Weekly Overwatch Fun Is Weekly

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch was a lot of fun, as we messed around with some Archives missions to start with before focusing on Quick Play matches. We were joined by both PandaSweet, BangBang and another player for several matches, so we had a four stack for a good portion of the stream, so huge thanks to them for being apart of the fun. 

In terms of my individual performance, I picked up four plays of the game, all as D.va, and Panda also pick up a Play of the Game as Rein, in fact Panda's big moment is actually one of the clips from last night listed below. I used a few characters last night, D.va, Moira, Winston, Wrecking Ball, Soldier 76, Mei, Brigitte and Reinhardt. So there was some variety!

Twitch Clip Links

• Bye Reaper! 
• Get 'Em Panda! 
• Funny thing, this was not Play of the Game 

Those that follow the Facebook page (facebook.com/fredcasdengaming) will notice that last night highlight reel featured some music, I figure why not jazz up daily posts there with a bit of music! 

For the raid, we found StoneB3ard over on Hover, who was also playing Overwatch. He streams over on twitch.tv/stoneb3ard!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout saw us go back to using Bernardo as the trainer. I'll probably dial back the pace of trying to push for an hour, and instead focus on the 40-45 minute workouts. Anyway today's exercises were Defensive Combo #1, Defensive Combo #2 and Double Combo #1. By the way getting that screenshot in the middle of the 'combo' sequences is not easy.

Messed around with WWE 2K15 after the stream to work towards a few achievements, but nothing of real note was accomplished in the Career Mode. I mean, I did do two mini-stories where I had to face a series of 'legendary teams', which considering the 2K15 roster meant no real teams of note. And also a mini-Survivor Series story involving either being on Team Cena or Team Orton, but 2K15 didn't have the true Survivor Series style match (4 on 4 Elimination Tag).   

Final Fantasy XIV is having a big update patch this week to introduce 6.1 content, which means we'll probably take a good look at that stuff on Thursday's stream

For tonight's stream we're back to Mass Effect 2, with the focus on Loyalty Missions and side quests that we can find along the way to boost of the credits needed to get items at the final vendors in the game. Also resource mining as well!

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

Just Your Typical Random Saturday Night

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream was interesting as two hours before it started we had a big power outage, and then during the stream, one of the games I wanted to feature on the PlayStation 3, namely WWE Legends of WrestleMania would not work... keeping in mind everything I do on the PlayStation 3 is using physical copies. This was weird because the other things we featured, Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet and Spider-Man 3 both worked. My guess is the issue is with the game disc itself... so that was disappointing.

Now on too Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, it is a game I started on my original PlayStation 3 way back in 2013, and I do remember seeing the show on TV around the same time frame. The game itself is your standard beat'em up brawler with some puzzle solving elements as well. Clearly it is best to play in a co-op if possible, We only did a the first few stages as I wanted to check out a few different things tonight on the PS3. A few things that standard is that the writing and voice acting in this game is well above average, and captures the spirit of a more over the top Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man 3 is often considered terrible, but we're not talking about the movie... the PlayStation 3 game is an open-sandbox where you can basically just go swinging around finding random stuff to do if you don't feel like playing any of the missions. Bruce Campbell as the narrator was a nice touch, and the game play certain felt good. On top of the game, visually it still holds up fairly well.

We also messed around some with Smite and Paladins, winning a couple of matches in each, nothing to write home about in either game, as I use both as occasional filler.

Twitch Clip Links.

• It's what the god of losers deserves! 
• The Spinning Piledriver!
• That worked! 
• Just A Double Kill
  

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

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple COmbo #2, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo. We hit the goal of reaching 30+ hours with Martina as the trainer, we are now switching to Bernardo, who we have 15 hours already with him, so another 15 would net us his Contender achievement. Kept it basic today, just doing the daily exercises.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise EX Achievements

• Martina's Contender: Train with Martina for over 30 Hours
• 91% of all EX Achievements has been unlocked
  

Jumping back to Smite for a moment, I did do some off-stream playing as I noticed I was close to getting an achievement in that, so using some boosters I had saved up I finally got the 40 Gods Mastered achievement, which surprisingly only 3% of Xbox players have done. I will assume that percentage is much higher on the PC side.

