When It Comes To War The Gears Are Not Paladins

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream featured two games, Paladins and Gears of War 3... and it turns out, that I probably could've just featured the later game. But we'll get to that.

First lets talk about Paladins, and if it wasn't for the fact that I played Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams the previous night, then last night would have featured Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, as I suspect there would have been a lot of people playing online to get their hands on Adam: The Black Ninja Ranger who was just added to the game this week.

So how did Paladins go? Well considering the survey Hi Rez sent out regarding the game, not so good as the match making and keeping things fair and balance is impossible with Paladins, there is such an uneven field of play, people going AFK or leaving the matches continues to be a major issue. Hell console play only is virtually dead, and I believe if it wasn't for Cross-Play, Hi Rez would be force to shut the game down on the console side of things. 

Now lets talk about the matches, the fact that people are always reluctant to play Tank or Support still boggles my mind, and needless to say the mentality of being focused on the objective in Overwatch certainly is not a trait that serves me well in Paladins considering how a lot of folks hate going to the point. In the matches I played tank, I could count on one hand the number of times I had any back up when it came to clearing it off. When I played support, things went better because I was doing what a support should do and shadow the tank(s). Of course I did intentionally play one match as a damage player, and sure I died a lot but I I had 41 eliminations as Lian.

Big thanks to LvStrkr for tagging in and playing a few matches as well, because at least then I had one less random to deal with as it put it.

Around 9 PM we switched over to Gears of War 3 to continue what we started with Iceman7667 the previous week, and we covered a lot of ground. Choosing not to be worried about collectables, we cleared Acts II and III in just under three hours, which means we saw the end of Dom. The foreshadowing on Dom's heroic sacrifice was pretty obvious when you reach his wife's grave at the end of Act III, how he leaves his dog-tags on the angel, how he gives Marcus a knife but doesn't take it back. You talk about a guy who knows that the end is near for him, it was all there.

That said, the journey through Acts II and III were a lot of fun, as the variety of the different enemies certainly makes for fun encounters and different challenges. Good think we're playing this on Casual, because on insane I could imagine just how horrific it can be. Rather enjoyed the 'Spider' mother boss encounter was quite interesting in how it was laid out in different waves after taking out each of it's four eyes one at a time.

Of course probably the highlight was reaching the point in game where infamous Iceman along with FnDanteSavage and PwrThumbz reached where a lot of the ribbing on Thumbz about being the difficulty setting was set... as Iceman tells it they got stuck in one spot for hours on end.... and yet we cleared it in 5 minutes.

I mentioned earlier I could have played Gears of War 3 the entire, and that's because I discovered people are still playing the Horde mode! Maybe next time Iceman and I continue, I could spend the first chunk of the stream playing that, and seeing how far I can go with random (and more experienced) people who are clearly grinding for some of the more long term achievements of the game!

After the stream, we sent the fun over to LifewithStan at twitch.tv/lifewithstan who was playing Cyberpunk 2077, he's a good dude who streams from the West Coast, so if you're looking for a late night streamer on the East Coast, he's one to check out!

Gears of War 3 Achievements

1. Okay, Now We Find Hoffman: Discovered the location of Adam Fenix.
2. Oh Yeah, It's Pirate Time: Grabbed a Locust Gas Barge to travel to Anvil Gate.
3. Thanks For Flying GasBag Airways: Arrived safely, kinda, at Anvil Gate.
4. Anvil Gate's Last Resort: Defended Anvil Gate from the Locust siege.
5. Was it Good For You?: Defeated the Lambent Berserker.
6. Lost Your Good Driver Discount: Drove from Anvil Gate to Mercy.
7. Pack Rat: Recovered 20 of 42 Collectibles.
8. Brothers to the End: Found and activated the fuel pump.

Twitch Clip Links

•  Just trying to be a War Machine
•  Well my team woke up!
•  Sweet Action With Lian
•  We Know You Have Your Choice Of Airlines...
•  I Caught... The Car
•  This Is How Phaser, Dante, Thumbz and Ice Got Stuck Here For Hours on End
•  He Will Not Be The Head Of The Horde

During the stream... well at the very start, I had a delivery from Amazon, as we picked up Volume 1 and 2 of "Fables: The Wolf Among Us" which is the comic book adaptation of the game we played last week, and just flipping through it I see quite a few differences from how events played out based on my choices in the game. Looking forward to reading it! 

