The Jump Force Grind Is Real As Are The Gears Of War

 Good morning everybody,

Yesterday was so cold I actually grabbed a sweater to put it on, well it's kind of like a sweater vest... but hell, folks know I don't normally wear long sleeves! 

Anyway last night's stream lead off with Jump Force as we put the grind on towards knocking off some achievements. Actually a couple of matches, even if I was going through the motion but folks could tell I was making an effort to try and win. The end result was my Rank being D1, which is just below the C-tier. So I assume there are S-Tier for the very top players... because I've seen B-Tier and A-Tier players. Anyway, near as I can tell (because the X-Box servers were having some issues), I should need only about 15 matches to get the achievement for playing 100 online matches. That would leave only the achievement for challenging other players 10 times to be done, but I don't think that's really possible.

The second half of last night's stream saw Iceman join in as we tackled ACT IV of Gears of War 4, and there was silliness to be had, with some accidental deaths, a few well time moments and lots of guts and gore. We'll actually wrap up Gears of War 4 on next Wednesday's stream with the fifth and final act. depending on how long that takes, we'll also check out the horde mode as well.

Now I did mention the X-Box servers were having some issues, a lot of it pertained to tracking of achievements, as they are not fully updating despite progress being made. Good thing I remember what achievements did pop for me, because as it relates to Jump Force, I would hate to lose the fact we did a bunch of matches for no gain!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to ErikaMonky who was doing a Just Chatting session over on twitch.tv/erikamonky!  

Jump Force Achievements

1. J-Skill Master: Obtained 50 or more J-Skills

Gears of War 4 Achievements

1. Triple Threat: Upgrade 3 skill cards
2. Gone With The Windflare: Kill 15 enemies using the environment during a windflare
   

Twitch Clip Links

•  Just Back and Forth!
•  Somehow We Won
•  Let's Try Not To Disturb Anything... Ooops!
•  I'm going to wait before going forward...

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for a duration of 34 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 634 kcal.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

1. Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5: Reach a total punch count of 495,000 HITs
   

The next tier of Weight Puncher is called 'Immortal Weight Puncher', with the next objective being to reach 540,000 HITs, at the moment I'm at 496,239. That said, I should have the One Year's Hard Work achievement unlocked on Saturday

Work was really weird, start on one assignment, but it was basically a production killer, then switch to its variant 1/2 way through the shift and things pick up. It's a conspiracy I tell you! 

Figured out what to get my nieces for Christmas, Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain and L.O.L. Surprise! Movie Night.... of the two games, the first would be something I would figure I would get for myself at some point.

Got in some Final Fantasy XIV last night, covering the everything from A Visit to the Nu Mou up through The Wheel Turns, which meant The Dancing Plague Trial was done. If there was something I learned is that one does not fuck with the Fae folk. It certainly was eventful. So now I will be entering the level 74-75 quests, and looking ahead, I only see one Dungeon... which means there are probably a lot of solo combat stuff to deal with.

My buddy Dax has been busy with his fan fic writing as he's been knocking out a few commission pieces as of late. I'm still waiting on the outline of what someone is wanting me to write.

For tonight's stream we're probably going to chill with something casual, Mario Golf Super Rush is a strong possibility but at this time I'm not 100% sure. 

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

 

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Finished!

Good morning everyone,

Well, we've reached a new high score for games finished with 70 this year... and with a few weeks left, that number will increased.

So yes, we did finish Shadow of the Tomb Raider last night, and I'm really surprised I did finish it, because of how distracted I would get with side quests, tombs and challenges. Hell an hour of tonight's stream was dedicated to just ONE TOMB because of my tendency of not realizing where to jump, a fact that came up repeatedly towards the end of the game!

That said, much like the first two games in the Survivor trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider's 3rd act is really short when all things considered, but the plus side is the game does have a New Game Plus, which allows to start a new campaign with all the abilities unlocked you earned. So there's a nice incentive to play again at some point on a harder difficulty setting.

In terms of the actual story, Shadow of the Tomb Raider served to give Lara closure on the death of her father and the short amount of time she had with her mother, in addition to closing the book on Trinity... even though there is no real connection to the 2013 game beyond a passing mention in Rise of the Tomb Raider. But the question is, where does Lara' story go next, because I would assume there will be a Tomb Raider game on the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles coming in a year or two. 

