I haven’t been playing almost anything – just a bit of WoW here and there. More and more of my friends are piling up, now playing together again – that’s nice – that keeps me going.

I do know that most of us who play would rather play something else, but that something else is not out yet. Diablo 3 seems to be a game all the people in my circle of co-workers and friends want to play, and for the first time after so long, I’msurrounded by people wanting to play the same game (after Counter-Strike a long time ago). Now, I’m not sure how it will actually turn out come the release of the game, but what I do know is that I’m going to play it.

So keep that in mind, and next time I’ll hopefully have something more interesting to tell.

Back then I was also younger, but some games keep being fresh no matter when you play them. Any Mario game you might play now is instantly recognizable and perfectly playable, you get into a game like Warcraft 3 and send troops into battle like it’s second nature, you turn on Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and know that harpies are some of the most annoying troops ever. To link this article to one I wrote a while ago – even turning on Doom, though nauseating, I get reminded of all the cheatcodes I used to spam back then.

Then I get back in present time and play a game like Space Marine – refreshingly familiar and fun, but it does seem like it’s missing something. Even if it’s mostly a complete game, it seems to be missing some of the elements you would find in the classic games we know and love. Humor tends to be rarefied and confined to the Orks – which quickly dry out. Easter Eggs, while present, seem to be extremely few and far in-between, not giving the game much personality beyond the great deal you get from the inherent universe. The game is repetitive.

I’m not saying that these elements would not appear in the games of old, but nostalgia seems to blur those things out. You think of Alien Breed as the game in which you upgraded your weapons with money, you run out of keys and you run like hell once you blow up the reactor – there is no urgency in Space Marine, even an artificial urgency sparked by a timer and a red overlay as an annoying alarm blares in your ears.

But then you look at Alien Breed closer: the concept of the game is similar to that of Space Marine – repetitive enemies that have different functions depending on how they look, going from point A to point B, though in a less linear style, then going from point B to point A again.

One of these games is instantly classic, and I don’t know why Space Marine falls behind in that regard. I would say that the combat in Space Marine is leaps and bounds above Alien Breed from the satisfaction standpoint. And yet we lose interest.

Nostalgia takes us back and provides a nice platform from which to be launched for budding game designers. Once we get back in game, though, we play for a bit and move on, in some cases actually spoiling the nostalgic experience entirely.

The question I can’t get myself to answer, though, is if this nostalgia I talk about is actually good. The thing about this feeling you get when reminiscing playing the games way back when is more subjective than anything, and basing your game on it runs the risk of destroying the game by ruining the nostalgia in the player – or make him relive it more intense than before.

Risk – reward is another classic gaming concept, mind you.

Reason for that is that you will wake up in the second day, probably in the afternoon or evening, losing half a day or more with an annoying hungover, probable headache and incredible back and neck muscle pains that would make you act like a 100 year-old grandpa.

So drink and headbang responsibly.

I had thought that putting some thermo-conductive paste on the processor would solve the problem. I was right about that, but I forgot about one thing – when I opened up the laptop case for the second time, I saw a concealed screw in the back of the case – in my unscrew frenzy I loosened it in mild annoyance because it felt a bit hard to get to. Turns out that the screw was one of the four that kept the cooler gripped tightly and snugly against the processor. Hence, the thing was now sort of loose, not making much contact.

Because of the lack of contact, doing anything that would increase the load on the processor even a little bit would heat the processor up to OMG TURN OFF level, not being able to dissipate the heat (because air tends to not be much of a heat conductor compared to silver or copper or whatever that metal the cooler is made of).

Regardless, I apply the paste to both the CPU and GPU, screw the cooler construct on tight and snug, put the laptop back together again.

Then I pick the owner up because she was done with college for the day – during that time it dawns on me – I forgot the power for the CPU fan again. Woo, disassemble once more, this time with the girl looking intently at what I was doing.

After another reassembly process I turn the laptop on – popopopopopopopopopopop go the speakers. Continually – they kept popping until out of sheer annoyance I turn the entire laptop off.