Work was kind of interesting yesterday, as I was working on a research effort regarding a proposal in a Southern State regarding casinos, and it's always interesting to talk to people about something not related to a major office. Granted, Trump supporters only can think about Trump and care about nothing else, so that part kind of sucks. You'd be surprise at how many people favor 'fair competition' when it comes to dealing with the casinos operated by Native American tribes. 

Made some good progress on recreated the old fics based on Chrono Cross that I remember reading back in the early 2000s, the first few chapters are up over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

Looking a head to October's game being more 'horror' related, I do know Until Dawn and The Walking Dead games are stuff I'm heavily considering, plus Ghostbusters and maybe Resident Evil 2 Remake. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 34 minutes and featured Difficult Challenge Comb #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #1 and Difficult Challenge Combo #3 in that order. Managed to get a perfect score on Difficult Challenge Combo #3. The estimate Calorie burn was 627 kcal.

For tonight's stream I'm leaning toward Tales From The Borderlands, and if we do go that route, we'll probably handle it the same how we did The Wolf Among Us last week, doing three episodes tonight and two tomorrow with something paired with it on the back end. I may end up doing something else, we shall see, who knows!

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

Smited Warrior Dreams

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream did feature Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams and the version of that we played was the one included in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. Now the intention was to try and get multiple achievements... but then I decided to go through this with every single character. Part of that reason was because it didn't take me too long to clear the arcade ladder with Ryu, and since the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection isn't listed on Twitch for whatever reason, I didn't want to keep updating the title

 
Now like with it's sequel, I do have a unique history with Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams as it was game that was ported to Windows 95 PCs back in the mid 90s... and like with its Sequl, I would play it using a keyboard. It is basically how I learn to use the WASD keys to move and the attack buttons were Insert / Home ./ Page up for Light / Medium / Heavy Punch.... and Delete / End / Page Down for Light / Medium / Heavy Kick. This is also why when you see me playing fighting games, I rely a lot on diving in to close distance and why my defense is terrible, I basically learned to do as much damage as possible with what I could figure out with each and every character.

This is where you would ask 'why didn't I use a game pad', and the answer to that is simple.... most of the game pads sold at Electronic Boutique and Babagges only had four buttons! I never could find a six button gamepad!

Anyway, some general observations about my play through of Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams is that M.Bison is certainly the end goal for quite a few characters in the game: Chun Li, Charlie, Guy, Birdie & Rose. Ken and Sagat both target Ryu, who along with Adon goes after Sagat, Sodam goes after Guy. That last one is interesting considering Sodam and Guy both originated in Final Fight. The big take away from each ending too me is that Rose was looking to stop Bison and one could see how that ties into Rose's character story in Street Fighter V talking about needing to get back to 'Zero'... and for those who don't know in Japan, Street Fighter Alpha is known as Street Fighter Zero. 

Also learned that if you clear the arcade ladder with out using a continue, you earn a special little bonus ending saying 'You Mastered The Character You Used' and that it's been recognized. Thought that was pretty cool. We managed to do that with Chun Li, Guy, Sagat and Adon

Now we didn't stay with Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams the entire stream, we switched over to play some Smite, and imagine my surprise that there is an opportunity to get the skins from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles battle pass from last year... except each skin is 1500 gems (roughly about $20 in real money)... look, if there was a bulk purchase option, I'd consider that, but not individually. I'd probably make an exception if this was the RWBY skins however (LOL). Anyway we won a couple of matches but lost the majority of the bouts played.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Swiftsupafly at twitch.tv/Swiftsupafly who was playing Monster Hunter World, the man love to knock out achievements, so it's always fun to check on his progress!

 Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Achievements

1. Try and Counter This!: Beat Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams.

Twitch Clip Links

• Back for more Sagat
• For Chun Li... It Is Indeed Tuesday!
• Soul Illusion
• Jungle Beats!
• They went to a bad place... yes they did! 
• Damn Right I Slayed Them! 

Order a back up headset to use with my phone for work purposes, as last week folks said they couldn't hear me, so having a back up makes sense in case something is wrong with the older headset. And by headset I'm referring to a microphone / ear phone combination piece... the kind you'd see used in call centers and such.

