Today's Notes 1/24/21

 

Good evening everybody,

Well last night's stream of Zero Escape 999 started at 7 PM and didn't end until about 6:15 AM, as yes it took 11 hours to get through the final play through to get the TRUE ENDING of the game, which was worth it, even if my brain was fried with the some of the new puzzles we didn't see until after 3 AM in the morning.... the last two puzzles of the game which were so freaking obvious (answers being Password and 9) that I didn't realize them until someone in the chat pointed it out. That said, we'll be continuing the Zero Escape saga with Virtue's Last Reward starting this upcoming Saturday, and we'll move up the start time, although it does have a flow chart mechanic that will allow me to jump to certain points which would've been real helpful with 999. (and if it was there in 999 to jump to different points I didn't realize it)

So by the time I actually hit the sack last night or this morning it was about 6:45 AM... and I woke up at like 2 PM after last night's epic stream, and so to say I felt my timing was a bit off with today's Fitness Boxing 2 session isn't that much of an exaggeration, as I felt a bit out of sync doing  Right Weaves, Left Uppercuts and Right ducks out of the orthodox stance. Surprisingly I was nearly perfect with everything from the south paw stance today considering everything. Of  Left-Right steps were their usual hindrance for me, but not to bad overall.Also did a bit of Animal Crossing New Horizons, nothing major on my Island to report today other than I really have to figure out something for the rooms in my house to get my weekly house rating up from a B to an A, but of course I just like playing ACNH my way.

You ever get bothered by someone who wants you to do something, and you end up agreeing to do it out of spite even though you've told them to take their business elsewhere? Yeah that happened to me, so I'll have to find some footage of what some characters are like now a days on WWE programming to get an idea of how to write them for a fan fic piece. Believe me when I say, I told the person no about a dozen times since 2019, the last time I was really writing heavily, so I could look at this as a way of seeing if I still got it. Here's hoping I don't, of course I will put some effort into it, I do got my pride after all.

Tonight's stream, starting at 7 PM EST will of course kick off the new week with Overwatch, no real challenges needing to be completed just playing Quick Play and / or Arcade matches. Here's hoping I don't see too many smurf accounts tonight.

And on that note we'll see you in a bit over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

Highlights for the week of 1/17/21

 Here are the best moments from the games featured on my twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/fredcasden) for the week of January 17, 2021... the games featured were Overwatch, Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Music, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Super Mario Bros 35, Saints Row The Third, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Final Fantasy XV Comrades, ESPN Major League Baseball, Star Trek Online and Zero Escape: 999! 

Today's Notes 1/23/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Saints Row The Third: Remastered continued my direct yet in-direct approach to playing it, which is doing all the side activities while trying to avoid as much as the main story as possible, this has meant that certain cut scenes were missed because I'm doing the activities as I come across them, so the Boss's first direct meetings with Kinzie and Angel are lost, which meant some things were done without context. Now yes, this approach is sort of how I played Saints Row IV Re-Elected and Saints Row Gat Out Of Hell last year , however unlike with those games, Saints: Row The Third: Remastered (and even in its original version) doesn't have a clear indication of what is and what isn't a major story mission. That said, we got 60% of the campaign done, over the course of three nights thus far... which means the achievement to get 30 hours of play time in, is probably more of a pain in the ass than it should be because of how efficient I am with Saints Row The Third in general.

As I was considering games to feature this year, my attention turned to a few things on my shelf, one being my copy of Xenosaga  for the Playstation 2, and while I can probably find copies of Xenosaga II on the cheap, the third game in the Trilogy, Xenosaga III is virtually impossible. Now I saw that there were hopes for a remastered collection to be put out, but those were dashed because Bandai Namco would rather do licensed fighting games than actually take a chance and revitalized original properties. I'm not kidding the reason Katsuhiro Harada of Bandai Namco basically said the concept of an HD remastered of the trilogy died in a profit analysis meeting, which is funny considering Bandai Namco has a long history of actually UNDERESTIMATING GLOBAL INTEREST.

That said, looking into the cost of having my old Playstation 3 repaired and ordering a refurbished one seems to be about even in terms of price. As much as I would not want to do business with GameStop, the fact that I could expand what I do on Twitch even further by having the option of using my PS3 library in addition to my PS2 and PS1 collection, to go along with things that are PC, Xbox and Switch exclusive would go along way in helping my channel stand out in terms of having so much variety in a retro sense. Besides how many people can say they would have the option of playing NCIS (yes there was a game based on the long running CBS series).

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session felt solid, as it went over 30 minutes (not counting stretching) and I felt like I actually did really well on step-forward and step-back movements, which as you know are things that just frustrate the hell out of me. Unlocked a couple of achievements, one was Welterweight Puncher Lv. 1 which was to reach a total punch count of 57,000 HITS, with my current total being 58,021, and the other being Sound Tester which was to have used all the in-game music at normal speed... and to finally get that I had to do a bonus set to select Boogie Wonderland as it was never appearing during daily work outs.

