First impressions: Payday 2 on PlayStation 3

There's nothing more boring than watching the standard, cliche heist movie. It's over 90 minutes of watching actors work out a gameplan with witty dialogue, knowing that everything will work out in the end no matter what snafu they get into during the attack.


Mercifully, Payday 2 takes all that garbage out. Everything is planned out at the beginning, leaving just the execution as players step into action in first-person perspective.

The heist simulator has all the seriousness of an actual heist before it happens, but then it resembles a more cartoon-like atmosphere in action. Players can absorb multiple bullets in normal difficulty heists, and some of the masks that are available can reach the ridiculous.

There's a lot of details in the environment, but the game can get bogged down at certain places or when there's too many things going on at once. Nearly every time I head to the bottom level of the safe house, the game pauses for about 5 seconds without a loading indicator.

Enemy police and hostage NPCs take a design hit to keep the FPS level. They lack fluid motion when chasing after the robbers, especialy further away. There's no animation when tying up hostages, leaving little satisfaction as the ring meter circles around the action being done.


Despite some performance shortcomings and having armor as strong as a tank, it's fun to pull off all the objectives, keeping the police at bay while stealing jewlery, robbing a bank, or sabotaging certain areas. There's nothing too complicated to get tasks done, simply a press-and-hold of a trigger button while not getting shot at.

There is no campaign mode or main story to the game. Missions are selected via the Crime.net computer in the safe house, and players can practice with using tools and their arsenal with unlimited ammunition during down time; a welcome addition.

The game is basically pick-up-and-play. Players can selct to play online or offline, although playing it with team AI is equivalent to a 5-year-old picking up the controller. They'll barely take down enemies and they won't aid the player in stealing loot and throwing it in the back of a van.

Methods on how to do a heist aren't completely explained, which is why I opted for the offline mode in the first couple of runs. But it's worth looking like a dumbass and trying to figure out certain methods to do a heist while playing with humans instead of bots.


The problem with some heists is that while players can be sneaky, there's not enough penalty to just get in the building that's being robbed, putting on the mask, and going to town. It takes a long time for the health bar to go down, but perhaps this isn't the case in harder difficulty leves (which I haven't played yet).

Payday 2 may tire in repetitiveness, but it's a game that's better taken in small doses. There's a lot of value to come back and play as four different levels of skills can be unlocked and plenty of weapons and gadgets can be obtained and upgraded. Some items or upgrades are a lot of cash, but the harder the difficulty of the heist, the bigger the payout.

The verdict: Three out of five stolen bags of cash. The game is for first-person shooter fans that love multiplayer, and don't want all the stealth that's involved in similar games. Just don't expect a graphical beast or any form of a campaign mode. Which could have bogged this down into a boring heist movie anyway.

Payday 2 is developed by Overkill Software and published by 505 Games. The PlayStation 3 version has received positive cumulative scores of 70 percent on GameRankings and a 74/100 on Metacritic It's currently available for free on PlayStation Plus' Instant Game Collection for a limited time.

Image credits: Flickr

PlayStation Update for February 11th includes Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, lots of Far Cry, and actual new Vita games!

There's plenty of reasons why no gamer should abandon their PlayStation 3, and Sony gives us a ton of reasons with new games and incredibly valued bundles.

[Image credit: Flickr]

Well, one of those bundles are.

First, here's the huge collection of new releases this week:

PS3

• Borderlands 2 and Dishonored Bundle - $30 (Retail)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and BioShock Infinite Bundle - $30 (Retail)
• Far Cry Classic - $10 (Digital)
• Far Cry Compilation - $40 (Retail, exclusive)
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - $60 (Digital / Retail)
• Zombeer (Digital)

The Last of Us: Left Behind (Digital only, exclusive) will be released on Friday. Demos of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Far Cry Classic, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD, Skullgirls Encore, and Toki Tori are also available.

Vita

• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - $40 (Digital / Retail)
• Toukiden: The Age of Demons - $40 (Digital / Retail)
• TxK - $7.99 (Digital, PS+ launch price)
• Fort Defense (Digital)

Other (Digital only)

• Blowout - PS2 classic
• Pac-Man World 20th Anniversary - PSone classic
• Wolf Fang - PSone import

The bundles are an interesting combo release between 2K Games and Bethesda. Some of the value is diminished with both BioShock Infinite and Borderlands 2 being free with PlayStation Plus. The BL2/Dishonored bundle is definitely not worth it when both cames have been found for less than $10 seperately, but anyone that picks up the Elder Scrolls V/BSI bundle will come away with countless hours of entertainment that's definitely worth $30.

Also, it's finally to see some good releases for Vita. Both are worth a look and the reviews are promising. Don't let the confusing, hard-to-say titles steer you away!

There's not many discounts this week for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Blood Knights has a two-dollar drop to $7.99 while DrawSlasher slashes it's price over 50 percent to $2.75. Both the Blood Knights and TxK discounts are only available this week.

[Image credit: Flickr]

Coming into the Instant Game Collection is Payday 2. The follow-up to Payday: The Heist (which was also free on PS+ at one point) was well received by many. Here's more on the game from the PlayStation Blog:

PAYDAY 2 is an action-packed, four-player co-op shooter that once again lets gamers don the masks of the original PAYDAY crew – Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains – as they descend on Washington D.C. for an epic crime spree. The new CRIMENET network offers a huge range of dynamic contracts and players are free to choose anything from small-time convenience store hits or kidnappings, to major league cyber-crime or emptying out major bank vaults for that epic PAYDAY.

The first Payday was very fun, and I haven't had the time to check up on the sequel. I'll give first impressions later this week.

Friendly reminder: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 are leaving next week, so get them while you can.

I can feel the frustration for PlayStation 4 owners. Better days will be ahead for new releases and deals.

Have a great week everyone!

February's free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers: Remember Me, Metro: Last Light, and more

Those that still haven't subscribed to PlayStation Plus may finally cave in after Sony released their list of free games their offering in February for the PlayStation platforms.

The PlayStation Blog announced the games for North America on Thursday. Here are the games that will be available, spread out through the entire month..

• Outlast (PS4, previously announced)
• Remember Me (PS3)
• Metro: Last Light (PS3)
• Payday 2 (PS3)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (Vita)
• ModNation Racers: Road Trip (Vita)

New games will be available every Tuesday, but no official dates are ever announced.

Next month is an unbelievable deal; all of those games are quality titles that didn't receive much attention when they were released. There's an abundance of fighting and racing games for Vita owners that have subscribed to PS+. I haven't played MNR: RT yet, but that's likely the weakest offering in the batch. Especially with Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed was available for free recently.

For those that haven't purchased a PS+ subscription, think of it this way. If these games were all purchased on Amazon today, that total price would be $119.92. PS+ is $50 a year. It's an unbelievable service that offers a wide variety of titles; for those that purchase PlayStation for that variety like myself, it's a must have.

Worst case scenario, players can always download the games they already purchased for back up when they're available for free, or they can just sell their physical copy for a little cash to put into the PS+ subscription price.

Next month has my full attention. What game are you looking forward to the most?

Image credit: Flickr