Also picked up RWBY: Roman Holiday which tells a story featuring Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan and is set before the events of the first episode of RWBY that aired. 

After finishing Chrono Cross last month, I started thinking about some fan fics I read long ago, I kind of remember the details of them, but as I went to look for the site they were on, I found out that it was shut down. So I started to put some together and posted the first three over on HF.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out lasted 31 minutes and featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo. Estimate calorie burn was 464 kcal

For tonight's stream, Gears of War 3 will be featured at around 8:30 / 9 PM Eastern as we'll be picking up on Act 2 with Iceman. But that's on the second half of the stream, for the first half we'll be messing around with Paladins

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

Dental Notes and The Wrap Up Of Life Is Strange 2

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday afternoon I had my second Dental appointment in two weeks, and this was a heavy deep cleaning as a follow up to all the calculus removal last week. There were two things confirmed, one I have a real bad cavity on one tooth and the tooth cannot be saved, so it needs to be extracted... which will be done on the 25th of October. Also, normally I use the generic store brand mouth wash, but I was told to start using a much stronger variant called Chlorhexidine Gluconate, which I was given a prescription for. Now the thing is with it... I actually have to eat breakfast before I brush my teeth in the morning because the instructions say don't eat or drink for 30 minutes after using Chlorhexidine Gluconate...  so my routine each day has to be reversed.

Anyway, on to last night's stream where we finished up Life is Strange 2, and I'll try and be positive about this... because in the 5th and final episode, you could tell DONTNOD was trying to make up for a lot of the more idiotic choices they made regarding the plot and pacing. Much like Episode 3 where we have a fixed location for the majority of the episode with interesting characters to interact with. The little off the grid community of 'Away' fits the vibe perfectly of just wanting to separate from the bull shit of life as much as possible and just do your own thing... and the reunion of Sean and Daniel with Karen is really well played out perfectly, there was some nice call backs and fan service regarding David Madsen from the first Life is Strange game, and depending on if you Scarified Chloe or Arcadia Bay, you get some follow up to that decision. Hell the best part about that you can finally see that Chloe and David actually are getting along which makes perfect senses when you realize that David was trying to do the best he can being a step-father to a teenager who was angry at the world and lost people close to her.

Now fuck me for saying it, but if DONTNOD wasn't trying to be 'topical' and 'controversial' and shoving in as much references to Donald Trump's policies and the idiots who believe in his way of thinking, Life is Strange 2 could have been so much more heartfelt. The way I figure, a lot of the same story beats can be used, and Life is Strange 2 could have and should have been more about a story about putting the past beyond you and learning to forgive and putting the family back together certainly would have given this game the heart it certainly was lacking. The whole idea of going to Puerto Lobos following the death of Estaban could still be what gets the ball rolling, but the revelation that Karen could be found would have made for an excellent twist and a whole set of choices that could have made the endings more meaningful, and if anything else. Hell, the best ending would have resulted in a montage that could have involved a lot of the folks Sean and Daniel met along the way

Anyway, that's what I would have wanted to see, it would have given Life is Strange 2 more of a 'homeward bound' vibe that it clearly was missing. And let me point out something major that I said on stream, I hated the supposed best ending of the game, the Redemption ending, because it ends with Sean and Daniel separating even after Sean gets out of Prison, and by the logic of the DONTNOD, the only way they will stay together is if Sean turns Daniel into a living weapon of destruction, which is just idiotic to me.

Well thankfully this will be the last rant I'll do on Life is Strange 2... highly doubt I'd want to play it again since I was reluctant to do this 2nd play through of the console version!

Once we finished Life is Strange 2, we did do some bonus gaming with Forza Horizon 4, just doing a few races and stunts and stuff for an hour, nothing major, but made some progress on things in the Lega area of the game.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Kalenal over at twitch.tv/kalenal who playing Final Fantasy XIV Online as well as doing a major dungeon run in Stream Raiders. Kalenal has been featuring Stream Raiders shortly after it launched last year, and she does a real good of keeping the Stream Raider battles flowing during her streams.

