known for being very long. So trying to be efficient I figure just get through exploring the palaces all in one night when I come across each one. Low and behold, the Bank Palace was a lot more of a pain in the ass than I would have assumed.  Granted in terms of finding everything, I was able to do that, unlike with the first two Palaces in the game.

Still, the character of Makoto won me over based on her Persona alone being that of a damn motorcycle riding badass. Needless to say I was not expecting that and hence why it's one of the clips listed down below. Makoto having nuke based skills also was a big help in the Palace in terms of Yen grinding, but boy I need to remember to stock up on SP replenishing items the next time I go into a Palace in the game.

As far as the plot goes, dealing with a glutinous extortionist who was an actual criminal was a nice change of pace, and really opens things up in terms of how big things can get in Persona 5 Royal. On the flip side I did a couple of things out of order, and spent a lot time fusing Personas. I know I need to remember to get a Phoenix Persona that has Counter to unlock the next level of stuff I can utilize. I'm also looking forward to seeing all the Showtime attacks as they are unlocked, the one for Ann and Morgana was really cool.  

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Getting the Vapors: Couldn't take the heat in the bathhouse.
• It's Showtime!: Performed a Showtime attack.
• The Purpose of a Thief: Obtained a Treasure Demon.
• Efficient Executioner: Performed a Group Guillotine execution.
• Accident-Prone: Performed an execution during a Fusion Alarm.

Twich Clip Links

1. Me Becoming A Partner Stream? That's Never Going To Happen
2. I was not expecting that
3. Yeah that's how we did it 
4. They break out the chainsaws?!
   

Because of the length of the stream, we didn't do a raid last night instead we hosted Maximilian_DOOD  who was playing DNF Duel over on twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Body Hook Combo and Body Uppercut Combo. I'll admit the workout was done before 5:30 AM and before I went to bed. Why? Because when I'm up past a certain time at night I feel full of energy for whatever reason, so every so often the daily workout gets done super early. I also set a new personal best for the Hip SHape Focus Combo when doing some extra Free Training, out of 744 possible actions 737 were perfect and 7 were okay!

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise Stats For 3/27 to 4/2/22

• Punches Thrown: 15,021
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 6103.81
• Martina's Contender Progress: 23 out of 30 total hours trained
  

I did not go to bed straight away, I watched the WWE Hall of Fame, well skipped through it to push past a lot of the fluff. The class of Undertaker, The Steiner Brothers and Vader, with Shad Gaspard being the Warrior Award winner is pretty damn solid, while Queen Sharmell is the real question mark.

For tonight's stream, we will be playing Apocalypse which stars Bruce Willis, and we'll be utilizing the PlayStation for it to play it on original hardware.

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

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!