The Evil Within 2, Social Media Update and other notes

Hi everyone,

Work today was alright as we picked up two complete interviews, which I think were pretty solid given the very clunky nature of the questions that were asked. The issue with day hours is still up in the air for next week.

Tonight's stream of The Evil Within 2 saw a lot of roaming around in the first area of the game, finding missing items and little secrets before advancing the plot. Turns out Sebastian's missing daughter is being chased by a loon in a suit. We reached the Marrow and crossed to the other side to put is in the area of City Hall, which means we''ll be in a whole new area of the game next time we play it on Thursday.

Also huge thanks for the re-subs during tonight's stream! The support is always appreciated!

The Evil Within 2 Achievements

• Clearing a Path: Killed 60 enemies.
• I Am The Night: Killed 10 enemies using Sneak Kills.
• You Got Red in You: Used your first Red Gel.
• Taken: Saw a chilling vision.
• Now You're Playing with Power: Upgraded a weapon to Level 3.
• Making Things a Little Easier: Used your first High-Grade Weapon Parts.

Our next stream, scheduled for around 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature Journey to the Savage Planet. I'm going to try and start as soon as I finish work to get any tutorial and sets ups out of the way as the plan is for Iceman to join in

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/elegantlyslays who was playing Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Huge thank you to zephyrwrestles for hooking me up with a Blue Sky invite link, as we're now on that social media platform, which will be helpful for when Twitter goes  tits up! Here are all my current social media links: 

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/fredcasden.bsky.social

Pebble: https://pebble.is/FredCasden

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fredcasden

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fredcasdensworld

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fredCasden

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FredCasdenGaming

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fredcasden

 Finished the 16th entry in a series of Resident Evil commissions, with the focus being on Annette Birkin, since I won't use Sherry Birkin in these stories until way down the line. Also picked up a commission request for a Star Wars story which will make heavy use of 'time skips' to make sure it gets written in a reasonable amount of time.

 Phillies made the playoffs as the #1 wild card team in the National League, and they have a shot of finishing the season with over 90 wins.

And on that note, good night everyone!

The Evil Within 2 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work was kind of weird a we got a big assignment that is nearly impossible because we're forced to stick to the script more so than usual, which makes things very tough, then there is the possibility of getting back to day shift hours, which would mean I could work longer than I do in the evenings, but they don't want to inform me until the last minute, and trust me rebounding from night to day is not easy. At least for this week all streams will be at 9:30 PM Eastern

Tonight's stream saw us starting up The Evil Within 2 on the Xbox One. It's been a few years since we played the first game on PC, so jumping back in was kind of unique, and thankfully the console version has all the PC related cheats, so I don't have to worry about ambushes. The game's cut scenes looks very good, and the controls are pretty solid. The open world aspect is kind of neat, which probably means farming brain goo a lot more possible. Apparently there are a lot of locked areas I find open up depending on how the story progresses.

The Evil Within 2 Achievements

• Welcome to Union: Took the plunge back into STEM.
• DIY: Crafted something for the first time.
• Good to See You Again: Acquired the Warden Crossbow.
• Thinning Them Out: Killed 30 enemies.
• Backup Ain't Coming: Completed the "Rogue Signal" side mission.

Of course as indicating before our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature The Evil Within 2

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/sweetlindir who was playing Hunt: Showdown 

Finished two commission requests today, one being Star Trek related and the other on Resident Evil, which would be the last one of a series that features direct references to the two Outbreak games. The next commission request is also Resident Evil related, but it ties in closer to Resident Evil 2.

Also worked a bit on my Person 5 story, and that's about 80% complete as I need to make sure Naoto closes it out in the featured spot.

Did plant to go out to the post office yesterday, then realized I didn't put my return address on th envelope and I didn't have a pen in my satchel.

Got even more reasons not to play Mortal Kombat 1 and that's in regard to the treatment of the characters from Mortal Kombat X... seriously fuck Ed Boon.

And on that note, good night!

 

 

Overwatch 2 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Yet another weird day where I went to be relatively early, work up, did stuff and then crashed around noon... that can't be normal.

Did get the paper work to renew my current heath insurance in the mail, so have to take that to post office this week. 

Anyway tonight's stream of Overwatch 2 was rather irksome to some degree as Panda and I ran into numerous players either refusing to engage the opposing team or were doing things not related to the objective, meaning we loss far more than we won, in fact we only won 4 matches in the final two hours of the stream. Still it's always awesome to have Panda along for the ride. 

Picked up a couple of Plays of the Game, one as Junker Queen and the other as Brigitte, other characters used were Moira, Sombra, Ana and Illari. Really  am focusing on doing a lot of the Progression stuff as Junker Queen, as I continue to prove her ability to survive in handicapped situation

Overwatch 2 Achievements

• Hack the Planet: Hack 15 enemies without dying as Sombra in Quick or Competitive Play.