SMITE Achievements

• Adept of Mastery: 40 Gods Mastered.

Another night, and another failed attempt at the Course 1 to 6 achievement in Super Night Riders, if things go right I can barely make it to lap 14, but at least I knocked out another achievement in it.

Super Night Riders Achievements

• Canyon Stage Cleared: Cleared the canyon stage.

It's Sunday, lets take a look back at the game we played last week which included: Overwatch, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Royal, Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet, Paladins, Smite and Spider-Man 3!

For tonight's stream, well you know it's Sunday which means Overwatch as we begin a new week!

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

The Bank Palace Story Arc Is Done!

 Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream certainly proved that by going into Mementos early when we first discovered it and choosing the wrong things has caused a whole lot of issues with it comes to possibly getting the good ending of Persona 5 Royal, but still it was a very productive night in many other ways as we wrapped up the Bank Palace and covered a lot of ground as it pertained to trying to get Ryuji caught up and nearly maxing out Ann. 

Makoto's arc of breaking out from what everyone wants her to be to finding her own path is really well done, and her integration to the Phantom Thieves as someone to keep them focused on the exams really goes a long way balancing out the personalities of the team. That said, Sae certainly is irritating when comes to just how 'career and success' focused she is, so hopefully that even outs at some point, which it probably will since I reached the point in the story where the Judgement persona becomes available

Which means the romance options are starting to open up as possible choices as well, and knowing there are probably a dozen choices, I did not instantly lock in with Ann just to get the trophy. And it seems to me, in terms of Hetero-parings, Ann and Ryuji seem like a better pairing than 'Joker' and Ann, if we go with the Fem-pairings, then obviously Ann and Shiho are probably the most obvious pairing based on what I've seen so far and having see Shiho's return to the roof the academy.

Still, looking forward to trying to straightening out a lot of the screws ups I did in terms of the Confidants levels next week as the fourth story arc of Persona 5 Royal will begin.

Persona 5 Royal Trophies

• The Deviated Cognition: Encountered a deviation in Mementos.
• Talent Thief: Obtained a Skill Accessory from a Palace ruler.
• The Phantom Philatelist: Traded in stamps while in Mementos.
• Jose's Favorite Customer: Traded in flowers while in Mementos.
• Bank of Gluttony: Cleaned Out: Completed the bank Palace.

Twitch Clip Links

• You mean to tell me I can't get books by Drace here?
• On the receiving end of Make It Rain 
• They just hung up on us... rude... 
• Her personality certainly switch 

Big thank you to MommyBee for their raid during the stream last night, they were playing standard version of Persona 5 over at twitch.tv/mommybee!

For the raid, we dropped in on SheepFuzz who was doing their weekly community stream of Jackbox Party Packs over at twitch.tv/sheepfuzz!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficulty Challenge Combo #1, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Difficulty Challenge Combo #3. I should be able to wrap up the Martina's Contender EX Achievement tomorrow

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise Stats For 4/3 to 4/9/2022

• Punches Thrown: 16,139
• Estimated Calorie Burn: 6447.50 kcal
• 29/30 Hours Trained for Martina's Contender
  

Played some Smite following the stream last night trying to get an understand of Aphrodite's abilities, in theory I understand them, but without a team to watch my back I'm easy pickings in Arena. She might be better to use in some of the other game modes, but those matches can last well over 30 minutes.

SMITE Achievements

• Bloodthirster: Get 10 first blood accolades in qualifying matches.

Knocked off another achievement in Super Night Rider, but for the big achievement of clearing the Course 1 to 6 race, I only made it to lap 11. While it's possible, a lot of the 'pop in' obstacles

Super Night Riders Achievements

• City Stage Cleared: Cleared the city stage.

With those two achievements earned, my current daily Xbox achievement streak is up to 58 days. Using Super Night Riders to earn at least one achievement on Sunday will of course put us to where Mass Effect 2 and possibly Fallout 76 can carry things through Wednesday. For the record, my longest streak is 87 days.