I was asked how I would the Survivor Trilogy... so first would be Tomb Raider, second would be Rise of the Tomb Raider and third would be Shadow of the Tomb Raider... It's not like I liked the trilogy less as it went along, but I really did enjoy the first game in the saga the most, as I feel it had the best layout of being able to find the tombs without having to go off the beaten path too much.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Phoenix_face who was playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive over on twitch.tv/phoenix_face! 

On a side note: turns out some of the achievements from last night's stream were part of a DLC pack, and they were diamond achievements. Anyway, two achievements were earned this morning when I was going down the list of what was earned and realized I could pop into the game to get two pretty easy!

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Thanksgiving: Shoot a turkey with a Flare Round
2. The Chosen One: Find the Silver Box of Ix Chel
3. Total Party Kill: Kill 5 enemies with friendly fire
4. Back to Where We Started: Return to Paititi
5. To the Nines: Restore and equip a matching vestige outfitQueen of the Damned: Make an unlikely ally
6. Marksman: Perform 20 headshots with the bow
7. On the Go: Craft special ammunition 50 times
8. Smart and Resourceful: Complete Shadow of the Tomb Raider on Smart and Resourceful difficulty
9. Quite the Adventure: Finish the main storyline
10. Underwater Archeologist: Collect 5 underwater Artifacts
11. That Was A Breeze: Complete the Path of Huracan Challenge Tomb
12. Go With The Flow: Complete The Age Makers Side Mission
13. Eyes Of The Storm*: Obtain A Thousand Eyes skill, equip elite versions of Oathtaker's Bow and Sinchi Chiqa Battle Dress 
14. That's a Knife!*: Fully upgrade the knife
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Achievement: Thanksgiving!
• Get to the Choppa!!! 
• Will he die this time!

With Shadow of the Tomb Raider finished, what will be the next major game to be played? Well Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is the leading candidate at this point. Other contenders include Persona 3, Final Fantasy VII Remake and several other huge games., 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Work Out Featured Straight Combo #2, Sway Back Combo and Hip Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and an estimated calorie burn of 464 kcal.

Just going to say if: the person to blame for the current situation in Major League Baseball is Scott Boris, who has three clients as leaders of the MLBPA.

Didn't play any Final Fantasy XIV last night because of the All Worlds Emergency Maintenance.

So instead my post-stream gaming was focused on Jump Force and I did get two achievements done.

Jump Force Achievements

1. The Curtain Rises: Won friendly match one or more times.
2. Fanfare: Used emotions 100 or more times.

Which means the one achievement that will be a pain in the ass to do as it relates to the online ones would be challenging someone, have them accept and completing the match ten times... managed to get one, but I can't imagine that being possible at this point. 

For Tonight's stream, we will be achievement hunting with Jump Force to lead things off, playing online matches to grind towards that achievement of playing 100 of them and then Iceman and I will be resuming Gears of War 4 with Act IV! 

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

More Shadows Fewer Tombs Raided

Good morning everybody,

Near as I can tell the dropped frames that I experienced during last night's stream was due to the weather, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Anyway, we resumed Shadow of the Tomb Raider as we did a bunch of side quests and pushed the story forward so we're out of the Hidden City and are now in a Mission of San Juan. At this point I have no clue how many chapters of major set pieces are left in the game, as any wikis and guides I'm seeing aren't making it clear, but with my tendency of going off the beaten path and searching for Tombs and Crypts, plus wanting to do the side missions, I could be making the game a lot longer than it needs to be!  

Still there were some awesome moments, the shot of Lara coming up from the water with the fire behind her was just bad ass, and clear indication that Lara wants to stick Roark's head on a pike is a great call back of how she was on a rampage in the 2013 game when she made a make-shift grenade launcher and screaming she's coming for them all. There was a fake out of Jonah possible being killed off, but as Iceman said, if Jonah dies a lot of people stop caring about Tomb Raider.

