Wow, I looked back at my posts before writing this and was kind of shocked that it’d been so long since I’d written something like this. If you haven’t kept very up to date with the more recent posts in the blog, I’m currently in University and my free time and drive to do things like the blog have been diminishing quite rapidly. That’s not entirely an excuse for my laziness in regards to the blog, but it’s one of the contributing factors as to why there’s only one post a month now. (Roughly) I’ll try and get myself into gear again, but most of the time it’s a struggle to even thing of something to write about, so I usually just leave it until a better time. Anyways, I’ve got a few things to talk about today. I’ll divide it into sections like I’ve done with a few of the last posts, so you can see something which may interest you more clearly.
PAYDAY 2: The Hype Train & The Overkill Pack
Y’know, it doesn’t seem like Overkill know when to stop. I have to give them credit, they know how to keep making money from mindless fans, but this event right here is the pinnacle of everything wrong with PAYDAY 2 right now.
You may remember Crimefest, it took place last year and involved getting as many people as possible to join the Steam group for the game. The more people joined, the more rewards were given to the community when the event actually took place. I’m not saying this event in itself was wrong, but a lot of the rewards were very lackluster and amounted to very little effort on the part of Overkill. (If I remember right the entire reward for Crimefest as a whole would’ve been the equivalent of one paid pack, similar to the Hotline Miami tie-in they did) Now, they’re trying to replicate the “roaring success” which Crimefest was with another similar style event, but this time with a very large twist.
The Hype Train, as they’ve dubbed it, is another tiered reward system for PAYDAY 2, despite them not even delivering on everything from Crimefest yet. (Do any of you remember the ENEMY we were supposed to be getting? They’ve gone pretty quiet on that one haven’t they?) However, this time it’s not so simple as entering a group. Oh no. This time you have to purchase The Overkill Pack to get “fuel” for the community. Okay, so you’re buying a pack which gives you a couple of new weapons and masks or whatever which gives more benefits to the community, so what right? No. You are LITERALLY PRE-ORDERING DLC. You don’t get this pack until the 12th of March.
Are we REALLY at this point? We need to start giving pre-orders for DLC these days? Are you KIDDING ME? I find this pretty disgusting, and I’m pretty fine with people gaming the system on this one to gain more fuel. This event has made me lose all respect for Overkill, it seems like they’re just cashing in even more before the release of their The Walking Dead game. Let’s break the rewards down shall we?
*First Reward: Side Jobs – Okay, sure. This one looks interesting, but you have to consider two things; the implementation and the entire point. Day and night was a feature they added into two or three days worth of heists back on a Crimefest reward, will this be implemented as much as that? Or will it be for everything. As for the point, will it even give you enough cash to justify bothering with it? Will you even get cash for doing it? What about experience? Who knows, they didn’t bother to explain.
*Second Reward: SWAT Van Turret Enemy – Wow, promising another enemy after not delivering the last one?? This better not be the enemy we were promised during Crimefest and have to earn again. Although knowing the current mindset of Overkill, it more than likely will be.
*Third Reward: Weapon Mods – Fine. I doubt there’ll be many of them, and if there are it’ll only be for a couple of guns I’m willing to bet, not for the majority.
*Fourth Reward: Heist Updates – They did something similar to this in Crimefest with the one day Art Gallery heist, which was completely inferior to most other heists the moment it was launched. Will the same happen to the heists being broken up for this? Most likely.
*Fifth Reward: The Car Shop Heist – Finally, some actual meat. This one could be interesting, we haven’t really done much with stealing cars in PAYDAY 2, but it seems like it would be a decent avenue for criminals. However, PLEASE don’t just make it be about stealing the engines or something just as mindless.
*Sixth Reward: Golden GRIN Casino Preview – Oh boy, a preview for a heist we’ve already been promised and will have to pay for again?? That’s totally a good reward right guys??
*Seventh Reward: Bonnie Character Pack – Ugh, another character? No thanks. If these were few and far between I might care a bit more, but at this point they’re getting to be as worthless as masks. If they added a few with interesting voices or lines, they might be more worthwhile.
*Eighth Reward: 10 Heisters Flown to E3 – Alright, so you’re paying them to get people flown to E3. They aren’t doing this one out of the kindness of their hearts, the community are taking this financial hit for them.
*Ninth Reward: Hoxton Revenge Heist – Well well well. I really wasn’t expecting to see this one here. Not only is this one of the final rewards, it’s the one that the most people will probably want to see. I was hoping this one would’ve been more special to the Overkill team, but once again it’s just another money maker. If we don’t reach this, who knows if we’ll ever even see the end of the one story arc PAYDAY 2 even has?
