A Eulogy for Winamp

On the 21st of November 2013 it was announced that the long-running media player Winamp will be ceasing all updates and be closing down. And so, on December 20th 2013, updates to Winamp will cease and the program itself will no longer be available for download.

The message posted on the winamp website reads as follows; “Winamp.com and associated web services will no longer be available past December 20, 2013….Additionally, Winamp Media players will no longer be available for download. Please download the latest version before that date. See release notes for latest improvements to this last release. Thanks for supporting the Winamp community for over 15 years."

The news that Winamp will cease makes the end of an era. Winamp was unleashed on an unsuspecting world in 1997, when the rest of world was becoming aware of something called mp3s. It’s timing couldn’t be more perfect and, buoyed by a growing interest in mp3s, Winamp  quickly became the most widely used media player around. The reasons for this announcement are unclear but it is believed that due to a lack of activity on Winamp’s part. It should be noted that Winamp was bought out by AOL and nothing of note has happened since – Indeed, many former workers on Winamp have described working with AOL as a disappointing experience. Sure there was the release of an Android device but that release was more a case of too little too late.

I myself was an avid user of Winamp and got a lot of use out of it. I remember when it was around during the afore-mentioned mp3 revolution and have used it many times in the decade that followed. And I never stopped using it: Whenever I got a new computer Winamp was the first thing I installed on it. I used Winamp so much that other media players, like ITunes and VLC player, came across as meaningless to me and inefficient to my needs.

Until the announcement I was unaware of the problems that Winamp had been facing in recent years. So it came as a shock – and I’m not alone. Many people have expressed dismay at this announcement - and it is indeed a surprise to find that so many other people had been using Winamp for the longest time. Indeed, if so many people have been using the same program for a decade and a half, then it says an enormous amount for the efficiency for the program itself and its success.

Personally, I still see Winamp as the best player for my music, and nothing I’ve seen can surpass it. And just because updates will cease is no reason to stop using it – I have the executable file of the latest version and I’ll be hanging onto it for a long time yet. And I can imagine many other people will be going to the Winamp homepage and find the latest version while they still can.

Why? Because Winamp is an excellent program and seeing it go is truly a terrible loss. So I ask you, the reader, to raise a toast to Winamp and fifteen years of magic.

Shadow of the Colossus

Because WoW graphical glitches never stop being funny, may I present the insides of a colossus (for those who always wanted to know):

Padding out

Recently I obtained new device for my computer: A Gamepad.

Previously I've never seen the point of gamepads. I'd always thought they were the exclusive of the consoles. Maybe it's me growing up through the nineties but I always saw the consoles as the exclusive of action and sport games whilst PCs the place to go for adventure games, flight simulators and strategy games. And when these two exclusives try to mix, the end results tend to look fake and ill-conceived.

But I do indeed have some games which aren't available anywhere else, mostly off Steam, so there is some use for my Gamepad. And I would be interested to see if Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republic would work with the Gamepad as it's what I used when I originally played them. Plus the Gamepad may also save my keyboard from a pounding (or significantly less of a pounding).

Mind you, as those who've been following my Ratpr profile would know, I haven't been giving my consoles much attention: These past few months have seen me use my PC exclusively. And purchasing a Gamepad, once a major difference between a console and a PC, one can't help but think that a major link between me and console has been severed. Coupled with my current lack of interest in the eighth console generation, one think my days as a console gamer are numbered...

Forgetting something?

Not much to say today but I will share my latest article for Muse Culture:

An announcement for The Forgetten Empires expansion for Age of Empires 2 being available on Steam

Queen's Landing

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of striking another game from my Hall of Shame. Goodbye Flight of the Amazon Queen!

Now this game is indeed an oddity: I remember it when it was originally released and it seemed like someone was trying to take on the LucasArts brand at their own thing (nothing new in the earlier to mid-nineties). It is only years later that I found out the people behind this game were actually two blokes from Brisbane Australia - and Flight of the Amazon Queen is now distributed on the Internet as freeware. Good excuse as any to check it out right?

