We Finished Kingdom Hearts III

Good morning everyone,

Last night we finally finished Kingdom Hearts III... and boy did the pacing of the final act of the game had so many issues, everything little thing having a cut scene to try and time up as many of the loose ends as possible while setting things up for the future of the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a lot of the game play, as fighting the hordes of Heartless and getting to see the Train attraction in action was a real treat. Donald Duck's epic solar flare was really bad ass, as was the return of Xion being the trigger to solve the issue with Roxas being stuck in Sora's Heart. 

But my goodness, every member of Organization XIII getting a send off with the cut scenes of you defeat basically interrupting the fight is just completely asinine. I get it, they wanted to give these characters closure to various degrees and this was a problem caused by having an uneven number of Warriors of Darkness and Light. The pacing issue is all over the place, where you enter an area have a cut scene, walk to another area, have another cut scene. It really bogged things down. Last night's stream was about 4.5 hours... I think 2 hours were just cut scenes.

Now the question becomes would I willingly want to play Kingdom Hearts III again... no, absolutely not for two reasons. the first being pacing issue as mention before. The other reason is I don't trust Tetsuya Nomura when he's both the writer and director of a project... and all the pacing issues seen in Kingdom Hearts III's final act falls on his shoulders.I mentioned this yesterday, but the fact there are lines of dialog in the game talking about how overly complicated the plot is is a tell-tale sign Nomura has bogged down the franchise with too much stuff. Hell when I think about it, all the Disney worlds in KH3 could've been swapped out for almost anything else and would've worked the same way, they were just window dressing.

This brings me to the future... and the fact that Sora will still be the lead character going forward... eand Kingdom Hearts III went out of its way to set it in tone that he's a fucking idiot. I believe the next main installment must have a new lead character. That's not going to happen, but it should considering there are close to a dozen characters that could step into Sora's place as the lead.

For the raid, we dropped everyone off over with JonnieTortilla who was playing Minecraft over at twitch.tv/jonnietortilla!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Rook: Defeat 5,000 enemies.
• No Matter What: Reunite with Kairi.
• The Battle to End All: Begin the final confrontation with Master Xehanort.
• Another Chapter Closed: Finish the game and view the ending.

Twitch Clip Links

1. CHOO CHOO!!!!!!
2. Clutch! That Was Clutch! 
3. Finish Him... Or Did That Go Wrong?!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 28 minutes with Front-Back Step Combo, Hook Combo #2 and Beginner Combo #1 as the exercises for a calorie burn of 450 kcal.

So I made it official, Friday's going forward until the game is finished will feature Persona 5 on the PlayStation 4. This will start this week! I'm both excited and dreading what this will be like considering how nuts the Persona 5 community can be. 

So for the first time ever during my time playing Final Fantasy XIV I grew frustrated with what I was seeing, namely being stuck with a trio that were clearly grouped together that had no intention of actually accomplishing the task in question. The fact that the one who was Astrologian said that they didn't feel like playing was a first sign indicator, which clearly was the attitude of the other two folks they were playing with, and for the first time in any MMO that I've played, resulted me intentionally quitting the dungeon. I'd rather have that 30 minute penalty to put up with that nonsense

Swapped all the skins for there characters in Overwatch to basic legendary skins for each character, not that I use everyone, but it's a good just in case..

For tonight's stream, we're going to lead off with Forza Horizon 4 and then try and do some collectable hunting in Gears 5!

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

Well I lost my head in San Fransokyo

Good afternoon everyone,

Let me begin by saying, I have not seen Big Hero 6... and after playing the San Fransokyo level of Kingdom Hearts III, I'm not sure that I want to. I kind of feel like there could have been a lot more done  make things stand out to inspire me to see the film... but the entire world felt like it was there for the sake of being there. Which is a shame because I do like the designs of the characters and the city was really cool. So with this being the last of the Disney levels to go through in Kingdom Hearts III... I feel like I understand why it has a mixed reaction, the selection of worlds as a whole were clearly meant to make sure some Disney's big money makers looked really good (Frozen, Pirates of the Caribbean).

