Today's Notes 5/29/21: Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter & More!

 Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream of Mortal Kombat 11 was a lot of fun, first off the Aftermath story was a nice expansion of MK11 main story as it does justify Netherealm Studios and Warner Brothers Interactive damn near charging the price of a new game for it upon it's initial release. It does however, raise a ton of questions regarding what happened to Sonya Blade, Cassie & Johnny Cage when they were captured by Sindell and Shao Khan's forces along. Now there were no achievements associated with the Aftermath story, but that doesn't mean we didn't get anywhere last night.

After we wrapped up the Aftermath story, my attention turned towards online matches, and as some of you know, I never really engage in facing other people in online matches because I don't exactly sink the time into 'getting good', but surprisingly I was able to win more than I lost, and we chugged along until we earned one of the 'rarest' achievements for Mortal Kombat 11 which was just to play 50 casual matches. I guess everyone's focus was on ranked matches, that they overlooked the real obvious achievement.

1. Kompetitor: Play 50 Kasual Versus matches
   

And we do have some twitch clips for you to check out as well, mostly from the online matches side of things.

Twitch Clips: Online Match Finish: The Comeback

Twitch Clips: Online Match Finish: He Lost His Head

Twitch Clips: Online Match Finish: I Win Via Quitality ?!

Twitch Clips: Online Match Finish: Close Call

Of course last night's stream wasn't without incident as we had to ban someone, that being Ashybashyy, who was actually banned before on March 23, 2019. Now I did a reset of the banned list in February of this year, thus unbanning them and several others, but low and behold they popped up last night and promptly crossed the line again. Funny enough, both times Ashybashyy was banned, it was based on things they said with 5 minutes upon popping into my channel.

Now following the stream I turned my attention to condensing a bunch of CDs into a large binder, and while I am keeping the cover / liner notes for a lot for a lot of them I think I'm going to need 2 to 3 more of these binders because I know I have a bunch of CDs in a carton used for print-copy paper. So I have another one ordered, so that will be 4 binders capable of holding 400 CDs without liner notes.

Also sat down to play the Xbox 360 version of Ultra Street Fighter IV, and I can safely say it's not as good as the version you can play on PC, there is a real input lag which surprises me. I was surprised to see that there were still people playing online matches for it, so we'll see about maybe dedicating occasional streams for to down the line. Did pick up a couple of achievements last night for it as well.

1. Keep on Truckin': If you want to focus on nothing but the fight, entering an Endless Battle is for you!
2. It Begins: The fight starts here! Set your Title and Icon, and begin fighting on Xbox Live!
3. Prep Time: You need study materials to make your battle plan. Follow one player in the Leaderboards.
   

That said, we'll probably not dedicate a lot of time towards hunting achievements for it because many of them only can be earned by really good players, and I'm not one to 'get good'

Yesterday we added Power Rangers: Super Legends for the PlayStation 2 to my collection, and this was a game I did have for PC, but getting older PC games to work and to get OBS to capture the footage for streaming is a pain in the ass. So we settle for finding alternate console versions where possible.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was 45 minutes long, and I ended up having one miss, a straight punch from the South Paw stance in the middle of a combo. Estimated Calorie burn was 729, and today's exercises were Body Straight Combo, Advance Combo #2, Triple Combo #1 (at the No Mercy difficulty) and Uppercut Combo #1. We're up to 77 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend Achievement. 

Don't really have a plan for tonight's stream, so we might just mess around with different games, so on that note, we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Today's Notes 5/28/21: Star Trek Online & More!