Life is Strange 2 Achievements

1. Out Of Ink: Start any drawing in Episode 5
2. The Magic Place: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 5
3. She Wolf: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 5
4. The Age Of Reason: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 5
5. Remorseful: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 5
6. Dead Man's Bones: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 5
7. Specks Of Dust: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 5
8. Boundaries: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 5
9. Homeward Bound: Finish Episode 5
10. Wolf Pack: Finish all Life is Strange 2 episodes
11. All Roads Traveled: Unlock all Life is Strange 2 achievements

Twitch Clip Links

• Making Pancakes... Making Bacon Pancakes
• It's the Right Choice! It's The Only Choice! 
• Pick Up The Stone... Dead Man's Bones 
• Daniel Bails Out On Us
• I should be like George... of the Jungle!
• We Come Though Like A Wrecking Ball Testing The Suspension Of This Car! 
• WHHHHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!! 
• Speed and Power! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured the Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1. The duration was 31 minutes with an estimate calorie burn of 473 kcal. If I guess right, we should hit day number 300 in a row around October 7th

Phillies lost to Baltimore 2-0 yesterday and that ends their season right there. Yes there are still some games left and they are not yet mathematically eliminated, but lets be serious, they are done. 

Put together a fic based on The Wolf Among Us that uses a half-baked what if involving Snow White and Bloody Mary... that is, they were working together to ensure Snow becomes the most powerful person in Fabletown and they celebrate their success. It can be found over on HF under my DiceCasden pen name.

For tonight's stream we may do some random gaming, as I don't think I want to start up something huge tonight, maybe we'll try and knock out another achievement or two in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection? Who knows, but I'll figure something out!

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

 

A Nice Night Of Overwatch

Good morning everybody

Last night's stream started early, mostly because I only had a little bit of laundry to do. Yes I know, I KNOW, I don't leave the house, how could I have much laundry to do, Well since I stream every day, it means I''m nearly  nearly fully dressed every day. So there ya go.

Anyway, we played a lot of Overwatch last night, big thanks to PandaSweet for joining in on the fun as we played a lot of Tank and Support as usual before getting in a couple of matches in the Damage Roles. In our last 10 matches, we ended up on a stretch going 7 & 3. I picked up two Plays of the Game as D.Va as well, and its safe to say that D.Va has the majority of my Plays of the Game clips for 2021. Other characters used include Moira, Tracer, Mei and Reinhardt.

Also, during the stream changed the look of the game screen to flip some things around, this is the make the Bit Boss bar stand out a bit more.

As noted yesterday, I'm not going to keep track of the wins and losses for each match played, it doesn't tell the complete picture of how some matches went. Still I should find a way to post updates on how the Ranked stuff is going, maybe starting next week we'll have a like a stat line for how the season is progressing with my Wins, Losses and other stats. Who knows.

Following the stream, we sent the fun over to Sw33ts_gaming who was playing Dead By Daylight over on twitch.tv/sw33ts_gaming! One thing I noticed is that Sweets certainly has shot calling down in DBD just like she does in Smite!  

I can't remember the last time I played Dead By Daylight, I want to say it was in the Fall of 2019... but I'm not 100% sure. 

Twitch Clip Links

• What the hell just happened because that was awesome?
• Panda's Slam Dunk!
• How am I not dead?!
• How did the match start for Panda...
• Scoreboard... Worth it! 
• Panda Calls The Play: Run Up Ahead Almost Die and Scream "I Need Healing"
• He tried to escape 
• Making Baskets!
  

Found the manual I thought I lost a few months back for WWF War Zone, thought it was misplaced when I was going through my dad's music. And get this... I found one more box of his music to go through... which means I got to order at least one or two more big binders for music.

Some people can't believe that anyone doesn't hold the original Final Fantasy VII in high regard, and my feelings towards it has been known since it's on that very short list of games I started streaming that I said to hell with it because I just was not enjoying it. The other two are Dead Space and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. I typically finish every game I play, particularly when I'm streaming it, so it takes a lot for a game to make go go 'Fuck it, I'm not going to continue'. In the case of FF7, I found it to be a clunky mess in terms of navigating and figuring out what to do and where to go.

I'm not surprised that the Phillies failed to beat the Mets last night... after all, this team has been falling short all season. Now they have three games against the lowly Baltimore Orioles, and if they can't sweep them, then the Phillies season is done, because all the remaining games afterward are on the road... and the Phillies suck on the road.