*Tenth Reward: PAYDAYCON L.A. – Wow, dodging two financial bullets in one event? That’s pretty good for them. And no, you can’t try and make the excuse that doing this is to try and see the interest for a PAYDAY convention, there are plenty of other ways to do it for free.
I’m not going to pre-order DLC Overkill. Nope. I’m not even going to buy this one, because what’s the point? I’m getting two weapons and some useless cosmetic garbage, and I’d STILL be getting the same stuff the community would get for free without even purchasing anything, so why even bother. I’m just going to sit this one out and wait for the free stuff I’ll get from the event, I’m not funding these business practices any further than I already have.
Humble Bundles
On the other end of the spectrum from terrible business practices, here comes some stuff you can get for an incredibly low price that’s actually worth buying! There are two Humble Bundles going on right now which are worth investing in, if you like what’s in ’em, the Star Wars Humble Bundle, and the Humble Brainiac Book Bundle. I’ll give a rundown of each bundle and my thoughts on some of the contents.
Star Wars Humble Bundle
I’m actually kind of bummed that this one appeared. Not because it doesn’t include some of the things I would’ve liked to have seen from a Star Wars Humble Bundle, but because I bought two Star Wars games from GoG a week before this bundle launched. Just my luck I suppose. I still picked this one up though, because it contained a few Star Wars games which I didn’t own yet. (It was cheaper to buy the bundle than to buy them separately)
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1/2 – If you haven’t played these two yet and you’re a Star Wars fan, BUY THIS BUNDLE. These are among some of the best RPG games I’ve played in my entire life, and KOTOR is certainly my second favourite Star Wars game of all time. (I’ll mention my actual favourite in a bit) It’s based in a time period long before the movies, and has a plethora of interesting characters and locations, not to mention the story is top notch.
- Star Wars Battlefront 2: My actual favourite Star Wars game of all time. I loved playing this as a kid, it’s so much fun. It’s essentially a shooter with Star Wars characters, but the locations and troop variety sets it far apart from others I’ve played. Sure, it might be showing it’s age now compared to more modern games like it, but it’s still a lot of fun to play.
- Star Wars Republic Commando: I haven’t played this one very recently, but I remember it being a very cool FPS game set in the Star Wars universe around the Clone Wars period. Give it a shot if you like FPS games and want to play a Star Wars one.
Humble Brainiac Book Bundle
You might be a bit baffled by this one, aren’t the books aimed at children more than adults? Well, yes. However, some of these books may still interest you, so give the full list a look if some of these titles interest you.
- Ruby/Python/Javascript for Kids – Have you ever tried to start learning programming languages? Perhaps you know one really well and can’t seem to branch into others as easily or feel reluctant to do so. Maybe you’ve tried looking online and it seems incredibly daunting. Or you could’ve just been away from programming for an extended period of time and need to refresh your memory on some of the concepts. These books are pretty awesome for all of those situations. I’ve only pawed through the Python and Ruby ones a little bit, but both explain very fundamental concepts in plain English, allowing anyone to easily extract the information they need to get even a basic grasp of whatever language the book is based on.
- LEGO Books – If you have an interest in LEGO, which I personally don’t, these books in the bundle might entice you. There are several books based on different LEGO creations, such as space creations or neighbourhood creations. I don’t know how interesting they might be to most people, but I’m sure someone will like them.
- The Manga Guide to Physics/Electricity – A really easy way to start understanding more about different aspects of science. Both books tackle a range of topics, which might help you depending on what you’re studying in school/college/university. I know one of the books may have helped me last semester, it’s a shame I didn’t have it back then…
There you have it. Both bundles have over a week left at the time of writing, so you aren’t in any real rush. More stuff will be added at the seven days remaining on both bundles too, so they might be even better by the time you get around to looking at them fully.
Final Words
These topics contrast pretty well honestly, on one side you have the company which is doing everything it can to squeeze money out of it’s loyal consumers, and on the other you have the companies which are practically giving their products away AND helping charities in the process. I didn’t even think about it that deeply before writing, that contrast hit me while I was busy writing this entry. Anyways, I’m sure I’ll have more to say about PAYDAY 2 when the “rewards” for the event start rolling in, but I’m hoping I’ll have more things to talk about before then. Anyways, I’ve waffled on for a bit too long now. Thanks for reading and goodbye for now!
My Entirely Unorganised Blog 