Good morning everybody,

Well I woke up unusually early today (a bit before 7 AM), and I already know there is no work today because usually Memorial Day ended up being a 4 day weekend before the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

Last night's stream of Star Trek Online was the first time in a while where we were able to dedicate the entire stream to STO because of the House United Content which featured two new missions. The first "Warriors of the Empire" basically introduces three patrols under the umbrella of a story mission, but this does has a ground portion that see the players going into the mycelial realm to help bring the Elachi into the final battle, since they were a big part of several missions over the last couple of years as it pertains to this story arc. The second mission, "A Day Long Remembered" is a major end point as the player takes part in the Klingon Civil War by being on the front lines, as J'mpok is basically STO's parallel to Donald Trump. This is probably one of the most ground combat heavy missions in STO's history making it a lot of fun. Of course, there was a new Task Force Operation, which is a crazy wild mess called "Remain Klingon" and unlike every other TFO, it actually connects with the story in that it shows what is happening in space. 

Now we did all of this using Zagreus, my Federation character, and so next Thursday, we'll go through it all again with Sorra, my Klingon Defense Force character. This is mainly to keep things even between both characters and to see what subtle dialog changes there are, because there are often are a few. For example, Sorra has gone to Grethor and met Gowan, so she would have a personal stake in making sure he was able to go to Stovokor. 

Of course we do have clips from last night which I'll list next

Twitch Clips: I have a surprise for them... haha!

Twitch Clips: We bring the thunder! We bring the noise! I'm A Spore Smasher!

Twitch Clips: We fight in the streets!

Twitch Clips: Mostly for that look J'ula gives Zagreus

Following the stream I messed around with a few things, played a little of Triple Play 97, and was amazed by the very obvious. With the rosters being set for opening day 1996, that means Curt Schilling is not on the Phillies roster at all. That said, I was pleasantly reminded that Triple Play 97 did have solid play-by-play announcing. Took me a while to figure out pitching, and it's probably going to take me while to remember the timing for hitting.

Also turned my attention to Power Rangers Battle for The Grid and ran a few online matches to try out Ryu and Chun-Li, and I can safely say this: they play nearly as they do in Marvel vs Capcom 3. There are a few differences, but anyone who has played say at least Street Fighter Alpha 2 will be able to jump into Battle for the Grid with Ryu and Chun-Li on their team and be able to hold their own.

Also loaded up Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons last night to get the final achievement in the game 

1. Whale Song: You practiced singing.

With that done, I'm basically out of achievements I could easily go for based on games I have currently installed on both the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles. It's not like I don't have games I could play to get achievements, it's more of wanting to save those games to play them for the first time on stream. Granted I could go after the Xbox 360 version of the Mass Effect games achievements lol.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Session was 43 minutes in length, and involved a lot of step movements with the sets being the Left-Right Step Combo, Double Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo (at the No Mercy setting) and closing out with Uppercut Combo #2. Also did  today's set using a Mesh Waist Trimmer which pretty much forced me to keep my abs tight, and needless to say, so it was certainly a different experience. Now I did miss a couple of punches and they were Left Uppercuts from the Orthodox stance, don't know what it is, but that is consistently a punching movement that I rarely get 100% on.  We're also up to 74 out of the 100 points needed for Martina's Best friend achievement. Also since work has been inconsistent lately, all of my workouts this week have been 40+ minutes, making this probably the most even week I've had, and we already past April's calorie burn today, as we're up to 21726 for the month of May. 

Now the reason I was using a Mesh Waist Trimmer is that since I started using the original Fitness Boxing last July and switching to Fitness Boxing 2 in December, I have lost 40 pounds, but as of late getting the pounds to drop have been a lot harder, so my mom figured it could help as most of my weight is in my mid-section. Every little bit helps as they say.

For tonight's stream, we'll be jumping back into Mortal Kombat 11 with the Aftermath story, which should probably take only take a couple of hours, but depending on that, we might go after the achievement for playing Casual Matches. 

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

 

Today's Notes 5/27/21: The Division, Fitness Boxing & More!

Good afternoon everybody,

Work continues to be slow as it's yet another day where I wake up, check the assignment chart and see no assignments next to my name because what's available has very limited hours assigned to it (as in the client is paying for really narrowed sample period). That is the slight frustration that comes with working in Market Research.