This does raise a question about when we will see the next game from the franchise and which direction it would go. I can't imagine re-doing the original game as that was done in with Tomb Raider Legend I think.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to DaemonsW0lf who was playing Hunt: Showdown over at twitch.tv/daemonsw0lf!  

Shadow of the Tomb Raider Achievements

1. Zoologist: Collect 20 critters
2. Thread the Past: Restore 5 vestige outfit pieces
3. Sixth Sense: Hunt and kill 10 enemies while Perception is active
4. I Believe Hakan Fly: Rescue Hakan from the cultists
5. Family Ties: Free Unuratu from prison
6. Stele Hunter: Complete 3 Challenge Tombs
7. Like a Shadow: Stealth takedown 25 enemies
8. Last Known Position: Lose the enemy 10 times
9. Chain Gang: Perform the Serpent's Fury 3 times
10. Playing with Fire: Burn 2 enemies simultaneously
11. Heart of the Serpent: Find the Mission of San Juan
    

Twitch Clip Links

• Llama llama llama....
• You're not dissuading her 
• Timed Puzzle Ends In A Roll
•  Lara goes on a rampage... again
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hook Combo #1, Block Combo and Waist Shape Focus Combo for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 477 kcal.

Got a request to do a commissioned fan fic based around the WWE... going to consider it since the person wanting me to d a story for them knows when I stopped watching regularly.  

My Final Fantasy XIV adventures saw main story progress from Warrior of Darkness up through A Visit to Nu Mou. I have to say upon arriving in the fourth land of the Shadowbringers content called Il Mheg, I had a hard time seeing because of the Fae cloaking field or whatever, as it was a really bright shade of white that made it really tough to see any damn thing, let alone read the objectives. Beyond that, the story of that we're on our way of slaying the second Lightwarden is pretty cool, considering all out war is going to break out in the World of the First. Urianger being a lot more proactive out in the field is a nice change of pace as well.

So far I have not had to use the 'Trusts' system to get through the Dungeons of Shadowbringers, but Kalenal did say they are work doing because the In-game companions say unique things that tie into the story... so maybe we'll replay any dungeons I do on stream using the Trust system at some point.

For tonight's stream we will be resuming Shadows of the Tomb Raider, as I'll be lead off with doing side quests... we might jump back to the Hidden City to finish one that was in progress that we couldn't get to because we didn't have the knife upgrade.

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

Nothing But Mayhem

Good afternoon everybody,

Well yesterday was interesting, I did a bit of fan fic writing based around Jump Force, and those who know where I post those things can find it in the usual space.

Anyway last night's  stream of Overwatch was mostly Mayhem matches, and I finished on a 2 wins and 8 losses stretch... so not a good week win wise. But I mostly stuck with playing Damage heroes, so it's not like I was trying to go all out as per normal if I was a Tank or Support. I also messed around with the Experimental stuff, where there was some wild changes to how characters play, like for D.va for example, having her boosters last for 4 seconds instead of 2, which meant she was traveling farther. Wonder how many of those things will stick long term? I did get one play of the game as Cassidy, so as usual I had my moments!

Following the stream we sent the fun over to Flint_Locke over at twitch.tv/flint_locke as they were playing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi! 

Twitch Clip Links

• I show up and things happen!
• I got a couple out of that! 
• We did it! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured... Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1 and Beginner Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 474 kcal. Stepped on the scale today and my weight looked to be about 242 lbs!

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements In Progress

• 360/365 Consecutive Days for One Year's Hard Work
• 32/50 Hours for Karen's Champion
• 360/400 Stamps for Honored Stamper
• 492,161/495,000 HITs for Monster Weight Puncher Lv. 5
• 82/100% for King EX Fighter
  

I will admit I have been doing a little extra each day as of lat, so the pacing for the Monster Weight Puncher is now ahead of the pace it's been on for the past month. Not sure exactly how the additional sessions are effecting the Karen's Champion achievement since I believe only the daily work out time increases it.

The long queues for Final Fantasy XIV certainly have a way of making one want to play it even more. The problem is Error 2002, which is caused by the smallest of interruptions in an internet connection that boots folks from their place in line! 

