Twitch Tuesday

[Black Six]

I think I figured it out! In the end there was a stupid checkbox that was applying 'audio effects' to the input port I was using, and unchecking that looks like it fixed things. I may try doing a quick stream on Friday or this weekend to see how it goes.

[Chronicler06]

Unfortunately, I'll be a little preoccupied with other things this weekend, so chances are very low I'll be able to watch any streaming.

I'll definitely be available at the usual time on Tuesdays, if the test goes well.

[Chronicler06]

Alright, lots of good accomplished this week. All audio issues have been completely resolved and stream quality is just as good as ever. And to top it off, Lego Incredibles is now fully completed, including that one minikit you kept on missing (turns out you were just jumping a little too early to reach it).

Now it's time to move on to the next Lego game, which as I had mentioned in the chat, my recommendation had been for Jurassic World. I suggest the first thing you should do in that game is to activate all of the map points in the four hub worlds (much like the map stones you might recall from Lego Lord of the Rings), so that you can at least find all of the red bricks. You won't be able to collect everything in the hub worlds yet, as you will first need to unlock certain dinosaurs to play as, which will require playing through all of the levels again. So I guess my suggestion for getting back to Lego Jurassic World is to first activate the map points, then collect some red bricks that I'm sure you'll want to use before going back to the levels, and only after the levels are fully completed can you then try completing everything in the hub worlds. (Also, I should mention that some areas of some levels are chase scenes, meaning that you'll need to both aim and time your jumps just right to collect certain minikits, so be prepared for the possibility of needing to check a video guide for those special areas.)

As for what to play after Lego Jurassic World, I was going to make two alternative suggestions between Lego Indiana Jones or Lego City Undercover. Lego City Undercover is only a single game as opposed to the two games for Indiana Jones, but it took me almost as long to complete City Undercover as it did to complete both of the Indiana Jones games, and with how you've performed with vehicle games in the past, I will not be surprised if you choose to go with Indiana Jones before City Undercover.

By the way, I just realized that you normally stream Lego Dimensions on the first Tuesday of each month. I guess I didn't bother reminding you this time due to questions over the streaming quality, but now with that over with, I'd like to remind you that my suggestion for the next Lego Dimensions stream is to open the Wicked Witch fun pack, as Wizard of Oz is now the only Year 1 world you have not yet visited. Since you mentioned you probably won't stream early next month, I guess we'll be waiting until June to see a return to Lego Dimensions.

Well, that sure was quite a lot to go through, but overall, it's good to see you back.

[confused piraka]

are you going to stream masks of power?

[Black Six]

On 4/4/2023 at 9:00 PM, Chronicler06 said:

Now it's time to move on to the next Lego game, which as I had mentioned in the chat, my recommendation had been for Jurassic World. I suggest the first thing you should do in that game is to activate all of the map points in the four hub worlds (much like the map stones you might recall from Lego Lord of the Rings), so that you can at least find all of the red bricks. You won't be able to collect everything in the hub worlds yet, as you will first need to unlock certain dinosaurs to play as, which will require playing through all of the levels again. So I guess my suggestion for getting back to Lego Jurassic World is to first activate the map points, then collect some red bricks that I'm sure you'll want to use before going back to the levels, and only after the levels are fully completed can you then try completing everything in the hub worlds. (Also, I should mention that some areas of some levels are chase scenes, meaning that you'll need to both aim and time your jumps just right to collect certain minikits, so be prepared for the possibility of needing to check a video guide for those special areas.)

Sounds like a good plan! I have a list of the red brick locations, so I think I'll start in the Jurassic Park I hub and focus on those map points and bricks, since that zone seems to contain some of the key ones: 2x, 8x, red brick detector, and attract studs.

On 4/4/2023 at 9:00 PM, Chronicler06 said:

As for what to play after Lego Jurassic World, I was going to make two alternative suggestions between Lego Indiana Jones or Lego City Undercover. Lego City Undercover is only a single game as opposed to the two games for Indiana Jones, but it took me almost as long to complete City Undercover as it did to complete both of the Indiana Jones games, and with how you've performed with vehicle games in the past, I will not be surprised if you choose to go with Indiana Jones before City Undercover.

Depending on how long Jurassic World takes, Indy might be a fun choice with the new movie coming out. We'll see how it goes though.

