Confused With Continuity in Fallout 76

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Fallout 76 saw some plot advancement, with the biggest detail being finding the Astronaut as a new CAMP companion. She has her own set of quests so it makes her a little more interesting than the forager. But the big thing that is amusing me is the 'order' of events, because heaven knows there is a real continuity problem with how I'm approaching every quest, as some things were started months ago that should have been done early on but because I keep finding quests it's tough to find. A great example is the fact I've done a lot with the Brotherhood of Steel's introductory plot but that place well after stuff involving the Overseer which I'm still in the middle of doing.

We were of course joined by Iceman to get various challenges done in his 1st World, and some hilarity was had along the way. We did see what was involved in fixing a power plant, so I'll be more inclined to do those in the normal game world going forward.

Big thanks to the viewers for kicking in 1000 bits and to Iceman for renewing his sub for the 52nd month in a row! I'm happy that I'm able to earn that continued support from you folks!

Twitch Clips

• You've Already Had One!
• We Just Punched A Bear In The Face! 
• It's A Chia Pet!
  

For the raid we dropped in on TracyDoll as they were playing Friday the 13th: The Game over on twitch.tv/tracydoll!  

Well one of the worst assignments for work came in... I can't complain, but the production rate  The fact that a meeting is being held to get feedback which we're going to experience the same issues as last year is making me glad that I don't clock in until noon.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Body Uppercut COmbo, Advanced Combo #2 and Body Straight Combo for 31 minutes.

A lot of folks are upset that Ubisoft is shutting down a lot of online features for the PC versions of a number of their titles, like Assassins Creed III ... thing is... everyone knew this was going to happen because of the Remaster that game and others like it got. Why keep the older version online when there is the remastered version that included everything that was DLC originally? It's just a smart move.

So the Phillies lost two games in a row against the Blue Jays, and everyone on the team can just look at JT Realmuto and go 'yeah this is on you dude'.

Staying on the subject of Baseball, my Fantasy Baseball Team is off to a good start... but because of the All-Star break, the week is 'extended' to included next week as well, so there is a lot of concern regarding how well my team will continue to do. 

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream we're back to Final Fantasy XIV, with the goal of doing some Hildibrand quests and other stuff like raids, trials and maybe some leveling.

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

Closing in on 'Finishing' Persona 4 Arena

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Persona 4 Arena was rather productive as we knocked out the story chapters for Yosuke and Elizabeth. I feel Yosuke's was unnecessarily long and just felt rather dull in comparison to everyone else's, which was disappointing, sure it had a couple of great moments early on, namely with Chie saying she wants to eat him, but it felt really lacking.

Elizabeth's story on the other than was much short, and certainly filled in some gaps with references to Persona 3 as well as justifying why she is involved in the tournament. In fact, her ending justifies use of the character in almost every instance of the Persona franchise, because she is looking for away to free the hero of Persona 3 from a permanent fate.

Now I did have a goal about going through the challenges and completing 150 of them for the achievement, which we were successful at doing... and learned that Kanji is (for me) the worst character. Nothing he does seems to flow together with how I play.

We also completed Naoto's Arcade mode, and we had a number of close calls with losing a few rounds. Naoto has a fun kit, but the fact she remains stationary when using her revolver leaves her wide open.

Next time we play Persona 4 Arena, the goal will be to go through all of Yu's story from start to finish, selected the first choice option to make sure we get the secret ending. Also the goal of doing arcade runs with every character will continue as well.

Persona 4: Arena Achievements

• The Captain: Yosuke's Story chapter has been told.
• The Elevator Attendant: Elizabeth's Story chapter has been told.
• I Learned a Few Moves: You have completed 150 Challenges.

Twitch Clips

• Life Is Strange Before The Storm Figures
• Chie Wants To Eat You Up 
• 150 Challenges Completed
• Kill the bear! 
   

For the raid, we dropped in on YrGamerBunni who was playing Halo: Infinite over at twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!  

