We finished a 2nd campaign of Gears of War 2

Good morning everyone,

Song of the Day: Expressway (To Your Heart) by The Soul Survivors

Work was pretty solid yesterday, got two interviews done right away so that carried my mood the whole time. 

My first experience with Instacart was pretty good, the delivery was on time and was able to get a refund on what items they couldn't find. 

Last night's stream opened with Fall Guys, and we made it to the final show twice. We were joined by PandaSweet for joining in a lot of the shows we played. There were some really wonky moments at times where I didn't do as well as I normally would in certain events.

We also played and finished Gears of War 2 last night, big thanks to Iceman for being apart of the fun, and we had fewer deaths than the previous week. Picked up three achievements as well. Was again surprised at how under whelming the final boss of the game actually is, since all you do is aim the hammer of dawn at it three times.

That said, a big reason why we were playing Gears of War was because Iceman was not involved in every part of my original play through back in 2020, and we had FnDanteSavage tag in during a good part of Act 4. So this was a fun way to revisit the game and include him, not to mention making it a tougher experience by playing it on Normal difficulty.

Now looking ahead, next Wednesday will be an entire Fall Guys stream since Iceman and I aren't completely sure at what games that have on-line co-op we both have.

For tonight's stream we're going to play Hades some more, hopefully we can get another successful escape this. 

On a side note: I over compensated on the audio fix as the games were a lot louder than me during the stream! I shall make more adjustments before tonight's stream

 Gears of War 2 Achievements

• Organ Grinder: Killed 30 enemies with your Mulcher turret
• Takes a Licking: Bashed 30 Tickers
• Guerilla Tactician: Completed all campaign acts on Normal Difficulty

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Hogwarts Legacy over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x

I am surprised that that part of the VOD for my play through of My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure has over 1800 views. Well looks like I will play that game again for sure this year!

Didn't do any writing yesterday, but I did pre-record a new Tier List video for a couple of weeks down the line. The subject is villains of Batman the Animated series, and I just know that people will be shocked at who is and isn't in the S-Tier.

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

 

We reached the middle of the week

 Good morning everyone,

I will admit I forgot to post yesterday's blog... and it didn't get posted until 10:55 PM last night... oops

Work yesterday was okay, got one full interview done so that was good. Also got a bunch of empty boxes moved out from the basement so that when I'm able to find a junk removal service who can do things at a fair price we can get things moved from the basement and the living room in one day instead of doing two multiple trips

I did remember to call my Aunt Grace and Cousin Frances yesterday, and had a nice chat with them. Also Happy birthday to Frances!

Last night's stream of Agents of Mayhem was focused heavily on unlocking the various agents that we could following the defeat of Hammersmith (Daisy, Redcard, Oni & Joule), getting all of their initial missions done. Now I could've done more but because I tend to roam around a lot on foot, plus going shard hunting every now and then tends to slow me down a lot. I do want to make sure I get all the achievements associated with the four canon squads attire combinations.

So the next time Agents of Mayhem will be featured on Stream will be on Monday of this upcoming week, we'll do the second character missions for Daisy, Redcard, Oni & Joule, and more than likely the squad missions for Bombshells & Carnage a Trois since I have those full squads already

Also I did notice after the stream the weird echoing happening on and off when looking back at some footage. It has to do with my mic positioning in relation to my speakers. I hope to have that resolved with tonight's stream.

Agents of Mayhem Achievements

• Not this Fracking Thing: Destroy a Dark Matter Fracking Station..

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU who was doing a Nuzlock run of Pokemon Scarlet/Violet over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau! 

Because I don't drive, going to have to figure out how the whole Instacart thing works out. Biggest concern will be of course making sure I find good bargains.

Got some writing done following last night's stream,the short story commission request for a follow up to a recent WWE story is about half done. Also started work on an new subscribestar exclusive story for the month of April.

As I was taking the trash out this morning, I was approached by someone who learned about mom's passing... and I nearly broke down.

The plan for tonight's stream is to open with Fall Guys and then around 9 PM Eastern we'll switch over to Gears of War 2. I believe we'll be opening in Act 4 Chapter 5 because we already reached the point Marcus and Dom reunited with Cole & Baird.

Any one who buys into that fucking nit wit Tucker Carlson's white washed version of January 6, 2021 needs to be incarcerated because clearly they are a danger to everyone around them.

