A Muggy Day

Hi everyone,

We just wrapped up tonight's stream of Overwatch 2, and by and large we had a lot more wins than losses, Big thanks to PandaSweet for being apart of lot of the fun tonight, as there were certainly matches she carried while playing Support roles! I ended up with four plays of the game as Junker Queen, Moira, Mei and Winston, while also playing as Brigitte, Ana, Lucio, Tracer, Ashe, Torbjourn, Reinhardt and Wrecking Ball.

We even picked up an achievement as Ashe in the final match of the night, a match which looked like was going to be awful, but somehow turned into a victory. So it was a real positive way to close things out

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Short Fuse: Kill an enemy by shooting Ashe’s Dynamite from at least 30 meters away in Quick or Competitive Play.

For the raid we dropped in on tracydoll who was playing Friday the 13th over on twitch.tv/tracydoll

 Microsoft announced at Xbox Gold is shutting down and everything will be through Game Pass going forward, so I went ahead and converted my remaining Xbox Gold time over now to Game Pass Ultimate. At the very least this basically frees up any gaming budget going forward. Unless I start something that gets pulled from Game Pass.

Pretty muched finished the Mass Effect shot story commission and I'm really happy with how it turned out, as I was able to put in a lot of lore related to the Quarians and the Geth. Just need to do some final touches before throwing it onto the SubscribeStar page.

Our next stream is slated for Monday night with the continuation of Gotham Knights, with a start time after 9:30 PM Eastern. If the stream starts before 9:30 PM Eastern then something really went wrong.

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

Finished Duke Nukem Forever

Hi everyone,

Xfinity came by and discovered there was a neighborhood issue effected two different taps on the block, which just proves that I knew something was seriously wrong with my internet service.

Tonight's stream saw us finish Duke Nukem Forever, and it took about two hours to clear the final few chapters, and I had the most trouble with the Blowing the Dam chapter since it was underwater and having to realize where the air bubbles were. Overall it was a very straight forward, with some puzzles and realizing where the hell I needed to go. The ending is a bit odd as apparently Duke is killed, but I made sure to grab the General's arm as quick as possible... oh well.

Now I know there is DLC for Duke Nukem Forever, but I really have no interest in it at this time (doesn't help that I paid both August and November's property taxes for my house today, so the wallet is really thin at the moment). I did go back in after the stream to pick up a few achievements, which actually helps continue a current streak I'm on

With Duke Nukem finished, we went on to play Smite, winning one out of three arena matches and losing both assault matches, one of which was completely winnable. Oh well, at least I have another survey from Hi-Rez to look forward too.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• I Need a Towel: Get hit by 10 Pregnator bombs
• Beating the One-Eyed Worm: Defeat the Energy Leech
• Piece of Cake: Complete the SP campaign on Easy Difficulty
• Special Thanks: Watch the credits all the way through
• Party Animal: Drink all of the beers in the strip club
• Lots of Whacking: Win a game of Alien Abortion in the strip club
• Noms: Eat 10 pieces of food during the SP campaign

For the raid we visited misscammi316 who was also playing Smite over at twitch.tv/misscammi316

So the question becomes, do I put something new on Thursdays, or do I just continue with Gotham Knights and try to finish that as quickly as possible giving it three nights in a week as opposed to two? I mean I did consider BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend going into the Thursday slot, as well as the next game in the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy. We'll see what I end up decreeing. 

Did get some writing done, and I'm pleased with the opening in using the Quarians hatred towards the Geth as justification for them pursuing Shepard.

Our next stream on SUnday night will feature Overwatch 2, just the usual grind for weekly challenges. I did play some Overwatch on PC this week, so I'm in a good spot to knock out quite a few.

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

Friday could've been a lot better...

 Hi everyone,

Friday just sucked in so many ways, sure I got some compression socks because I'm at the age I need them apparently... but I ended up losing the entire afternoon because I just fell asleep after finding out work was cancelled, so that is now four days to make up. Sure I was told things should be better with more focus group work coming in... but that isn't till early or mid August.

Then there was when I woke up at 6:30 PM... and discovering my internet was bugging out again, lots of Upstream Power Levels dropping below 40 with the channels becoming unlocked... so I have another Comcast tech coming out between 4 and 6 PM on Satirday. Was so frustrated ended up ordering some takeout.

So the stream ended up starting a little after 8 PM and we went all out in regards to side-questing and doing things in Marvel's Spider-Man Miles Morales, finding another cat, seeing Miles crossing paths with the King Pin, knocking out various achievement / trophies, while also seeing how much ground work is being laid to integrate people unfamiliar with Miles to his world, which is a lot more down to earth in various ways when compared to Peter Parker. This is probably best seen in how much of the game revolves around Harlem, considering the most side quests take place in that portion of the map and how littler there is to do every place else. 