While I've had some issues with my Internet connection, as well documented on my blog over the past month, I have not had a full instance where it went down completely, as was the case this afternoon while I was in the middle of work. Thankfully it came back up to where I could complete an interview. Fucking Xfinity... and I say that because they just got a payment from me on Monday!

Think I'm going to start laying off the Hot Pockets... Inflation has pushed them beyond being a reasonable snack! 

Ended up dealing with a tension headache in the middle of the night? How could I tell it was that type of headache? Because I also had a bit of congestion... and believe me a tension headache is very easy to identify when one has it as semi-frequently as I do.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Uppercut Combo #2, Defensive Combo #1 and Double Combo #1 for 28 minutes

Twitch made it clear that the use of shout out clips goes against their Terms of Service, so that gimmick that I've been using through Clippy is done for now. But hey, at least the BRB screen will not be affected.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream, we'll be messing around with Fallout 76 as I slowly advance the plot. We may be joined by Iceman for more shenanigans.

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

So We Played Doctor Who The Lonely Assassins

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream opened with Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, which is a visual novel styled game that acts as a revisit to the episode Blink from the 10th Doctor era, where the player is interacting with Osgood through an in-game mobile phone, with a series of puzzles to determine what has happened to a man named Lawrence who has apparently vanished. Lawrence himself, was also in the original episode Blink, so the connects were very strong. While the game play elements were rather minimal, the story was really good, and some of the use of the Weeping Angels was actually really well done. 

Perhaps the cool thing about this little game is that a number of Doctor Who alumni appeared in it, with Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Finlay Robertson as Larry Nightingale and the use of archive footage of David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. Jodie Whittaker provides a few lines as the 13th Doctor at the very end (if everything was done correctly). There are a number of references to some other parts of Doctor Who's history which made for some great call backs.

Time to complete the game took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, so it's a short game, but if you catch it cheap, it's worth checking out. Also fair warning there are a couple of jump scares, or at least things that will make you take a long hard look at your screens when they happen. 

This does lead to the usual discussion regarding Doctor Who video games, as we haven't really seen many over the past 17 years. There were a few during the Matt Smith years there decent, and a couple of mobile ones during Peter Capaldi's era, but for a show like Doctor Who never got the care and attention like so many other sci-fi franchises. But then again, considering the incompetence of the BBC, I'm not surprised...

Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins Achievements

• Well, That Was Rude...: Declined Osgood's call.
• We've Got a Game...: Accepted Osgood's request for help.
• First Clue: Congratulations, you found your first clue! Many to go...
• Mo's Apology: Found a message from Mo apologising for his outburst.
• An Old Friend: Read any of the messages from Sally Sparrow.
• How Strange: You received a rather unusual call from Lawrence.
• Never Run When You’re Scared!: The plot thickens as Osgood unlocks more of the phone for you to explore.
• Call it a Day, Mr Nightingale!: Received a threatening phone call from Mr Flint.
• There's Something on the Phone!: Discovered the source of the corruption on the phone.
• Master Persuader: Persuaded Marguerite to resend the download link.
• Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Stuff: Found out Natasha has been sent back in time by the Angels!
• Not Your Average Police Box: Found all photos of the TARDIS hidden throughout the game.
• Don't Blink: Found the Doctor's warning of the Lonely Assassins.
• Lawrence's Plan: Discovered Lawrence's plan to confront the Angels.
• Saving the World with a Disco Ball: Angels? What Angels?! You helped Osgood defeat the Weeping Angels lurking at Wester Drumlins.
• Happy Ever After: Unlocked the hidden ending by completing all tasks listed in the operations log. 

Now we didn't just play Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins, we also played some Paladins as we checked out characters that have skins from RWBY, namely Vore (Ruby Rose), Imani (Yang Xiao Long), Saati (Blake Belladonna) and Furia (Weise). Of the four characters, I have used Furia before, in fact I played her a lot when the character was first added to the game. In terms of the designs, Ruby and Weiss look great... Blake is kind of average... and I have no fucking clue what they were thinking with Yang, but they did her dirty. One big positive here is that the voice actors from RWBY recorded lines for their characters, so the charm of some of the things like Yang's puns were in full effect.