Song of the Day: No Particular Place to Go by Chuck Berry

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

A Busy Day

 Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was a busy day, as I turned in my Xfinity cable boxes to end that era at my home. While I still have the internet service, I have no use for Cable TV because I don't watch anything on it. If I have the time, I'll watch something on Amazon Prime or YouTube. Also picked up some speakers to plug into my gaming monitor which actually allows me to hear somethings better instead of with the tiny built in speakers. Also wandered into America's Best to see if they accept walk-ins for an eye examine, and the receptionist there was so flippant I can safely say I'm not going back there

Last night's stream of Agents of Mayhem saw the focus on doing the story missions for all unlocked agents so far before advancing the plot and defeating Hammersmith. At this point, I got Franchise Force all up at rank 15. And I'm kind of tempted to try and level up every to Rank 20, but that will take a good amount of time to do. 

Did run into a weird game glitch where the game completely locked when entering a Legion lair, so some progress towards unlocking the agent known as Joule was lost, so we'll have to start that on tonight's stream.

So for tonight's stream, we're going to open with a trip into Legion Lair, and then unlocked the next sets of agents which are Oni, Daisy, Jouel & Redcard, Daisy's is required for main story progression so hers will be last. 

For last night's raid we dropped in on PowerThumbZ during their ever endless play through of Prey over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz

Agents of Mayhem Achievements

• Jump Around: Hit 10 jumps in the city.
• Space Laser: OFFLINE: Complete "Operation: Heaven Sent".
• Chill Out: Destroy an Ice Barrage Emplacement.
• Warp Points Acquired: Unlock 5 warp points via open world gameplay. 

With all the running around I did yesterday, I didn't get any writing done, but it's already, I'm not to keen on the the current commission request I'm working on anyway since it's pro-wrestling focused.

As noted yesterday, because I have more fluidity with what I choose to do in Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Start, I'm going to stop listing what exercises I did and focus on the daily missions. I'll still do the daily workouts if they match up with the daily objectives. 

Also dropping the joke of the day as I realized I started re-posting the ones from a few weeks ago, completely lost track of what order I was intending to list them in

Song of the Day: Mr. Pitiful by Otios Redding

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

So much singing on stream last night

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 featured a wide variety of results, including wins and losses and picking up three plays of the games as Mei, Reinhardt and Torbjourn. Other characters used were Moira, Ana, D.va, Orissa including a few others. I will say this, the bullshit myth of PC players being better than console players was thrown tight out the window because there were quite a few matches where thanks to cross-play I was grouped with four PC players and we got smoked by a team of 5 game pad players.

Now as for the singing, I figured out how to set the audio output for Spotify to not be directed at m Desktop Audio, instead setting it for the audio out put for my microphone... of course that meant I had to then set Spotify to play songs in mono instead of stereo so that I could hear everything in one audio channel. End up singing a long with a lot of songs... which was the most singing I did on stream since December 31, 2020, the last night of Twitch Sings.

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 who was playing Smite over on at twitch.tv/misscammi316

Did some writing on the WWE Short story commission and I'm not too pleased with it. It really is just action sequence after action sequence with no real plot.

I got about 90 vinyl records now properly stored in a sealed container that will make moving them to another part of the house easier. I do think I'm going to need additional so I don't make the containers too heavy. If you think hoisting the containers with the VHS seemed heavy, just remember those were like suitcases! The ones for records are square shape, so it's like hosting a box with a small television.

Today's Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star exercises were Defensive Combo #2, Defensive Combo #2 and three trips through Battle mode. Unlike the earlier Fitness Boxing games, players have a lot more freedom in terms of what counts to earn a daily stamp

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Superstar Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 stars during hard workouts
• Starting Stamper Lv. 1 - Acquire five stamps
• Flyweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total  punch count of 9000 HITs
• Rei's Stage Cleared Lv. 1 - Complete Rei's stage (light)
  

"I don't trust those trees. They seem kind of shady."

Song of the Day: Dancing Queen by ABBA

For tonight's stream,we're getting back to Agents of Mayhem with some level grinding, doing the solo missions for the unlocked characters and then advancing the main story.

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

ESO with a Detour Into the DCU

Good afternoon everyone,

Today's post will be shorter than normal because apparently my initial draft was not saved! In fact I had to save a copy of this in a txt file, because Blogger was just not saving anything, not even when I closed the browser!