Tried to do some achievement chasing last night, going after the 'Fighting in the Street' achievement in Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection which involves beating the original Street Fighter...which is incredible difficult considering the terrible input lag that exists. Still the collection does have 'save states' and I have made it to Adon, so I'll continue work on this

I've been asked if I'm going to re-start up some old Fan Fiction series or do commissions on stories again... well I have done a couple of light commission work this year, but it really comes down me liking an idea enough to want to write it and be paid for it.

I'm supposed to have a Dentist appointment this afternoon... and yet I have a nagging feeling the appointment wasn't made... I'm not sure if the Dentist I saw last Monday put it in the system or was I supposed to speak to the person at the front desk when I left. I did call this morning and they don't have it in the system, but since I have the documentation that the Dentist gave me, I wast told to bring that in.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes, and featured the following exercises: Beginner Combo #2, Weaving Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was455 kcal

For tonight's stream we will be wrapping up Life is Strange 2, which should only take about 2.5 to 3 hours so we'll combine it with something else. I'll try and find something nice to say about LIS2

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

Another night of Life is Strange 2

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night we continued Life is Strange 2 with Episodes 3 and 4, and boy did the bad and lazy writing of it really rear its ugly head tonight, particularly in Episode 4... but we'll get to that.

First Episode 3, which sees Sean and Daniel wearing on a Pot Farm in California where they meet up with Cassidy and Finn from Episode 2... and it's really the only time in LIS2 where you're not fully meeting characters for the first time, you actually have some things that carry over from the previous episode, like if you found Cassidy's guitar pick, Sean will say he found it. Think about it in comparison to the other Life is Strange games where you have so many characters to interact with to where you can see how they react to things or previous conversation. Hell everything about the scene and the folks that we see through out the episode feels like it could have been a lot more than what it was. 

The big problems of Episode 3 come down to Daniel who is just intolerable as it's said real early that he's going to screw the entire situation up for everyone. I get why that was done, but clearly it was something that could have been avoided with him wanting to help Finn and his idiotic plan of breaking into a safe... which results in Finn being killed, Sean and Cassidy being badly injured and Daniel being taken to a cult for Episode 4.

And Episode 4 is wear things really hit the fan, where Sean breaks out of a Hospital, steals a car and when he pulls over for a break he is confronted by two dudes, one being yet another stereotypical representation of White Men (Joining the Cop and Station Attendant from Episode 1 and the Christmas Tree market dude from episode 2), and you're given a choice of either Sean having some pride and not complying with them, resulting in him getting beaten up or embarrassing himself  (and if I remember right, still getting beaten up... can't quite remember what happened in my original play through back in 2019)

Fast forward to when Sean reaches Haven point and we see that Daniel is the focus of a cult-like representation of the Christian faith and that his head is so fare up his own ass that it takes the sight of seeing his own brother being beaten in a burning church just for him to say 'I'm not staying here'/ And don't get me started on the whole 'He wants to repent' bullshit, because Daniel does not come across that way at all, it's just his bratty nature. Throw in there the shoe horned in Conversion Therapy' bits for when Sean and Jacob are looking for a file, that feels nothing more than a tacked on reason to split some money with Jacob while giving him some depth at the last second.

Now let's talk about the Karen & Sean subplot... here you have a confrontation between the mother who walked out on her family and her oldest son... and the developers at DONTNOD thought it was best to have Sean act like a complete dick to her, even when we the players are hoping for maybe a chance to smooth over some hurt feelings or open the door for some reconciliation. Maybe it's because I had a point in my life where one of my parents wasn't around for different reasons, but the entire Karen & Sean Motel conversation feels like it was half-way to where it should have been.

I know... believe me... I KNOW there are people who love Life is Strange 2, but since the other three games are very fresh in my memory, it's really hard to over look the very noticeable issues with this game. Hell this isn't even going into the fact that walkie-talkie  Sean has in Episode 4 is clipping through his hand for every second of the final act, even when he's not supposed to be holding it!

That said, we got one more episode to go, and we'll tackle Episode 5 on Monday's stream... and we'll probably do some Forza Horizon 4 as well on the back end.  