That said, if we go all out we can finish Spider-Man Miles Morales the next time we play since everything left revolves around side quests and the main story, plus stray trophies such as finding specific locations. It does seem like some trophies are tied to a New-Game Plus run, which (a costume, three abilities and 4 gadget upgrades) which is rather disappointing.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS4) Trophies

• I'm On A Boat: Ride the derelict boat in southern Chinatown
• Urban Explorers: Collect all Time Capsules
• 100x Combo!!!: Perform a 100x Combo
• Five Star Review: Complete all FNSM app requests
• The Core of the Problem: Investigate Roxxon's underground lab
• Invisible Spider: Defeat 50 enemies while Camouflaged
• True Deception: Complete the vault sequence in Underground Undercover
• From Downtown: Use Venom Dash to throw an enemy into a group of three or more
• Kitbash: Craft 10 Upgrades
• Overcharge: Defeat 100 enemies with Venom attacks
• Under Their Noses: Shut down all Roxxon Labs
• Salvager: Open all Underground Caches
• Underground Undone: Shut down all Underground Hideouts
• Up and Over: Perform a Venom Jump, then a Venom Dash on a single enemy
• Come at the King: Unravel a criminal conspiracy in Harlem

We didn't do a raid this evening, but I went o ver to hang out on BestiBunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni 

Did do some writing before finding out work was cancelled, so there was that positive, and used some funds I marked aside for entertainment to take advantage of the Xbox sale to pick up a few things. Tried to look for co-op stuff to do locally.

Our next stream on Saturday is scheduled for 7 PM Eastern, and I figure we'll just go ahead and finish Duke Nukem Forever to clear that game off the dockett.

So with that said, we'll see you next time over on twitch.tv/fredcasden

 

Duke Nukem Forever Has A Lot of Logic Puzzles

Hi everyone,

Finally received the paper work in the mail confirming my house is now mine... and this entire situation still terrifies me.

Work was meh, mostly voice mails and having to suspend one solid interview because the respondent couldn't continue.

Anyway our stream tonight ended around 1:30 AM, with making a lot of casual progress in Duke Nuke Forever, reaching Part 2 of the Underground portion. I mostly had trouble against the boss battles, but thankfully I'm playing this game on the lowest possible difficulty. Something that is shocking me is the number of puzzles in the game, mostly revolving around logic and basic physics. This is pretty shocking considering this is a Duke Nukem game. It does make me think even more that this game came out a console generation too late however.

On a side note, the infamous 'driving the monster' truck segments of the game weren't that bad, as all the fuel stops were clearly check points for Duke to get out of the truck to fight enemies on the ground. Also remember, it's a monster truck so it's going to get  terrible mileage... that said, it does get fairly good mileage considering we only put a few gallons of gas into the damn thing! 

We are in pretty good position to finish Duke Nukem Forever next time we stream it, which is pretty cool. That said, I have no interest in the expanded DLC content for it.

Duke Nukem Forever Achievements

• Baron von Nukem: Shoot down 20 alien fighters
• Big Guns, Big Ships: Blow up 5 enemy gunships or dropships
• Hippy-Stomper: Foot stomp 12 aliens
• Road Rage: Kill 15 aliens with the monster truck
• He's Got a Hologram!: Use a Holoduke in SP
• A Good Dam Fight: Defeat the Battlelord on the Hoover Dam
• Judge, Jury, Executioner: Execute 20 aliens
• Freeze Well!: Kill 15 frozen aliens
• Duke Angry, Duke Smash!: Kill 15 aliens with melee attacks while on steroids
• Fork the Pork: Kill 6 aliens with the forklift
• Octacide: Defeat the Octaking

For the raid we dropped in on abbyleveleduup who was playing Overwatch 2 over on twitch.tv/abbyleveleduup

Finished the WWE short story commission and now my attention turns to a Mass Effect short story commission and I want to set it around Admiral Xen trying to get Shepard to give the Legions to the Quarians.

Our next stream is slated for 9:30 PM Eastern on Friday with the continuation of Spider-Man Miles Morales, we're going to go after the a lot of collectables first before progressing the story.

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

 

 

A Bit of Unplanned Variety

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream opened with Resident Evil 6 and yes we were playing with Iceman, as we knocked out Chapter 4 of Chris's campaign... and we could've probably knocked out Chapter 5, but Iceman was unable to continue. But good news is we'll be able to finish the campaign next week and probably start up the Jake/Sherry campaign! Compared to Chapter 3 last week, we had little trouble with Chapter 4.

So with Iceman having to go early, I switched over to Forza Horizon 5, mostly just messing around, grinding towards some achievements. Also tried out the Hot Wheels area, and that is going to be pain to find all the roads in it!

Lastly we jumped into PowerWash Simulator to begin another assignment, nothing major, getting 40% of the detached home done.

All of this resulted in getting achievements across three different games, so that was pretty cool.