Anyway last night's stream of The Elder Scrolls Online was a bit problematic because it soft locked on the Xbox One, which was just weird. There was no reason for it near as I could tell, so after some frustration I just switched to DC Universe Online, and we knocked out one mission in it. Hey, it's fine game to have as a back up MMO since it's free to play.

I did end up installing ESO on the Xbox Series console, and there were no problems with it. So I'm guessing whatever went on with ESO on the Xbox One was due to Bethesda's poor quality control. We got several quests done and I'm looking forward to see where the current series of plotlines go. That said, I do find navigating and just getting around in general to find places to be a chore, thank goodness LvStrkr is helping out in a big way!

Also, thank you to LvStrkr for gifting me the High Isle Collector's Edition Upgrade for Elder Scrolls Online, it was great to get a mount!

For the raid we dropped in on tokushoutsu during the marathon of  Chouriki Sentai Ohranger over at twitch.tv/tokushoutsu!

Watched the 1998 film Dark City yesterday afternoon, mostly because I had a bit of writer's block. It was a pretty damn good film, clearly a noir setting with some great sci-fi elements. Can't believe I never saw it before... despite clearly having it on VHS since at least 1999!

As far as the writing goes, with yet another WWE Short story to work on, I'm just going to resort to just continuing the story it's a sequel too, because quite honestly, I have no ideas for a solid set up.

Today's Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star workout featured Beginner Combo #2, Straight COmbo #2 and Beginner Combo #1

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Rising Star Lv. 4 - Get a total of 48 starts during light workouts
• Champion Star Lv. 3 - Get a Total of 36 stars during regular workouts
• Good Score Lv. 1 - Score at least 70 points with Beginner Combo 32 (light)
• Flyweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 7500 HITs

"Where do boats go when they're sick?" "To the boat doc."

Song of the Day: The Track of My Tears by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

For tonight's stream, we'll be playing Overwatch 2. Since I'll be playing the console version, voice chat will be done via discord!

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

Chapter 14 of FF7-Remake took the entire stream?!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy VII Remake was interesting, as Chapter 14 took the entire stream. Now if I was just tearing through and doing only the main story, we could've done a few chapters probably, but I put in the time to do all the side quests in the area, which took a lot of time, including having too look up where to go in some instances.

That said, it really did reek of padding in some instances because only in Chapter 14 do you unlock a fast travel option, but by the time you do there is no point, or at least in my case, because I would try and do multiple side quests at the same time to get done. Still, at the very least, I have done every side quest, so I should be getting the trophy for doing them in the coming weeks assuming there is one more town to explore and to get a feel for.

For the raid we dropped in on dont_run_x while they were playing Tom Clancy's The Division 2 over at twitch.tv/dont_run_x

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• Crate Annihilator: Complete all Normal difficulty Whack-a-Box challenges.
• Picking Up the Pieces: Complete Chapter 14.

Didn't have work yesterday, so I took advantage to get a rough idea of how many LP vinyl records I have (roughly 200) while also searching for proper storage containers for them. The YouTube videos going through them to inventory what I have is going to be interesting because I have some stuff that goes back to the 1960s.

Finished the Daria short story commission last night, and that was a lot of fun to work on. Now I have a WWE (groan) short story commission to work on next

I have a sneaking feeling someone stole something from my front porch today, as I saw a notification for something being delivered, but by the time I woke up and checked, I saw the front gate wide open and nothing at my front door. 

Today's Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Straight Combo 32 and Straight Combo #1. It is possible to actually get 100 hits during a Boss Battle if you do well enough during your Special Technique portion. Also you don't have to do the daily workout to get the stamp, simply doing the daily missions contribute to building a streak as well.

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Stage Master: Exercise on all stages
• Rising Star Lv.3 - Get a total of 36 stars during (light) workouts
• Flyweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 6000 HITS
• Shin's Stage Cleared Lv.2 - Complete Shin's stage (Regular)
  

"I got carded at a liquor store, and my Blockbuster card accidentally fell out. The cashier said never mind."

Song of the Day: Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin

For tonight's stream, the plan is continue Elder Scrolls Online to get more of a feel for it.

