Flies, Hockey and Paladins

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream was a triple header of sorts, which lead off with Life of Fly 2, followed by NHL 94 Rewind and closed out with Paladins.

First, let's talk about Life of Fly 2; the sequel to Life of Fly that we featured one month ago to lead off a stream. In many ways Life of Fly 2 is just an continuation of the original game, flying to check points to get the next part of the story... but the big difference between the two games is that the areas are bigger, the sound mix is better and the little stories are more thought provoking... as they deal with some things as different kinds of love, the issue of why people hate one another, the worry about death. In terms of play time it took me about 90 minutes. I would recommend to wait to catch it on sale or to see if its on Game Pass.

Next we dabbled with NHL 94 Rewind, which was EA's attempt of nostalgia by placing modern players into their classic hockey game from the mid 90s. We did two games, one to get familiar with the controls, losing horribly 6-2 to the Colorado Avalanche , then winning 6-5 in Overtime against the New Jersey Devils. Of Course In both games I played as the Philadelphia Flyers. In terms of finding good paths to score and playing defense, it certainly does not feel comfortable for me to play, but it was fun to get hyped when things worked in my favor. There are a couple of achievements in this that I feel I might be able to get... granted I would be relying on more than luck than skill.

When it came to Paladins, I was surprised to see there were two siege modes, one that uses a more traditional level system where you choose one item at each level... which I kind of like. It took some of the guess work out of trying to figure what would work best for a long match. I mostly used Viktor in his new Rambo skin because why wouldn't I, and had some good moments. In terms of wins and losses.... well it's tough to judge a defeat when you notice players staying in the spawn or that they disconnected from the match. Also folks, nothing pisses off a solo-tank more than being stuck on a team with two flanks and seeing that neither of them is capable of taking out the supports of the other team.

Big thanks to Kalenal who dropped in with a raid after their stream of Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/kalenal!

For our raid, we dropped in on BangBangBang713 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/bangbangbang713!

Life of Fly 2 Achievements

• The Philosopher: Finish Chapter 1
• Love: Finish Chapter 2
• The Mundane Side of Life: Finish Chapter 3
• Technology: Finish Chapter 4
• Hygiene: Finish Chapter 5
• Creativity: Finish Chapter 6
• Heroes we worship: Finish Chapter 7
• Another Me: Finish Chapter 8
• The King: Finish Chapter 9
• Travel: Finish Chapter 10
• Hate: Finish Chapter 11
• What is Real?: Finish Chapter 12
• Death: Finish Chapter 13

NHL 94 Rewind Achievements

• He shoots, he scores!: Score a goal against the computer
• One for the record books: Record a win in user records
• Going the distance: Win a 20-minute game against the computer

Twitch Clip Links

1. We are denied!!!!
2. We give one up... but we get it back! 
3. We're unstoppable! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 31 minutes with Advanced Combo #1, Intermediate Combo #2 and Weaving Combo #1 for a calorie burn estimated to be 500 kcal.

I did notice after the stream part of the boom arm was visible, so I re-cropped the web cam box on the game screen for the future. The reason why the boom arm was visible in the first place was because I recently moved it and I'm still getting use to it being to my left.

Messed around a bit with a game called Band of Bugs, which is a turn based strategy game that came out in the X-Box 360 era. It has a little charm to it, not sure if this will be something we would dedicate an entire stream to, but it could be used as light filler.

Band of Bugs Achievements

• Recruit: Completed the Tutorial

Really need to empty the inventory in Final Fantasy XIV, but it is often tough to decide what to keep and what to scrap!

A new week begins, which means we'll take a look back at all the games featured which included: Overwatch, Kingdom Hearts III, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Life of Fly 2, NHL 94 Rewind & Paladins!  

For tonight's stream, it's Overwatch! There are no events going on so it's straight up Quick Play matches!

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

 

 

 

A Safe First Start To Persona 5 Royal

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night we finally started up Persona 5 Royal, and yeah I certainly made the good call of choosing to only feature it on Friday nights, because of the Visual Novel aspect of it that is so well done, and thankfully nearly fully voiced means mostly kicking back and enjoying the story. Of course since I went with the 'safe' difficulty for a first time play through, I figure it would be a smart way to do things. Besides, the game play mechanics, while turn base, seems to have some nuances to them that seem a bit baffling to me.

Still, I am surprised that lead characters "Joker" is such a blank slate, sure his circumstances for being where he is at the start of the game is quite contrived, but I guess the silent protagonist does allow for us to imprint how he should be. There are clear choices with the dialog that probably have some sort of consequence, which means making the best choice may not be the correct one. 