Anyway, last night's stream of The Division was going really well, as Iceman and I were on a good pace of getting a lot done, but then a thunderstorm that was supposed to end at 10 PM in my area lingered and knocked out the power. But as I said we got a lot done, and I discovered an odd mechanic regarding any achievement which involved dismantling 100 items in that they couldn't be 'mark as junk' and broken down in mass, they have to be done one by one. It's odd but whatever. Did pick up two achievements, both of which are related to the story of The Division.

1. I've Got the Power: Secure the Power Plant.
2. Fly on the Wall: Restore the JTF comm relay.
   

We also have a couple of clips from last night which I'll listed here.

Twitch Clip: Going Up And Down and Up The Rope

Twitch Clip: I Don't Blame Ya

When the power (and internet) came back up, I went ahead and picked up the upgrade for Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid to see some of the changes, and it looks like of of the huge changes was for server stability as I had no trouble finding matches when diving into online head to head action, even winning a couple of bouts and pushing much higher tiered players to their limit. Didn't get to try Ryu and Chun-Li, but going up against them I can safely say it's going to be easy to pin them down with Udonna (Power Rangers Mystic Force) and Jen Scotts (Time Force Pink Ranger) who have excellent range attacks.

Also loaded up Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to chase down another achievement in that game.

1. Black Sheep: Every family's got one.

I do find it funny that involved carrying a sheep down to dump it into some ash to make it a black sheep. There is one more achievement needed in the game to get 100% completion for it, so I might go after it tonight off-stream.

We added two new PlayStation 2 games in my collection

The first is Rocky Legends, which is the lesser known of the two Rocky games released for the PlayStation 2. What makes it stands out is that it has a career mode where you can play as either Rocky Balboa, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang or Ivan Dragon. The later of the four is notable because in it, Ivan defeats Rocky.

The other game we added was Mortal Kombat Armageddon, which was basically the closer of the PlayStation 2 era of Mortal Kombat games. It includes every MK character that has appeared in every game up to that point in the franchises history, so finding a main to tackle the arcade ladder will be interesting to say the least.

For Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session, it lasted 40 minutes but there was a patch update which actually corrected something, where it now indicated total number of actions, so this is the grand total of all punches, ducks, dodges, blocks, steps, etc, performed during a session.  Todays exercises included Body Uppercut Combo, Defensive Combo #1, Hook Combo #2 and Body Hook Combo. For the Body Hook combo I set a new personal best with it being set at the No Mercy Setting.  My time was just a hair off when performing Left Hooks from the Orthodox stance today.

As mentioned there was a patch update so Fitness Boxing 2 is now version 1.0.4. Some of the changes include addition settings for station animations so folks who hate how flashy the game gets in 'Zone' sections of sets can  turn that off; the icon sizes for actions, foot placement and the time remaining have been made larger and color for the combination lane was adjusted, instructor comments have been adjusted. So basically all little quality of game improvements have been made. 

I can safely say tonight's entire stream will be focused on Star Trek Online because there is actual new content to tackle, first two brand new missions "Warriors of the Empire" and "A Day Long Remembered” which probably will wrap up the long on-going Klingon Empire story arc that started with the addition of Discovery content to STO, and a new Task Force Operation “Remain Klingon”. So the plan will be to play the two new missions first and then the TFO and probably closing out with completing endeavors.

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

Today's Notes 5/26/21: Mass Effect 2, Mortal Kombat 11, New Games & More

Good afternoon everybody,

Yes another day where I scheduled myself for work, but there are no work assignments, but good thing I have covered myself better this year than previous years. Still it is annoying waking up early expecting to do something but then not having that something to do.

Anyway, last night's stream of Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition was focused squarely on what was the DLC for the original version of the game. So we tackled Zaeed and Kasumi's loyalty missions, bounced around the galaxy knocking all the missions associated with the Firewalker DLC and also went all in on the Project Overloard content. Amazingly, because of the difference between the PC and console versions of Mass Effect 2, I ended up having quite a few critical mission failures during the course of this, two  involved the piece of shit Hammerhead, while the other three were in direct combat. Anyway we picked up several achievements last night which I shall now list.