That said, I did enjoy some of the gimmicks of San Fransokyo with it just basically being a big metro area for folks to do battles with various enemies for level grinding purposes. It's the only world in Kingdom Hearts III that has two distinct phases, (Day & Night), so if one just wants to go after treasure boxes, just set it to day and not deal with any enemies. I didn't really care for the final boss battle in it, as it felt really hokey to play.

I really liked what came afterward, granted, it was a ton of cut scenes, but to see direct tie-ins to Birth by Sleep with Aqua being rescued and Ven being awakened really helps tie things together. There was a great moment of Axel saying how impossible it was to explain everything that has happened to get new comers caught up, and he's not kidding... a coherent, easy to follow story from a casual stand point is not a strength of the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise. 

But at the same time, Aqua has this line about 'waiting 10 years to be rescued, which if you think about it makes sense... Birth By Sleep came out in 2010 which ended with Aqua being stuck in the realm of the darkness... Kingdom Hearts III came out 10 years later. No wonder she was pissed, she had to wait a decade to get her story resolved!

Now, near as I can tell, based on the achievements list, I should need one more night dedicated to Kingdom Hearts III to finish the story, and that's what we're going to do for tonight's stream. I considered maybe saving it for Friday, but I might want to dedicate Friday's for a particular game on the PlayStation 4.

For the raid we dropped in in Hawleigh who was playing Horizon Zero Dawn over on twitch.tv/hawleigh!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Making a Difference: Adventure through San Fransokyo and complete the story.
• Hidden Kings: Complete the Lucky Emblems section of the Gummiphone.
• The Hearts Joined to His: Gather the seven guardians of light.
• True Captain: Sink 200 enemy ships in The Caribbean.
• Grand Mage: Cast grand magic for the first time.
  

Twitch Clip Links

1. It's Morphin Time! Let's Do This!
2. Getting things done as Aqua! 
3. A True Captain! 

(Note: If clip links don't work, it's because Twitch deleted the clips for some reason, as I mention last week, I only have this issue with Kingdom Hearts III)

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 28 minutes long and involved Defensive Combo #2, Double Combo #1 and Defensive Combo #1 for a calorie burn of 446 kcal. 

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures resulted in a revaluation regarding the Wondrous Tales weekly challenge... unless it's things that are common for folks to do, getting 9 done is going to result in a lot of waiting around in queues for specific things. Still I got my gear story up high enough to try out the first of the Pandemonium raids.!

Going out of my way to say it that Ben Simmons clearly exposed himself to be a fraud, as he lied about his  'mental health', dude's a fraud and he basically made things more difficult for those who have issues who will now have a harder time of seeking the help they need. Wonder how quickly he'll fold now that he's under the spotlight of the New York Media.

For tonight's stream, well you read it earlier, Kingdom Hearts III is on deck to see if we can finish it. Now I did jump back into it after the stream (hence why Grand Mage is listed as an achievement unlocked which was not done during any of the KH3 streams). I also put in some heavy grinding toward the 5,000 enemies that need to be slain, we're up to 91% on that, so that should probably be accomplished before finishing the story. Regardless, depending on when we finish the story we might do some other achievement hunting as well.

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

 

A Nice Night Of Overwatch

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night’s stream of Overwatch was rather interesting, with quite a few people early on finding spots to hide during a match, and I hate to say it, quite few were reported for inactivity and game play sabotage. Still things gradually turned our, as we put in the time to unlock the Porcelain rewards for the final week of the Lunar New Year Event, which means I’ll be going back to switch everyone’s skins to something else until the next Overwatch event probably in late March / Early April.

Big thanks to PandaSweet and BangBangBang for joining in many matches last night, it’s always nice to have other being apart of the chaos and mayhem that is Overwatch on a Sunday evening. Also picked up four plays of the game, all as D.va! Other characters I used were Tracer, Solider 76, Moira and Mei.

For the raid, we visited Flint_Locke over at twitch.tv/flint_locke who was doing a full Voice Acting stream of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Tsumihoroboshi!

Twitch Clip Links

1. Sticking To The Mercy
2. Keeping Them Boxed In 
3. Making The Push Happen! 
   

Sad news, Ivan Reitman, director of such films as Stripes, Dave and Ghostbusters has passed away. This makes his contributions to Ghostbusters: Afterlife all the more special.Funny thing that I learned about Reitman is that he was the executive producer of Mummies Alive!, a syndicated cartoon that aired (where I lived) on weekday afternoons. Goes to show you can learn a few things here and there. 