I open the whole thing up again. Again – this was the fourth time I would disassemble the damned laptop. This was fine though – I had to fix a misplaced screw anyway (put a long one instead of a short one and it blocked the battery). I took out the speakers, but I could not see what was wrong with them. I was ready to just leave them unplugged so they just wouldn’t work altogether when I did another test – no monitor plugged in, nothing but the bare necessities – and it stopped popping. Apparently the connector band of the power button and speakers wasn’t plugged in properly.

Laptops are an odd bunch – I’ve been intimidated by them whenever I had to open one up – too many screws, too many small and miniaturized parts. Eventually you get to associate each part to the PC counterpart and you will notice that it’s pretty much the same thing, but smaller. What is most annoying, though, is having to disassemble the entire damned thing to get to most of the internal parts. Sounds like an euphemism for dating, really. Or butchering, for that matter.

Still, the laptop now works flawlessly, its owner seems to be happy with it, so I’m happy too. And somehow I feel a tinge of pride, because hey, how many others can say that they have fixed a laptop by sticking its motherboard in the oven for 10 minutes (and disassembling and assembling it 5 times because I keep forgetting things)?

But here I’ll have to ask – why is it that people do good? There are profiler shows on the Discovery Channel that analyze the motives of killers and ner-do-wells or whatever, but why never of the goody-two-shoes? It doesn’t make any sense – they’re the ones that are desirable in society, aren’t they? Society is a cruel, pessimistic bitch, but that’s why we have police instead of entertainers on every corner of every street.

Anyways, here’s my take on it. The take of a professional not-psychologist, student in History and IT technician – many people do good because it makes them feel good. I know that’s why I do it – it’s probably not a very isolated incident. I don’t know the biological implications of it, but being thanked for doing something good or simply the realization of knowing that you have changed the world for the better, no matter how minute that change may be, secretes some sort of hormone/drug/substance/thing that titillate our feel-good nerve centers as much as any other addictive activity would.

Again, don’t take my word for it, but logically, that’s why I think people are good. There is always an ulterior motive. Even if people are friends with the person they are helping, it’s still there – the motive might be simply the fact that they are friends.

It’s not conscious either – you might not think you have a motive for doing something good, but subconsciously you could. Now then, I’m not saying that you, thinking you are good, are actually wrong. I don’t think it’s wrong, I don’t think it’s necessarily evil too – I just think that trying to deny that you have an ulterior motive when you know you do is utterly fake. Religion might dictate that doing good has no ulterior motive – but that’s a blatant lie: do good in life, so you may go in heaven in the afterlife. The good Samaritan doesn’t seem so high and holy now, does he?

In addition, focusing on the fact that the person helping you might have an ulterior motive is just as stupid – focus on working together – it might lead you to other things.Friendship is giving and receiving. The concept is abstract though – you can give and receive everything and anything. On the other hand, when this rapport is lopsided, things might just blow apart.

Ok, I’ve rambled a bit now – t0 make it short: good guys are addicted to doing good, there is always an ulterior motive, friendship is the same as being good but in a two-person rapport.

That I account to my great laziness, but normal posts will come back starting tomorrow, because I have quite a few things to say. Until then, watch this:

I was first opened to the songs of WOODKID (aka Yoann Lemoine) when I have listened to it on Assassin’s Creed Revelations first trailer (here). It instantly stuck – it doesn’t have that easily understandable lyrics, but it just sounds amazing. Not only that, but the artist’s past as a film director shows up clearly in his self-produced music video, filled with obscure symbolism I didn’t actually care enough about to do research into! (my bad)

Ubisoft didn’t do a bad job either – the trailer they have put together looks downright amazing, shows a lot about why Ezio is who he is, and integrates the song pretty much perfectly. Occasionally you reach a point in a movie or video in which you just wonder if the film was made for the song or backwards – this is one of those moments.

You ought to listen to the other songs in Woodkid’s album too – they’re quite good.

Yesterday this man has died. It might be a resounding name or not – he’s been the CEO of Apple and founder of Pixar.

I’ve never actually had a clear link to him, not even through his work. The only things I use that his company made are Quicktime and iTunes for listening to the occasional podcast. The costs of Apple products is prohibitive, especially so here.

Even so, as an outside observer, so to speak, I’ve seen Jobs as the man of modern ideas with the capital for putting them into practice. He didn’t make flying cars, but he brought the world at our fingertips, and for that he deserves respect.