1. 
   Broke, Blind, and Bedlam: ME2: Gain the loyalty of the thief
2. Head Hunter: ME2: Perform 30 headshot kills with any weapon on humanoid targets
3. Revenge!: ME2: Gain the loyalty of the mercenary
4. Agent: ME2: Complete 5 missions discovered by scanning unexplored worlds
5. Overload Specialist: ME2: Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies
6. Digital Exorcist: ME2: Successfully shut down the rogue VI in Project Overlord
7. Power Full: ME2: Evolve any power

And here are some clips from last night as well!

Twitch Clip:Shepard is Right Here In Front Of You

Twitch Clip:Critical Mission Failure: Environmental Hazard

Twitch Clip:Critical Mission Failure: Flamethrower

Twitch Clip:We Were Waiting For 'Em

Following the stream, I did jump into Mortal Kombat 11 to make some progress towards the "Master of Time' achievement, and I'm up to 63% out of the 250 towers needed to be completed. This will probably be a nightly process as it is very grind heavy. At the same time I also worked on one of the two remaining tutorial achievements, which was for Advance game mechanics. having to spend 45 minutes on just trying to time the flawless blocking into attack combos. Still I did pick up that achievement.

1. Ready To Kompete: Komplete all Advanced Tutorials

I said it before and I'll keep saying it, but tutorials within Fighting Games should not be tied to achievements.

Following yesterday's blog, a package that should've arrived on Monday.... arrived. Well that was awkwardly phrased. Anyway where are four new additions to my collection

Xena: Warrior Princess (PlayStation) -I was a fan of the TV series back in the day, and while I was aware there was a game based on it, I never picked it up.

WWE: Crush Hour (PlayStation 2) -This is one of those games where I often went back and forth on picking it up when I saw it at EB Games, like I was a big WWE fan at the time it came out, but I often found something better.

Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 (PlayStation 2) - I remember having the original Ready 2 Rumble Boxing of the PS1, and so if this is anything like the game I remember playing, this should be fun -  

WCW Vs The World (PlayStation) - Considered to be the best WCW game for the PlayStation, I did own a copy back in the late 90s... thing is, it's nothing but Virtual Pro Wrestling with the WCW license slapped on it

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session went 43 minutes, and it was nearly flawless, had three misses and they were all on combos. Today's sets were Beginner Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #1, Double Combo #1 (at No Mercy, set a new personal best), and Defensive Combo #2.  In regards to the punches I missed on, they were from the orthodox stance, mainly jabs and left uppercuts, I was perfect when in the southpaw stance. We're up to 68 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement.

For tonight's stream, we'll be back to the Division, and we may be joined by Iceman as we continue through New York, I might start a little later so I'm not just randomly wandering around doing stuff the entire time, but not 10% sure.

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

Today's Notes 5/25/21: Mass Effect 2, New Games & More!

Good afternoon everybody,

It's another one of those I scheduled myself for work but there is not work kind of days.

Anyway, last night we started up the Legendary Edition version of Mass Effect 2, and I'm glad to see one of the oddest bugs from the original version (where you could change who ends up on the Citadel Council between Anderson and Udina) was fixed, so there is a nice sense of continuity. While everything looks better, I am surprised things such as liquid being poured into a glass on Omega and the Citadel weren't improved, and there are some animations that are still completely awkward. Now a lot of folks were complaining that a lot of the 'ass' shots of Miranda Lawson were rumored to being cut out, but I didn't notice any changes in that regard. As far as how far we got last night, since I do go through all the dialog, we picked up Garrus and a did a lot of side missions on Omega and the Citadel. Of course we did get a few achievements last night and also we have clips.

