Back to Mass Effect... With A Twist

Good morning everyone,

Got some writing done yesterday on one of the two commission requests I have on deck, focusing on events of Mass Effect 3. I do plan to continue working on this story today, mostly because the client who commissioned it often is very quick on making the payment... as opposed to the one who commissioned the WWE story often making me wait upwards of a week.

Of course last night's stream saw us start up the original Mass Effect, but this time there is a challenge, with it being a forced Paragon run, and an engineer run in order to get achievements associated with both those settings, combine that with also only using Alenko and Williams as the squad mates. Needless to say it's going to be difficult considering I prefer and are very familiar with the build I go with when using soldier, and a lot of the best choices for Shepard to say are when going Renegade.

That said, we covered everything possible to do on Citadel during the first visit, which meant a lot of the side quests were tackled, and we made sure to go get Liara first... even though for this run it would make sense because we're not going to even consider using her on the ground squad. Mostly because it would've made things funny to rescue her last to get her delusional reaction for being trapped for so long.

Still, Mass Effect will be placed into the Thursday night slot, for two reasons, one when work picks back up (or if I get a new job), it'll keep me from doing more playing 4.5 hours, because I love to take my time with Mass Effect and do every dialog option. The other reason is, if I don't have work slated for Friday, I can do a longer stream. So it works both ways.

For the raid we dropped in on TracyDoll over at twitch.tv/tracydoll as they were playing Dead by Daylight 

Of course for tonight's stream we're playing Overwatch 2, with the goal being to level up the battle pass as much as possible, see if we can pick up a title.

There was another mass shooting... and to which I say, when are the elected officials who are Republicans and Conservatives are going to wake up? The answer will be when they start being the ones being the victims of these horrible incidents.

Messed around a bit with The Adventures of Elena Temple, a game that does claim to be the earliest video game with a female protagonist... but in reality it's a pretty modern game released with the gimmick being that it looks like a game made in the early 1980s. It certainly has a charm to it, but not really something I would consider playing on a stream unless I need to fill in some time.

The Adventures of Elena Temple: Definitive Edition Achievements

• High five!: [Chalice of the Gods] Collected your first 5 gold coins.
• Oooh, shiny!: [Chalice of the Gods] Collected your first gem.
• Flying shooter: [Chalice of the Gods] Shot a certain button while in the air to avoid falling to your death.
• That's where you were!: [Chalice of the Gods] Collected the Scroll of Treasures.

There is a chance my Aunt Hillary and her family will be coming down next Sunday afternoon, which means I'll have to make sure I get any writing or side projects I want to do on that day done by Saturdays.

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

100% On Spider-Man, Nearly Done The DLC

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was a bit positive, as the fridge is fully full to the point I have to dispose of some leftovers earlier than I intended, since I'm trying to control my eating, meaning some things are lasting longer than normal.

Last night's stream of Spider-Man saw us completing the 2nd installment of the City That Never Sleeps story, which saw Yuri starting to snap and Hammerhead being presented as a major villain. During the course of this, we got enough base and challenge tokens to get the final costumes to get the last trophy of the base game to get the Platinum, making Spider-Man only the 10th game I've ever completed on PlayStation consoles (and yes I do count the DLC trophies as being separate).

So things set up rather nicely for next Friday's stream, with luck we can get every trophy for the final installment of the City That Never Sleeps to 100% it as well, which would level the two trophies associated with New Game+ and playing the game on the hardest difficulty. Since both of those are considered DLC, I'll consider doing a New Game+ on Ultimate difficulty... next year... assuming my life is not upended due to various fears and concerns I have.

Marvel's Spider-Man Trophies

• A Suit For All Seasons: Purchase all Suits
• Be Greater: Collect all Trophies
• Pulling the Trigger: Complete the "Blindsided" mission
• Prohibition: Take down each Hammerhead Front
• The Gang War: Complete all Crimes in a district
• Turning the Screw: Get Spectacular or better in all Screwball Challenges
• Crossing the Thin Blue Line: Complete the "Lockup" mission
• Steel Skull, Glass Jaw: Complete the "Bring the Hammer Down" mission
• The City is My Family: 100% complete CTNS: Turf Wars

For the raid we dropped in on Felkimchi over at twitch.tv/felkimchi as they were playing World of Warcraft 

Striker won't be joining us this week, so instead of Elder Scrolls Online we'll be doing something random, in fact I've talked about it recently, we're going to start up second play through of Mass Effect, namely the Xbox 360 version. The goal is to be paragon and an engineer, while focusing on having Ashley and Alenko as the companions throughout. Also of note, this will be the first play through of the original Mass Effect since 2020.

Which actually sets up the next seven streams quite nicely...

