More Lego Batman Fun; Thoughts on Bill & Ted: Face The Music

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Lego Batman: The Video Game saw a big focus on the second episodes for Hero and Villain, obviously starting with Batman first then the villain side of things. There are a few notable things taken from Batman returns, in that Catwoman and Penguin are teamed up, you get a rooftop battle against Catwoman and you end up an a snow covered zoo. Granted Penguin looks more in line with how he looks in the Batman '66 television series, which is an interesting contrast when Catwoman has a moderately more modern look. Speaking of an odd look, but Batgirl's grey, blue and yellow attire certainly reminds me of the late silver and early bronze age of comics.

Of course, when will the next time we dedicate time to Lego Batman: The Video Game, that will be on Monday, Memorial Day, I'm planning to start that stream maybe and hour or two early because the goal will be to do Chapters 3 for both the Hero and Villain side of the story, as well as play the two bonus missions.

LEGO Batman Achievements

• Nice Outfit!: Collect all suits.
• Shot to the goon.: Defeat 8 goons in 8 seconds.
• Super Hero.: Complete the second episode - Hero.
• Dressed to Impress.: Get all suit upgrades.
• The Richest Man in Gotham.:Max out the stud counter.
• Make it snappy.: Build the Croc ride on.
• Super-villain.: Complete the second episode - Villain.

Twitch Clips

• Things that make Batman go... Hmmm...
• I shall call him Stampy 
• Hungry Hungry Gators... We're Here To Eat You! 
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on Joliet4 as they were doing a music stream over at twitch.tv/joliet4! You can check out their music over at Spotify!

Now we did end the stream early last night, because I learned earlier in the day that Bill & Ted: Face the Music is available through my Amazon Prime membership, so I ended up watching it. It is a really quick paced film that serves as a great continuation of what was seen in the first two films (and Television series, both Live Action & Animated... not quite sure how the continuity works with the Bill & Ted Franchise). I felt Alex Winter certainly captured alot of his younger self in his performance, but Keanu Reeves kind of felt a bit off the mark. Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine certainly stole the show as Bill & Ted's daughters, as they really came across as if they studied the first two films to get the mannerisms and speak inflection Winters and Reeves used in the first two films.In fact, I would go as far to say I wouldn't mind seeing a continuation of the franchise with the focus being on Lundy-Paine and Weaving's characters going forward, as in many regards, the ending of Bill & Ted Face the Music could be seen as a passing of the torch.

And since yesterday was a work day where there was actual work, the assignment was a bit average, trying to get feed back regarding major medical facilities. It's amazing how people cannot understand a question of 'If you had to go to a hospital for a specific reason where would you go?'. Anyway I was told that today I would have an assignment as well, so hopefully that doesn't change at the last minutes.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Hook Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2. We also did a little extra to make sure the workout was over 30 minutes.

I was asked how does one go about writing a fan fic, and my process is simple, I have a basic outline of how I want something to go and I stick to it. If I'm being paid a commission I'll try and take into account the client's input.  

The tragedy in Texas yesterday, where 18 children were killed, will serve as another reminder at just how callous and uncaring the Republican party is when it comes to gun control. Of course, we're not shocked by this, remember back in 2012 with the Sandy Hook incident that Republican law makers sided with the Gun Lobbyists in order to line their own pockets than do the right thing.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.    

For tonight's stream, we're jumping back into Fallout 76, with more fun in the ruins of West Virginia. Maybe I'll figure out how to make a house... who knows.

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

 

 

We Were Batman... In Lego Form

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream featured Lego Batman, and since we're playing the Xbox 360 version, that means we're getting achievements which is rather nice. Now because of how much music is taken from Batman '89 and Batman Returns, I'm playing the game with the music turned off to avoid any DMCA claims... granted, the music does not get muted for cut scenes, which means all of Danny Elfman's score has to be muted via YouTube's tools. This does have an extra benefit in that I can hear when collectable items are near, which isn't too possible with the in-game music on.

Of course, all the charm of the Lego video games are in full effect with the cute comedy that one can't help but smile at. Since I've played the Steam version before and only did the Batman portion before, remember what to do was an experience. I don't believe I even touched the villain side on the Steam play through. Looking forward to more Batman shenanigans tonight. Now this being a Lego video game, that means going after collectables for completion would be and is a pain in the ass of epic proportions. Thankfully, many of this game's unlockable codes were discovered years ago, so simply imputing them meant I was able to jump to 40% completion right off the bat. Also I did jump into Free Play mode off-stream to unlock a few achievements.