On a side note, I had some good moments as Vore and Saati...while trying to re-learn Furia was a real challenge... on the other hand, I couldn't get a handle on Imani what so ever.

Big thanks to the viewers for kicking in 300 bits last night, I know I say it every time, but you are awesome for the continued support.

Twitch Clips

• Hmmm....
• Don't Blink... 
• Well that shut him up
• The Cadillac 
• Double Kill!
• That's Two... 
• I Yeeted Myself Off The Side...
  

For the raid, we dropped in on YrGamerBunni who was playing Mass Effect 3 over on twitch.tv/yrgamerbunni!  

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Triple Combo #2, Front-Back Step Combo and Defensive Combo #2 for 28 minutes.

Messed around a bit with Overwatch 2 last night, mostly to check out Moira's new kit... and I'm not a fan to some of her nerfs while feeling mixed about separating her biotic orbs into two different abilities.

Mail must have arrived super late because I often check for deliveries twice... anyway, I did redeem some loyalty points I had with Square Enix to get a Life is Strange Before the Storm figure set of Rachel Amber and Chloe Price.I will try to remember to show it off later tonight.

The goal for tonight's stream is to knock out two more story arcs in Persona 4 Arena, plus we'll do an arcade run or two as well.

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

Overwatch, Tweaking And Other Things

Good afternoon everyone,

Last night's stream of Overwatch got off to a rough start with a couple of upstream signal issues that to completely disrupted everything. Still we had a fun time with some mixed results on the win and loss front. Big shout outs to PandaSweet, OWSpeed and TokiDoki for being apart of several matches over the course of the night. In terms of Plays of the Game, my weekly streak continued, picking up two as D.va. Other characters used included Reinhardt, Tracer, Ashe, Mei, Echo, Moira, & Symmetra.

On a side note I do feel I should've had a third play of the game when I was using Echo because I certainly had a very good moment using her. Oh well, at least in that match PandaSweet picked up the POTG!

As some saw, I was making changes to how my stream looks again, as the green screen settings are starting to drive me batty again. So we flipped back to the blue screen and I'm figuring out a few different things using Image Blend Masks to make things a little different.

Twitch Clips

• That's three!
• System On Fire! 
• What is that?! 
  

We didin't do a raid last night, instead we hosted Starofsyzygy who was starting just as I was about to hit 'End Stream', they were doing a chill stream over at twitch.tv/starofsyzygy!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge COmbo #1, Intermediate Combo #1 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for 34 minutes.

Finished the Spider-Man commission fic request yesterday afternoon, which turned out rather well, and I ended up getting another commission request, which takes me back to the WWE to feature something starring Xia Li. Managed to piece together an intro following the stream, so with luck I'll have it done in a couple of days

Watched another episode of Stargate SG-1 last night as well, titled 'The First Commandment' (Season 1, Episode 5). This episode sees the team going after a missing squad whose leader declared themself to be a 'god' for a planet of primitive beings. There is a cute explanation about why every planet has trees (that every planet was tera-formed), but this also is a work around regarding where a lot of exterior scenes were filmed (in and around Vancouver, British Columbia). This was another episode that had a plot that saw a factor in regard to Captain Carter, in that she was engaged to the episode's antagonist at one point in time.

I did try Climpchamp as an alternate way of making videos, and while it has some great features the fact it does not have a standard save to disk format makes it a pain in the ass to deal with.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

 For tonight's stream I'm not sure exactly what we'll be doing at the time I'm writing this but I shall be up to something.

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

A Saturday Of Variety

Good afternoon everyone,

Well last night's stream opened up with Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001 on the PlayStation, which ironically was released in 2000. Unlike Triple Play 98, released in 1997, SSHHBB01 has not aged well in terms of its presentation which was a shame considering how many awards and how highly regarded it was when it released. Thankfully it has a lot of options that allow for a casual experience, but its certainly not a sports game I would want to revisit unless I want to do a full season run of the 2000 MLB Season.