Tonight: Mass Effect
Sunday: Overwatch 2
Monday: Persona 3 Portable
Tuesday: Persona 3 Portable
Wednesday: Fall Guys & Resident Evil 5
Thursday: Mass Effect
Friday: Marvel's Spider-Man: The City That Never Sleeps

Did do some achievement hunting in Rock Band 4, trying out its Tour Campaign, which is quite a lot of fun, and allows a bit of customization.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• Legend of Stage and Screen: Earned "Legendary" stage presence in a show.
• Duly Impressed: Earned "Impressive" stage presence in a show.
• Breaking Out: Left your hometown to go on tour in Career mode.
• Local Favorite: Earned enough fans in a city to unlock a Fan Showcase in Career mode.
• Gifted and Talented: Earned a custom guitar or clothing asset via Career mode.
• Thank You, Good Night: Nailed an encore in Career mode.
• Yeah, We Know That One: Nailed a request in Career mode.
  

Got started writing on one of the two commission requests yesterday, namely the WWE one, but more than likely the Mass Effect one will be finished before it, since the person who commissioned the WWE wants a super long story with a premise so thin it could be Casper.

My cousin Frances got ill recently, and I hope she has a speedy recovery! Once she's back at 100% we're doing some gaming together!

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

My Little Pony and Star Wars

Good morning everyone,

Finished the Mass Effect short story commission yesterday, and instantly got a follow request for the next installment in that series of short tales. So I now have two commission in the queue to work on (the other being WWE focused... ugh)... which means the Persona story I started on will be delayed.

Anyway last night's stream opened with My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay adventure, making it the first game I've 100% completed on box XBox One and PlayStation 4, which is a pretty unique distinction when you think about it. Still amazes me that it is basically a short game about not being racist and accepting that things change. We were able to complete the game in little over two hours. The game still has a lot of charm to it, which made for a nice easy night following the chaos that was trying to finish Resident Evil 5.

We also messed around with Star Wars: Racer, which was the 2020 re-release of Star Wars Episode I Pod Racer for the PlayStation. With no tutorial and only being able to glance at the controls via the options menu, we jumped right into and managed to get about half of its achievements. It's certainly a fast pace racing game, with a fairly decently scaling A.I. difficulty curve. My biggest gripe is the 'pop in' effect of track hazards and turns.

Between both games and the one Rock Band achievement I got after last night's stream, 5/4/2023 is my second best overall day in terms of winning achievements, with a gamer score of 1330. My best overall day was March 3, 2020 when I had a one game gamer score of 1415, so came really close to breaking that record. 

Now I did play a bit more of Star Wars Racer off-stream to extend my current Xbox Achievement streak through today, the last five achievements were not earned apart of last night's stream.

MY LITTLE PONY: A Maretime Bay Adventure Achievements

• An adorable thief: Reclaim your backpack
• Unicycling 101: Fix the bridge using Izzy's Unicycling powers
• Mane Street Awaits!: Help Hitch in Brighthouse
• Amateur Detective: Get 500 Magic Bits
• Pipp Pipp Parade!: Help Pipp in Main Street
• Glowing Up: Use the Magic Mirror for the first time
• Sheriff's Apprentice: Get 1000 Magic Bits
• Pro Herder: Help Hitch in Town Park
• The Neigh-gotiator: Fulfill Marcel's requests and unlock Beach Cove
• Starscout: Get 1500 Magic Bits
• Where Did The Magic Go?: Race Zipp on Beach Cove
• Friendship Is Still Magic: Catch and talk some sense into Sprout
• W.I.N.G.S. Cadet: Complete the secret obstacle course in Town Park

Star Wars Episode I Racer Achievements

• Inkabunga: Complete a Boost start
• It's a new lap record: Set a new lap record
• May the first be with you: Come in first place
• This is podracing: Finish your first race
• Don't count on it, slimeball: Taunt your opponents
• Brake check: Unlock Teemto Pagalies
• Beedo’s wild ride: Unlock Aldar Beedo
• Mind tricks don’t work on me—only money: Purchase your first upgrade
• Light speed: Reach 700 MPH
• Cell block racer: Unlock Fud Sang
• Start your engines: Complete Amateur Podracing Circuit
• Welcome to the Dark Slide: Unlock Slide Paramita
• Serv-O-Droid, Inc.: Max out your Pit Droid crew
• Bullseye: Unlock "Bullseye" Baranta
• Woohoo: Perform a boost
• Kessel Run: Reach 1000 MPH
• It's working! It's working!!: Repair your engines from "warning" back to stable as Anakin
• Eat my exhaust: Taunt during a boost 
• Don't get cocky, kid: Complete Semi-Pro Podracing Circuit
  

For the raid we dropped in on  Kalenal during their stream of Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal. Also Kalenal will be on vacation for the next week, they will be back on May 15th!