First here at the achievements we unlocked:

1. Missing in Action: ME2: Save your crew from an overwhelming attack
2. Very Elusive: ME2: Return to active duty
3. Operative: ME2: Complete a mission discovered by scanning an unexplored world
4. Galactic Explorer: ME2: Visit 100% of the planets in an unexplored cluster
5. Scholar: ME2: Unlock 15 new Mass Effect 2 codex entries
6. Merciless: ME2: Make 20 enemies scream as they fall or are set on fire
7. The Archangel: ME2: Successfully recruit Archangel

And now here are a couple of clips from last night's stream:

Twitch Clips: Tali You Know What Happens When People Threaten Shepard

Twitch Clips: Shepard's Gotta Shepard... Word Life

Twitch Clips: It's Gonna Blow!

We added several games from the PlayStation 2 Era to my collection yesterday and here's the list of them and why I went out my way to track them down.

1. 007: From Russian With Love
2. Death By Degrees
3. Eragon
4. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
5. Finding Nemo
6. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 
7. Black
   

The two stand outs are 007: From Russia With Love because it does feature the voice of Sean Connery as James Bond, and Death By Degrees, which was Namco's attempt of trying to have a spin-off for the Tekken series.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session went 43 minutes with 2093 total motions (punches combined with ducks and other movements) performed. Estimated calorie burn was about 700. I did set a new personal best when it came to performing the Biceps Shape Focus Combo at the No Mercy difficulty. Other exercises performed were the Hip Shape Focus combo, Hook Combo #1 and Triple Combo #2. My timing felt a little off with a few different types of punches from the orthodox stance, namely on Left Uppercuts and Body Straights. We're up to 65 out of 100 for Martina's Best Friend achievement. 

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition, with the big focus being on doing as much as I can before I have to pick up Mordin off of Omega. We'll probably start a bit early to make sure we can squeeze in as much as possible!

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

Today's Notes 5/24/21: Overwatch, Mortal Kombat & More!

Good morning everybody,

Woke up a bit before 7 AM today, maybe because I slept in yesterday leading to me waking up super early today, but who knows how that works out. Still we're up and doing things.

Last night's stream of Overwatch saw the first hour being dedicated to archive missions before settling into playing Quick Play matches the rest of the night. I picked up two plays of the game, both as D.va which is always nice, and had some real good moments playing as Tracer in Quick Play matches that surprised me. Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of a lot of the fun last night! And of course have some clips from last night while I'll list here.

Twitch Clips: That was slick

Twitch Clips: Chasing Dva With Torb's Hammer

Following the stream, I turned my attention back to Mortal Kombat 11, chasing two more achievements last night, meaning at this moment I have 54 out of the games 58 achievements. The two final four are tied to completing 250 towers (I'm at 60% for it), play 50 Casual online matches (I'm at 12%) so those I will get with time. Then there are the other final two achievements which are both tied to the tutorial which I'm just going to dread trying to complete. But since we're so close, I might as well try, even if it's going to frustrate the hell out of me. Anyway here are the two achievements we unlocked last night.

1. Victorious: Equip 5 different character victories
2. Total Disrespect: Defeat an opponent as Bug-Vorah
   

Wet to Daemonswolf over at https://www.darkwolfcreative.com for a new start screen image, with the basic instructions of basing it on the famous Breakfast Club poster, beyond that DaemonsWolf had free reign to select the characters, and they did a great job, featuring Johnny Gat from Saints Row, Max from Sam & Max, Zagreus from Hades and Luna from Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward. This will be serving as the new start screen until I come up with a idea for the next one.

Just saw that Capcom is releasing a new collection of Arcade games, listed as "Capcom Arcade Stadium" and considering how back and forth Capcom has been about taking advantage of their own history in releasing old games in a budget bundle, it's nice to see. Looks like it would be a pretty easy achievement hunt to go through them. So maybe we'll add that as a digital title on the Xbox side, while keeping an eye out for a physical Nintendo Switch release down the road.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was streamed on Twitch, as it has been on Monday's for the past several months, but I had to cut today's session short after finishing the daily because something got my attention. Still the work out was pretty solid. Also clipped a couple of moments from this morning session, showing that while I do my best, it looks awkward as hell!