Of course who did we raid after the stream? Well sent the fun over to TaterSalad21 who was Tales of Arise and Phasmophobia. Tater doesn't stream often, but he's a good dude you should check out over on twitch.tv/tatersalad21!

 Life is Strange 2: Achievements

1. The Dharma Bums: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 3
2. American Graffiti: Start any drawing in Episode 3
3. Train Of Thought: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 3
4. Zero Hugs Given: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 3
5. Green Thumbs: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 3
6. Dancing Days: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 3
7. One Of Us: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 3
8. Lost Boys Chronicles: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 3
9. Adrift: Finish Episode 3
10. Chiaroscuro: Start any drawing in Episode 4
11. A New Perspective: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 4
12. Lone Wolf: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 4
13. Amazing Grace: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 4
14. Promised Land: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 4
15. All Sinners: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 4
16. Archivist: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 4
17. Heaven & Hell: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 4
18. Romans 3:23: Finish Episode 4 

Twitch Clip Links

• We picked up the stick!
• No We Will Not Go Along With Finn's Plan
• A Kiss In The Lake
• A Stairway To Heaven
• Hospital Escape Simulator 3000
• We found the thing!
• I Said Lost Wages Not Las Vegas
• Ooo yeah Dig it! 
• The Walkie Talkie Glitching Ruins The Scene! 
  

And it's Sunday which means we have a Twitch Bits Highlight reel featuring the best clips of the week! This week we played Overwatch, The Wolf Among Us, Smite, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Gears of War 3, Star Trek Online, SoulCalibur V and of course Life is Strange 2! 

You know it's never easy going though the clips after the Saturday night streams to pick out stuff, but hey there are a few moments of me being a complete idiot... including the 'Bend and Snap' moment.

The false hopes for the Philadelphia Phillies are rising as they have won four in a row and are now a game behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East while remaining 2.5 games back in the Wild Card race. Well at the very least they are trying to make it interesting I guess.  

Probably going to stop trying to document all the Overwatch matches I play, because I don't feel like I can present a clear enough of a picture without having individual match statistics, and the game doesn't have a way to review stats for matches, just on a 'life time' or 'Season' basis.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes, with today's exercises being Weaving Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #. The estimated calorie burn was 476 kcal. Achievement progress update is that we're up to 282 out of 300 for the Ten Months' Hard Work and Transcendent Stamper, 395257 out of 405000 for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 3 and 23 out of 30 for Hiro's Contender. There is a chance we could knock out the Monster Weight Puncher by the end of the week.

For tonight's stream, well it's Sunday, which means Overwatch is on deck! Of course we'll mostly be playing Quick Play matches and having a good time!

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

The Return of Life is Strange 2

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream saw the start up of Life is Strange 2... and yes it's not the first time I've played it, as I played the Steam version back when the game's 5 episodes were originally released a couple of years ago and unlike the first Life is Strange game and Before The Storm, I wasn't too keen on play LIS2 again..

The first thing I wanted to touch on is the fact that the developers of Life is Strange 2, DONTNOD, didn't even want to make a sequel to Life is Strange... and boy does it show from the very start, with how they went out above and beyond in shoehorning in every possible political reference they could think of into it. Some of it can be avoided, but a lot of it thrown right into the face of the player.... and needless to say, it's one of the biggest reasons why have such mixed opinions on it. You see what made the original game, the prequel (Before the Storm) and the latest entry (True Colors) great and memorable is the fact the story and characters came first and any other references and commentary on society was no where near a priority to shove down players throats. Folks can find something to love about the other three games to great animations, artwork, fan fiction and more.... while Life is Strange 2 is basically the bastard child of the franchise.

Then there comes the problem of the main characters, Sean and Daniel... neither are particularly likeable, in fact Daniel can be down right insufferable at time.... while Sean is just a wet blanket. The choices you make as him to try and make the best out of a crazy situation never truly seem to matter because unlike the other three games where the it feels like every plot points you reach seems natural because of the choices you make, in Life is Strange 2 the story feels like its happening despite anything you do or don't do.

That said, for this play through we are trying to go for a fully 'moral' story to get Daniel to be a 'good kid' and less of a brat, and the ending with Cassidy, because I already screwed up going for the Lyla variant of the Redemption ending. We knocked out episodes 1 and 2, getting all the achievements for each one, and so the goal for tonight's stream is to get episodes 3 and 4 done. There is no chance we'll be able to tackle episode 5 until Monday's stream.