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

Assuming there is work, our next stream over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature The Evil Within 2, and we're going to play it in god mode, because of course we are! 

Finished the Spider-Man story commission, and it turned out pretty damn well I think, nearly equally four prior commission requests within the same franchise. Also picked up a commission request based on the 2009 Star Trek film, which is a bit tough as I'm not a fan of the JJ-Trek era of films

And how about them Miami Dolphis, when I checked my Fantasy Football team this week, I thought I was seeing things when I saw they scored 70 points

And on that note, good night!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

Hi everyone,

Today was just another weird day where I woke up at a reasonable time and then around noon I just crashed hard, not waking back up till about 4:30 PM Eastern.

Anyway,  tonight's stream of Cyberpunk 2077 got off to a rocking start because of that, since I didn't have dinner. Managed to order something from El Burger Bar (man their burgers are fucking huge!) which arrived about 30 minutes into the stream, which was perfect as we were doing the final quest associated with Kerry. We waited to see if any other quests popped up before doing the final mission, and we went with Johnny's plan of bringing Rogue along... and boy did the changes to how Quickhacks work make it more of a slog than it needed to be.

Now once we reached Alt, we went ahead and did one ending where Johnny crosses the bridge letting V keep her body and then reloaded and did the ending where Johnny keeps V's body. Neither ending is really satisfying, as V seems constantly on the edge taking any merc job that seems like the results will give her away to live, while Johnny seems to embrace having a second chance at life.

Of course we're not really done with Cyberpunk 2077 because there are still two more ending paths to take, one involves accepting the Arasaka proposal and the other is using the Nomads to raid the tower. There are alternate endings to both depending on final decisions. Plus there is also the Phantom Liberty content which we'll be diving into starting next Saturday.

Cyberpunk 2077 Achievements

• To Bad Decisions!: Complete Kerry Eurodyne's storyline.
• Daemon In The Shell: Kill or incapacitate 3 enemies with one "Detonate Grenade" quickhack.
• The World: Complete the main storyline.
• The Sun: Become a legend of the Afterlife.
• Temperance: Let Johnny Silverhand keep your body. 

Our next stream will be at 5 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature Overwatch 2, and the usual general nonsense of dealing with randoms teammates who constantly let me down.

For tonight's raid we went over to twitch.tv/reytac who was playing Warhammer 40,000: Darkside

Since we are returning to Cyberpunk 2077 on Saturday, that is going to free up the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday slot in week... and since it's been a running joke for so long since god mode can be used with it, I will start up The Evil Within 2 on Monday's stream. 

Did a fair bit of writing in the morning, finishing up the WWE commission request I meant to finish yesterday and getting started on another commission story based on Marvel's Spider-Man and to feature Screwball. Already that's at 3000 words, which is pretty fucking impressive by my standards.

Anyway, going to get back to work on that after I record my review of Cyberpunk 2077 for my YouTube channel

Have a good night folks!

Horizon Zero Dawn and other notes

Hi everyone,

We had another good night of work, as I reached the goal I was looking for which hopefully will mean a bit extra in next week's paycheck to set up for the next set of bills.

Tonight's stream of Horizon Zero Dawn started a bit late because I thought I hit the start stream button on OBS... but we covered a lot of ground, finding various first items for a series of collectables in addition to slowly covering every quest we come across. I'm pretty much resigned to not doing the Hunter Lodge Quest however. The Cauldrons certainly seem like they'll be fun to explore when I come across them.

Horizon Zero Dawn Trophies

• First Vantage found: Found and accessed a Vantage datapoint.
• First Corrupted Zone cleared: Killed all the corrupted machines in a Corrupted Zone.
• First Banuk Figure found: Found a wooden effigy left by a Banuk traveler.
• 10 Vulnerable machine kills: Killed 10 machines weak to Fire while burning, or weak to
• Freeze while frozen.
• First Core Overridden: Reached the Core of a Cauldron and accessed its information.
• All Recon machines killed: Killed at least one of every type of Reconnaissance machine.

Our next stream will feature Cyberpunk 2077 and  will feature the awful new gameplay mechanics. I already tested it out a bit to see what changed and I'm not liking all the changes to my quick hack set up, and the fact that I know have to scramble to get components I need to craft and upgrade what I already had equipped. Anyway the stream will start about 5 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and for sure we should be able to finish the game outright.

For the raid we dropped in on twitch.tv/zonesama who was doing a stream of F-Zero 99

Didn't finish the second of back to back WWE commission requests due to... passing out around noon, which was weird. I'm going to finish that, after I post this and take the opportunity to work on my Persona story.

Also discovered that The Last of Us Fandom community is more insane than I first thought after yesterday. I'm really tempted to really get under their skin, I mean what could be worse than Ellie verbally tearing down Joel? Answer: Joel helping Abby.