Twitch Clips: Sway Combo!

Twitch Clips: Block Combo... Is My Life

Tonight we'll be starting up Mass Effect 2, and it will be listed as Mass Effect Legendary Edition, since there is a strong difference between the original version of ME2 and it's LE counter part in that the later will probably result in more viewers. We'll probably start early, based on when I have dinner. 

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

Today's Notes 5/23/21: Mortal Kombat 11, Ronda Rousey Can't Act & More

Good afternoon everyone,

Yes I slept in today, because I didn't go to bed until 4 AM, because it was all about Mortal Konbat 11 for me yesterday.

So for last night's stream, the big focus was on doing the story mode for Mortal Kombat 11, which picks up sometime after Mortal Kombat X, and we learn through the entire story that there have been multiple time lines in the Mortal Kombat Universe as part of an enternal plan to have a perfect time line as crafted by the villain of the story Kronika, who happens to be the mother Shinnok, and that she is reason behind the events seen in Mortal Kombat 9 where Raiden and Liu Kang go head in the final chapter. It's an okay plot that gives context to a lot of things such as Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe as well Scoprion and Sub-Zero appearing in the Injustice video games. It took me about 4 1/2 hours to get through the story mode, as each fight was two rounds, and most of the characters used in the story mode I have not used in the prior weeks in my achievement grinding. 

Speaking of which here are the achievements unlocked last night, some were done after the stream because they required some 'focused' attention.

1. Half Way There: Komplete 50% of Story Mode
2. What's Next?: Komplete Story Mode
3. R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Pay 100 total respect points in King of the Hill
4. Hit The Dojo: Komplete all Basics Tutorials

Now I know I said I wasn't going to go for the Tutorial achievements, but I was only two away from completing Hit The Dojo, and it took me an half an hour to figure out the timing needed to do a combo using Scorpion's spear. Anyway, if all goes right after tonight's stream, I'll be going after the Victorious achievement, since I need to unlock just one more victory pose and equip it to its corresponding character.

Of course we do have clips from last night as well, so here a few highlights

Twitch Clips: Cassie Cage Brutality

Twitch Clips: You know what they say, it's better to burn out than to fade away

Twitch Clips: We pulled that one out of our backside

Twitch Clips: Cassie Cage: Fatal Blow To Fatality

Now let me turn my attention to Ronda Rousey, who puts in a dreadful performance as Sonya Blade where it comes across as her blatantly just reading lines off a piece of paper with little or no direction. This was obvious with her performance in the story more for WWE 2K20 and when having to cut promos on Monday Night RAW, but it's really exposed here because there are supposed to be some several emotionally intense moments for Sonya but because of Ronda's inability to put any emotion into anything she does, Sonya comes across as oddly disinterested in what's happening to her as a character and what she learns. You know what Netherealm Studios should have done was when they managed to get Bridgette Wilson for the Mortal Kombat 95 skin back, they should have had her record all of Sonya's lines for the story mode and patched Rousey's piss-poor acting out of the game. Believe me, if replacing Peter Dinklage with Nolan North improved the original Destiny, replacing Ronda Rousey would've helped give MK 11's story mode the emotional punch it needed.

Moving on, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 session was short for me for a Sunday as I felt a little sluggish at times. Still was a 40 minute workout, I just didn't do anything extra. Besides most people just do the dailies only, from what I've seen on Twitter anyone who is doing Fitness Boxing on a daily basis are not doing any free exercises to go with them. 

With it being Sunday that means our attention will be on Overwatch and since the anniversary event is going on, we might be able to work in one of the seasonal brawls that are PVE (depending on what the daily cycle in the arcade mode has listed). Otherwise, we'll stick with Quick Play matches.

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