Well having played a lot of Lucasarts adventures this year it isn't hard to see that this game is trying to replicate what made the LucasArts successful. True imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but you can only take that so far: So does Flight of the Amazon Queen has something of its own to say?
Well I will be honest: there were some slow moments thta put me to sleep but there are certainly some funny moments: I particularly enjoyed the interactions with the gorilla and the conversation with the puppet man. Also pleasing is Joe speech being delivered in a Brooklyn accent which certainly adds considerably to the bizarre situations within the game.
Comparisons to Indian Jones are inevitable but ultimately both are drawing from the same material: Pulp fiction from the 1950's - the difference is that Flight of the Amazon Queen is more willing to embrace the absurdity of such situations. And therein lies a counterpoint to Indaina Jones. Indiana Jones got absurd with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and thus came across as the bigger joke.
Furthermore, Flight of the Amazon Queen got in first with the Crystal Skull shtick.

Ultimately, I don't feel Flight of the Amazon Queen has enough bite to surpass the brilliance of the LucasArts games but I do admire it's spirit: It's the product of two guys built on a 'I can do that too' attitude. And for that reason Flight of the Amazon Queen can stand proudly on it's own two feet.

Musings from Azeroth

Not much to say today but I will share my latest article for Muse Culture:
An announcement of the new World of Warcraft expansion Warlord of Draenor

Jaded

Being a loyal devotee of GoG I naturally took advantage of their recent Fall Autumn sale. I didn't buy much as I've more or less got all the games I wnat from GoG but what i did buy was something previously encountered, Blood, and a familiar face, Jade Empire.
Why bother buying Jade Empire a second time? Well, it was cheap (about a handful of dollars) and it was special edition.
However this purchase could well be the final nail in the coffin of  my love affair with Xbox. The Xbone has yet to prove anything else beyond a whole lot of disappointments, several games I've obtained for my 360 have recently turned up on my PC and I'm being fed up with going through the same old security BS when I try to access my 360 (I tell you being asked the same security measures over and over again is enough to turn anyone away).
So the 360 is currently gathering dust - alongside my PS2 and my Wii. Oh sure there are still some games I would gladly play but as a major concern? The Xbox 360's time has indeed passed.

In fact. the way I'm seeing it, the eighth console generation is looking kinda dull at the moment. Needless to say, my attention/devotion is up for grabs and Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony had better pull out something major to ensnare it....

Dragon Age Fail

Unfortunately my attempts to upgrade my Dragon Age games has come out rather badly.

You see I'd thought I'd be clever and buy the physical editions of DAO and DA2, thus bypassing EA and their Origin service. I mean I could've bought DAO on Steam but, as is my understanding, Steam isn't exactly friendly to mods.
So much for that move: DA2 worked fine in installation but I couldn't access the DLC - and the only way to do that of course is using a downloaded edition from Origin. And the DAO installer wouldn't heed the code I typed in - but it did recognise the code IF I'd be so kind and download it from Origin.

There is no words on earth that can describe this situation - although FAIL may be a good place to start. I'd heard bad things said about Origin and now it would seem they weren't kidding...

(please roll on GoG, you DRM-free wonder! All is forgiven!)

Good Warlord!

Is it time for a new expansion to World of Warcraft? Blizzard seems to think so:

Original video located here. Accessed 11th November 2013

Hrmmm, I'm not sure about this one. Whilst is nice to see new additions to be made to WoW there is a sense that Blizzard may be worried their previously-untouchable crown has a good chance of being usurped - and as a result one can't shake the notion that new additions may end up cluttering the game. The presence of Keeps suggest the game is an interesting throwback to the series' RTS roots but it's unclear what practical purpose it offers. Instant leveling to 90 is enough to raise eyebrows but what I want to know is does profession leveling come with it?

But it is the setting that seems of greater interest: it seems to be taking at a time-traveling bent as players get to travel to Draenor - which was the previous name of Outlands - and meet historical figures. Okay a) what, people actually play WoW for the background? (actually they do and I know one such player) and b) so there's nowhere left for the people of Azeroth so we're resorting to time-travel? How much are Blizzard paying their writing staff? Or this the setup for an eternal loop/predestination paradox?
 
Of course, it's all too early to tell how this new expansion will look and, at this stage, the new features are relying on speculation. I've always maintained that the game becomes less interesting the further one gets from level 1-60 so I don't have high hopes. Still you never know...

Stan the Man

This week I’ve been playing a lot of The Stanley Parable.