After the stream ended we sent the fun over to ErikaMonky (twitch.tv/erikamonky) who was playing Sid Meier's Civilization VI. That is a game I seriously need to dedicate a couple of nights too because I've been meaning to play it but I keep putting it off. Anyway, we met ErikaMonky during the Twitch Sings era, and she super cool. She doesn't stream often, but you are guaranteed to enjoy her broadcasts!

Life is Strange 2 Achievements

1. Sketchy: Start any drawing in Episode 1
2. Sidetracked: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 1
3. Bear Aware: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 1
4. Bonus Miles: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 1
5. Ranger: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 1
6. Room Service: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 1
7. A Long Road Ahead: Finish Episode 1
8. Trail Angel: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 1
9. Dillydallying: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 1
10. Back in Time: Find optional collectible #1 in Episode 2
11. Draw the line: Start any drawing in Episode 2
12. Family Business: Find optional collectible #2 in Episode 2
13. Bad Santa: Find optional collectible #3 in Episode 2
14. Heirloom: Find optional collectible #4 in Episode 2
15. Teenage Angst: Find optional collectible #5 in Episode 2
16. A Private Journey: Find all optional collectibles in Episode 2
17. Small Town Blues: Find optional collectible #6 in Episode 2
18. Free Spirits: Finish Episode 2
    

You might notice on the achievement list that the order for the ones for episode 1 seem weird, that's because we got the last two achievements after finishing the episode, using the collectors mode.

Also, I completely forgot "The Adventures of Captain Spirit' mini-sode, which was the 'demo' / teaser for Life is Strange 2 was a thing, which gives the backstory of Chris and this father to put their entire situation in episode 2 into its proper context... but it wasn't completely worth diving into on stream since all it really does is determine if Chris is wearing eye-paint in the main game.

Twitch Clip Links

• Quick Lock Him In! 
• No We Cannot Do A Bend And Snap
• Did He Just Slide Across?! Where Did He Come From?!
• It's a Bird! 
• And he dropped it on the ground
• We Found A Thing... A Diamond Achievement!
• There should be Snowmen In The Back
• Another Diamond Achievement!

Work itself was kind of odd yesterday afternoon, mostly because of how my assignment changed just minutes before I was about to start... don't get me wrong, having to do a straight up normal raw research study is much more preferable than trying to get through gate keepers to reach extremely busy professionals... but that meant the sample size was going to be a lot smaller. 

Did pick up The Artful Escape, so we'll do a stream featuring that in the near future, probably next Saturday night

Messed around a bit with Smule, and boy do I wish it had a PC version because i wouldn't mind subscribing to it to be able to do open seeds on so many songs!

Overwatch Season 30 Competitive Match Results 

1. D.va - Watchpoint: Gibraltar - 9:30 - Loss - 0-3
2. D.va - Numbani - 16:03 - Win - 3-2
3. D.va - Hanamura - 10:00 - Loss - 1-2
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Body Straight Combo, Triple Combo #1 and Uppercut Combo #1 with total time length of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 429 kcal

For tonight's stream, as indicated earlier we'll be continuing Life is Strange 2 with episode 3 and 4, with the intention of locking in Cassidy as Sean's love interest. Hopefully we can get all the right choices done to make sure we get the desired ending of the entire game.

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

The Terran Empire Is Not Of A High SoulCalibur

Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was interesting as we had a full work day, but I felt so awkward with the assignment since I know what type of person I need to speak too but the odds of getting through to them is incredibly tough, then again, judging by the length of the project I highly doubt saying it takes a short amount of time to complete will be in my best interests.

Anyway, last night's stream, we started with Star Trek Online and checked out the new content as part of the new season called 'Reflections'. First let's talk about Admiral Leeta... and I hate the character model redesign. I get that Star Trek Online is going to do another graphic revamp in 2022, but the look for Leeta with a more realistic skin tone and hair texture just looks bad. That said, it was great to hear Chase Masterson again, as she certainly loves to get a chance of being apart of Star Trek Online.Anyway the new version of Leeta was applied to the her apperance in the TFO 'Assault on Terok Nor', which makes the terrible up-her-nostril camera angle in her first cut scene look even worse than it did before.