Phillies won tonight, and at this point unless something horrific happens they are a shoe-in at the top Wild Card team in the National League.

On a side note, my weight has been fluctuating a lot late going anywhere from 250 to 260.

And on that note, have a good night!

The Expanse, Party Animals and Other Notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was solid as we had a good pace of completing interviews, even if some folks were more 'mental' than others. Gives me hope that Friday is going to be a good day.

Tonight's stream opened with episode 5 of The Expanse: A TellTale Series, and I realized what this game was... it's a glorified tech demo, and I'm real curious if the fault lies with TellTale Games or Deck Nine Games, as both companies were involved. When compared to games that both companies have worked on and  released previously, The Expanse is a shallow experience. Sure it looks great, but there is nothing of substance there. I firmly believe this is the worst game I played here in 2023. Doesn't help that Episode 5 was less than a gig in size, making it the smallest of all 5 chapters, and boy did that really show as it was barely 40 minutes in length.

We loaded up Killer Instinct and saw that its story mode was basically the arcade mode. We did a quick run through as Orchid. Interesting a number of achievements popped from when I last played it back in August. I checked to see if anything popped in Resident Evil 6 and the answer was nope.

We also checked out Party Animals... and that game is basically a violent form of Fall Guys, it is down right hilarious and can be frustrating as the controls are pretty loose. There are a fair variety of game modes, and the fact you can choose your animal is pretty cool. If you liked Fall Guys, give Party Animals a whirl.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Achievements

• Heal Thy Medic: Help Virgil overcome his panic attack
• Brother's Reaper: Rayen kills Arlen
• Oyedeng, Kopengs: Complete Episode 5 of The Expanse
• Miraculous Maya: Keep Maya alive
• Khan's Revenge: Keep Khan alive
• Bosmang: Complete all Episodes of The Expanse
• Data Archivist: Complete Episode 5 with all Data Logs

Killer Instinct Achievements

• Sadira's Web Trap: A web trap hit an opponent, while in Instinct Mode with Sadira
• Glacius' Armor: You absorbed a hit with Glacius' Ice armor while in Instinct Mode
• Orchid Novice: You have reached 30 Fight Challenges with Orchid!
• Competitive Hisako: You have won a ranked match as Hisako!
• Astral Assistance: You completed a Shadow Lords mission with a Guardian equipped!

Party Animals Achievements

• Welcome To The Party: Finish the Tutorial
• First Strike: Win 1 match in the Quick Match
• Sportsmanship: Knock out 1 player during the podium moment
• Immortal Kombat: In Into The Game, knock out opponent playing arcade 3 times in one game (Quick Match)

Our next stream is scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern (assuming there is work) over on twitch.tv/fredcasden and will feature Horizon Zero Dawn, we'll bounce from quest to quest based on distance.

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/misscammi316 who was playing Smite

So I posted an older short story based on The Last of Us over on Ao3 and boy, the Joel apologists were in full force, I'm really tempted to write a follow up just to piss them off even more.

Speaking of stories, knocked out one WWE commission request and started on another. It is funny considering an earlier commissioned story involved Emma's return to the promotion earlier this year... and she was let go today.

Those will be all of my notes for tonight, have a good one folks!

Cyberpunk 2077 and other notes

 Hi everyone,

Work tonight was another great night... even if some of the people I talked turn turned a simple 10 minute study into a 30 minute torture session. Now I'm good at trying to control the interview, but some people need to be smacked.

Tonight's stream featured Cyberpunk 2077 and we started as soon as we finished work, as we focused on more side quests, as every time one ended another popped up. The big thing was trying to knock out quested related to Kerry's questline, and there is only one left to do, but we couldn't get it to trigger. Ah well, now the big worry is going to be the Liberty Expansion which drops this week to see what happens to the save file on Saturday, which is the next time we'll be playing it. 

For the raid we went over to twitch.tv/Reese who was playing Overwatch, the raid was picked by LvStrkr as one of the channel rewards! 

Our next stream, scheduled for about 9:30 PM Eastern over on twitch.tv/fredcasden will feature episode five o the Expanse to wrap up that disappointing mess. Trust me, when I do my casual review of The Expanse, the negatives are going to be prominent. Since the final episode will only take maybe hour, we'll  be pairing it with Killer Instinct.

Knocked out another commission story request based on Resident Evil, which turned out alright, even if the paper thin plot relies on what contrived references I can make.

Also picked up two commission requests for (sigh ) WWE related stories... one featuring Rhea Ripley and the other featuring Triple H. I said before and I'll say it again, those nearly 15 years of being one half of the Dice and Kristi writing duo certainly branded what type of stories people want me to write.

Heard some good things about the Party Animals game, while the obvious mediocrity of Mortal Kombat 1 becomes more obvious with every review I see.

And on that note, I'm going to bed! 

Good night folks!