The hammer came down and Will Smith has been banned from the Academy Awards for ten years, and since this was post #MeToo, when a code of conduct was put in place, it does set of standard. Now the question of does it apply retroactively is certainly a topic for debate.

For tonight's stream we'll be messing around with some random stuff, probably from the PlayStation 3 era of gaming. I think we'll lead off with Marvel Super Hero Squad.

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

An Easy Night And Fantasy Baseball

Good morning everyone, 

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was a nice casual night, I thought I had everything I needed for the best weapon I could get doing the standard Pandemonium raids, but that just means I need to do a few daily roulette as my Bard to get the rewards I need.

Beyond that I bounced around doing some Fishing, Botany, Lancer and Dancer leveling. I was rather surprised I was able to solo a few lower level fates as the Lancer. I think I figured some stuff out as Dancer, but also realized that some of its abilities leave it very vunerable for AOE attacks in dungeon boss battles.

Twitch Clip Links

• Every single week... every single time....
• God bless it... 
• Can we do this? 

For the raid last night we sent the fun over to Oldish22 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/oldish22!  

That's right I decided to try my hand at putting together a fantasy Baseball Team using Yahoo and here are the players I drafted, not the league only allows for 23 players. Based on 2021 Stats and 2022 Projects, I did put together the 2nd best possible team in the league.

2022 Fantasy Baseball Team

1. J.T. Realmuto - C/1B
2. DJ LeMahieu -1B/2B/3B
3. Jonathan India -2B
4. Anthony Rendon - 3B
5. Corey Seager - SS
6. Bryce Harper - OF
7. Alex Verugo - OF
8. Chris Taylor - 2B/3B/SS/OF
9. Myles Straw - OF
10. Jonathan Villar - 2B/3B/SS
11. Alejandro Kirk - C
12. Mark Canha - OF
13. Alex Krilloff - 1B/OF
14. Jesus Sanchez - OF
15. Eric Hosmer - 1B
16. Walker Buehler - SP
17. Sandy Alcantara - SP
18. Rasiel Iglesias - RP
19. Lou Trivino - RP
20. Pablo Lopez - SP
21. Anthony DeSciafani - SP
22. Michael Fulmer - SP/RP
23. Bailey Ober - SP
    

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hip Shape Focus Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Sway Back Combo. Still managed to work in some Free Training as well where I set a new personal best on Difficult Challenge Como #3 on No Mercy, out of 704 actions, 696 were perfect with 8 being OK.

I saw the achievement list for Chrono Cross, and to be fair, it's not a bad list, it does require two and half play-throughs to recruit every character (because only one of  Pierre, Guile and Nikki can be recruited per play-throughs). The real trick is going to be getting all the endings and triple team moves. I have a feeling many of the achievements are doing to be very rare for folks to accomplish.

I have played some ranked Overwatch matches the last couple of evenings, just for the hell of it mostly. Have a feeling if I continue with that, I'll dedicate myself to playing Tank.

Managed to win two matches of Arena in Smite last night, one as Terra and the other as Medusa.

Also tried to to get the Course 1 to 6 achievement in Super Night Riders, I managed only to get through 9 laps... which was like 1/4th of the way to the 36 laps it features. Still my Xbox achievement streak is continued through today thanks to nabbing one of the Stage achievements.

Super Night Riders Achievements

• Desert Stage Cleared: Cleared the desert stage.

For tonight's stream, well it's Friday, and the focus returns to Persona 5 Royal on the PlayStation 4, as we will focus on the prep for dealing with the final boss of the Bank Palace, and hoping I don't screw up any more things that are scheduled. I still need to hang out with Ryuji and do a Billiards set, so hopefully I'll see an opening in the guide to catch up on things I skipped.

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

Feeling the Fallout 76

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 saw a slow, gradual process of working on the early in game story stuff, and... my character became a "Responder". Not sure if that was joining a factor or not, but it was a nice bit of progression to make it feel like I'm getting stuff done. I also made a nice little shack for myself. I figure keeping a nice gradual pace will make this game last because I'm really in no rush to get things done.

Iceman also joined in for a lot of fun as we tackled a few of my early quests, find various items and also realizing that I'm blind as hell when it came to finding a set of doors that was next to another set of doors! The help Iceman has provided with various games cannot be understated, damn best wingman to have in co-op games! 