Rest in peace, Steve.

I don’t usually cook. I do love the feeling you get when you make a nice meal you would share with someone else though.

This is not one such story, but something else entirely, simply tied to the fact that someone has to be happy after this.

I work as an IT Technician, hence, I’m the computer guy. A friend had a problem with her laptop. The monitor wouldn’t turn on, so she gave me the laptop to try and fix it. The symptoms weren’t exactly uplifting. The laptop would turn on, stay on, but the screen wouldn’t turn on at all. The VGA slot had no signal either. Clear sign of video card problems, I thought.

I was right – searching for the same problem on google turned up with a lot of results that were pretty much identical – laptop turns on, screen does not. The problem apparently stemmed from the solder of the NVidia GPU, basically getting damaged through wear and tear, heat and cold so much that its connection to the motherboard got loose. The professional solution would either be to replace the motherboard, or “reflow” the chip using specialized equipment.

Reflow soldering is a process in which a solder paste (a sticky mixture of powdered solder and flux) is used to temporarily attach one or several electrical components to their contact pads, after which the entire assembly is subjected to controlled heat, which melts the solder, permanently connecting the joint. Heating may be accomplished by passing the assembly through a reflow oven or under an infrared lamp or by soldering individual joints with a hot air pencil.

Now then, upon watching a How It’s Made episode on integrated circuits, reading wikipedia and watching a few people perform this reflow soldering technique by using heat lamps or heat guns, I thought that I could fix the damned thing by a way most would not think of.

On my way home from work I bought aluminum foil. With it, I made four rough foil balls. After about an hour of working my way through miniaturized parts I finally got the motherboard of the patient laptop out. Filled with disbelief and yet oblivious with joy, I transported this vital organ and the four aluminum balls to my kitchen.

I open the oven, set the aluminum balls in a square like pattern and set the motherboard squarely on them, making them act as makeshift pegs or pylons so the board won’t touch the metal grill underneath. I close the oven, put the heat up to 175 degrees centigrade and wait, watching the motherboard slowly bake into the dimly illuminated heated compartment. After about 5 minutes I turned the heat up to 200. The kitchen started to smell of burnt solder. Then after 4 more I turned it to 220 – might have been a little bit too much, but still ok. Another 5 minutes later  I opened up the oven.

It smoked slightly as it made contact with the cold air outside the compartment. It smelled bad, quite strong too. The board had a general yellow tint to it. It was also warped a little out of shape because of the unequal size of the balls on which it was placed while getting baked. I think I could feel the faint smell of food to it as well.

Not my picture, but you get the idea.

Disheartened by the appearance of the motherboard, I went back on my laptop and watched some videos as I waited for it to cool for about an hour. I took the board back from its quite hot resting place and set about putting it back into its original location. This took even longer than taking the laptop apart did, having to retrace some of my steps because I would forget to get a ribbon in or a power cord.

I did not stop until each and every part was in, I made no excuses. If the laptop would not run, I would give up. I did everything else I’ve seen on the internet, baking the motherboard was an otherworldly last idea that I thought I would never use, nor would ever work.

I plug the power source in – the power light comes up, good sign.

I press the button. The computer starts, monitor stays off.

But not for long. Strewn across the screen I see the letters COMPAQ and a huge smile runs across my face as, both agape and happy beyond belief at this vision of disbelief, I pick up the phone and dial for my friend. Of course she’s happy. I brought Lazarus back from the dead.

I’m not Jesus though – I’m Victor Frankenstein, but I am not repulsed by this life I have created out of the oven.

Note: Oven reflowing seems to be quite widespread as a common solution to motherboard soldering problems. I just noticed that while searching for a picture to put up, since I haven’t made one myself.

Also, turns out I had to disassemble the laptop and assemble it again at about 2AM because I forgot to insert the fan power cable; the processor kept overheating. Still had no discernible problem aside of the occasional crackling of the speakers. I’ve also managed to get a couple of extra screws. No idea where to put them, even after reassembling the laptop twice.

Eventually I “grew” out of it – playing Doom at the speed it entails is not something I have been used to when I was playing the game at 7 years of age with all the cheats on. I got a slight feeling of motion sickness because of the low FOV and stopped playing. That still happens today though.