On 4/4/2023 at 9:00 PM, Chronicler06 said:

By the way, I just realized that you normally stream Lego Dimensions on the first Tuesday of each month. I guess I didn't bother reminding you this time due to questions over the streaming quality, but now with that over with, I'd like to remind you that my suggestion for the next Lego Dimensions stream is to open the Wicked Witch fun pack, as Wizard of Oz is now the only Year 1 world you have not yet visited. Since you mentioned you probably won't stream early next month, I guess we'll be waiting until June to see a return to Lego Dimensions.

There's a little more setup and configuration that I have to do before I can do the Xbox and camera setup for Dimensions, which is why I wanted to focus on getting the audio fixed first. By June we should be able to do it though!

On 4/4/2023 at 9:46 PM, confused piraka said:

are you going to stream masks of power?

I don't currently have any plans to, but who knows where the future will take us!

[Chronicler06]

Not bad for the first stream in freeplay mode in Lego Jurassic World. Got the more important red bricks in the Jurassic Park hub world and activated most of the map stones. I did say some items could not yet be collected due to certain dinosaurs needing to be unlocked from replaying the levels, and it seems one of those other red bricks was one of them. As for those two remaining map stones, I really wish I could remember how to get into that inner area. I don't have time tonight to check a video guide so I'll get back to you on that sometime later this week (unless if you decide to check for such a video for yourself in the meantime).

Also, I was wondering why I wasn't hearing any game music, and it was literally right at the very last second of the stream that I suddenly remembered that this was one of the games for which you had the music turned off because, at the time you were going through story mode, your recorded videos of those streams back then would have all audio removed apparently because of certain copyright music playing. I'm pretty sure that's no longer an issue for you these days, so make sure when you start streaming next week to go to the game's options menu and turned the music back on.

Anyway, a good start to freeplay in this game, and I'll look forward to next week's stream.

[Chronicler06]

A rather good stopping point ahead of your two week break, in my opinion. All map points and some red bricks collected from three of the four hub worlds. Not to mention, now that you unlocked the two dinosaurs with unique abilities, you now have access to all the abilities you'll need when you get to freeplay mode on all the levels. There are still some other dinosaur abilities left to unlock, but they're needed only in the hub areas, so it won't matter for the levels. As far as I can tell, pretty much the only thing you'll want before going into the levels would be the minikit detector Red Brick, and its a good thing I showed you how to unlock those two dinos I just mentioned because you'll need one of them to get that red brick. The remaining stud multiplier Red Bricks unfortunately requite the other dino abilities, but I'm sure that even the x2 Studs brick should be enough to make it easier to fill the stud meters in the levels (not to mention, you also got the x8 Studs brick, so hopefully it won't take too long before you're able to purchase it).

Anyway, great progress this week, and I'll look forward to see you resume in three weeks.

[Chronicler06]

I got a little confused for a while by what you were actually trying to accomplish, but in hindsight, it kinda makes sense now. Unlocked a few more dinosaurs to be able to access the rest of the Red Bricks, so hopefully you'll be able to collect those last few Red Bricks next week.

Judging by how you were able to figure things out, it seems you've got access to a guide to inform you where to find all the collectibles, though apparently you might occasionally need reminders on how to utilize certain abilities, so I guess that'll be the advice I'll try to offer in the chat as you progress your way to full game completion. Looking forward to next week's stream.

 

Oh, and one thing I wanted to mention during the stream is that I just started playing through Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga as of last week. I'll let you know when I eventually manage to fully complete that game.

Edited May 10, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

Good progress, this week. All of the red bricks have now been collected and the first level has now been fully completed in free play mode. And as you noticed, collecting all of the minikits in a level will unlock a skeleton version of the dinosaur that you unlock from collecting the amber brick in that same level.

By the way, the stream seemed to lag for a moment at one point. No idea if it was an issue on my end or not, but at least I didn't miss much. I guess another reason I'm glad you're checking a guide yourself is so you don't have to wait on me through whatever delay I might have over the stream.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to next week's stream, as usual.

[Black Six]

43 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

By the way, the stream seemed to lag for a moment at one point. No idea if it was an issue on my end or not, but at least I didn't miss much. I guess another reason I'm glad you're checking a guide yourself is so you don't have to wait on me through whatever delay I might have over the stream.

Interesting. When I went to export the stream to YouTube I noticed it was split into two files. I wonder if that corresponding with the lag or was just another weird thing that happened.