Fallout 76 Achievements

• First Contact: Complete "First Contact"
• Second Helpings: Complete "Second Helpings"
• We Must Rebuild: Build 20 C.A.M.P. Items
• Wayward Child: Complete "The Elusive Crane"

Twitch Clip Links 

• Like really?!
• We we dead... 
• The door was right here...
  

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x! He was doing some co-op stuff with FnDanteSavage!  

Now because of the on going issues between Twitch and the Music Industry... in particular the RIAA, Twitch has enabled a few features, that means having VODs on my channel would be inadvisable because of how I got for as much of the actual experience of the game as possible. The VODs do get stored for up to 60 days at a time, but since I just forward them to my YouTube channel it's no big deal. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Block Combo, Waist Shape Focus Combo and Hook Combo #1. We're 26 days away from the days in a row hitting a unique number.

My Xbox Achievement streak is extended through today by knocking out three more achievements in Super Night Riders, and to give an idea of how hard these are getting, it took 20 minutes for me to clear course 5... and then 40 to clear course 6... based on multiple attempts. Then I learn the next big course achievement is do do all six course back to back, that is going to take a lot of effort.. I think I'll focus on the 'stages'  

Super Night Riders Achievements

• Course 4 Cleared: Cleared the course 4.
• Course 5 Cleared: Cleared the course 5.
• Course 6 Cleared: Cleared the course 6.

If you think Joe Biden is to blame for gas prices, you're a fucking idiot. Price gouging by the oil and gas companies has always been a thing which can easily be tracked back going all the way back to the 1970s. 

For tonight's stream we shall be featuring Final Fantasy XIV, as I know I'm looking to do the Fourth Circle raid to get the last item needed to craft another item to get the best possible weapon I can get without doing Savage runs. Beyond that, we'll do some Fishing, Gathering maybe grind out a Blue Mage level or two and whatever else comes to mind!

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

 

More Mass Effect 2 Progress

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 went about well as planned, as went and picked up Mordin on Omega, and I was right, that triggered the start of the Horizon colony mission... which was a lot harder than I was use to, as Garrus and Miranda kept getting downed. I think I used more Medi-Gel in this one play through of Mass Effect 2 than I did the entire franchise up to this point. 

Anyway, once that mission was done, that unlocked the start up of the current squad's Loyalty missions, but I held off on doing that to tackle the Arrival DLC mission. Now technically that mission is supposed to take place after the Suicide mission of the main story, but I like to get it out of the way because it gives Shepard an extra level up if things go right, progress can be made to a few achievements during in and there are two things I hate about... sneaking around the prison camp... and then trying to survive five waves of enemies. 

Now I know the best strategy is to duck behind the L-Shape desk that is to the left from the side Shepard enters the room, the problem is I forget about how the enemies with the flamethrowers will get in close... plus I should've used the heavy weapon I was carrying to make it more possible... but I like to save it's ammo to deal with the mech when making the grand escape to the comm tower.

 

Once Arrival was done, I cleared out a couple of 'findable missions' that popped up and nabbed the final items I needed on Omega. At this point I will need to tackle some loyalty missions and find a few more side missions to try and get all the items I can that are on Ilium and Tuchanka.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Covert Action: Rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson without attracting hostile attention
• The Ultimate Sacrifice: Complete the Arrival DLC pack
• The Professor: Successfully recruit the Professor
• Scientist: Complete any research project in the Normandy's laboratory
• Colony Defense: Defend a human colony from attack
• Power Full: Evolve any power

Twitch Clip Links

• Sweet... oh wait there is one more!
• Oh great... the Scions
• It's not like it's going to explode... 

For the the raid we dropped in on Joliet4 who was playing Halo: Reach over on twitch.tv/joliet4! You know I have never play any games in the Halo franchise... it is on the to do list.  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured Weaving Combo #2, Straight Combo #1, and Beginner Combo #2.Also set a new personal best for Difficult Challenge Combo #2 on No Mercy difficulty. (895 Actions: 884 Perfect, 11 OK, 1 Miss)

Messed around with Super Night Riders off-stream laster, which actually has a connection to another game we played this year Light Fairytale Episode 1. It is an arcade style racer, similar to say Super Hang-On, where you race to each check point as quickly and efficiently as possible to continue. There are 20 achievements, and I managed to knock out 10 tonight. I figure we can go for one or or two night to help extend the Xbox daily achievement streak which is up to 55 days.