   Top 5 Favorite Films Directed By Ivan Reitman

1. Ghostbusters (1984)
2. Stripes
3. Dave
4. Kindergarten Cop
5. Ghostbusters II
   

So if you look at that list... you'd probably wonder why Meatballs and Twins are not on it. Well I've never seen Meatballs, despite being aware of it, and as for Twins, well, the whole conspiracy to keep the brothers Benedict (played by Danny DeVito and Arnold Scgwarzenegger) apart from each other their mother (played by Bonnie Barlett) has always bothered me as it didn't make any sense.

 

Today’s Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured a 31 minute workout that had Triple Combo #2, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for a calorie burn estimated to be 543 kcal.

My off-stream Final Fantasy XIV adventures has seen a focus on the dailies, and trying to really push towards boosting my gears score. I do realize that getting the level 90 bow is probably going to be the toughest things to do since that is going to be tied to the Pandemonium raids. Still getting used to doing the daily raids does mean seeing the same things over and over again, but unlike with Star Trek Online, Final Fantasy XIV does not have 20 different in-game currency types to worry about,

PandaSweet noticed there was some crackling ambient audio being picked up by my microphone, turns out it was some sound being heard from my monitors, So I moved my mic to where it's a foot in front of the monitors instead of hanging over them. So things may sound a little different on streams going forward.

For tonight's stream, we're going to move Kingdom Hearts III from Fridays to Mondays, as we'll be looking to deal with the next major world in it while also going after the remaining Lucky Emblems!

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

The Many Problems With The Remaster Of Life Is Strange Before The Storm

Good (early) morning everyone,

It's no secret that I am a big fan of the Life is Strange series, hell everyone saw that last fall when I played all four games to completion and made it clear that I was super excited for the remastered version of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm, even when it was announced that they would be delayed from September 2021 until February 2022, as the Covid-19 Pandemic played havoc with many video game releases.

Not Photoshop-ed, Chloe and Joyce actually looked like this in Episode 3!

So this gave Deck Nine, the Developer of the original version of Life is Strange: Before the Storm extra time to iron out the kinks in it's remaster, as well as that of the original Life is Strange game developed by DONTNOD. Needless to say the extra time still resulted in a buggy mess. I already talked about the issues with Life is Strange: Remastered on Monday and Tuesday of this week because of the 'Save Game' issue, but with Before The Storm... one would assume that since it was already created in-house, surely Deck Nine would not drop the ball with it... right?

Well... after doing a marathon play through of all three episodes of Before the Storm: Remastered last night, I can say they didn't drop about 75% of the ball. Like many other players, I've experienced numerous graphical glitches last night, most notoriously when it comes to skin tone shading, but also with assets rendering and objects that should have disappeared remaining floating in the air (the Gnome Bard for example). I'm not a video game designer, but surely some testing had to had to be done... but this makes me wonder how broken was the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection back in September when the original delay was announced.

Even the ending montage which was basically just a video was not safe from the glitches

This probably bugs me more than it should to be honest, but I do recall that it was announced that the Nintendo Switch version of of the Life is Strange Remastered Collection would be delayed, which just makes me wonder as to why the Steam, X-Box and PlayStation versions weren't? If it was because the Remastered Collect was a bonus for those who pre-order Life is Strange: True Colors and they announced that it would come out in February 2022, then we could've waited longer for it... but instead we got an inferior version of the games that made us fans of the series.

Still we did finish the game, and unlocked all of the achievements making it the 25th X-Box game I've finished to be 100% Completed. I really do wish the experience was a lot more positive to compare it to the play through of the original version I did back in September. Will I play it again? Well, if it gets some major patches we could revisit it in 2023, but that''s a big if at this point.

We had two big raids during the stream last night, the first was from Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal, and the other was from m0zz_stix who was also playing Life is Strange: Before the Storm: Remastered over on twitch.tv/m0zz_stix! Always awesome to get raids, so huge thanks!

For the raid, we dropped in on TaterSalad21 who was playing Lost Ark over on twitch.tv/TaterSalad21! 

Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered Achievements

• Recreational Vandalism: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 1: Awake
• I See U Saw: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 1: Awake
• The Last Unicorn: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 1: Awake
• Home Unimprovement: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 1: Awake
• Rock Idol: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 1: Awake
• Dramatis Personae:  Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 1: Awake
• Mulligan Stew: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 1: Awake
• Pioneer Spirit: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 1: Awake
• Face Your Anger: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 1: Awake
• Awake, Dear Heart: Complete Episode 1: Awake
• Lucid Writing: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 1: Awake
• Stagehandwriting: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Radical Piratical: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Feels on Wheels: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Canon Wall: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Wishlist: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Tread Harshly: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Friendly Forest Friends: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Permanent Record: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Vanity Fare: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• Creature Feature: Complete the optional graffiti #10 in Episode 2: Brave New World
• O, Wonder!: Complete Episode 2: Brave New World
• American Graffiti: Complete the optional graffiti #1 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Extra Credit: Complete the optional graffiti #2 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Peer Review: Complete the optional graffiti #3 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Monthly Masterpiece: Complete the optional graffiti #4 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Spit Take: Complete the optional graffiti #5 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Hello Nurse: Complete the optional graffiti #7 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Venting Machine: Complete the optional graffiti #6 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• A Penned Appendage: Complete the optional graffiti #8 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Drunk Drawer: Complete the optional graffiti #9 in Episode 3: Hell Is Empty
• Before the Storm: Complete Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 of Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• All the Devils are Here: Complete Episode 3: Hell Is Empty

Twitch Clip Links

1. Chloe is Easily Convinced
2. Deck Nine Did A Great Job With This
3. William Meets The Truck 
4. Joyce's Sun Burnt Tone-age?
5. Deck Nine: Great Work On The Remastered Version Of Before The Storm
   

Normally I would have extra to say, but Blogger had a glitch where it didn't save the original version of my rant regarding all the glitches with Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered that I had to redo it all! Still I did get in a little post-stream Final Fantasy XIV to do quick Alliance Raid before choosing to write this entire thing over again... and since I was so wired up I just decided to do my daily set of Fitness Boxing 2.

So with that said, today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured 34 minute workout with Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #3 and Difficult Challenge Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 660 kcal.

Let me touch on Lost Ark, briefly, with what I saw on TaterSalad21's stream, the game certainly looks great, but from what I understood, the controls are more mouse heavy with no use of the WASD keys for movement... which means I will not check out Lost Ark. Sorry, but I need to know that I'll be able to have as much control over my in-game movements as possible... plus many have seen my slow reaction time to AOEs in Final Fantasy XIV. 

It's the start of a new week, but let's look back at the games featured over the previous seven days. Last week we played: Overwatch, Life is Strange: Remastered, Paladins, Frrza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Kingdom Hearts III and Life is Strange - Before the Storm: Remastered!

For tonight's stream we will be going after the Porcelan skin for Wrecking Ball with our weekly Overwatch streams!

See ya later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me

Good afternoon everyone,

Technically we did two streams last night... thanks to Comcast causing some issues at around 9 PM Eastern, where the upload speed was all over the place! Seriously the last time I seen my Upload speeds being that erratic were one year ago, and it took a letter to the FCC to get it sorted out! 

Anyway, the stream(s) featured Kingdom Hearts III as we covered the Caribbean part of the story, which ties in with Pirates of the Caribbean films, namely the third one which I have never seen. This introduce a big wide open world where a lot of sailing is involved, ship-to-ship combat, searching everywhere for chests and goodies. Since the PotC movies are live action, that meant Donald and Goofy got more realistic looks, particularly Donald whose feathers really looked incredible. 

Now the ship to ship combat aspect certainly took some getting use too in regards to how maneuver the Leviathan, figuring out max range of the canons and trying to build up the meter to unleash some special attacks. I think more effort was put into it than the the Gummi Ship portion of the game, but that's just my opinion on the matter.

Now, having never watched the Pirates of the Caribbean films, I can't say how much was used and if too much was worked into the game, but at at least the music wasn't as much of an ear-worm as it was in Kingdom Hearts II! There really isn't that much interaction with Sora, Donald and Goofy with the characters from the PotC films, but at least that was explained away with Sora, Donald and Goofy needing to make sure they were prepared before going to the final battle.