[Chronicler06]

Three levels fully completed, plus two of the bonus levels. Just one more level left to go through in the Jurassic Park area. Due to how late I was getting ready to watch the stream, I didn't have a chance to set things up to allow me to easily check the guide, so once again I'm glad you're checking a guide on your own. (Also, the chat seemed to struggle to connect for a moment, though I doubt it's anything you could have any control over, but I figured you should at least be aware of that brief issue.)

Anyway, thanks for letting us know about next week probably being off. And in case if you're wondering more specifically about my progress through Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, I only just got started on free play galaxy exploration only yesterday, and while I'm playing a few hours a day and a few days a week, I'm cautiously optimistic I'll have the game fully completed by the end of next month. When I do, I'll be sure to mention how much gameplay time it took me compared to other Lego games. (So far from my experience, the record longest Lego game to 100% complete was Marvel Superheroes 2, which took me about one hundred hours. Story mode alone on Skywalker Saga took me over thirty hours, so there's a real possibility this game could likely break that record.)

[Black Six]

5 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

Anyway, thanks for letting us know about next week probably being off. And in case if you're wondering more specifically about my progress through Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, I only just got started on free play galaxy exploration only yesterday, and while I'm playing a few hours a day and a few days a week, I'm cautiously optimistic I'll have the game fully completed by the end of next month. When I do, I'll be sure to mention how much gameplay time it took me compared to other Lego games. (So far from my experience, the record longest Lego game to 100% complete was Marvel Superheroes 2, which took me about one hundred hours. Story mode alone on Skywalker Saga took me over thirty hours, so there's a real possibility this game could likely break that record.)

Wow, that makes me really not look forward to replaying the Marvel games. I guess it's cool there's a lot of content, but that's a LOT of content.

[Chronicler06]

Two more levels fully completed this week. Like I said, I was a little busy with something else today, so I needed a little extra time to get myself set up to check the guides I typically use, and it seems it was worth the effort when you got a little confused in the second area of the first level. Hopefully you won't find yourself struggling quite as much as you proceed through full completion.

That other thing I did today prevented me from playing Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, though I will say that my gameplay time as of yesterday just surpassed what I had for Lego Star Wars Complete Saga (87 hours), and I still have quite a few more worlds left to collect things, not to mention freeplay in the levels as well. But don't get too discouraged, as I tend to take my time on a lot of things, so perhaps you might be able to finish these games quicker than I did. To give you a rough estimate you could figure out, I suggest checking how long it took you in gameplay hours to 100% complete some other Lego games and compare them to my records: Ninjago Movie Videogame (31 hours); Lego Movie 2 Videogame (32 hours); Incredibles (38 hours); Pirates of the Caribbean (51 hours); and Jurassic World (56 hours). (I don't know how long it took me to complete the first Lego Movie Videogame because it was the first Lego game I ever played and I didn't check how long it took me to complete the first time I played it.) Hopefully, that'll give you a better idea of how long it might actually take you to complete the other Lego games, if you're interested in seeing my records of gameplay time for them.

[Chronicler06]

Three more levels fully completed, a total of eleven left to go. And with how quickly the studs will accumulate now that you have three multiplier red bricks active, I'm sure you'll get the other two very soon, and you'll probably get the achievement for collecting 65 million studs before you know it.

If you're curious about how my progress has been through Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, I will say that I'm currently at about 80% game completion. Though it might take a little time since the remaining stuff is a few things spread out over many places (such as the levels in free play mode), I'm now fairly confident that I'll have the game fully completed by the end of this month. I would like to note something special about this particular Lego game is that it pretty much has a complete in-game list of all the various tasks and collectibles there are towards reaching full game completion. Though obviously it won't specify where to find or how to complete the ones you haven't gotten yet, but at least you'll know how many such things there are left to do, which is helpful if you missed something in a particular area. As for my total gameplay time, I have indeed already surpassed my previous record set by Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, so it'll be interesting to see just how many hours it'll ultimately take to complete.

[Black Six]

4 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

If you're curious about how my progress has been through Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, I will say that I'm currently at about 80% game completion. Though it might take a little time since the remaining stuff is a few things spread out over many places (such as the levels in free play mode), I'm now fairly confident that I'll have the game fully completed by the end of this month. I would like to note something special about this particular Lego game is that it pretty much has a complete in-game list of all the various tasks and collectibles there are towards reaching full game completion. Though obviously it won't specify where to find or how to complete the ones you haven't gotten yet, but at least you'll know how many such things there are left to do, which is helpful if you missed something in a particular area. As for my total gameplay time, I have indeed already surpassed my previous record set by Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, so it'll be interesting to see just how many hours it'll ultimately take to complete.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the final hour count! It's crazy to me to think that after Jurassic World, the franchise I'm closest to getting 100% on is actually Star Wars, but I know that number is very deceptive. So Indiana Jones will likely be next!