Super Night Riders Achievements

• That was Close!: Pass near a rival without crashing.
• 1st Stage Cleared: Cleared your first stage.
• Mélomane: Listened to all the music tracks.
• Hang On!: Keep trying after a game over.
• Hang On and Pass!: Keep trying and pass the stage you previously failed on.
• Course 1 Cleared: Cleared the course 1.
• Course 2 Cleared: Cleared the course 2.
• Max Score: Get a score of 75K in one second.
• Course 3 Cleared: Cleared the course 3.
• Forest Stage Cleared: Cleared the forest stage.

So the Overwatch Anniversary Remix event started and... boy the new looks for some classic legendary skins are a real mixed bag. Mercy's Mage skin variant of the Witch skin looks nice, as does D.va's White Cat variant of the existing Black Cat, but the new variants for Genji, Repaer, Reinhardt and Zenyatta are just... lazy with the new alternate color skin (Demon, Evermore, Steelhardt and Zealot). The second chance event for the limited challenge skins is fair play for those who missed it the first time around, as this week it is the D.va's Nano Cola Challenge.

For tonight's stream we will be focusing on Fallout 76, and seeing if some things that I read were correct regarding what I have to worry about in the game besides everything.

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

A Productive Night of Mass Effect 2: Project Overlord, The Convict and The Krogan

Good morning everybody,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 focused on three main objectives, Project Overlord, Recruiting Jack and Recruiting Grunt. Yes there was some searching for planets that had side missions involved plus  a few trips to the citadel to get some items needed for achievements, but we have done every possible before we have to pick up Mordin.

Project Overlord in and of itself was a mostly smooth run, as controlling the Hammerhead is easier with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard when it comes to platform jumping over lava. It really does set the tone for how ruthless Cerberus is when it comes to gaining an edge over alien species. There was a great moment where I got the Overload Specialist achievement for the 360 version in nearly the same spot as I did the for Legendary Edition version of Mass Effect 2.

Recruiting Jack was very straight forward, and a firm reminder that combining biotics is something one has to do for achievement purposes in Mass Effect 2. It's too bad that Jacob and Miranda's early available biotics are not exactly a great combo set. I'm not 100% sure if Jacob and Jack's biotics work or if there is a range where they have to be executed in because I was going for the achievement when Recruiting Grunt and not one apparently counted. Talk about weird.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Data Hound: Collect 6 Cerberus data packets scattered across Aite
• Digital Exorcist: Successfully shut down the rogue VI in Project Overlord
• Overload Specialist: Disrupt the shields of 25 enemies
• The Convict: Successfully recruit the biotic Convict
• The Krogan: Successfully recruit the krogan
• Technician: Obtain 10 technology upgrades

Twitch Clip Links

1.  Overload Specialist
2.  There she goes!
3.  That impresses him
   

For the raid we dropped in on RoseMaryShorn who was playing Dragon Age: Inquisition over at twitch.tv/RoseMaryShorn! I really should go back and play the DLC of that game.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Intermediate Combo #2, Advanced Combo #1 and Weaving Combo #1. During some Free Training, I set a new personal best for Difficult Challenge Combo #1 on No Mercy difficulty with 807 Perfectly performed actions with 5 actions performed only OK. 

My copy of Persona 5 Strikers for the PlayStation 4 arrived late yesterday afternoon, so once we're eventually finished with Persona 5 Royal we can jump into that. Even though Strikers is more of sequel to the original story of Persona 5, it will be cool to have more fun with the franchise

Switch all my skins in Overwatch last night to use Overwatch League skins, even got a play of the game as D.va as well for a bonus one this week.

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Mass Effect 2, with the first thing we're doing is picking up Mordin on Omega, and that should trigger the next phase of the game with Horizon.

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