Now then, the fanbase of Doom is a large one – ever since the game’s release in 1993 (on my 3rd birthday, oddly), the game’s modability has ensured a lot of resilience on the market – it’s still being sold on Steam for 10 bucks. So I’ve tried one of the more popular mods – Brutal Doom.

A lot has changed since the days of Doom, but even more has stayed the same. The game won’t run on Windows 7 natively, so I had to use ZDL3 with  Skulltag, loading up the WAD file for Doom 2 and the PK3 mod file for Brutal Doom 1.3. Skulltag is quite a large encompassing application, having a ton of options to customize your playing style, including but not reserved to free look aiming (like any other FPS on the market today, just avoid looking directly down or up, stuff gets distorted and you might get sick), hitboxes for enemies, crosshairs, death cams and about 200 other options I didn’t care to memorize. John Carmack’s game engine is quite a piece of code for something made 18 years ago.

About Brutal Doom itself, it’s a gratuitous violence mod, pretty much. While it doesn’t add much new in terms of weapons or enemies, it does add brutal fatalities when you punch things while in Berserker mode, bloody sprites going everywhere, headshots, more gibbing than you can shake a stick or punt, an awesome animation when you chaingun a zombie to the floor and so on and so forth. You can also blow away part of imps in a really bloody fashion.

For a game which hasn’t evolved much visually since the early 90s, it’s quite a graphic thing. It almost has a Mortal Kombat effect on the less bloody but still violent early Street Fighter ages, making a statement that Doom was and is truly a violent game. On the other hand, the gratuitous explosions of gore gives into the other area of the spectrum – becoming a stylized FPS game that you don’t exactly see much these days because of fear of high age ratings.

Most mods don’t shy away from taboo subjects. Games didn’t either in the 90s. Doom is a game in which a space marine goes in the depths of Mars to kill demons. Eventually he gets to hell and gets the job done proper. A similar vibe is shared by the story of the original Diablo, and the second one as well – you got into the depths of one place until you hit hell and killed the big baddie: in Doom’s case the CyberDemon and the eponymous antagonist in the Diablo series. Religious imagery was around aplenty in both series.

That is not the case with the third game of each series. Doom 3 was a clear sci-fi story that still liked the concept of hell while D3 skirts the religious imagery entirely.

But this blog post is about Brutal Doom. Playing the game is still hard. With Brutal Doom it’s even harder. Harder still it is because of the way I’m currently used to playing FPS games. While I would run into rooms with recklessness back when I was a kid, now I slowly strafe around corners checking each and everything I see. That’s not the way Doom works. There is no cover most of the time, so you just keep your shift key pressed and run around like a madman killing enemies before they get to shoot you. It takes some getting used to, but it makes the game so much faster to play, so much more active.

And the chainsaw. So bloody. And the shotgun – the most satisfying shotgun I’ve actually played with in an FPS, is made even more satisfying by this mod, giving the screen a little bit of a shake to accompany the thunderous sound of the shot. The result helps – fountains of blood form from the enemies killed by the shotgun if they aren’t gibbed outright.

The minigun is also a weapon made better by the mod, allowing you to slice through a zombie soldier and spread it across the floor like you would some sort of red gelatinous butter. And this is all with 16bit like graphics. Yeah, it’s not Crysis, Bulletstorm, Battlefield 3 or any recent CoD. It’s one of the forefathers of FPS brought to date. And it’s still one of the most satisfying manshoots (demonshoots, rather) that I have played to date.

For those not familiar with the Humble Bundle, it came as an action from the guys over at Wolfire to bring good indie games to the masses for whatever you want to pay. You can also choose where the money you contribute goes, between worthwhile charities, the game developers and the bundle organizers.

This time, if you pay over the average for your platform, you can get the past Frozenbyte Pack as well as Frozen Synapse and whatever else is added to the bundle afterwards. If past bundles are anything to go by, these bonuses will be quite substantial – TRAUMA has already been added as a bonus game to the bundle; who knows what will be added later.

Now then, take Yoda’s word of advice and the “humble bundle you get, happier you’ll be”.