Resident Evil 6 Achievements

• They're ACTION Figures!: Collect 3 figures.
• There's Always Hope: Complete Chapter 4 in Chris' campaign.

Forza Horizon 5 Achievements

• I'll Just Take this Now: Win your first Midnight Battle
• No One Expects the Hot Wheels Expedition: Arrive at the Horizon Hot Wheels Outpost
• The Rookie: Complete the Rookie Qualifier Event
• Icy Roads Ahead: Win any race that includes sections of Hot Wheels Ice Track
• Missions!: Complete 5 Missions

PowerWash Simulator Achievements

• Pave the Way: In the Detached House, complete the Pathway, Driveway and Driveway Edges first

Following the stream we raided pradoxgamerau during their stream of World of Warcraft over on twitch.tv/pradoxgamerau

Did some yard work in the morning, mostly cutting branches that extended over the sidewalk... unfortunately this lead to me taking a nap and losing the afternoo

Work was really good, getting 5 interviews done, but work also ran a bit long because of the final interview, meaning I didn't eat dinner. Oh well.

For our next stream we'll be playing Duke Nukem Forever at around 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden 

So with that we'll see you later!

The Court of Owls...

Hi everyone,

Tonight's stream of Gotham Knights was a bit long because I got side tracked in doing many side activities along with letting dialog and stuff play out. The big plot reveal that the villainous Court of Owls is interesting, and I wonder how much of an influence the TV series Gotham had on them being featured. Also discovered Mr. Freeze is running around and that's a plot that needs to be dealt with but it has no bearing on the main story it seems.

Staying focused on using Batgirl girl has apparently lead to unique character stuff happening, so I wonder if that pertains to Robin, Nightwing and Red Hood as well. Loved that Renee Montoya and the Penguin are being used as allies that provide reoccurring challenges for me to knock out.

The whole 'night' cycle of the game is rather unique and really raises questions regarding how much does Batman get done in one night... but then again I'll worry less about that question going forward because as soon as I learned fast travel was a thing, I unlocked it to make sure we can jump from place to place with little trouble going forward! 

Also managed to experience the co-op drop in feature of Gotham Knights, which ended up being a lot of fun

Gotham Knights Achievements

• To the Victor Go the Spoils: Uncover a new problem at S.T.A.R. Labs
• Get ReQ'd: Discover a sketchy self-help program in Gotham's streets
• Whispered Words: Complete Case File 02: THE RABBIT HOLE

We didn't do a formal raid tonight, instead I just went over to hang out on bestibunni's channel over at twitch.tv/bestibunni

Nearly finished the WWE short story commission and I'm already thinking about the one that's next which is a return to Mass Effect

Work was not as good as it was on Monday evening, but it was solid enough to get through.

Foot and ankle feel better, still need to keep it elevated at times, but at least when sitting  it's not feeling feeling hot.

Our next stream is for Wednesday night at 9:30 PM Eastern, and will see Iceman and I continue Resident Evil 6! 

See you later over on twitch.tv/fredcasden!

Batgirl is the Gotham Knight

Hi everyone,

We finished tonight's stream a bit before 2 AM because we started Gotham Knights and I quickly discovered that I'm going to do as much of the side quests as possible because this is clearly an open world adventure. In fact I would dare say that Marvel's Spider-Man clearly had a lot of influence on Gotham Knights in terms of its controls, play style and overall vibe of the story, despite everything being broken up over 'nights'.

As you can tell by the title, I've elected to do this playthrough as Batgirl for a few reasons, one I'm not a fan of The Red Hood, Nightwing comes across as being out of touch and Robin just seems like a terrible protagonist within the context of the game's plot. The overall vibe is something I can gel with.

Now do I regret starting Gotham Knights within the same time frame we're also playing Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Not really, the Miles Morales game is a lot shorter from what I can tell and it has all the collectables noted to be easily to find. 

We shall continue Gotham Nights on our Tuesday night stream!

Gotham Knights Achievements

• First Step Into the Knight: Unlock an Ability for the first time
• The Batman Family: Play as Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood
• Not On My Watch: Successfully stop all Premeditated Crimes in a single night
• Har, Har, Har, Very Funny: Visit an unlikely source at Blackgate Penitentiary
• Knighthood: Reach Knighthood with Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, or Red Hood
• Loose Ends: Complete Case File 01: BATMAN'S LAST CASE 

For the raid we visited SweetLindir who was playing Smite over on twitch.tv/sweetlindir

Work was really good on Monday night, getting six full interviews done, putting me two over on the production quota for the night. Granted no one knew I was scheduled for Monday, but hey, they rather have me on than most people!

Got a fair bit of writing done on the latest WWE commission request, I plan to knock out a good portion during the afternoon.

Also need to record the next episode of my reaction to Hellsing Ultimate Abridge

Anyway, we'll see you around 9:30 over on twitch.tv/fredcasden