That said, I did put in several hours to put a large dent into the Main Story Quest, covering the entire Alphinaud Quest Chain up to An Unwelcome Guest. Also solo turns 1 to 3 of the Second Coil of Bahamut... the 4th coil has a few instant death mechanics that I will need help with.

On a side note: Eulmore is clearly a creepy place, Meol is basically Soylet Green because it is PEOPLE!

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, we'll see how far we get as I clearly got distracted with exploration once we got to the Hidden City last week. There are certainly a lot of things in the area to find... but I know for sure, we're not finishing the game tonight!

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

The Start Of Shadowbringers

Good afternoon everybody,

Last night's stream certainly started off showing just how crazy the queues are for Final Fantasy XIV at the moments with all the excitement around Endwalker, and so many people wanting to experience the new content first. However, for me, I just reached the start of Shadowbringers... so the entire first half hour of the stream was waiting to get into the game... a process that started nearly two hours before hand.

So my stream was mostly focused on basically the initial 'tutorial' of the new major city and all the early cut scenes, plus finding Alisaie and Alphinaud to start getting the Scions put back together. There is some half-baked idea that the person who brings the player to the world of the first screwed up and ripped the souls of the Scions out of their bodies... and yet they have corporal forms. That said, their is the interesting aspect of timing moving differently in this new area than it does in the world I was in, so for the Scions, time has certainly past a great deal... but does this mean by the time we get back to the world of the Source, there will be a time skip? I am avoiding spoilers on that. 

I am glad that there was a cut down on the Aether currents, because it meant less frustration with the compass in regards to being lead to one that could not be reached because of story progression, a fact made really obvious in Stormblood when you have eight to find, but the closest one detected to you is in an area you are not allowed to reach yet!

Big thank you to Kalenal for the raid during last night's stream, they were streaming Final Fantasy XIV as well, but were going out of their way to avoid the Endwalker stuff to make sure they aren't giving spoilers to anyone not up to that point yet. Kal streams over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Following the stream, we hosted Maximilian_DOOD who was celebrating their 8th year Streamaversary over at twitch.tv/Maximilian_DOOD!

Twitch Clip Links

•  I love the changes they made to bard
• That was me not paying attention... 
• It Can Be! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes and a estimated calorie burn of 492 kcal.

So let me understand this CNN fires Chris Cuamo once they have properly investigated that he has done terrible things, but Fox News endorses Tucker Carlson even though he encourages domestic terrorism. And people wonder why Fox News is considered to be a joke.

Jumped into playing some Jump Force early this morning to knock off some achievements. Still can't get that one win in a Friendly Match, and I finally had a person accept a challenge... just need to do that 9 more times!

Jump Force Achievements

1. Did Something Nice Happen?: Obtained dropped items 10 or more times.
2. Apprenticeship Graduate: Got S rank 10 or more times on Easy Free Missions.
3. A Full-Fledged Knight: Cleared Free Mission on Normal one or more times.
4. Master of Titles: Earned more than 50 or more titles.
5. Seasoned Fighter: Cleared Free Mission on Hard one or more times.
   

It's Sunday which means we have a collection of my favorite clips featuring all the games we played this week, which included Overwatch, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Jump Force, Gears of War 4, Mario Golf Super Rush, Pokemon Shining Pearl and Final Fantasy XIV!  

For tonight's stream we will of course be playing Overwatch, just the usual mess of Quick Plays and hoping we get in games with viewers!

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

We're Past The Third Gym!

Good afternoon everyone,

Well I've never seen the a huge queue in an online multiplayer game until I saw a 3,000+ one to get into Final Fantasy XIV! But more on that later!

Last night's stream of Pokemon Shining Pearl saw a weird crash where I had to play a portion of it over again, but it was alright, as we did clear the third gym... and thankfully my routine of over leveling my Pokemon worked out for the best... even through one member of the squad is lagging behind because I finally found a fire type, Ponyta! So my team also features an Electric, Water, Grass, Psychi and Flying type, with them some behind able to use moves from other types to really balance things out. With the exception of Ponyta, my entire team is at level 30 or above, so I should be able to outpace the gym leaders.