In terms of the setting, things are certainly well detailed, and it's clear we are in Tokyo, and that little fact was certainly made clear when trying to figure out where to go for certain places are in the 'real world', because unless I get fairly close to a sign or door, I can't tell what some places are. As far as the Metaverse goes, well I've only had a couple of trips into the maze of the Castle, but I haven't finished the first story arc yet so I haven't seen much variants. The enemies are have some very nice designs, some clearly inspired by some sort of nightmare fuel.

But I can say that I am very much looking forward to dealing with the Volley Ball instructed Kamoshida and his 'castle', based on a lot of the stuff I've seen with the story so far. Certainly there were quite a few things that made me uncomfortable to various degrees with what was implied and not so implied, of course having an understanding that some things are different in other countries makes the bitter pill easier to swallow but yeah I was... stunned to say the least.

For the raid, we dropped in on MommyBee who was playing Persona 5, the classic version, so I saw some stuff that proved to be some minor spoilers for when I get like 90 hours into it! She streams over at twitch.tv/mommybee!

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• Spirit of Rebellion: Obtained Arsène.

Twitch Clip Links

1. That JERK!!!!!
2. We don't have Max to rewind time! 
3. Well it's dead! 

Todays Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout lasted 31 minutes with Body Straight Combo, Uppercut Combo #1 and Triple Combo #1 for an estimated calorie burn of 441 kcal. And as always when it comes to the weekly stats, keep in mind that I do typical put in a little more work in than just the daily workout..

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats 2/13 to 2/19/2022

• Punches Thrown: 10,995
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 4536.84 kcal
• Current Hiro's Champion Progress: 38 out of 50 Hours Trained
  

Last night the first 2022 Live Letter for Final Fantasy XIV came out, the producer, Naoki Yoshida stated there would be no major announcements during it, asit seemed to be a retrospective over the games first eleven years, that there are plans to upgrade the look of the game & to improve the solo play experience.

The possibility of a major graphics over all while nice, isn't really all that necessary. Yes the FF14 is eleven years old, but for a high quality MMO it certainly has proven that it has the substance to keep people playing day in day out, year after year. Also considering what happened with the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection, kinda worried about what glitched in a  'Remastered' version of Final Fantasy XIV could happen.

At this time the road map lists Main Sstory updates, possibly the return of the Hildibrand adventures, a series of side quests involving Tataru. It looks like the 6.1 patch is slated for April 2022, with a new alliance raid, new tribe quests, a new ultimate duty which I probably will not worry about doing since I have so much trouble keeping up with level 90 normals. Looks like the Trust System will gradually be added to the Main Story retroactively starting with the dungeons in the  A Realm Reborn arc.

All in all, some exciting stuff coming to Final Fantasy XIV... and unlike Star Trek Online, there's an actual plan!

For tonight's stream we're probably going to wing it, either play some older stuff from the PlayStation One era, or some casual nonsense with more modern things. I have not made up my mind at the time this is posted We shall see!

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

A Casual Night Of Grinding In Final Fantasy XIV

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was pretty casual, with an initial focus on doing on the Wondrous Tales that I needed to wrap that up for the week. A big focus of the stream was spent leveling up Blue Mage and Fishing. I really do find the fishing part to be good part to just chill out. Leveling Blue Mage is a bit tough, finding some FATES seems to really help in that regard, particularly if I end up doing one that folks are working on.

I did discovered that Blue Mage can do some of the side quests, which does mean some actual content can be done with the class. Problem is remember all the areas where I skipped the side quests as I was really focused on Main Story and Featured quests!  I thought about doing a Pandamoemum raid, but since that gives major spoilers as it relates to Endwalker I held off on doing that. Kind of figure those would be wise to do on stream one the first of Endwalker's Post-Content comes out.

Now will I watch the Final Fantasy XIV live letter tonight to see what's coming? Nope, that happens at 9 PM Eastern and I will be in the middle of my stream for the evening, but I'll check out the notes afterward to see what's coming and what's expected.

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing We Were Here Too along with FNDanteSavage over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x 

Twitch Clip Links

1. Of course that would happen!
2. Kill this damn thing already! 
3. RUN AWAY!!!! 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 Daily Workout was 31 minutes with Double Combo #2, Advanced Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo for an estimated calorie burn of 566 kcal.