LEGO Batman Achievements

• Super Builder.: Build 50 LEGO build-its.
• Hero.: Complete the first episode - Hero.
• Justice League.: Unlock all the Hero characters.
• Unbreakable.: Finish a level without dying (Character) with no extras.
• 0000001 00000011.: Build the giant LEGO Robot.
• Villain.: Complete the first episode - Villain.
• Is it a bird? Is it a plane?: Glide for 9 seconds.
• Eat floor... High fiber.: Slam 20 goons into the floor with Batman.
• There and back.: Destroy 10 objects in one Batarang throw. 
• Boy Wonder.: Perform 20 backflips in a row with Robin.
  

Twitch Clips

• Nooooo!
• We're going out of our way to improve the park! 
• What the hell are we making now?
  

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Tunic over at twitch.tv/kalenal!  Tunic looks like a very cute version of a Souls-Born game with an isometric view. Also, I rarely do clips of other people's streams, but this was a great moment for Kalenal.

Kalenal Twitch Clip

• Hello Freeze On Demand!
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Waist Shape Focus Combo, Uppercut Combo #1, Advanced Combo #1 and Straight Combo #1

Was told today I would have an assignment from my Day Job, so I got that to look forward to this afternoon. Wonder exactly what is being researched this time. If its interesting I'll try to remember some details for tomorrow's blog.

Here's what Republicans seem to fail to understand, social media sights are not 'the media', sites like Twitter, Facebook and so forth have terms and conditions that must be followed, and if you violate there TOS, then those sites have the right to throw you off them.

Apparently there's a 20+ year debate over a line said by Ralph Wiggum on an episode of The Simpsons, ("Oh Boy sleep! There's where I'm a Viking"). Some people take it literally, some take if figuratively, I take it as... it's Ralph, if he says he's a Viking where he sleeps, then he's a Viking.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.    

For tonight's stream we're continuing Lego Batman: The Video Game, seeing if we can through episode 2 for both Hero and Villain. So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

A Strong Start To The Week

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was the usual mix of fun with friends in matches that end up either being really good or really wonky. Big shoutouts to PandaSweet, BangBangBang and BloodyClown for being apart of the team-ups. Now while we mostly stuck with Quick Play matches, we did get in a few trips to Junkenstein's Revenge, as it appears that will be on Sundays for Volume Two of the Remix event. Characters I used were Mercy, Moira, D.va, Reinhard, Tracer, Torbjourn, Ashe and Widowmaker. Plays of the Game were picked up when I was Tracer, Torb, Moira, D.va and Reinhardt. One of the more hilarious moments of the night was me sneaking behind the defending team to push the payload.

Twitch Clips

•  Well someone has to deal with the Widowmaker and the Mercy
•  Run Zenyatta!
•  The back push
  

For the raid last night we dropped in on Dr_JB_Jovi who was playing Evil Dead: The Game over at twitch.tv/dr_jb_jovi!

Played some more Smite last night, and I've focused on playing as Isis, who I remember using a lot back when I was playing the Steam version of the game. Finally got her 2nd character achievement which was pretty cool.

SMITE Achievements

• Stay In the Circle: "Unlock the Smite Award "Stay In the Circle"!

In a bit of cool news, Kalenal (twitch.tv/kalenal) was live over on twitch.tv/thecharitybraves channel, raising money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital while playing Final Fantasy XIV, and they raised well over $5,500! Also of note, it was rather funny to watch Kal flail about when they had to play the Role of a Black Mage. 

Finished the Commission Request for a Star Wars fic yesterday afternoon, and I think it turned out alright considering my lack of familiarity with the Clone Wars and Rebels TV series.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Weaving Combo #1 and Advanced Combo #2

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.    

For tonight's stream we're going to start up the Xbox 360 version of Lego Batman: The Video Game, mostly because I want to be have some chill streams, and things don't get more chill than the Lego video games. Plus we get achievements to unlock too. Also, the music will be off because of DMCA issues.

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

Mavel vs Capcom, Black and the Rage of Paladins

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream lead off with Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes EX Edition on the original PlayStation. Part of the reason why because of Maxamillion_Dood (twitch.tv/maximilian_dood) posting a video claiming how it was a version of MvC that no one played... which is not true because I intetionally went out of my way to track it down to put together a collection of Japanese exclusive Capcom fighting games on the PlayStation. We went through the Arcade mode twice as Morrigan and Gambit, messed around with the Cross Over mode which actually saw Shadow Lady being used because the A.I. selected them. We also figure out a few things involving use of the 'Special Characters', who can act as counters and compensating for some of the main roster's limits. This game will be counted on this years tour as well.

We also played Black on the PlayStation 2, and it is still a good looking game from 2006, thankfully it has multiple difficulty settings... but I found it a bit odd with some of the control layouts, no sprinting (that I could figure out), and no reason sense of direction. Action sequences can be pretty epic from what I saw. Maybe we'll give it a dedicated attempt of finishing it at some point. Black does have one of the dumber starts up to a game I have ever seen with a start screen followed by a near 5 minute movie style intro of a black screen with text displaying who was involved with the music and live action sequences before the main menu is displayed.