Tonight we'll be returning one last time to Zero Escape: 999 as we'll be going after the True Ending... which means I get to do all my running gags for this game in series one more time. I have all my notes, and I have a good idea of what doors to go through, doors 4 7 and 1, which probably will result in me having some puzzles I've never seen before outside of DaemonsW0lf's streams when she got the True Ending.

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

 

 

Today's Notes 1/22/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream started with The Division 2 and it was a ton of fun, as Iceman, PowerThumbz (twitch.tv/powerthumbz), FnDanteSavage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) and I finished up the latest manhunt. Even though I was a bit late because of work, we tore through the objectives at a good pace, even though I caught more damage than normal, but I guess that can be the case when you're playing with buddies, and general silliness can take place. Once the manhunt was completed, I went on to do some Star Trek Online, just some general task force operations, and it's a good thing I did as the count down to the anniversary event began, and there are daily rewards for logging in and checking the promotions tab.

Speaking of Star Trek Online, it was announced today that with the release of STO's 11th Anniversary update, they are releasing a feature that will allow players of all factions to fly the ships of their choice regardless of the default allegiance of that ship... which is basically something I said should have been the case going back to the obvious fuck up involving the Titan class ship back in December. Access to this feature will be automatically granted to any and all accounts that have at least one character that reached level 65 as a member of the Klingon Defense Force from start to finish. That means when creating a character you must selected Klingon Defense Force, not Romulan Republic or Dominion, the character has to be a species related to the Modern Klingon Empire (so Klingon, Gorn, Orion, Nausicaan or any other citizens that you can select when creating a KDF character). For players like myself who already have that done, simply log in with your Level 65 KDF character to have that status verified to have access to Cross-Faction Starships. Obviously this will be for when the 11th Anniversary Update goes live.

And my copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES for the Playstation 2 arrived yesterday, I am curious how many cheap games for that system I can found here in 2021 to build up that collection since I will be freeing up a lot of shelf space this year.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was another 30 minute one, but based on how things track with the game, I should see some things increasing the next few days as it seems to have a pattern. Remember normally Mondays are the days I hit Fitness Boxing 2 the strongest since I'm often streaming those sessions on twitch. Anyway we followed things up with ab it of Animal Crossing and even some Overwatch on the switch, hell I even earned a play of the game as Reinhardt which was pretty sweet. I also compared the latency between the Switch and PC versions, and both are about the same, granted the Switch runs off of WiFi as opposed to the hard wired connection for my PC.

Tonight we'll be playing Saints Row The Third: Remastered and continuing the adventures of the Boss as we claim Steelport piece by piece. So expect a lot of side mission things being done first, including what I think are the pain in the ass Guardian Angel helicopter missions. Granted we did a couple of those on Monday, but they were all Piece focused and I think there are some for Kinzie as well. Anyway we'll get the stream started at about 9:30 PM EST

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

Today's Notes 1/21/21

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of ESPN Major League Baseball was a lot of fun, as we wrapped up the hold over series with the Cardinals, and then took two of three from the Diamondbacks on the road.... man I'm glad that the next time we play this game next week we will not be seeing the team from Arizona, as I believe the Giants and Rockies are the next two series. Big highlight of as night was crushing three home runs in one game as Jim Thome. It's always nice to smack a big fly and to do three in one game as one player felt awesome. That said, I continue to do a ton of line up shuffling to try and find a balance, and I might settle on 1. Jimmy Rollins 2. Maroln Byrd 3. Chase Utley 4. Jim Thome 5. Pat Burrell 6. Bobby Abreu 7. David Bell 8. Mike Liberthal, but I'm always tinkering trying to find something that seems like a good fit, keep in mind by bench includes Tomas Perez, Ricky Henderson, Ricky Ledee, Todd Pratt and Placido Polanco.

Something that is irking me is the number of 'new accounts' I'm seeing on the PC version of Overwatch lately, as the problem with smurfing continues to plague Overwatch. Smurfing, which is a player of high skill creating a new account to avoid playing against people of a similar skill. In 2018 Jeff Kaplan said it isn't cheating, but when you see it basically having other online head to head games like Apex Legends, Rocket League and Rainbow Six Siege saying it is cheating and players caught doing it will be banned. This is why I'm eagerly waiting for Overwatch 2, because in a PVE environment it basically will cut out the frustration of dealing with people getting around the rule.

Anyway, today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was pretty light, as we didn't even have 1000 reps to do, so I had to do a bit of extra Free Exercise to add on to today's numbers after the daily routine. That said both versions of defensive combos were apart of today's daily session which I think is the first time I've ever seen that happen, normally its one or the other, but never both back to back. Also nearly had a flawless session, but one missed right duck and few okay timed punches prevented that. Dropped into Animal Crossing New Horizons today, nothing major on my island to other than I notice I can probably put together a boxing or wrestling ring if I get four blue corner pieces... well I have one, just need three more. Will need to actually cut down some trees to make some room for it.

Tonight's stream will start a little after 9 PM EST as I do have work this evening and so I'll be scrambling after it's done to get set up for The Division 2, as we'll be co-streaming with PowerThumbz (twitch.tv/powerthumbz) and FNDanteSavage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) and playing with Iceman as we knock out the second half of this week's manhunt!

