Midlife Gamer » Anthony Bate

Antman Rages: Episode 13

Anthony Bate — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:30:52 +0000

Wooooooh, episode 13, Halloween special time. For this special show I will attempt to undertake near-impossible puzzles while dying a lot and swearing. Scary stuff indeed. Even though the going is tough I’m still making good progress, with one satellite down and the other two mere formalities (I’m sure) we should be seeing the next boss this side of Christmas.

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language and disappearing blocks.

Antman Rages: Episode 12

Anthony Bate — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:00:48 +0000

It seems my days of riding bullets through electricity are over, for now. I’m hitting the big city with all it’s skyscrapers and a nightclub. I’m sure this will factor in to the story at some point but today I’ve been given a new task: destroy three satellites on the skyscraper roofs. Easy right?

Note: Parental advisory. explicit language and tall buildings.

Antman Rages: Episode 11

Anthony Bate — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:00:35 +0000

It happened again, I got sent back to the flower boss. I nailed that sicker on the 6th attempt. That bullet staircase BS? 2nd attempt. Part of me wants to run all the way through this game from the start, wallowing in my crapulence (it is a word). Anyhow we see a new mechanic today: buttons that can be activated by hitting them or shooting them. As always this mechanic is instantly capitalised on in ingenious ways, I do love this game sometimes. I’m making some good progress, normally getting 2 or 3 screens every episode. Enjoy.

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language and riding of bullets.

Antman Rages: Episode 10

Anthony Bate — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:30:28 +0000

Right let’s try and get this list right. I apologise to all single mothers, people from Essex, Michael Barrymore, people with Tourette’s, people who go shopping in Tesco during the day, people who go to crap nightclubs on Friday nights and TV producers. It was quite an episode last night, the mellow and fruity red wine was flowing and I finally cracked that damn flower boss. Ironically though, due to me not saving in my drunken state I had to kill that boss again today before recording, did it on 4th try. That is the thing with this game, by the time you complete a screen you’ve learned the technique to complete it any number of times.

Back to puzzling screens though, it’ll be a long road to the next boss…

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language and remorse over yesterday’s behaviour.

Antman Rages: Episode 9

Anthony Bate — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:29 +0000

I have returned! For those just watching on Midlife Gamer there hasn’t been a missed day since the start. For those eager beavers following me on YouTube I’ve been inactive for two days. I really needed the break, all will to play this cocking game was sapped out of my soul. Alas it is Friday night, the missus us out, I have red wine and no work tomorrow, let’s go. I’ve had the most fin today since episode 7, but for completely different reasons. Ep7 was a puzzle-solving masterpiece, however, today you will see something quite different. Stick this one out with me, persistence will always pay off in the end.

Note: Parental advisory, excessive language and talk of 90′s trance groups.

Antman Rages: Episode 8

Anthony Bate — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:00:30 +0000

Apologies for the blank segment in yesterday’s episode, you see, Sony Vegas 11 really isn’t as stable as Vegas 10. I record the game footage with trusty Fraps and insert the 4 minute segments into Vegas. From there I sync that up with my local voice recording and then I have to render. Rendering is taking all the various segments and other pieces and crunching it down into a package: the final movie file which I then upload to Youtube. Typically rendering a 30 minute video @480p will take about 30 minutes. Ironically it is faster to render a 720p video than 480p, probably due to Vegas 11 having CUDA support: the ability to let my graphics card do the work instead of my CPU, a much faster process and easily largest advantage over Vegas 10.

But there are bugs. Sometimes Vegas will randomly not see a segment of the video, rendering a blank screen for that 4 minute piece. Other times it will not complete the render, leaving the full size .temp file and no video, forcing me to entirely render again. It is like having the hottest girlfriend who will do anything you want on the one condition that she can kick you square in the happy-sack once a day. Is it worth it? Probably, but swwet baby Jebus it is annoying.

So to today’s episode. I’ve previewed the finished product and all seems present and correct, it is the content however that concerns me. After the good times of platforming Nirvana I’ve come up against the next boss, and he is a Grade A shithead. I even tried to push through in the hopes of Lady Luck coming to my aid. However I fear that luck is the last thing you want in a game like this. Enjoy.

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language and battles of attrition.

Antman Rages: Episode 7

Anthony Bate — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:00:13 +0000

Good episode today. Good for me anyhow as some deductive thinking and problem solving yields results in a game normally satisfied with kicking you in the groin. I believe the F count is well under 200, if I carry on this way I may even get that explicit tag removed!

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language and problem solving on a grand scale.

Antman Rages: Episode 6

Anthony Bate — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:39 +0000

This game is getting to me. When I was walking the dog yesterday I tried to double-jump up the kerb. Thankfully the controller messed up and I just stepped up it as normal. At work I’ve been feeling better, less moody. I’ve two possible theories why this has occured:

1. Having a relatively quiet space to legitimately vent my excess aggression against the game relieves overall stress levels.

2. No matter how hard it gets at work, I know it could be so much worse in the land of The Guy.

However well I feel at other times though, I feel like a rat bastard while I’m playing this infernal game. I mean, who makes a game like this?!

Note: Parental advisory, explicit language, graphic themes and talk of the neighbours.

Antman Rages: Episode 5

Anthony Bate — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:00:47 +0000

I used to think counting to five was easy. Well it is easy, until you bang your bastard head against a solid wall for 30 minutes. I used to do all sorts of things, laugh, smile and occasionally whistle. The only sound coming from me now is the hissing between my teeth. You know the story, same old same old.

Note: Parental advisory, filthy language and themes not suitable for the mentally challenged.

Antman Rages: Episode 4

Anthony Bate — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:30:15 +0000

Today wasn’t a good day, the highlight had to be finding a dead mouse in the bowels of a dishwasher, only to have to repair all the wires he’d chewed through before biting a live one. Mr. Jinx sure did ride the lightning, I had to crack his solid cadaver off the casing with a screwdriver. Naturally my epic day put in a fantastic frame of mind for recording, the more astute of you may notice. Combine that with the awful screen I encounter today, I nearly lost it a few times there but my composure and editing skills kept it together.

Note: Parental advisory, terrible language and visual themes.