Then we jumped to the Xbox One to play some Paladins, and we were joined by PandaSweet.... we did not exactly run into the smartest group of randoms, who were either disconnecting from matches, intentionally making selections of characters that did fit the need of the team. You don't see me get angry often, but Paladins was a bad way to end things last night.

Twitch Clips

• That was cool!
• Good use of a Grenade 
• Viva La This!
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on TracyDoll who was playing Friday the 13th: The Game and Evil Dead: The Game over on twitch.tv/tracydoll!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Left-Right-Step Combo, Triple Combo #1, Double Combo #2 and Body Straight Combo.

With how badly Paladins went during the stream, I felt motivated to play some Smite. mostly Arena matches. More losses than wins, but at least it nothing was sabotaged by stupidity.

SMITE Achievements

• Combo Breaker: Shut down 10 killing sprees in qualifying matches.

It's the start of a new week, which means we shall recap what we did last week which included Overwatch, Chrono Cross; The Radical Dreamers Edition, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Black, Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes EX Edition and Paladins!

For some reason the Mariners are taking a chance on Justin Upton in a desperate attempt to add some life to their line up. What is it with teams trying to squeeze anything out of guys who are clearly at the end of their careers these days in Baseball? 

Finished another commission story request yesterday afternoon and I get another one this morning, this time to be set in the Star Wars universe. This is going to involve some very loose interpretations of the lore.

Happy Birthday to the late Doreen Mulman, who ran the Ghostbusters Fan Forum 20 years ago. They were the first site to ever host artwork and fiction that I wrote, obviously related to Ghostbusters.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.  

For tonight's stream we shall be playing Overwatch! So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Casino Palace Was Confusing

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Persona 5 Royal started off with Sae's Palace and boy was it pretty nutty with how it was spread over two in-game days, and I think it was to make sure for Sae in the normal world saw who the Phantom Thieves were. That said, I found the Casino Palace to be confusing in terms of some of the gimmicks involved, not to mention the enemy match up types really were not favorable at times. I'm also not to keen on having to wait to do the Calling Card, but knowing its to set up Akechi's betrayal that was seen at the start of the game it just means I can try and catch up on so many other things, like Confidant progress and covering Mementos. Also at this point, I've covered 71% of the trophies, so we have an outside chance of getting full completion... I need to get Kasumi's to rank 5... luckily we were able to get Rank 4 tonight. Also, I did get Akechi and Maruki to both Rank 8 and 9. So that pressure is off as well..  On a side note I did love Haru and Makoto's tag team wrestling Showtime, I thought that was a bit clever.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Intensive Training: Used Incense on a Persona in Lockdown.
• The Search for Power: Completely changed the cognition of Mementos.

Twitch Clips

• We'll put him to use
• Makoto & Haru's Showtime! 
• Good... we don't like you either 
  

We had two raids during the stream, the first was from Oldish22 who was playing Path of Exile over at twitch.tv/oldish22!

The second raid was from YrGamerBunni who was playing Crusader Kings III over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!

For our end of stream raid, we dropped in on Sheepfuzz who was doing some community gaming with the Jackbox Party Packs over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

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

Fitness Boxing 2 Stats For May 15 to 21, 2022

• Punches Thrown:11, 233
  
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4,427.24 kcal
  
• 26 Hours Trained Out of 30 For Laura's Contender Achievement (86%)
  

I got a good start on the latest commission request, even if the plot is paper thin at best, so having to rely more on 'action' than anything else. Hopefully I can knock it out before tonight's stream, or maybe right after. Some asked me why I don't post the commissioned fics here on blogger, well it's mostly because these requests fall under the NSFW category. 

I can say with confidents this has been a losing week for my Fantasy Baseball team, mostly due to Bryce Harper not being in the Phillies lineup at all. For the week, my team is .267 (44/165), with 20 runs scored, 4 home runs, 20 RBI and 2 stolen bases... and on the pitching side in 30 innings, 4 wins, 2 saves, 25 strike outs with an ERA of 3.60 and a WHIP of 1.13. Yes the Fantasy League I'm in doesn't tally up stats until after Sunday's games, but I know a losing week when I see it.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.  

For tonight's stream, we may check out something random, maybe hook up the PlayStation to mess around with some of my Japanese imports of Capcom fighting games like Marvel vs Capcom, X-Men vs Street Fighter, etc. Or we'll just play Paladins and Riff Trax again... or maybe do all of that. We'll see what I figure out.