[Chronicler06]

Three more levels fully completed, all Red Bricks purchased, and you should already have more than enough studs to purchase all of the characters (which should be possible in the hub worlds by just selecting them from the character selection board, as I recall you already did once accidentally in a previous stream). Eight more levels to go, then it's on to finishing the hub areas.

As for my completion of Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga, although it took me 130 hours to complete, I doubt it'll take you quite that long once you eventually play it. While you might take longer than me to figure some things out, I tend to take my time in other ways, such as running all the way to the starship rather than directly accessing the galaxy map in order to travel to other planets. Not to mention, when I completed the story, I let the credits roll just to see how long they lasted... which turned out to be a full hour. Put simply, I was a little too stubborn to be time efficient in places that I'm sure you wouldn't mind going with, so don't feel like I should be your standard of expectations.

One thing about my gameplay time you can compare to is the other Lego games I've played, so at least you can understand why I've recommended certain games before others. I already listed a couple weeks ago the ones you've already completed (or about to complete), so here are the other ones... Lego City Undercover (90 hours) Indiana Jones Original Adventures (40 hours) Indiana Jones 2 Adventures Continue (57 hours) Lord of the Rings (57 hours) The Hobbit (65 hours) Batman 1 (62 hours) Batman 2 (47 hours) Batman 3 (64 hours) DC Super Villains (76 hours) Marvel Superheroes (68 hours) Marvel Avengers (72 hours) Marvel Superheroes 2 (104 hours) Star Wars Complete Saga (87 hours) Star Wars Clone Wars (78 hours) Star Wars Force Awakens (72 hours). With all of these comparisons in mind, perhaps now you see why I recommended your next game should be either the Indiana Jones games or Lego City Undercover.

[Black Six]

Definitely makes sense. I am thinking about at least checking out 2k Drive once we're done with Jurassic World though. We'll see how bad my driving skills really are, lol.

[Chronicler06]

And since you mentioned an interest in Lego Brawls and Lego Bricktales if they were on sale, I decided to check Steam (which you mentioned is where you would buy them from), and it looks like Brawls is currently on sale for half off, but the sale ends literally 24 hours from now, so hopefully I'm not too late in bringing this to your attention. (If I am too late, then maybe you might not have to wait much longer, as I recall in recent years there was a large sale on many games around early July, but I can't really say for sure if that'll happen again this year. If nothing else, the one time I absolutely know there will almost certainly be an excellent sale on virtually anything will be around Christmas, which is when I plan to see about the possibility of getting Lego 2K Drive.)

[Black Six]

8 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

And since you mentioned an interest in Lego Brawls and Lego Bricktales if they were on sale, I decided to check Steam (which you mentioned is where you would buy them from), and it looks like Brawls is currently on sale for half off, but the sale ends literally 24 hours from now, so hopefully I'm not too late in bringing this to your attention.

Thanks for catching that! I had been keeping an eye on Xbox, but it's $20 over there. For $5 it's a no-brainer to pick up.

[Chronicler06]

Alright, three more levels fully completed, so now just the five levels of Jurassic World left to go, along with all the stuff to find and do in the hub worlds. Looks like it won't be long before you reach 100% completion of Lego Jurassic World.

As I mentioned in the chat, I started playing Lego Brawls a few days ago, and after a few hours, I already got 12 of the 18 achievements unlocked. The remaining 6 achievements are for mastering each of the "champion" characters, and since I currently have made a little progress towards getting one of them, I'm sure the same will apply for the rest, so it probably won't be too long before I get all the achievements unlocked. As for the achievements I already got, many of them are very easy, such as making custom characters and participating in brawls, while some others are simple once you've figured out the trick to making progress towards them (such as being top brawler a certain number of times). As for the multiplayer feature, while you'll apparently always play against other players, it's usually completely random who you'll be playing with, but there is a Party Mode where you can invite players you know by sharing with them whatever code you're given, so while the game still plays out the same, at least you'll know with certainly that one of the other players is someone you know.