We also took at look at 007 Racing, also on the PlayStation, which was a game I was moderately okay at playing 20 years ago, but trying to relearn it while playing it with a 16:9 ratio instead of 4:3 which made things harder to see. We did managed to clear the prologue and saw that the cheats still work, so that's a positive. Forgot how bad the voice acting was when it came to folks doing a bad Pierce Bronson impression for many of the Bond games of the late 90s and early 00s. On a side note, the audio mix for 007 racing is fucking horrific when playing with headphones.

Next we hooked up the PlayStation 2 to mess around a bit with WWE SmackDown Shut Your Mouth. Released in late 20002, this game had a decent roster from the early part of that year. Funny enough, since I still had my memory cards and save files, that meant my created wrestlers were still there. Played several manages highlighting Hulk Hogan, Trish Stratus, William Regal and Stone Cold.

Lastly we jumped to the Xbox One to play some Fall Guys, and managed to win a few rounds in the limited run Sweet Thieves mode, which meant we were able to get a couple of achievements which was pretty cool and surprising.

Side note: We did have a couple minute issue with the upstream, but my internet connection did not go down fully.

During the stream viewers kicked in a few bits, and also RedFoxCovUK renewed their subscription for the channel! As always Thanks for the support you guys rock!

Fall Guys Achievements

• Top Tier: Win 7 Episodes
• One giant leap: Qualify from 100 rounds

Twitch Clips

• That doesn't look a thing like Sammy!
• Relax! 
• That should be a good spot for it 
• Back to Back!
  

For the raid we dropped in on Daemonsw0lf who was playing AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative over at twitch.tv/Daemonsw0lf!Dae did ask when I would play it, and my answer is simple, either when I'm gifted it or catch on sale for a reasonable price. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Difficult Challenge Combo #2, Difficult Challenge Combo #2 and Block Combo for 34 minutes. 

You know with how much I've been playing Dr. Mario as of late I really should do a stream based around the NES games that are available through the Nintendo Switch.

A new week is starting, so let's look back at all the things we played last week which included Overwatch, Star Trek Online, Capcom Fighting Collection, SMite, Persona 4 Arena, Fallout 76, Final Fantasy XIV, Persona 5 Strikers, Sammy Sosa High Heat Baseball 2001, 007 Racing, WWE SmackDown Shut Your Mouth and Fall Guys!  

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj. 

For tonight's stream we'll be playing Overwatch, so you know that's going to be screwy on all fronts.

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

Thoughts on The Sapporo Arc Of Persona 5 Strikers

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Persona 5 strikers had a few rough instances, and it really does seem like slight issues with network encoding, but the stream didn't go down fully, it just hanged for a bit. 

As for the game play, well we tackled a large chunk of the Master Arts stuff, getting Makoto, Sophie and Haru's completed, and have 3/4s of Morgana's progress done, so that will leave just Ryuji and Zenkichi to tackle. Good news is that we have plenty of jails / palaces left to make that more than doable.

Now as far as the Sapporo Jail itself goes, I rather liked the Snow Palace design for it, as it did result in some grad moments in terms of the dialog, and with it being a Haru focused part of the story that meann't a lot of enemies weak to psychic attacks (as well as Wind, Curse and Bless attacks). In many regards this was the equivilant of Futaba's story from Persona 5 Royal, giving Haru some much needed character growth because she was introduced so late in the prior game. I did find the big reveal of the Monarch's design to be one hell of surprise in terms of how it looked, as they really went all out for the 'Gluttony' aspect. 

I also enjoyed the big reveal of Zenkichi's daughter, who I already know is going to play a major part in the story, not just because of spoilers I've seen but based on the fact she's a huge fan of the Phantom Thieves and huge part of the time skip from Sapporo to Okinawa involves the gang hanging out with her.

On a side note: For the Ferris Wheel part, we took Makoto, which serves as a great follow up to the romance story featured during my Persona 5 Royal play through.

Persona 5 Strikers Trophies

• Fist of Justice: Obtained all Master Arts for Queen.
• Item Sweeper: Obtained a total 200 items from the Jails.
• Technological Marvel: Obtained all Master Arts for Sophie.
• Sophisticated Lady: Obtained all Master Arts for Noir.
• Cage of Gluttony Torched: Completed the Sapporo Jail.
• Best Friend: Maxed out a BOND skill level.