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

 

 

From The Fist of the North Star to Hades

Good morning everyone,

Due to circumstances allowing it, we did two streams yesterday, the first was in the afternoon to feature Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star. This stream was about two hours, and featured a full 40+ minute workout plus all the Shin related battles in the Battle mode. We did unlock 10% of the achievements as well, and it does appear FB:FotNS will have a lot of the same achievements that Fitness Boxing 2 did in regards to reaching various goals.

Will I occasionally due bonus streams featuring Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star? Maybe, really depends on what I have going on any particular day and what I need to accomplish.

Oh today;s Fitness Boxing workout featured Hook Combo #2, Hook Combo #1, Beginner Combo #1 and Straight Combo #2.

Last night's stream of Hades got off to a very good start, as we finally cleared an escape attempt on the first run of the night. We actually made it to Hades a couple of times but ended up coming short due to my lack of ability and just some bad luck in some of the boons found. Still, I also made some things harder for myself in terms of my button mash approach along with having the parch of punishment bounties enabled.

Now would I want to attempt to do 9 full escape attempts on Hades to see if I could get to the hidden ending, and probably the make efforts towards the epilogue? Maybe. At the very least, trying to unlock various things seems like a good goal  as an excuse of keeping Hades in the weekly line up for the time being.

For the raid we dropped in on BangBangBang713 who was playing Hogwarts Legacy over at twitch.tv/bangbangbang713! 

Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star Achievements

• Get A Grip: Learn to hold the Joy-Con controolers
• Get Ready: Learn the Basic Stance
• Get the Idea: Learn the Basic Rules
• First Stamp: Acquire your first Stamp
• Set 'Em Up: Check your Daily Workout settings
• Know Yourself: Check your Date
• Exercise Checker: Check Actions in Basic Training
• Champion Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 stars during (regular) workouts
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 500 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 1,000 HITs
• Minimumweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 1,500 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 1 - Reach a total punch count of 2,000 HITs
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 2 - Reach a total punch count of 3,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared Lv. 3 - Complete Shin's Stage (hard)
• KO Puncher Lv. 1 - Defeat a total of 30 outlaws
• Kenshiro's Acquaintance - Work out with Kenshiro
• Kenshiro's Embrace - Receive a raiting of 7 starts from Kenshiro during a workout
• Meeting Mamiya - Acquire Mamiya
• MEasure Up  - Enter your height data
• On your Weight - Enter your weight data
• Calm Hitter - Throw 500 perfect punches
• Breeezy Hitter - Throw 1,000 perfect punches
• Windy Hitter - Throw 2,000 perfect Punches
• High Windy Hitter - Throw 3,000 perfect punches
• Rising Star Lv. 1 - Get a total of 12 starts during (light) workouts)
• Champion Star Lv. 2 - Get a total of 24 stars during (regular) workouts
• Light Flyweight Puncher Lv. 3 - Reach a total punch count of 4,000 HITs
• Shin's Stage Cleared L.v 1 - Complete Shin's Stage (light)
• KO Puncher Lv. 2 - Defeat a total of 150 outlaws
• Strong Windy Hitter - Throw 4,000 perfect punches
• Kenshiro's Coordinato Lv. 1 - Acquire Kenshiro's outfit
• Kenshiro's Coordinator Lv. 2 - Change Kenshiro's outfit
• One Weigh or Another - Enter two days' worth of weight data
  

Hades Achievements

• Escaped Elysium: Clear Elysium
• Is There No Escape?: Clear an escape attempt

The folks at TellTale Games have pulled a 3D Realms by changing game engines and starting over on developing The Wolf Among Us 2... this has of course brought back memories of endless development hell Duke Nukem Forever was stuck in.

With the Vinyl 45s now stored properly, my next concern in regards to archived stuff is the Vinyl LPs I have, which are a mixture of things my mom and dad got back in the 60s, 70s & 80s. I know my dad wants to know if I have a particular album that featured local radio personality Jerry Blavat 

Did finish writing the Star Trek story as a subscribstar exclusive for this month, my focus will now turn towards finishing the Daria commission request

"What do you call a poor Santa Claus?" "St. Nickel-less."

Song of the Day:Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd

For tonight's stream we shall continue Final Fantasy VII remake picking up at the start of chapter 14. Depending on the pacing of things, I'm looking to at least get through Chapter 16 so  that we could save the last two chapters for next Friday.

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