Managed to get the Blademaster achievement, which is for fully powering up a Keyblade, which was pretty cool. Only 6% of those who have played the Xbox version of KH3 has done that.

Next time we featured Kingdom Hearts III we have one more Disney tie-in world to visit, and the last set of Lucky Emblems to find,

For the raid we dropped in on PrincessPashley who was  doing a live remote stream over at twitch.tv/PrincessPashley!

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Blademaster: Obtain a Keyblade that is fully powered up.
• Way of the Pirate: Adventure through The Caribbean and complete the story.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Is Ariel Dead In The Pirates Of The Caribbean Universe?
2. A Pirate Ship Is On A Pirate Ship! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured 31 minute workout with Hip Shape Focus Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Sway Back Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 468 kcal. As of today we're up to 34 out of 50 hours for the Hiro's Champion EX Achievement

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats For 2/6 to 2/12/2022

• Punches Thrown: 10,283
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4332.59 kcal
  

Worked on just doing some dailies in Final Fantasy XIV, think I'll save some things for streaming purposes. Ended up doing The Final Day trial twice last night... which is a bit much for that particular fight, but the 2nd time was randomly selected because of the dailies.. Also got downed and resurrected four consecutive times during that 2nd... that was not a good experience at all! I do have my Gear Score up to 562 as a Bard. 

Saw that the Chrono Cross Remaster is up for pre-sale and its going to be a cheap one, think we'll grab that closer to its release date.

For tonight's stream we're going to do a full run of Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered, we're going to have a guide up to get all the collectables and to hopefully have an incident free experience with it unlike with Life is Strange: Remastered.

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

A Casual night of FFXIV

Good morning everyone,

Well, with the Main Story Quest done, I can now mostly mess around doing random stuff on stream with Final Fantasy XIV while doing side quests and things off stream. Manage to get a few levels on both Fisherman and Blue Mage. Also put in some time on knocking out 10 levels in Castle of the Dead.

The biggest part of last night's stream was dedicated to the Resistance Weapons Quest line, which involves a big open area called The Bozjan Southern Front where there is a not of combat taking place, enemies follow you from one end of the map to the other and there is a 'ranking up' system. I rather like this area since there is a good opportunities to play with other players at random. The story itself takes place between Shadowbringers and Endwalker, so it's like doing finding a major story.

I did realize what I'm going to have to do to get the best available gear and that is to grind out the level 90 Dungeons, Raids and Trials... figure one a day would gradually get me towards the items needed for the gear.

For the raid, we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Resident Evil Village over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Twitch Clip Links

1.  ...and I die at the very end
2.  We're Singing... Fishing In The Rain
3.  Doing Fates to Level Up Blue Mage

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured at 31 minute workout with Waist Shape Focus Combo, Block Combo and Hook Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 484 kcal.

I do have to comment on things work related, in that the assignment we're having to deal with has the worst possible combination of things to do just to get start along with the most impersonal way of trying to make something sound interesting possible. 

Loving the fact that some folks are finding this half-ass blog of mine thanks to the issues with Life is Strange: Remastered.

We're going to have a real whip-lash of weather this week as it's supposed to get up into the 60s today and tomorrow then drop back down to the 30s on Sunday and Monday. Welcome to late winter in New Jersey folks...

Played a little Smite off-stream last night, trying out Morgan Le Fay for the fist time, getting 5 Kills and 21 assists while dying 3 times. Rather surprise that neither of her two related achievements are tied to using her basic special attacks.

Also messed around with Paladins a bit, the Rambo skin for Viktor looks pretty good, but the voice is a really weak impression of Stallone. Still it was for free for those who have Amazon / Twitch Prime. So that was a plus.

For tonight's stream we'll be resuming Kingdom Hearts III, as I believe the next area we're heading too will involve Pirates of the Caribbean. There is probably going to another pain in the butt Gummi-Ship level to deal with first, and of course we'll make sure to find all the Lucky Emblems.

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

Endwalker, Hivebusters & Horizons

Good morning everyone,

Well, taking advantage of some misfortune to get other things done, and in this case, I finished up Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker yesterday evening before last night's stream. I thought the final dungeon and trial took full advantage of my struggles with being able to back out of AOE areas, and so I got wrecked... a lot.As far as the battle one on one against Zenos goes... well, thankfully since I play Bard, it meant all of his heavy damaging attacks were nearly all close range and there was enough of a tell to keep me from getting downed at all. 