Like everyone else I came to this game through the some rather abstract descriptions of the game itself (that and everyone gushing about it). It seemed that everyone was recommending it but giving little to no explanation why. Well that’s enough to pique my curiosity so I picked up the game via Steam.

And I really enjoyed it.

Of course I’m going to keep up the trend via not going to give anything on this blog because doing so will most likely get me shouted down as ‘benefits of finding things out for yourself’ is the current trend on the Internet (I guess we can all blame Game of Thrones for that). But what I will say is that I think I enjoyed The Stanley Parable more than I enjoyed Portal.

I guess most of it can be attributed to my enjoyment of Portal being tainted with the ‘Cake is a Lie’ and ‘Still Alive’ jokes being run into the ground. This is not the case here: The rigidly little that has been revealed about The Stanley Parable beforehand has left me completely in the dark here and it’s worked wonders here. Thus there isn’t much more I can add here apart from giving credit to the narrator Kevan Brighting who really makes the game and delivers a VA performance to end all VA performances. In fact given a choice I would rather listen to the Narrator than GlaDOS (SHODAN was better anyway)

So in the end what The Stanley Parable proves is that there is indeed some value in allowing people to discover things for themselves. In fact I'm not sure how this game got greenlit by Steam but I'm certianly it did. I just hope nobody looks at The Stanley Parable the same way they did with the Companion Cube and sees a whole lot of marketing potential.....

Forever Blue

I recently learned that Lunar: the Silver Star has been converted to the IOS.

Those who know what I’ve previously said about Lunar would know of my eagerness to play it but being unable to due to a number of frustrating factors. I myself have no interest in IOS so would this be the great epiphany that makes me consider otherwise? I don’t know: Yes it would be nice to finally play, and complete, the damn game but on a small device? Would that hinder my enjoyment of the gorgeous 16bit sprites? How would I appreciate such a lovely soundtrack? And where is Eternal Blue?

Back in Dragon

Well I did it: I bit the bullet and picked up Dragon Age 2 for the PC - not just because I want to play it but because of the modding opportunities that presented themselves.

So far I'm actually impressed: The mods I've installed have yielded a far better game than the one I'd grown accustomed to on the Xbox 360. The graphics are better, the character clothes are diverse and the controls are much more accessible. Of course, it is unclear which has been added through mods and which is included with the PC version but there is enough here to maintain my interest.

Could this be enough to make a 'decent' game rise up from the rank from 'kinda crummy'? Well, there's only one way to find out....

One Tribe to Rule Them All

Recently I revisited an old classic: Civilization 2! Yep, I played this a lot back in the day and I managed to get it working for my present-day PC! Okay, so I can’t spare the money for Civ 4 (the best in the series as is my understanding) but I’m content to blow dust off a classic and fire it up again (for now).

I played the Civ games a lot during my high school years: The first game was great and a lot of fun. And then came Civ 2 – and at the time it was recognized as something of a revelation. It had all the trappings of Civ but it was in isometric 3d! It expanded the game features dramatically! It even incorporated FMV and photo-realistic images! (or whatever you call it) Indeed, Civ 2 was highly regarded and suddenly became the game that everyone owned, everyone played and everyone loved. I didn’t bother with the Civ series afterward Civ 2 because a) I didn’t like Test of Time and b) as far as I was concerned, improving Civ 1 was a tall order but improving Civ 2 was looking more or less impossible (of course I could be wrong…).

Anywho I managed to get Civ 2 working through finding a fan-made patch. And it’s great to play Civ 2 again – after all, I’ve sunk several hours into this game already which should provide a testament to it’s addictive nature (World of Warcraft can go sit in the corner). Yet the patch has a drawback – it inspires the AI to be more hostile to me the human player. This does create problems that are funny when one thinks about it: The opposing civilizations break peace treaties and declare war at a drop of a hat and then afterwards they treat me like it was all my fault. And my Freight don’t have an easy time as they have to evade the enemy forces and any successful trade route established is usually an excuse for the opposition to declare war. And why is it that I get a reputation whilst the opposition doesn’t? Why are they allowed to get away with being aggressors when I can’t?

And now that I think of it, I wonder if this problem is resolved in the more recent Civ games – Do the other Civ games, Civ 3-5, have reputations akin to the player? Can anyone confirm this? If so, I think I may scrape the cash together for one of the more recent Civ games…