If you do decide to play Lego Brawls sometime soon, I'll let you try it on your own for a week or two so you can familiarize yourself with how the game works, and after that I would be interested in the possibility using Party Mode to allow us to play together. As for how that could work, I was thinking that I would watch the Twitch stream on a different device while I'm gaming on my computer, then either I would enter the invite code I see on your stream if you host or I would provide the invite code in the chat if I hosted. Not only would that allow the two of us to play the same game, but also allows the possibility someone else watching the stream could also join if they were interested.

Of course, with you now considering moving these streams from Twitch to Discord, I'm not sure how that could work. I like sticking with what I'm familiar with, not to mention I'd hate to think the only reason I even got a Twitch account (so I could use the chat on your streams) could essentially be rendered obsolete. While I do obviously have a Discord account since I always check in on the BZPower section, I honestly have no idea how that would even work. I guess all I can really say on the matter is that I may need more information before I can really think about it.

I'd also like to mention that, depending on how much time I'll have available next week, I'm considering playing Lego Bricktales as well, seeing as it appears to be another relatively quick Lego game.

[Black Six]

So it looks like I most likely will not be streaming next week on July 4th. So we'll play more Jurassic World starting on the 11th!

On 6/27/2023 at 9:00 PM, Chronicler06 said:

If you do decide to play Lego Brawls sometime soon, I'll let you try it on your own for a week or two so you can familiarize yourself with how the game works, and after that I would be interested in the possibility using Party Mode to allow us to play together. As for how that could work, I was thinking that I would watch the Twitch stream on a different device while I'm gaming on my computer, then either I would enter the invite code I see on your stream if you host or I would provide the invite code in the chat if I hosted. Not only would that allow the two of us to play the same game, but also allows the possibility someone else watching the stream could also join if they were interested.

That does seem like it would be fun!

[Chronicler06]

I was just about to post something here when I noticed you left a reply just now.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that it seems my anticipation that Steam would have a huge sale throughout early July has proven correct (so I guess such sales can be expected annually not just in late December but also early July). I don't know how low of a price you're waiting for on Lego Bricktales, but perhaps you might be interested in checking it out for yourself (along with practically every other Lego game available there).

And seeing as next week will have mostly nothing going on for me, I have decided to start playing Lego Bricktales next week. I'll let you know how it went when you stream the following week.

[Chronicler06]

Okay, two more levels fully completed, along with the last remaining bonus levels, so good progress as usual. I honestly don't know why the achievement didn't unlock for collecting the last amber brick. I will say that the weirdest achievement glitch I ever encountered was for 100% completion of Lego Star Wars Force Awakens, where it somehow never activated despite me fully completing the game (not even after spending several more hours completely playing through the whole game a second time), but when I later started up the game on my new computer it did finally activate, so apparently that glitch was due to some unknown issue with my old computer. Not sure if that'll be of any help for your issue, but if nothing else, it's at least an interesting story.

By the way, I'm still not sure about your apparent plan to try streaming on Discord, but I'm now considering a possible way you could try it out to see how it might work. I don't know how much spare time you have available on some other weekday, but I was thinking that since you recently got Lego Brawls, you could try playing that on a Discord stream, while also continuing with your ongoing progress of other Lego games on Twitch on Tuesdays. The reason for this suggestion is because, as you might recall with the Party Mode feature I previously mentioned, I'm curious if streaming on Discord might allow greater visibility for other people who are watching to also join in while playing, which could make it more fun than having just the two of us every week. (I recently found out that the game actually works across all platforms, so it doesn't matter what gaming system everyone uses, as they'll all have the same access to each other.) It's really just a lot of speculative thinking on my part at this time, so I'm curious to hear what you think about such an idea.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Black Six]

2 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

I honestly don't know why the achievement didn't unlock for collecting the last amber brick. I will say that the weirdest achievement glitch I ever encountered was for 100% completion of Lego Star Wars Force Awakens, where it somehow never activated despite me fully completing the game (not even after spending several more hours completely playing through the whole game a second time), but when I later started up the game on my new computer it did finally activate, so apparently that glitch was due to some unknown issue with my old computer. Not sure if that'll be of any help for your issue, but if nothing else, it's at least an interesting story.

Hopefully it does pop before we finish the rest of the game. After I stopped the stream, I quit and relaunched the game, started a level where I could quickly get to the Amber brick spot, grabbed it, and saved and exited with no luck. Maybe next week!