The new episode, 'Firewall' see the Captain being order to visit a secret research facility where Leeta wants to speak to only them. Upon arriving, we sat the facility under attack by the Terran Empire under the command of the Mirror Universe's version of Kuumaarke who quickly has their reputation established as a Purple People Crushing Psychopath. Once Leeta is secured, we learn she has turned against the Terran Empire for the sake of saving everything, but it's clear she has another agenda. Kuumaarke steals some secret data and thus we chase her back to the Mirror Universe, where with the help of Leeta we get the data back and more before returning to the Prime Universe. The epside ends with a great cut scene that reveals the Mirror Universe will have an evil counterpart for the Captain the players create.

Now I played the episode twice, once with Zagreus under the Federation side, and the other as Sorra under the Klingon Defense Force side. The big differences are who gives the mission orders, as the Feds get the orders from Admiral Quinn since it's presented as a Federation issue, while the KDF side gets the orders from L'Rell who presents the story as though it's a Federation matter, but since Leeta asks for the player, the Federation asked for you through the Alliance that has been established over the last few years of STO's existence. It certainly is nice to see separate mission givers again... even if the story plays out the same, the subtle differences matter in terms of world building.

The new Task Force mission, Operation Wolf, is a straight up raid, where you and five other players are involved in a simulation of what it would be like to raid the mirror universe version of Earth Space Dock, which involves hacking consoles by protecting three Exocomps in two separate areas and then fighting a Runabout to escape. It's okay... certainly not something i would want to play more than once a week if I was playing STO every day.

Anyway, since there was not enough in STO to carry the full stream, we hooked up the PS3 and for the first time played SoulCalibur V.  A while back we featured SoulCalibur IV, so remembering how to play didn't take to long, and I can safely say SCV looks pretty damn good for a near 20 year old game (it was released in 2012). We went through the Arcade mode as Hilde, and then tackled a few things in different game modes. It does appear the online modes still work... just no one is around to use them near as I can tell. We might keep SCV in mind as a game to go to for a Fighting Game story mode and other achievements that we might be able to earn.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to SmoresDaFloof who was playing Psychonauts! You can check their streams out over on twitch.tv/smoresdafloof!  

Star Trek Online Accolades 

1. Met Mirror Leeta: You met Admiral Leeta, a devious and ruthless officer of the Terran Empire

SoulCalibur V Achievements

1. History Repeats: Battled in SOULCALIBUR V for the first time (excluding training and VS battle).
2. A Soul Coalesces: Edited a player license.
3. Lively Pub: Changed the BGM in options.
4. Perfect Trainee: Arcade: cleared Asia route.
5. Fetal Soul: Player level reached 5.
   

Twitch Clip Links

• We're traveling sideways!
• Considering the last time we saw you... 
• That is our Mirror Universe Counterpart!
• Whoa we're half there....
  
• Does Leeta Have Her New Character Model In Assault On Terok Nor?
• It's Over 9000! Hilde Defeats Nightmare! 
• Hitting Ezio's Critical Move
  
• Dude needed a bath
  

LvStrkr, one of my channels long time supporters and friends, recommended Artful Escape as a game to feature on a stream, since it's about a 5-6 hour long game. He's had a great track record when it has come to suggesting short games for one off specials, so I'll have to keep it in mind!

Overwatch Competitive Season 30 Match Results

1. D.va - Havana - 26:38 - Win - 4-3 
2. D.va - Hanamura - 13:32 - Loss - 2-3
3. D.va - King's Row - 14:02 - Loss - 1-3
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout lasted 31 minutes, with the following exercises: Advanced Combo #2, Double Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo. The estimated calorie burn was 553 kcal. Now I should make note of what the calorie burn should be before each session starts... but that would mean more notes to take down (lol), but I do wonder if any motion that registers as only 'okay' marks as a penalty towards the estimated calorie burn.

At time of me posting this blog, I'm not completely sure what's on the agenda for tonight, I have considered Tales from the Borderlands, but maybe that would be better for an early start stream on a Saturday to play all five episodes. Not saying that's the plan, just something I'm considering at the moment. 

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