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

Trying to Remember what I wrote originally for today!

Good morning everyone,

Well I'm a bit annoyed, because as some may now, I write the majority of these blogs before I go to bed, and when I thought it saved as per normal. Turn out it didn't when I went to check the preview. So here I am trying to remember everything I wrote before 3 AM last night.

So anyway, last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw the usual antics, a few raid, trial and PVP fun as my character in their Bard gear, plus some leveling up as a Lancer, Botanist and Fisherman, plus a little bit of Red Mage action. I also, finally learned how to get the higher tier script gear, turns out there was a series of Featured Quests I did not come across originally. I also picked up the third piece of the new Alliance Raid gear, and it really drives home the fact that the whole story for the latest Alliance Raid is based on the Greek Myths.

Twitch Clips

• The balls are dropping!
• Red Mage vs Roc of Ages 
• That's one... and that's two!
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on YRGamerBunni who just became a Twitch affiliate , and were playing a montage of the games that helped them get to that point including Halo: Infitine and Elden Ring. They stream over at twitch.tv/YRGamerBunni!  

Plasyed some Smite last night after the stream, and I managed to extend my daily Xbox Achievement streak an extra day, by getting the second of Chang'e's achievements that involved sending her rabbit back to get items. Since I often just go with the 'Auto Buy' option for matches, I actually had to turn it off to get it to work.

SMITE Achievements

• Jade, Go!: "Unlock the Smite Award "Jade, Go!"

Finished the latest commissioned story request based around old WWE plot lines yesterday afternoon, and I'm surprised some folks are enjoying them beyond the client. Which has lead to another commission request based around TNA/Impact.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Work out featured Double Combo #1, Hooke Combo #2 and Uppercut Combo #2.

Added a handful of cheap options to the Xbox digital library to consider for future streams, I Am Alive, Zombi, Mars: War Logs, and Record of Lodoss War - Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. That last one caught my attention just for the fact I have the anime series on DVD and it's been a long time since I sat down and watched it. Could be an idea for my YouTube channel.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream we are getting back to Persona 5 Royal, and it will be an action packed stream with the big focus being on Sae's Palace, which we reached last week. This is going to be interesting because we are now at the point of the story that catches up to the prologue.And from what I read, the best team to use would be Akechi (ugh...), Makoto and Ann.

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

Whole lot of roaming around in Fallout 76

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 saw a fair amount  of things done, a lot of roaming around to get various stuff done, including killing the 6 different enemies with Grant's Sword. Iceman has that same quest, but he joined us late so he still has a few to get on that quest. Other things done was the Top of the World quest that sees the players meet Rose, plus various lore related stuff such as the Overseer notes. I do think the enemies get tougher when in a group. Another theory I have is that Fallout 76 is built around going every damn play, but the tying of Fast Travel to the Bottle Caps will make some quests a real slog to get through. Still we had fun!

You Can't Tell Nukes Landed Here

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Personal Matters: Complete "Personal Matters"
• Ain't He the Cutest?: Collect a Bobblehead
• Pioneer Scout: Discover 100 Locations

Twitch Clips 

• Exploded!
• The shoot out on top of the world 
• It's Big And Bad and Ugly
  

For last night's raid we dropped in on FnDanteSavage who was playing Gears of War 3 over on twitch.tv/fndantesavage!

May 19, 2022

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Difficulty Challenge Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Defensive Combo #1.

Part way finished the latest fic commission request, getting a good chunk done. I feel like I'm getting back into a groove of writing again to some degree.

Messed around some more with Smite, only playing Assault matches to see if I can figure out anything with Gods that I never played before that were randomly selected. Of note Gilgamesh and Cthulhu were interesting. With Gilgamesh I figure being able to dive in and do a lot of damage is key, or to at least set things up, he did have one of the easiest achievements to get which just involved going to a specific point of the playing field. Cthulhu is pretty tanky, but really seems all about setting up things for the team, but his related achievements involving trying to stack passives which is not my strong suit.

SMITE Achievements

• Quick Turn-In: Unlock the Smite Award "Quick Turn-In"

Looks like Bryce Harper is going to be sidelined for a few days, which just hurts my Fantasy Baseball team considering the hot stretch he was on.

Looking at the footage for the She-Hulk TV show I have to say... visually it looks awful, as the look for She-Hulk herself looks like it' straight out of the uncanny valley of PlayStation 3 video game cut scenes. 

Headline I didn't think I see 'Kathy Griffin shows of her sexy body'... I get it, there's the trend of a lot of the older celebrities who had their prime in the 90s showing off how great they look, but c'mon, this is reaching a little bit.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream, we'll be doing a casual night of Final Fantasy XIV, you know the drill, a couple of raids, some leveling and fishing. So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!