Thank you to Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring last night's stream

Good afternoon everyone,

Let's begin by thanking the folks behind Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring last night's stream, as it was the first time I played the incredibly popular mobile game. I elected to take the approach of featuring my first experience with the game on stream, going through the full tutorial, seeing how champions are unlocked, leveling up, upgrading gear and going through the the firs two chapters of the campaign, tried out the classic arena mode and dungeons. All in all I was quite impressed with what I experienced, and I can see myself playing it on a casual basis. You can download Raid: Shadow Legends using my link and enjoy the special in-game loots! Raid is free on PC and Mobile. https://strms.net/raid_fredcasden Use my Promo Code: RondaSESP for more perks

Now before the Raid: Shadow Legends portion of the stream, we did open with Fall Guys, and won my 20th Show in a Squad (team of four), which was really cool, and I came fairly close to winning a few other shows as a solo (Namely in the Jump Show special format). There was quite a bit of hilarity.

We did a recap of sorts regarding the Nintendo Direct, nothing major announced caught my interest beyond DONTNOD releasing a new game later in the year.

Also found a way to properly store not just all the VHS tapes I'm going through, but my DVD collection as well. If I can find a place that would buy those tapes I certainly will have an easy type carrying them iin something that has proper handles

For the raid we dropped in on TokuSHOUTsu just as 'Ultraman Ginga S the Movie: Showdown! The 10 Ultra Warriors!' was starting! Got to watch that from the start over on twitch.tv/tokushoutsu

Fall Guys Achievements

• Golden Guy: Win 20 Episodes

Finished writing the Mass Effect short story commission I had started a few days ago, and got another request for another chapter, this time set after the Grissom Academy mission on Mass Effect 3

Spoke with the FnDanteSavage yesterday and got to learn a lot of history about the band he was in and how close they came to touring the east coast! It was really fascinating!

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Straight Combo #1, Weaving Combo #2 and Double Combo #2.

The job interview I had yesterday was more of a webinar to 'sell me' on paying for a training course to potential work for them. As the old saying goes, if something sounds too good to be true, then it usually is.

"Where do you learn to make a banana split?" "Sundae school."

Song of the Day: Ransom by Lil Tecca

For tonight's stream, we're playing Final Fantasy XIV, we'll do raids, side quests and maybe treasure maps, we'll see what ends up happening.

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

The Three Amigos In Saints Row, We're Being Sponsored By Raid: Shadow Legends!

Good morning everyone,

Considering the day prior, I really slept in yesterday, but a big highlight was talking to my Aunt Grace and Cousin Frances, as I wasn't sure what would be the best time to reach them. It was a real fun chat, and I'm so incredibly happy just to be able to chat with them. Also found two heart shape clocks that I think belong to Aunt Grace, but I'm not 100% sure. This did lead to a series of hilarious text messages regarding a photo of the clocks I sent to Frances, who thought something looked like Buddha. 

Got an invitation this morning to have my Twitch broadcasts being sponsored by Raid: Shadow Legends, and well that certainly is giving me an excuse to try the game out on the PC side of things, since I don't play any mobile games In fact we'll do that during tonight's stream during the 2nd half. If you want, you can download Raid: Shadow Legends for free using my affiliate link: https://strms.net/raid_fredcasden on either PC or Mobile, and use PromoCode RondaSESP for more perks! https://strms.net/raid_fredcasdenhttps://strms.net/raid_fredcasden

Last night's stream of Saints Row was really focused on completing business ventures and finding all the remaining discoveries, so again there was no story progress. But at this point, only two more ventures need to be placed, then the grind for the skyscraper. After that there would be just the main story missions to do.

On a side note, The Planet Saints missions to obtain trucks was a pain, but I used the helicopter to do it... because I was not going to bother with the wing suit approach the game intended!

That said, I was quite surprised to see a little tribute to the Three Amigos in the game. Now going back to at least Saints Row The Third, the Amigo Salute was a selected emote / taunt, but to see basically a diorama of the Aimgos encountering the Singing Bush in this game caught be by surprise! I know for a fact I still have the VHS tape of the movie in my home, and I watched it a lot as a kid, so this put a smile on my face.

For the raid, we dropped in on PowerThumbz while he was playing Prey over at twitch.tv/powerthumbz. 

Saints Row Achievements

• Community Outreach: Completed 10 districts in Santo Ileso.
• Masters of Santo Ileso: Unlocked Criminal Empire Tier 4.
• Challenge Accepted: Completed 25 challenges.

Made a good impact on the Mass Effect short story commission, it's relying on what I can think of regarding Diana Allers and her role in Mass Effect 3, but I think it's coming together nicely.

