We Did A Little Of Everything Last Night in FFXIV

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw a little of everything, a couple of Raids, some leveling up for my roles as Dancer, Botanist, Fisherman and Lancer. I did try to dedicate trying Astrologian, but the first job quest really does a poor job of laying out how to use the abilities for the role.

Beyond that I did do one Main Story Quest, which saw us catching up with a few of the other Scions to see who will be apart of the story early on. Needless to say I loved that Y'shtola was caught napping in the library when we went to recruit her. I do wonder on if some new designs were considered to show some sort of passage of time, but then again, a number of the Scions did get a makeover rather recently

Also messed around a bit with the Easter event which is a cute little story, and is proof that I should pay attention to the events that take place in Final Fantasy XIV..  Following the stream I did advanced the MSQ to get the new dungeon done, and it certainly was interesting. Having to navigate while being spun around was nerve racking.

Twitch Clip Links

• The delayed reaction to what happened....
• Long enough to see that happen 
• Oh we got an achievement 
• We couldn't quite get the Limit Break off in time
  

For last nights raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was focused on the PVP aspect of Final Fantasy XIV over at twitch.tv/oldish22! 

Made a few OBS tweaks mainly for the camera to be where it covers the chat box in most games that I play, this would of course be in regards to Final Fantasy XIV, Star Trek Online and Overwatch. Plus it makes me look huge! 

The Phillies lack of quality pitching is already being exposed early in the season, because if the line-up doesn't put up big numbers, there is no chance they'll win.

I've been on Twitter for 13 years... certainly doesn't seem like it, then again at one point I did a complete wipe of everything I tweeted to reset myself.

Bam Bam Bigelow was trending on Twitter late last night... all because Kim Kardashian happened to be dressed in a manner that reminded people of him. Talk about weird! 

Speaking of WWE, there is a once again a trend to blame THQ for the quality or lack their of when it came to a lot of the issues with various WWE games post WWE SmackDown: Here Comes The Pain. Let me remind folks that THQ was the publisher, the developers were Yuke's, aka the people that has yet to create an actual demo for AEW despite having nearly 20 years experience working on wrestling games.

Considering the trend (as of late) when I do have work it tends to favor morning workers, I might curtail my workouts to where I do the 30 minute daily, then jump right into work. It kind of worked out yesterday. That said, Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #1, Body Straight Combo and Triple Combo #1 and due to circumstances I was able to put in some Free Training as well. I can safely say the weekly stats for this week will not look as good as compared to last week when I look at the totals tomorrow.

25 years ago, when HBO had a major comedy special, you knew the person being featured was going to have some fresh material to work it, and you didn't really know what they were going to do... but now a days, with their continued obsesses with Bill Maher, you do know what you're going to get. A contrarian who hasn't been funny in any shape way or form since the 1980s. 

For tonight's stream we're back to Persona 5 Royal, and I believe we are about to start the fourth story arc, where Futaba starts to make an appearance. At least that is my general understanding of what's upcoming based on fan fiction and fan art.

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

A Long Night of Fallout 76!

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 certainly went longer than anticipated, but we ended up finding some quests that were interesting that took some time to figure out... thank goodness for the internet to look up various things  Big thanks to Iceman for being apart of a lot of the fun!

In terms of what I actually accomplished, well I got some of the early quests done, and boy the fast travel sure is useful, but having to use the very limited in-game currency of bottle caps to do so almost makes it not worth depending on how far one is. We hit level 10, as indicated in the achievement list below, and the Final Departure mission certainly is something most people do early in the game... but it's so damn easy to find side quests and get distracted.

Case in point, Iceman and I found a house that had a large underground facility underneath that involves having to work our way though it's sub-stories to learn more about the organization, as it has a ton of lore and things associated with it. I think we'll focus on those when Iceman joins in next time as I work my way on catching up in the main story.

On a side not and as indicated by some of the clips below, I'm going to make good use of any unsolicited phone calls, maybe I should come up with some ways to troll them.

Fallout 76 Achievements

• Wild West Virginian: Reach Level 10
• Final Departure: Complete "Final Departure"
• Photo Bomber: Take 20 Photos

Twitch Clip Links

• They hung up... rude... 
• Calling back the number that just called me... it was not in service... 
• He's just bring his trash along with him! 
• Random Explosion Took A Chunk Out Of Me 

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Gears of War: Ultimate Edition with FnDanteSavage over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x! Of course the Gears of War franchise has been featured a lot on my Twitch channel over the past two years. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Left-Right Step Combo, Advanced Combo #2, and Double Combo #2. No Free Training during this morning's workout due to work. Might try and squeeze it in later.

Sojourn is going to be the first new character in Overwatch 2, and will be featured in the best for the game. I didn't see any of the game play footage yet, but judging by what I see on Twitter, people seem excited.

My Xbox Achievement streak ends today at 62 days, and during that stretch we unlocked 449 achievements in a wide variety of games. I could have gone for something involving an easy achievement to unlock for today, but since I want to dedicate time to Final Fantasy XIV with all of its new stuff, pulling back some on the Xbox side of things off-stream.

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Final Fantasy XIV, we'll do a few dailies, try to some leveling on botany and fishing, maybe even do a current main story quest!

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

More Loyalty Missions In Mass Effect 2

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 saw along of things done, as we focused on several of the Loyalty missions, namely for Mordin, Grunt and Miranda, plus finding a few side missions. For those wondering, Mordin kept the genophage cure data, Miranda talked with her sister and Grunt... is Grunt. WE had a few close calls during these missions, namely with the Thresher Maw. 