[Chronicler06]

The last levels are now fully completed. All there is left to do is all the other stuff to complete in the hub areas. (I'll explain in next week's stream how to get the achievement using Nedry.)

By the way, did you read my suggestion last week about how you could start playing Lego Brawls? Some of my reasons for the suggestion involves how certain content must be unlocked in the game. First of all, while you might recall from the demo that many things are unlocked simply by selecting a theme and doing well in brawls until those themes are completed, some things are not specific to any themes, and the only way to unlock them is by earning mystery bags from simply completing a certain number of brawls each week (3 for a common one, 5 more for an uncommon one, and 10 more for a rare one). Second, there's also been some seasonal themes that previously were available only during their appropriate times of the year (Halloween in October and Christmas in December), and if my hunch is right that those themes will temporarily return in those months later this year, then I would recommend that you start playing Lego Brawls by no later than September. (As far as my current progress goes with Lego Brawls, I've got only one more theme left to go, but still a lot of weekly mystery bags left to unlock, so it'll still take me a while, not to mention the seasonal themes that are not yet available.)

[Black Six]

I did see you suggestion about Brawls. The big thing would just be finding additional time each week to play it. So if I were to go that route, it would not be a regular thing, or not a scheduled event.

[Chronicler06]

Everything to do and collect in the Jurassic Park hub world is completed, so just the three other worlds left to go until this game is fully completed. I noticed the total game completion is now at around 93%, and while I don't recall where it was after last week, I'm sure much of that recent progress was from simply purchasing all of the characters and vehicles. (I know from recent experience that well over 10% of the total game completion of Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga was just from purchasing all the characters and vehicles that were available for purchase.)

As a reminder (for both you and myself when you resume streaming a few weeks from now) for the achievement of using Nedry to throw a soda can at someone, the level I had suggested where you will be able to attack characters is in the Lost World hub area, where you apparently will be resuming progress next time, so probably worth keeping in mind (and if that option doesn't work, then that just leaves the aimless throwing that at least worked for me). As a possible bonus, perhaps the achievement for collecting minikits that you somehow still lack might activate if you simply complete a level, now that achievements seem to be immediately activating again (though honestly, that's purely speculative thinking on my part, but I guess you won't know for sure until you try it).

Edited July 26, 2023 by Chronicler06

[Chronicler06]

Since you got through all of the Jurassic Park hub world in one stream, I figured you could get both of the smaller hub worlds of Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 done in a similar amount of time. Now all that's left to do is complete the remainder of the Jurassic World hub world. Also, according to the guide I usually check, it seems that there will be one more bonus level that will unlock after you reach 100% completion. You'll find it at the Jurassic Park helipad and it's basically just smash everything to collect a million studs. Hopefully, you'll be able to complete the game soon enough to have a chance to play that last bonus level.

So, which Lego game do you plan on playing next? I remember recommending either the two Indiana Jones games or Lego City Undercover (and Lego Brawls as a possibility as well). I think I recall you also mentioned you recently got Lego 2K Drive, and while I wouldn't mind seeing that game, I think it might be worth noting that game (at least from what I've seen on Steam) has received mixed reviews, with much of the negativity being largely on the "microtransactions". I honestly have no idea how much of an impact that would have on the gaming experience (I'm still waiting for a better sale price before I eventually get that game for myself), but I figured it was at least worth bringing to your attention before you started playing it.

[Black Six]

4 minutes ago, Chronicler06 said:

So, which Lego game do you plan on playing next? I remember recommending either the two Indiana Jones games or Lego City Undercover (and Lego Brawls as a possibility as well). I think I recall you also mentioned you recently got Lego 2K Drive, and while I wouldn't mind seeing that game, I think it might be worth noting that game (at least from what I've seen on Steam) has received mixed reviews, with much of the negativity being largely on the "microtransactions". I honestly have no idea how much of an impact that would have on the gaming experience (I'm still waiting for a better sale price before I eventually get that game for myself), but I figured it was at least worth bringing to your attention before you started playing it.

I think I'm kind of interested in checking out 2K Drive, even if I don't get all the way through, just for something different from the TT Games formula.

[Chronicler06]

Alright, Lego Jurassic World is now fully completed. Quite unfortunate that one of the achievements somehow glitched, but at least you got the 100% game completion achievement to prove that you also got that missing one.