Messed around a bit with the X-Box 360 version of Mortal Kombat IX, aka the reboot game which came after Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. For a fighting game, it actually has a good tutorial in that it teaches you the basics to make sure you know what buttons do what. Now I have played the Steam version years ago, but because it didn't have a borderless windowed mode, I never streamed it. So we'll more than likely will be featuring the story mode of MK9 in the near future. In terms of achievements, there are some I feel I could get, with some real heavy grinding... and probably making use of the broken wired controller I used for Capcom Arcade Stadium to go after the 24 hour playtime with one character.

Mortal Kombat Achievements

• Fatality!: Perform a Fatality!
• Block This!: Perform a 10-hit combo with any fighter
• Where's The Arcade?: Complete Arcade Ladder with Any Fighter
• License to Kill: Complete Fatality Trainer
• A For Effort: Complete Tutorial Mode

Thinking about having a new logo made, and going to DaemonsW0lf (www.darkwolfcreative.com) for it is an obvious choice.

For tonight's stream we will be starting up Persona 5 Royal for the first time. Now my familiarity with the Persona series is pretty limited, with my first real exposure to it coming via Blaz Blue Cross Tag Battle... granted that game featured characters from Persona 4, but it caught my interest. And since I do lurk around the Fan Fic writing community, I've obviously seen stuff focused on Persona 5, granted without any real context, it was all Greek to me, so those will in no way affect my first attempt of playing it.

But what are my expectations for tonight's stream... well I'm not sure. I know the P5 community can be a little divided over some decisions that one has to make during the course of the game. At the same time, the amount of potential insight and actual help from the chat could be a lot of fun... I know most people are very picky about backseat gaming when it comes to Persona 5, but I've never been one to shy away from getting help with a video game!

So with that said, we'll see you later tonight for Persona 5 Royal over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

An Easy Going Night Of Just Messing Around

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream was super casual, as we opened things up with Forza Horizon 4, and spent the first chunk of time on Fortune Island, going around finding all the roads, doing a few challenges and making progress on it's story of working our way up the ranks. Really finding simple and easy achievements in Forza has given it a nice life as a weekly feature on my Twitch channel.

Then Iceman joined in as we switched things to Gears 5 to do some collectable hunting, using a guide and jumping to the chapters where we missed stuff. Some were more obvious than others in retrospect, but still we've foudn everything except for four that are located in Act III Chapter 3, which look like they will be out in the open world. Thankfully we were able to skip cut scenes and things went pretty quick for the most part.

For the raid we sent the fun over to x9abenonymous9x who was playing We Were Here with FN_Dante_Savage over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!

Forza Horizon 4 Achievements

1. Made the Cut: Reach Round Two of the Island Conqueror.
2. Not Just Straight-line Speed: Earn at least 1 star at a Trailblazer Gate.
3. Paved with Gold: Drive every Road in Fortune Island.

Twitch Clip Links

1. Not Just Straight-line Speed
2. We Solved The Riddle! 
3. I Fell Through The Map! 

For today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout was 28 minutes with Body Hook Combo, Body Uppercut Combo and Uppercut Combo #2, estimated calorie burn was 435 kcal.

Went back into both Kingdom Hearts III and Battleoads to knock out a couple of achievements in each that I felt I could do in fairly short order. The achievements for Kingdom Hearts III are for the ReMind DLC content and a lot of grinding, heavy searching and getting really lucky. For Battletoads, what's left involves achievements focused on luck as well as multiplayer Co-Op. Both games have been uninstalled from my X-Box One, with the possibility of re-installing Kingdom Hearts III down the road to do the aforementioned DLC content.

KINGDOM HEARTS III Achievements

• Flanmeister: Complete all of the Flantastic Seven missions.
• Dreadnought: Fully power up the Leviathan.

Battletoads Achievements

• Pacifist: Survived the first space battle for 45 seconds without shooting.
• B-B-B-BLOCK BREAKER!!: Smashed through 50 enemy block attempts.

I am not at all surprised that the second AWE's Money Mark (aka Tony Khan) became the head of creative, stripping Cody Rhodes of the role of booker that Cody would end up leaving the promotion that he basically started to go crawling back to the WWE

Speaking of the WWE... if Stone Cold Steve Austin actually has a match at WrestleMania I... will not watch it. Quite frankly, it would take more than a guy who was already deteriorating as a performer in 1998, let alone one who has not taken a bump in 20 years  to spark my interest as a wayward wrestling fan.

Had a better time of stuff in Final Fantasy XIV last night than the previous night, no questionable approaches seen during the one dungeon I did. Still need to tackle a few things to finish up the Wondrous Tales for this week.

For tonight's stream we are going to hang out and do stuff in Final Fantasy XIV, probably a few raids, daily challenge, level up Blue Mage and Fishing some too. Just a chill out night.

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

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!