Twitch Clips

• Futaba Found Secret Medicine
• Morgana's Show Time! 
• Taking Down The Monarch of Sapporo
  

During the stream we got a huge raid from Hawleigh who was playing Afterparty over at twitch.tv/hawleigh!

For the raid we dropped in on x9abenonymous9x who was playing Fortnite over at twitch.tv/x9abenonymous9x!   

Work was surprisingly light yesterday, as bad programming down the assignment everyone was supposed to be on.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Hip Shape Focus Combo, Straight Combo #2 and Intermediate Combo #2 for 28 minutes.

Fitness Boxing 2 Rhythm & Exercise Stats For July 3 to 9, 2022

• Punches Thrown: 8156
  
• Estimated Calories Burned: 3337.93 kcal
  
• Bernardo's Champion Progress: 76% (38/50 Hours)
  
• King EX Fighter Progress: 94%
  

My fantasy baseball team is actually having a good week considering how it looked like it would've been lucky to break even.  

I continue to mess around with Dr. Mario... I can normally get three stages in before things get too complex for me.

Got the intro portion done for the Commissioned Fic based on Miles Morales as Spider-Man I mentioned yesterday. Did require having to get a digital copy of a comic during a key moment in that character's history to try and get some proper context on a few things. Now I just need to write the meat of the story.

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.

For tonight's stream I'm thinking of hooking up one of my older consoles to do some retro gaming. We'll see if I actually stick to that idea...

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

Final Fantasy DC Travel & Coils Of Bahamut

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV saw a couple of issues but I believe they were mostly on Twitch's end near as I can tell.

Beyond that it was a lot of fun as we were joined by both PandaSweet and Kalenal for some party team up fun, as Panda used the Data Center travel to visit. So you can expect that to be an almost regularly thing to see Panda not only on Sundays with Overwatch but also on FFXIV nights.

In terms of what was accomplished, well I mostly stuck to playing Bard with one brief moment of playing Blue Mage. We did a number of raids, trials and dungeons... and finally got the Coils of Bahamut story arc done, which not only gives Alisae all the character development she would have as it relates to the A Realm Reborn arc of the story, since she was mostly absent. The cut scenes were rather long, but we were running them de-synced to get through them quick.

Also started the new Hildebrand content, which actually sees us finding the Gentleman Inspector in the world of the first, so I'm really glad that isn't being skipped,. Love that there is some great choices on how things could play out.

Twitch Clips

•  How did that happen?
•  Perform the Manderville Mambo... Okay!!!
•  Slaying The Big Cheese
  

For the raid we dropped in on Oldish22 who was also playing Final Fantasy XIV over on twitch.tv/oldish22!  

Got another commission story request this time based around Marvel's Spider-Man, in particular the character of Miles Morales. Going have to do some research to see how I want to portray him.

Work was rather interesting, and I can safely say that anyone in the stage of Michigan who is supporting John Gibbs to become a congressman is fucking idiot and a danger to the United States of America.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Advanced Combo #1, Sway Back Combo and Beginner Combo #2 for 34 minutes.

Took advantage of an Xbox games sale to add Catherine, Asura's Wrath and the Contra Anniversary Collection. Catherine is published by Atlus, the same folks behind the Persona games, so that could be interesting. Asura's Wrath was published by Capcom and was notorious for having some key story elements as DLC, and I made sure to pick those up as well. The Contra Anniversary collection is of course a celebration of the Contra series that was big in Arcades and the NES back in the 80s. 

If you're looking for tools to help with streaming or communicating from home with work, check out what Xsplit offers over at Xsplit.com, use the promo code CASDEN to save 10% on your order! If you're looking for just general stuff, of course you can swing over to Amazon using my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3L8N1Yj.

For tonight's stream we're back to Persona 5 Strikers, as we'll be starting the 3rd story arc investigation. We might take out time to try and do some level grinding and knock out combat achievements for the remaining Phantom Thieves.

So on that not we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!