The plan for tonight's stream is of course to do part two of Marvel's Spider-Man's DLC (The City That Never Sleeps). Goal will be the same as last week in trying to get all of the achievements, with a special effort being put in on Screwball's Challenges and then also try and re-do some bases in the normal game to try and get more of the remaining Spider-Suits!

I need to make a note for myself to make sure to get some grape jelly... what can I say, I like having the occasional peanut butter & jelly sandwich!

My job search continues to flounder on so many levels, and I firmly believe there is a discrimination bias towards those who do not drive. 

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

 

We Finished Resident Evil 5!

Good morning everyone,

Had a bit of a slight scare yesterday related to the lack of work that thankfully got sorted, and picked up a few supplemental groceries to go with the healthy stuff I have in the fridge and freezer (also to keep me from ordering take-out!)

Last night's stream opened up with Fall Guys and we picked up a solo win in grand fashion. It was so grand that final round came down to me and two other players, so it was good time to be had! We came real close to winning both Duo and Squad shows as well, but had some bad luck in key situations.  Still it was solid!

When I switched over to Resident Evil 5, first I focused on knocking out achievements related to specific weapons (the Gatling gun, stun baton and longbow), all of which was done in mercenary mode, but the fact that the achievements didn't pop when I expected should've been a first sign indicator something was a bit off.

Because when we were joined by Iceman, neither of us could send invites to get a co-op session started as Xbox had number of issues last night that didn't get resolved until very late. So we had to risk doing an open session and hoping he could join in. Thankfully that worked out and we proceed through Chapters 6-2 and 6-3. 6-2 didn't give us too much trouble.... but chapter 6-3, namely the battle against Wesker was real adventure. In fact from the minute we started the fight against Wesker to the second the credits rolled about 66 minutes, with 11 deaths, most due to the cut scenes and quick time events. We did do some bolder punching which was awesome, if not a little bit silly.

Now we're not done with Resident Evil 5 because there is still the DLC content to do, which we will start on next Wednesday's stream!

Resident Evil 5 Achievements

• Crowd Control: Defeat 30 enemies with the Gatling gun.
• Cattle Prod: Defeat 30 enemies with the Stun rod.
• Bull's-eye: Defeat 30 enemies with the Longbow.
• Completed Chapter 6 - 2: Complete Chapter 6 - 2 on any difficulty setting.
• Recruit: Complete all chapters on Amateur.
• Completed Chapter 6 - 3: Complete Chapter 6 - 3 on any difficulty setting.

Big thank you to MissCammi316 for the raid following their stream of Missing Children over on twitch.tv/misscammi316

For our own raid we dropped in on Tracy Doll who was playing Resident Evil 4 over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

For tonight's stream, we're revisiting My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure, and hopefully we'll have none of the issues that plagued the stream that occurred last year. Following that we'll either do Disney Speedstorm or something Star Wars related since today is May the Fourth.

Messed around with Rock Band some more trying to get a good feel for where I have to be vocally to even do songs on normal... and boy I'm no where near as good as I was with Twitch Sings.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• It's All for the Fans Turned down 3 encores or requests in a row.

Didn't do anything writing yesterday, but got another video recorded focused on my DVDs, which will be live on my YouTube Channel on May 24th. I plan to do two more videos in that series.

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

So easy to make mistakes in P3P

Good morning everyone,

We didn't have any work yesterday, but I did get my firs accumulated payout from SubscribeStar which helps cover a week's worth of normal income. Speaking of that, did more work on the Mass Effect short story, but I feel like I'm going to re-write a good portion of what I did yesterday as it didn't come across right.

Last night's stream of Persona 3 Portable saw a lot of grinding being done in Tartarus, but then I realized how easy it is to be derailed by status effects not lasting as long as I would like to follow a guide of when various things would be done. Now that wasn't so bad because I did do the monorail boss fight, but I screwed up the day after, instead of progressing the Hermit social link, I went to the velvet room, and then learned about going back to the dorm progresses time forward. So sticking to the guide is pretty damn important!

Basically I had to redo everything after 5/6 and continued up to the evening of 5/11, so a couple of minor things saw progressed. At the very least, next time we play Persona 3 Portable there will not be a replay of the Monorail encounter!

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• Tactical Fighter: Exploit enemy weaknesses 100 times.
• Monorail Inspection Complete: Defeat the Priestess.

For the raid we dropped in on misscammi316 who was playing Missing Children, which is some sort of horror game over on twitch.tv/misscammi316! 

The goal for tonight's stream is to play Fall Guys to open things up, then after 9 PM we'll switch to Resident Evil 5 as Iceman and I will try to finish it!

Fun fact about the Xbox version of Rock Band 4, is that it will recongized DLC purchases from earlier installments of the game, but you managed to find new physical copies of some of the earlier expansion packs, like say the one AC/DC, you can use the digital codes to get those songs added to your RB4 library. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be done on the PlayStation side because Sony is a terrible to its consumer base.