So it seems you'll be playing Lego 2K Drive next. I will say that I currently know almost nothing about that game, as I have not yet purchased it, let alone played it. I suppose the list of achievements might give a hint as to what sort of objectives there will be in that game. Perhaps if I can find some time over the next few days, I might look up some playthrough videos of 2K Drive so that maybe I could learn a few things that I might then be able to advise you on when you start playing.

Also, seeing as you'll now be starting a new game, I'm curious about what you have in mind regarding Lego Brawls. I know you said last month that what I had suggested might not be probable, and I would be okay with that. I am still hopeful for the possibility of playing that game along with you, even if it means sticking with the regular Twitch stream on Tuesdays.

[Chronicler06]

That sure was nice to watch. For someone who claims to be terrible at driving and racing games, you managed to do quite well in your first session. You managed to win four races already (and with only two failed attempts). If I remember correctly, that brings you halfway to reaching the first of three championship races, though I'm sure some of the upcoming required quests might take up some time to complete, so probably don't expect to reach that Big Butte Championship race as early as next week.

From what I've seen today (both your stream and the playthrough video I had started watching earlier this afternoon), I'm now convinced that I will enjoy playing this game. All there is left for me to do now is wait for a better price during a sale (as I'm sure I've said numerous times already).

And unlike that playthrough video, you also showed a few other interesting aspects of the game, especially how purchasing stuff is done in this game. Since I prefer to focus on completing the story and unlocking all the achievements, it's good to see that I won't have to concern myself with any microtransactions. It just means I'll need to naturally get better as I progress through the game, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

Looking forward to seeing you continue with the story mode of 2K Drive.

[Black Six]

On 8/22/2023 at 8:40 PM, Chronicler06 said:

Also, seeing as you'll now be starting a new game, I'm curious about what you have in mind regarding Lego Brawls. I know you said last month that what I had suggested might not be probable, and I would be okay with that. I am still hopeful for the possibility of playing that game along with you, even if it means sticking with the regular Twitch stream on Tuesdays.

I definitely need to give it more thought than I have. There's a bunch of other LEGO things on my plate that are taking up more of that part of my brain. So once things calm down a bit I'll be able to think more about Brawls.

On 8/29/2023 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

That sure was nice to watch. For someone who claims to be terrible at driving and racing games, you managed to do quite well in your first session. You managed to win four races already (and with only two failed attempts). If I remember correctly, that brings you halfway to reaching the first of three championship races, though I'm sure some of the upcoming required quests might take up some time to complete, so probably don't expect to reach that Big Butte Championship race as early as next week.

I was very surprised at how well I did. I don't even remember setting the difficulty to super-easy anywhere.

On 8/29/2023 at 8:55 PM, Chronicler06 said:

And unlike that playthrough video, you also showed a few other interesting aspects of the game, especially how purchasing stuff is done in this game. Since I prefer to focus on completing the story and unlocking all the achievements, it's good to see that I won't have to concern myself with any microtransactions. It just means I'll need to naturally get better as I progress through the game, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

Yeah, those microtransactions seem super-icky, and with relatively little advantage. I would like to learn a bit about building your own car, to see if there's a way I can make things easier on myself with something that excels in a bunch of areas.

[Chronicler06]

I didn't get much of an opportunity this past week to further watch any playthrough videos of Lego 2K Drive, so I wasn't sure if I had previously seen enough to be of further help this week. Well, I guess it turned out it wasn't something for me to be too concerned about. Struggles aside, good to see the stream end with at least a success. With just two races left to go (plus a story-required quest between those two races), you might possibly make it to the first of the three arena races next time. Oh, and one bit of advice I wanted to mention in the chat, you can't pick up any additional powerups if you already have one, so consider using the powerup you're holding (even if it ends up as a pointless throwaway) before you grab the next one you see ahead of you. You never know when you might get something much better...

And regarding Lego Brawls, perhaps it might be for the best that you're not in any particular hurry to get started with it. Apparently there's some special event going on this month where every week they have a special (map? battle zone? I don't know for sure what they're called...) that involves two different themes going against each other. I've played the first one earlier this week, and it took me a little while to figure out how to do well on it, so I believe it might not be a good time to start playing this game for the first time while this special event is ongoing.

[Chronicler06]

Good to see you've completed the first of the three Grand Brick Arena races, and have gotten the first two checkered flags towards reaching the next one. And also good to see you got that weed cutting vehicle (and I'm sure there's an achievement for mowing down all of the weed patches across all of the maps). And since I already mentioned in the chat what there is to do next, I don't have much else to say here.