With the Overwatch 2 Season 3 update, I see they brought back being able to commentate players on the opposing team, because quite frankly as some have seen on stream, if I feel no one was worth of getting a commendation, then I'm not giving one. Not completely sold on a number of the changes on various characters, but the developers are always trying to make changes to break existing 'pro approved' teams.

Had a job 'interview' this morning, and it was more of the company trying to sell me on paying for a training course to work for them, and it raised more questions than answers.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Weaving Combo #1, Body Hook Combo and Beginner Combo #1

"What does a sprinter eat before a race?" "Nothing, they fast!" 

Song of the Day: Want to Want Me by Jason Derulo.

On tonight's stream, we'll be playing Fall Guys for sure, but Fallout 76 will not be on the agenda, as Iceman will not be able to join us this week.So for the second half of the stream, we'll be featuring Raid: Shadow Legends! 

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

New Water Heater and More Saints Row

Good afternoon everyone,

We begin by saying thank you to my brother Leo, his friend Macho and Macho's father for all their help in getting a new water heater installed with little to no trouble, and for half the cost PSE&G wanted. It's one less stressful thing to worry about in what has been a dramatic few weeks. For the record, it turns out the previous water heater was installed in 2003, so it did its job and then some. I recall mom wanted to replace it a few years ago, but then COVID hit and other things too priority around the house.

Last night's stream of Saints Row was entirely focused on finding Discoveries and expanding the Saints Empire, as I refuse to fully advance the main story until I do everything that is considered side content. This meant a lot of roaming around, flying, gliding, getting into scraps and actually having to try things multiple times because of critical mission failures (aka I fought, I died, I respawned). The biggest main in the ass is calling out Marshall and it's 'mini-boss' being an enemy that is invulnerable unless you let it overheat, then shoot its tanks and then wear it down, rinse and repeat until it's defeated. Ended up reducing all the difficulty settings to the lowest possible just to get through it!

That saint tonight's stream will be more of the same, looking to continue expanding The Saints empire and finding all the goodies across the map.

Thank you to Kalenal for the raid following their stream of Pokemon Scarlett over on twitch.tv/kalenal

For the raid we dropped in on PradoxGamerAU, during their stream they were playing World of Warcraft and RimWorld over at twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Saints Row Achievements

• Tourist: Completed the photo scavenger hunt.
• Picking Fights: Defeated a miniboss from each faction.

I didn't get any writing done on the 20th Mass Effect story commission request I've received, so I hope to put a dent into that today if certain things aren't an option for the afternoon.

I still have a hard time going to the living room of my home unless I have to do something... I miss mom more and more each day.

Recorded another Box with VHS Tapes video, which will go live on my YouTube Channel on Friday.

Going forward with Overwatch 2, I'm going to focus on just the first 80 levels of the battle pass and forego the titles. Mostly because I want to write more.

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily work out featured Advanced Combo #2, Hook Combo #2 and Left-Right Step Combo.

"What's the best thing about Switzerland?" "I don't know, but the flag is a big plus."

Song of the Day: Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran

For tonight's stream, well you know it's Saints Row... muhahahha! So on that note we'll see you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Getting the ball rolling on a new week

Good afternoon everyone,

Yesterday was a good day, spoke to Bianca, who is my mom's niece, and had a nice chat about different things. Also spoke with my brother regarding the water heater situation, so we have a few options, we'll see what's its like through PSE&G before making a final decision in that regard.

Also something that came up in conversation with my brother were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as he was playing the Cowabunga Collection with his family the other night... and it reminded me of the nearly forgotten games based on the 2003 series. Now despite one PS2 refusing to send a signal (as seen on Saturday night), I hooked up the other PS2 (the slim one), so on Saturday we'll take a look at one of the TMNT games from the PS2 era, in addition to doing other things.

Did get some positive news this morning, granted I had to wake up at 7 AM to place request for a call back just see what the hold up was on some things!

Last night's stream of Overwatch 2 was a lot of fun, we were joined by PandaSweet for nearly never single match, and we had a pretty good balance of wins and losses. I picked up one Play of the Game as Junkrat, also used characters like Junker Queen, Orisa, Ana, Mei, Solider 76, Torbjourn, and several others.

I did realize that I did not put together the video collecting all of January's Plays of the Games, so I took care of that straight away following the stream. That's in addition to the highlight reel that goes onto the Facebook page

For the raid we dropped in on MissCammi316 as they were playing Dead By Daylight over at twitch.tv/misscammi316. Cammi also shared her condolences regarding mom's recent passing, as she just found out.