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

Today's Notes 1/20/21 (Updated)

Good afternoon everybody,

Started work on doing my taxes today, and only just now noticed the hit I'm taking this year because of my day gig, there is often times I will be furloughed, so that resulted in a need to cover my own but, using New Jersey's unemployment to cover some weeks. And since some of those weeks were during the early COVID-19 relief through UI, that means whatever I would normally get this year in terms of a Tax Refund has been eaten up by the fact that the state of New Jersey didn't take 10% out to cover its taxes, which is funny considering how I was having 10% for the normal UI. I imagine that a lot of folks are going to be coming to same realization. Still have to wait for my 1099 from Twitch/Amazon.

UPDATE: Got my 1099 from Twitch/Amazon, and finished my taxes. Thankfully I've commissioned enough things to be made for my Twitch channel to balance everything out. So while I may not be getting a damn thing back, I don't owe anything! And that goes for both state and federal!

 

 

Last night's stream was really awesome as it was a triple co-stream with PowerThumbz (twitch.tv/powerthumbz) and FnDanteSavage (twitch.tv/fndantesavage) along with Iceman as we went through the first half of the new manhunt event in The Division 2, which saw us being massacred because Thumbz wanted to take out an elite patrol before we took a control point. It was a hilarious long stretch of time that took way longer than normal, but we got through it. Since we only did 50% of the manhunt last night, we're covered the other half of it on Thursday which means Star Trek Online this week will be moved to Friday... not that I have much to do in STO unless I want to start doing mission catch up streams with all my other characters. Anyway, in addition to the Division 2 stuff with the guys, I also did some Final Fantasy XV Comrades and managed to tackle a few things that I felt I was a bit under powered for and made progress in the first time in a long while. 

Had a solid Fitness Boxing 2 session today, with this being the 40th day since the switch from the original game, resulting in the achievement of Stalwart Stamper Lv. 3 being unlocked, which is done primarily of doing the Daily Exercises to get the corresponding stamp on the calendar. We've also unlocked the achievement called Hurricane Hitter which is to throw 60,000 perfect punches, which is not phrased correctly, it's to have 60,000 perfect motions, because it's counting punches, ducks, blocks and steps, since my actual punch count is 55,114 as of the time I'm writing this. Also did a bit a Animal Crossing New Horizons and Skye was considering leaving the island, and I made sure to say 'no don't go!', trust me Skye, Audie, Agnes, Blanch and Antonio are the ones I'm never letting leave!

Tonight we got ESPN Major League Baseball on tap, and since I know already there is no work for me for tonight (which makes taxes stuff even more pleasant to think about), we'll start early and go through as many games as we can. I know I have one game against the Cardinals to carry over from last week, so if I can get through the next two series as well (which are road games against the Diamondback and Giants) we'll be about where I was expecting to be if I saved my game two weeks ago! 

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

Today's Notes 1/19/21

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Saints Row The The Third Remastered saw a big focus on doing 'activities' that count towards the progression of taking over Steelport. Much like with how I played Saints Row IV Relected and Saints Row Gat out of Hell, I do put a big focus of capturing territory before advancing the main missions, plus it there are several achievements tied towards doing the activities in the game. Speaking of which we did unlock three achievements last night, Bo-Duke-En which was to perform 50 quick vehicle hijacks (running towards a vehicle in motion and pressing wide to dive into it like The Duke Boys in the Dukes of Hazard TV show); Tank You Very Much, which was to completed all instances of Tank Mayhem; and Tune In, Drop Off, which was to Completed all instances of Trafficking.

Arriving in the mail today was brand new copies of nearly 20 year old games for the Playstation 2, Street Fighter Alpha Anthology, which was a 2006 fighting game compilation that collects the Street Fighter Alpha series (Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3) plus the the console-exclusive Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold and Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix. While I have played home version of Alpha 1 and 2 before, and the arcade version of Alpha 3 (in the 30th Anniversary collection), I have never played Alpha 2 Gold or Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix. Plus I understand there are two other games hidden on the disc, so it should be interesting. Also my copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 along with another memory card for the PS2... what you don't think I'm going to delete old save data now do you? 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session felt pretty good, a few questionable misses but not enough to cause my Fitness Age to be scored in the mid 20s. New achievement with Super Lightweight Puncher Lv. 3 which was to reach a total punch count of 54,000 Hits, with my exact total being 54,006. Also started to chance the 'free training' achievements for Lin which is just to do an exercise set in addition to the daily workout. Which means at some point I'll start using the other in-game trainers to chase there related achievements as well. 

Tonight over on Twitch, we'll be returning to the Division 2 with the next manhunt starting today! We'll be teaming up with Icemany7667, FNDanteSavage and PowerThumbz, which also means a double or triple co-stream with the later two. Dante's twitch channel is twitch.tv/fndantesavage and Thumbz can be found at twitch.tv/powerthumbz) and since I already got word that my job won't interfere tonight, we'll be getting started at about 9 PM EST.

And on that bombshell we'll see ya later this evening over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!