Now at this point I still have not picked up Samara or Thane, but the next time we play Mass Effect 2 on Monday's stream, Thane is who we're going to pick up first, then Samara, then we'll do a side mission in order to be able to set up both of their loyalty missions. If things flow right, that is probably when we'll do Lair of the Shadowbroker too... which sets up Tuesday to be to finale and wrap of Mass Effect 2. 

I do have a very practical approach to playing games in this franchise when you think about it, to where I do every little thing possible. Of course there is the issue of finding all the components needed to fully upgrade a weapon, and I may have made a mistake or missed something somewhere.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• The Cure: Gain the loyalty of the Professor
• Big Game Hunter: Thresher Maw defeated
• Battlemaster: Gain the loyalty of the krogan
• Incineration Specialist: Incinerate the armor of 25 enemies
• The Prodigal: Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Officer

Twitch Clip Links

• I do dare!
• About the one request for Shepard
• The very model of a.... 
• And they say Miranda and Jack can't get along
• How Shepard handles Jack and Miranda 
  

For the raid we dropped in Phoenix_Face over at twitch.tv/phoenix_face as they were playing Counter-strike: Global Offensive!  

Don't be surprised that with the 6.1 update you'll see me talking about Final Fantasy XIV a little more frequently in regards to off-stream gaming, there is new main story content. The first quest sees the Warrior of Light meet up with Tataru who gives the player a new outfit. Also, since a lot of the Endwalker involved frantically getting around some places, it was made clear we're going back to the newest areas to explore. The second quest does more about setting things up as well as introducing some characters important to the plot, as well as reuniting the Warrior of Light with Estinien and reminding us as to why we will not be see some of the Scions, but that G'raha will be involved.

I would have done the third quest, but the power went out at 1:30 AM, thankfully I always keep my phone pretty charge so I ended up listening to a recent episode of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. Power came back up at 4 AM.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout involved Body Uppercut Combo, Body Hook Combo and Uppercut Combo #2. As I was able to do some Free Training, I set a new personal best for Uppercut Combo #1 on No Mercy. 

I did finally realize the on-stream text box for anything said by the chat was too far to the right, resulting in some words being cut off. I made the adjustment this morning so it should be alright during tonight's stream.

With the achievements earned playing Mass Effect 2 last night we're up to a streak of 61 days, which could end up being 62 days if we get lucky tonight .

Why? Well tonight we're back to Fallout 76, as we'll roam around and try to get things related to the story done.

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

 

Those Fun Little Loyalty Missions In Mass Effect 2

Good Afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Mass Effect 2 covered a lot of ground as we began work on the Loyalty missions and restocking up on all the resources to make sure we can do as many upgrades as possible.  Also managed to get a few combat related achievements taken cared of , getting the Brawler achievement resulted in me getting killed, and I had a number of close calls as well during a few side quests. In fact I think I got them all finished, but I'm not 100% sure.

Jack's Loyalty Mission is always a hoot just for the fact that what she thinks happened isn't exactly true, and Jacob's Loyalty Mission is good for a Walking Dead: Telltale Series joke since the voice actor for Jacob's Father and Lee are the same person. Garrus' Loyalty mission is a bit of a pain in the ass because of the giant mechs, which we also encountered in a side mission. This resulted in me not having any heavy ammo and Grunt's Loyalty mission being something to deal with. We also recruited Tali and did her Loyalty mission, which is always great, particularly when it comes to having Shepard shouting down the Admiralty board.

Of course what makes the Loyalty missions great is that for the most part, if you go Renegade, you get the best possible scenes.  

Also yesterday was Commander Shepard's birthday, which was kind of cool for lore purposes.

Mass Effect 2 Achievements

• Master at Arms: Kill enemies with 5 different heavy weapons during the game
• Catharsis: Gain the loyalty of the biotic Convict
• Warp Specialist: Warp the barriers of 25 enemies
• Ghost Ship: Complete the investigation of a derelict alien vessel
• The Quarian: Successfully recruit the quarian
• Tactician: Hit 20 different targets with multiple biotic powers to combine the effects
• Brawler: Shoot and kill 20 enemies while they're knocked back by a punch
• Ghost of the Father: Gain the loyalty of the Cerberus Operative
• Treason: Gain the loyalty of the quarian
• Fade Away: Gain the loyalty of Archangel

Twitch Clip Links

• Achievement: Warp Specialist 
• Critical Mission Failure 
• Leave my crew out of your political BS! 
• It Wouldn't Bother Shepard 

For the raid we dropped in on YRGamerBunni who we randomly found on Twitch and playing the Legendary Edition of Mass Effect 2, over on twitch.tv/YRGamerBunni! I did see something a bit odd, since they were playing the PC version of the Legendary Edition, the aspect ration for dialog and cut-scenes kept switching on their stream from 16:9 to 4:3.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 workout featured the following exercises: Hook Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Beginner Combo #1. Set a new personal best during Free Training on Hook Combo #2 set on No Mercy Difficulty.

It appears the WWE is all about unifying championships once again, as the ADHD managing of their own roster and storylines goes through the cycle of being too damn lazy to actually having distinct shows with no-cross over is rearing its ugly head again.

Taking a long shot to apply for a Virtual / Remote position at Comcast/Xfinity... I will not be surprised if I get shot down for the exact same reason I get shot down for every other job I've applied for over the past 5 years: 'no college degree'.  On the flip side, this unfortunately resulted in an increase of 'scam calls' as frauds pretending to be staffing agencies started peppering my phone this morning. In fact out of 5 calls received, only one had the company name come up on my caller ID.

For tonight's stream we'll be continuing Mass Effect 2, we'll probably lead off by looking for side quests before landing on Tuchanka to deal with Mordin and Grunt's Loyalty Missions. We might also do Lair of the Shadow Broker as well.

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

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!