Finished writing a new Mass Effect commission request this morning, because I woke up unusually early, and got another request to continue. I can safely say writing the Mass Effect short stories are a lot more fun than writing anything based on WWE.

FNDanteSavage was streaming this morning playing Dead Space, and its always awesome to see him broadcasting when he can over on twitch.tv/fndantesavage

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Double Combo #1, Body Uppercut Combo and Body Straight Combo.

"What did Baby Corn say to Mama Corn?" "Where's Pop Corn?"

Song of the Day: Me Rehuso by Danny Ocean

I did make up my mind that following Saints Row, WWE 2K22 will be the next Monday and Tuesday game. It does have a story mode, but we'll see about getting a number of basic achievements as well. Kind of fitting since WWE 2K23 is about to be released next month, so giving the older game the spotlight seems fitting. 

And speaking of Saints Row, For tonight's stream, we're getting back to it as we'll focus on expanding the Saints control over the town. 

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

Ghostbusting, BioShocking and GoldenEye''ing?

Good morning everyone,

Yesterday was mostly a chill day, spoke to my Cousin Raymond for a bit which was cool, learned a few things that I was not aware of, but glad to know he's doing well. Also hoping the best for his daughter who I met at mom's funeral... she too is battling cancer. Also spoke to another family member who we call Lisa Chiquita (mostly to differentiate between her and mom, who used Lisa as a nickname), the conversation was interesting, and makes me grateful that my younger brother is much wiser than I am.

The stream itself opened with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleash, and we had a few issues getting into actual matches... but we did have a several good matches, winning as a Ghost and as a Ghostbuster. The new map is certainly interesting to get around in, has quite a few narrow areas where a skilled ghost player can ambush Ghostbusters easily depending on if they are focused on Rifts and Civilians. I do love the fact that the hair styles from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon are now in the game, makes me wonder of the Extreme Ghostbusters hair styles will be eventually added.

Next was Bioshock Infinite on the PS3 for the first time, and it certainly has style to it, but my dislike for the controls in having to remember the bumpers are for using powers and weapons while the triggers are for swapping said powers and weapons would certainly get me in trouble if I was playing on normal difficulty. Did managed to reach Monument Island, but I think I would want to restart the play through from the beginning.You know what's funny? I thought I had the BioShock collection on Xbox... but turns out I don't... I do have it on Steam.

Of course the reasons we used the PS3 was because for some reason the PS2 was not sending a signal and I don't know why, as I thought I had that figured out months ago. Oh well...

Lastly, we tried out GoldenEye 007, and I never played the N64 version... and boy was trying to understand the controls a bit of an issue at first. Managed to at least get through the first level... and nearly finished the 2nd level before making some bad mistakes. I can see why people loved this game back in the 90s... but how did they play it with just one analog stick on the N64 controller?!  

Also was super cool to see my cousin Frances really getting included in my Twitch community, it really is awesome to have her and also my Aunt Grace watching either live or catching the replays.

For the raid we sent folks over to Tokushoutsu during a marathon of Gekisou Sentai Carranger over at twitch.tv/Tokushoutsu. Carranger is the Sentai series that became Power Rangers Turbo here in the United States.  

BioShock Infinite (PS3) Trophies

• Welcome to Monument Island: Reached Monument Island.
• Written in the Clouds: In the Main Campaign, completed Lighthouse.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Achievements

• Escape Artist: Break free from a 4 Buster tether

GoldenEye 007 Achievements

• RUN!: You completed Dam on any difficulty.

Finally finished the WWE Commission request based on results at the Royal Rumble, nearly forgot what the client wanted for the finish. I do have a commission request to get back to writing the Mass Effect series focused on BroShep, so I'll have to convert the first two 'seasons' into PDFs for the Subscribstar page

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive COmbo #1, Uppercut Combo #2 and Front-Bakc Step Combo

"I asked my dog what's two minus two. He said nothing."

Song of the Day: Broccoli by DRAM feat. Lil Yachty.

For tonight's stream, we're of course playing Overwatch 2, and I believe I'll mostly focus on just the main battle pass going forward, because of time constants,

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

Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake after first night

Good morning everyone.

Well yesterday started with a mixed news... well in the afternoon it did, as PSE&G came out to check the water heater... and the tank is leaking from the top due to corrosion, but I was told since we caught it early, the sooner we can get it replaced the better. So I'm going to need to coordinate with my brother to see if he knows anyone who could handle that at a fair cost. Otherwise... it's having to go through PSE&G. But good news is since I'm constantly in the basement anyway for work (when there is work) and other stuff, I can keep an eye on it.