Now I did discover I will have to play a bit during the day in order to evolve one Pokemon, namely Budew... apparently it will only evolve during the day, which is a concept I'm glad did not exist in Pokemon Shield or Let's Go Eevee. I do think the different evolution were over thought by the developers... they really assume folks would be playing at various times of days to get things done.

We'll continue Pokemon Shining Pearl next Friday, which seems like the best night of the week for it!

After the stream we sent the fun over to GlorifiedThief who was playing Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors over at twitch.tv/Glorifiedthief!  

Twitch Clip Links

• Well... that was... something
• Captured a Goldeen!
• You have been defeated! 
• Wreck their stuff!
  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Triple Combo #1 for a duration of 31 minutes with an estimated calorie burn of 442 kcal

Now back to Final Fantasy XIV, the removal of the Aether Compass certainly had me confused, as there was a 'collection tab' under the duty section, where I then had to rebind it to my command bar. That said, I love the fact that one of the changes for Bards is that they could get buffs from their own music, which according to Kalenal was something that has been requested for years! Also did the 'boost' to get to level 80 and to get the maxed gear to make anything and everything I have to deal with in Shadow Bringers easier.

Now as far as the queues go, during last night's stream I logged into Final Fantasy XIV to see what it was at, and it was over 3,000  around 11:30 PM Eastern, so I figure I would start the log in process for tonight's stream early a,d then start the stream accordingly to avoid waiting to get into the game!.I finally reached the start of ShadowBringers, so we we may bounce between it's early MSQ stuff and doing dungeons, raids and other nonsense.

So yes we are playing Final Fantasy XIV tonight, but I think I'll be balancing MSQ stuff with Dungeons, raids and things.

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

A Night of Golf

Good morning everybody,

First, Happy Birthday to my mom!

Now I didn't make up my mind until very late in the day that I was going to play Mario Golf Super Rush, with the intent of unlocking the game's default courses to have them available to play on, which oddly enough required just having to play 18 holes on each one to unlock the next. Needless to say, playing the final three courses of the game was a challenge as I didn't quite have a good idea of what angles I should take to get from point A to point B.

Once that was done, we moved on to playing Ranked matches, 3 holes against 3 other players, and I did alright,with some very few exceptions I was around Par in every match, hell managed to win a few rounds. At one point, a match ended in a four way tie which was pretty cool Managed to climb my way up into the top 1000 players in the world for the month based on the points I accumulated and unlocked the feature to have Mario wear overalls instead of his golf outfit... thing is I like playing as Daisy!.

Following the stream we sent the fun over to GGVexy who was playing PowerWash Simulator over on twitch.tv/ggvexy!

Twitch Clip Links

• Damn it Wiggler! 
• We'll take the chip in! 
• This is where the pin is!

Was very weird not to play Final FantasyXIV after last night's stream, but hey at least I got the pre-download done! I was surprised by one of the changes for Bard, in that now the Bard will get a buff from their songs... I never noticed that I wasn't getting the benefits of the tunes! 

Put in some off-stream time playing Jump Force last night, and met another player who has seen my clips of the game over on Instagram. I'm no where near as good as they are but I managed to take a few rounds, but not a full victory! Still I learned that most of the Online Features of Jump Force are going away, but folks will still be able to do invites for friendly matches. Also unlocked 2 achievements to have 25 of the 50 unlocked.

Jump Force Achievements

1. Together We Fight: Fought other players online 30 or more times.
2. The Spirit of Kinship:  Used 50 or more One-Use Items.
   

True story, yesterday I get called by a guy from my day gig saying that my shift would have a start time of 11 AM and is expected to run until the normal end time of 5 PM... thing is, he realized that I started at 12 PM... and what he was conveying to me only applied to people who started earlier in the day to give them a chance to get their hours in. What a goofball

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Left-Right Step Combo, Double Combo #2 and Advanced Combo #2 for a duration of 31 minutes an a estimated calorie burn of 564 kcal.

My experiment with having the console audio monitored through the Yeti X on stream was mostly successful... but I saw something that looked like a better solution! 

For tonight's stream we're back to Pokemon Shining Pearl, as we'll be doing level grinding, grabbing any new creatures we see and making our way to the third gym! Hopefully I'll find a fire type to balance out my team!

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