As far as the aftermath goes, I rather liked the post-Zenos battle stuff, with the 'disbanding' of the Scions and everyone going their separate ways knowing that at some point they will be brought back together. I'm going to suspect there will be a time-jump at some point for the next major expansion to have new looks for various characters. I am also looking forward to the first Post-Endwalker content, as it's clear Elidibs' younger-self will be involved in someway.

Overall, I've very much enjoyed Final Fantasy XIV, from when I started playing it back in October, and it took me 377 hours to reach this point... and there is still so much more to do, with all the general side quests I haven't doe yet. I will say I am surprised that Endwalker's story is shorter than the other expansions (not counting post-content), really seems like there was a lot of padding and probably stuff got cut due to COVID. Still we'll be featuring FF14 as back-up content and / or having it have it's own night on stream!

Speaking of streams, last night's stream lead off with Forza Horizon 4, mostly I was grinding for various achievements on things like Speed Traps, Danger Signs and other stuff before finally making my way to Fortune Island which looks like is going to be a fun area to do things in.

The stream also included Gear 5, as Striker and Iceman joined in to finish up Hivebusters, where we got all the collectables, all the item upgrades and got achievements for various other things. Hivebusters is a nice little story that actually explains the whole 'Hivebusters' concept of why the COG is letting themselves get captured in the multi-player mode. Rather surprised Lahni was almost the focus of Hivebusters considering how much lore she has to spout, which kind of made her a bland character. With this done, the plan will be to do chapter jumping to get collectables missed in the campaign.

For the raid we dropped in on Kalenal who was playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/kalenal! 

Gears 5 Achievements

• Electroblade: Killed 50 enemies using Lahni's Electroblade Ability in the Hivebuster Campaign Expansion as Lahni
• A Breath of Fresh Air: Saved Hana from the Snatcher
• The Spirit Walk: Opened up the Spirit Walk on Pahanu
• Renewed, Not Consumed: Found all Character Ability upgrades in the Hivebusters DLC
• Searching for Answers: Collected all Campaign Collectibles in the Hivebusters DLC
• Face the Creature: Defeated the Wakaatu
• Enter Hivebusters: Completed all Chapters of the Hivebusters DLC (any difficulty)
• Operation: Ride the Snatcher: Completed the Hivebusters DLC in 3-Player Co-Op (Scorpio squad, dupes not allowed)

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

• I Feel the Need: Reach Speed Trap Hero level 10.
• Apex Predator: Reach Speed Zone Hero level 10.
• Pilot’s Licence: Reach Danger Sign Hero level 10.
• Whatever Next?: Complete every Showcase Event.
• Welcome to Fortune Island: Set up the Horizon Festival on Fortune Island.
• Hunter Gatherer: Find/Smash your first Treasure Chest.

Twitch Clip Links

1. A New Personal Best and the Achievement!
2. No wonder I didn't see it... 
3. Shoot him in the face!
4. Electroblade! 
5. Vomiting On Me Is So Wrong!
   

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 stream featured a 31 minute workout that involved Weaving Combo #2, Beginner Combo #2 and Straight Combo #1. The estimated calorie burn was 482 kcal.

Probably the biggest news for me personally out of yesterday's Nintendo Direct was the announcement that Chrono Cross is getting a remastered release on multiple consoles (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Steam, PlayStation 4 & 5), that is coming out in early April. Needless to say despite how dodging some of the upscale renders look, and knowing the legal nightmare that held up Chrono Cross from being re-released after the SquareSoft to Square-Enix relabeling of the Greatest Hits release, I'm just glad it's coming. Plus that means achievements! 

I'm also intrigued by Mario Strikers, as I have had fun with Mario Golf Super Rush, so this could be worth looking at. Then there is Disney Speedstorm... and what is basically a Mario Kart clone which I have to chuckle at how long Disney held off on diving into using their vast library of characters in a combat racer. I'm expecting some sort of Smash clone from Disney in the next year or so based on this.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV, mostly side-quests and things!

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