Last night's stream saw me... FINALLY... start playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it's clear as day it's not the same story as the original story. Sure a lot of things are the same, like the opening to take out the Mako Reactor for example, but there is a clear expansion on world building to actually make me feel like I should give a damn about the characters, which was nothing I felt when I played original FF7 a couple of years ago. 

Visually the game is pretty damn good looking, no real differences between cut scenes and game play, the music and sound effects are pleasing to the ears... the voice acting... is kind of all over the place, but I can look over that for the most part. Game play wise, I do feel it's similar enough to Final Fantasy XV for me to have fun hacking and slashing my way through enemies.

How far did we get into the game you may be wondering? Well we got to where Jessie, Cloud, Biggs and Wedge raid the Shinra depot and saw the parachute scene... but we started dropping frames, as apparently my Internet Service Provider (Comcast Xfinity) starting having issues. A speed test after the stream showed my upload speeds were 80% lower than they should be and my download speeds were at 50%. I'm going to chalk it up to the blistering cold weather and the winds, since for a brief moment in the afternoon I did lose power.

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

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Trophies

• Warming Up: Win a battle.
• Staggering Start: Stagger an enemy.
• Bonds of Friendship: Free a bound ally.
• Weakened Resolve: Exploit an enemy's weakness.
• Onetime Gig: Complete Chapter 1.
• Escape Artist: Complete Chapter 2.
• Music Collector: Collect 3 music discs.
• Gotta Start Somewhere: Complete a quest.
• Materia for Beginners: Level up an orb of materia.
• Mercenary Endeavors: Complete Chapter 3.
• My First Summon: Invoke a summon.

Because I was waiting on PSE&G I didn't get any writing done, but I plan on working on the WWE short story commission today. I did post 10 classic stories from the Dice and Kristi era to my Subscribstar page

I did record a new Making A Tier List video for my YouTube channel focused on 1990s Action Movies. That will go live on Monday.

Part of me wonders if I ever want the heartache I have of mom being gone to fade... I mean I can't really bring myself to be in the living room of the house for anything more than opening the blinds, checking the mail or just passing through it. Did replace a couple of lightbulbs up there so it's going to be brighter at least. 

Today's Fitness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Defensive COmbo #2, Intermediate COmbo 31 and Triple Combo #2 for 24 minutes.

"Where do fruits go on vacation?" "Pear-is!"

Song of the Day: Downtown By Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee

For tonight's stream, we're going to lead off with Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed to check out the new content and then we'll probably play something else too.

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

Good times with friends

Good morning everyone,

Last night's stream of Final Fantasy XIV was a lot of fun, we did the Valentine's Day event to start, plus a trip through an Alliance Raid, normal raid, a trial and a few side quests before being joined by PandaSweet and BangBangBang to do 'treasure maps'. Panda trying to explain how to these was certainly a comedy of errors, so I just made her leader of the party and things rolled from there. Most of the maps were in Elpis, and were quite fun. If doing maps becomes a regular thing I do on FF14 nights... I think I'll have Panda be in charge while I tag along (lol) 

Oh an specifically regarding the Valentine's event, the little story was pretty cool regarding the comfort the emissaries had in how they preferred to dress, any cameo by Puddingway is always a good thing... and the little 'queued' instances involving navigating a maze without breaking a connection plus a little match game

For the raid we dropped in on SweetLindir while they were doing some DnD style board games over at twitch.tv/sweetlindir at least i think it was DnD style, I was totally confused 

I tried reaching out to my Uncle Mark yesterday to check on my Aunt Rona since she caught Covid during their recent trip to Florida. Their voice mail was full, so I sent a text.  

Did speak with my Uncle Freddy this morning who had some very kind words to say about the speech I gave at mom's funeral

The Addams Family short story I wrote as a SubscribStar exclusive for January has been posted in the usual spots for those who know where I frequently post such works. Finished The Dragon Ball exclusive story, and started on the WWE Commission based on the results from the Royal Rumble, which is about maybe 40% done at this point.

Today's Ftiness Boxing 2 daily workout featured Block Combo, Difficult Challenge Combo 31 and Biceps Shape Focus Combo for 24 minutes.

"A skeleton walks into a bar and says, 'Hey, bartender. I'll have one beer and a mop.'"

Song of the Day: Bang The Drum All Day by Todd Rundgren

For tonight's stream we will be starting Final Fantasy VII Remake, which was slated for last Friday, but with the passing of mom... it... and many things got delayed.I made sure to install it this time, so it's ready to go for tonight

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