Rock Band 4 Achievements

• Wingin' It: Earned three "Freestyle!" vocal phrase scores in a single song.

My oldest niece Makayla celebrated their 11th birthday earlier this week, and I forgot to make note of that here on my blog and to acknowledge on stream. I'm really terrible about stuff like that.

Got two full trash bags full of jewel cases of all the CDs I've put into binders over the last few weeks, so glad to have that project done!

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

First Impressions Of Personal 3 Portable

 Good morning everyone,

The majority of CD collection is now in various binders, I have a few loose ones that I need to break down, but I have a bunch of sampler albums that were used as glorified promotional items, so I might just throw those out to make sure all my actual albums are stored correctly.

Last night we started up Persona 3 Portable, getting to the 16th floor of Tartarus putting us where we need to be for a major story point from what I understand. I really don't mind the visual novel aspect of P3P as it actually does save time in trying to get everywhere, as a lot of time during my Persona 5 Royal play through was spent walking from place to place within that game.

The music of P3P is of course what I expected based on my play time playing Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight. I know a lot of people complained about the sound mixing, but I didn't notice any issues regarding sound effects or dialog, then again, I turned the voice dialog up to max to make sure I hear all everything that is being said.

Roaming around Tartarus does have one draw back and that is trying to ambush panicked enemies, as they tend to be result in chasing  them down. The Shuffle Time gimmick is probably will involve more paying attention than it deserves, particular when it comes to trying to get new Personas. 

Despite the nitpicking, we shall continue P3P tonight!

Persona 3 Portable Achievements

• The Other Self: Awaken as a Persona-user.
• Advantage Mine: Enter a battle with Player Advantage.
• Fashion Plate: Fight a battle in costume.
• Displaying Adaptability: Switch Personas 5 times in 1 battle.

For the raid we dropped in on PowerThumbz who was playing Dead By Daylight over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Started work on the latest Mass Effect commission request, and picked up another WWE related one, so there are two stories in the commission queue, meaning the Persona 5 story I was intending to write will be delayed.

The video of my Plays of the Games in Overwatch 2 for April 2023 is now up on my YouTube channel

The fact that the United States Supreme Court is saying they should not beheld to a high ethical standard shows just how corrupt its members are.

Speaking of corrupt, the GOP once again blocked gun reform as we continue to have incidents all over the United States such as a massive amount of gunfire was unleashed near a Little League game. So fare here in 2023 we've had had 184 mass shootings.... keep in mind there's only been 121 days.

Needless to say, I'm tired of these things happening.... so if you're a 2nd Amendment support, an NRA card carrying member... you can go FUCK YOURSELVES!

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

Dragon Bal Super Hero: Super Hero Is Just Meh...

Good morning everyone,

Finally got around to watching Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and considering all the praise it's got, I was rather underwhelmed, mostly because the pacing was just not good. The extended sequence on Beerus' planet as justification to make sure Goku and Vegeta were shown really took away quite a bit of screen time that could've been used towards furthering Gohan's character arc actually being worth pay off of him going into that transformation he got. The real bright spots of the film are of course Piccolo, Pan, Dr. Hedo and the Gammas, and the over overall visuals were impressive.

That all said, I am curious on if the Manga version will fix the pacing problems, and if I was in a better position, I would be interested in checking it out to see the story fleshed out more. Oh well. 

Also what the hell was up with Beerus apparently having an interest in Cheelai. As someone who does some light fan fic writing, as a shipping pairing, Beerus & Cheelai makes zero sense.

Yesterday I made a mistake, or rather the previous night, I forgot to defrost what I wanted for dinner last night, so I had to order our. Ended up getting a Baconator from Wendy's... and that was a damn good burger.

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was real rough, a lot more losses than wins, with random teammates making questionable choices from the very start of the night. Still we had fun, big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of the fun. I picked up one last Play of the Game for April as Orissa, other characters used were Junker Queen, Ana, Moira, Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, Tracer, Bastion and a few others.

Even picked up another achievement during the stream, and it says a lot of my confidence playing as Tracer in matches where I'm mostly facing PC players via cross play. And with that achievement, I now have 55% of the currently obtainable achievements in the game on the Xbox side of things!

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Total Recall: Recover 400 health using Tracer's Recall without dying in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we dropped in on FelKimChi while they were playing World of Warcraft over on twitch.tv/felkimchi

The plan for tonight's stream is to start up Persona 3 Portable, I've found a decent guide which should allow for us to have a very complete and long play through. 

Finished the WWE Short Story commission, which turned out okay at about 2100 words. Picked up another commission request for another Mass Effect tale.

Had a weird DNS issue yesterday that totally freaked me out, sometimes one must simply turn things off and on again it seems.

The job hunt continues to go poorly as I hope for work to pick back up with my current job. Taking a short at applying for a job at Cooper Hospital again.

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