(I haven't had a chance to watch further through any playthrough videos beyond the very next race I had recommended, so I'd better set aside some time later this week so I can find out what new races will await in Prospecto Valley and how you'll eventually access that third "new area".)

[Black Six]

I found a couple guides for some of the weeds, so maybe next week I'll do a little lawn mowing in between races and challenges:

https://itemlevel.net/lego-2k-drive-all-20-weed-locations-in-prospecto-valley/

https://itemlevel.net/lego-2k-drive-all-20-week-location-in-big-butte-county/

[Chronicler06]

Good progress this week. All currently available races completed in both Big Butte County and Prospecto Valley. Just need to complete that special quest, which I had recommended saving for last because upon completing that quest the third region will become unlocked. Once you get there, you'll have to win three races (and thankfully no additional quests needed to access any of them). After that, you can then return to Prospecto Valley for the second Grand Brick Arena race. And that's pretty much it, as far as I'm currently aware. (Still getting through watching playthrough videos just enough to stay a step or two ahead...)

[Chronicler06]

Excellent progress made in this week's stream. Completed that quest (took a little extra effort), gained access to the third area of Hauntsborough, completed all three races there in only one try, then completed the Prospecto Valley Grand Brick Arena (albeit after quite a few tries).

As for how to reach Rank 20 and thus reach Class A to access the next part of the story, I honestly don't have any particular suggestions on how to accomplish that. In the playthrough videos I watched, pretty much all they did was just randomly wander around and do whatever things they came across until they eventually hit the required rank. Personally, if I was playing this game from this point of progress, I would just wander around the map to reveal any events, quests, or garages since you get a little experience from simply discovering them (much like you get from speaking with your rivals before racing them), though I'm sure you get the most experience from actually completing events and quests, so I'll leave the choice up to you since you're the one playing.

And now for me to resume watching that playthough video to see what kind of races will await you after you reach Class A and win against Clutch Racington for the third time...

[Chronicler06]

Well, if nothing else, at least now we know how much experience can be gained from completing each type of tasks there are to complete. And as I said in the chat, there's probably quite a bit more quests and events you have yet to discover that do not yet appear on your map (not to mention, you do get a small amount of experience from simply discovering any events, quests, and garages you might come across while exploring). I will say that I was not expecting how little progress you would actually make by the end of the stream. The playthough video I had watched didn't seem to do any skipping and it didn't take them more than a few minutes to reach Rank 20, but they also didn't hesitate to quickly complete any events along the way to all of the previous races, so I guess they already had much more of a head start by the time they had completed the Prospecto Valley Grand Brick Arena. Well, good luck in searching for any map guides to help you with finding more quests and events, because I have not yet seen any such guides on the site I typically check.

As for what awaits after you finally do reach Rank 20, first will obviously be the third race against Clutch Racington in Turbo Acres, then you'll need to collect seven more checkered flags to reach the Hauntsborough Grand Brick Arena. There will be one new race in Big Butte County and two new races in Prospecto Valley, all three of which will be immediately available. I have not yet watched much further in any of the playthough videos, but it seems you can expect at least some of the remaining four races in Hauntsborough will likely not be available until certain quests are completed (possibly a third going of the types you had already done in the other two areas, which would mean rescuing civilians from robots, stopping robots from destroying the scientist's generators, and something to unlock jetpacks for that area).

(By the way, regarding Lego Brawls, I can now confirm that the special Halloween content is indeed available to unlock only during the month of October, and since it seems unlikely you would be ready to start playing that game before the end of this month, I suppose you can at least be assured you'll get another opportunity for it next year.)

[Black Six]

I'm not sure if these maps include everything, but I will plan to check them out when we stream next.

[Chronicler06]

Not much new to say, since you're still working your way toward Rank 20. One minor complaint I have would be to perhaps not be so quick to check the map immediately after you complete a race or quest, just so you can actually see how much progress you made with experience earned to improve your rank. I can't help but be concerned you might fail to notice if you've improved a rank just because you couldn't bother to wait just a couple seconds.

Seeing as you apparently get the most experience from rerunning races in Class B, I would actually recommend that you should return to Big Butte County, where most of the races you did there had been in Class C, so even though you've already explored that area a lot, it's possible just two or three of those higher class rerun races might be enough to finally get you to Rank 20 and thus reach Class A to finally resume the story.