SecretAsianMan

All wok and no play?

This coming Sunday is the end (start?) of Daylight Savings. Why the fuck are we still doing this shit?

How about Saturday night around 7 EST? I'm open to other times if that doesn't work for people.

Who told you about my secret plans? ...I mean I have no idea what you're talking about. I had a friend in high school who called it Mr. Eatums during a trivia night and that's how I've thought of it ever since. Also another welcome new folks!

Both of those are awesome. If you have more keep going!

Yeah, the design of both Payday and Monaco seem to favor things going wrong. In order for a plan to work, pretty much everything has to go right or you have to get some very lucky breaks. With so many systems and mechanics at work, it's incredibly easy for one thing to go wrong and ruin everything. What both of those games do right is keep people from instantly rage quitting by making failure fun. The in-game universe encourages the characters to be stealthy but the gameplay encourages the opposite. It makes for an interesting experience.

We call it Bromansland

I always remember it (when you remind me)

The screenshots from the last few sessions have all been from American Thumbs. So yes, we are still playing. Feel free to look for me, or check the Idle Thumbs Steam Group chat. We sometimes use that as a meeting place.

Is that a thumb drive hanging on his pants? Is that really a gaming thing?

I saw a lot of that as well which is usually evidence that no, they didn't really respect him and just though he was funny. If you actually have respect for a figure, you'd be willing to listen to what they're saying even if it doesn't align with your own views. Dismissing it without even hearing what they have to say is a distinct LACK of respect.

I really agree with Sean's comment about how the systems of a game can make it more like an experience you'd expect but make the individual moments worse. The biggest example I can think of in Payday 2 is the bank that Sean described trying to rob. If you do manage to successfully take over the bank without any alarms going off, it then becomes a rather monotonous wait while you let the drill open up the vault. If you do it correctly, the mission enters a no-fail state (short of everyone killing themselves) and there's nothing to do but wait for the drill. Even once you're in the vault, if you want to open the deposit boxes its even more boring because you have to stand still waiting for a timer to finish as your guy picks the lock (unless someone can equip a saw, which is really only interesting for them). Of course the game systems have to work that way otherwise all the tension and frantic chaos of the loud parts would be much less interesting. It's strange that when things go horribly wrong it's very exciting and fast paced but when things go completely right it's very tedious and boring.

Ok, so the Halloween update includes bumper cars I think we need to try and get a Thumbs game going. Anyone available this weekend?

A hostage does his best Superman impression

Oh, and it appears that episode is on tonight.

Because it's worth repeating https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/527601124992638976/photo/1

I came to post exactly that. Rad.

I've started watching House of Cards. I'm not normally into politically themed shows or movies but I'm digging this one so far. Kevin Spacey is all kinds of captivating.

Well this happened last night. Does that count?

Man, Payday 2. There's so much I could talk about but I'll try not to get into too much detail. First off, to answer Chris's question, yes there are something similar to the special infected of Left 4 Dead. When the police get called, the majority of them are standard SWAT guys, but there are special ones that are much more powerful. The Taser is exactly what it sounds like, a guy using a taser. When you get hit with the taser, not only are you stunned and locked in place until someone kills him, the act of being tased also makes your character pull the trigger on your weapon. It's difficult to aim while being tased and if you have a fully automatic weapon, odds are you'll empty the entire clip into nothing. The Shield is a normal enemy except he's carrying a large bulletproof shield in front of him. There are some weapons and ammo that can pierce the shield but they're all DLC. The Cloaker is a Sam Fisher-esque guy (including night vision goggles) that will come from unexpected places like under a car or from an air vent. They can instantly knock you down by kicking you in the face. The Bulldozer is the tank of the game. He wears what looks like the a bomb disposal outfit. He's heavily armored with a ton of health and a very powerful weapon. They don't spawn very often but when they do it will often take the whole team to take him down. Certain maps can also have snipers on them but they're just normal enemies that sit back and snipe. One thing Sean didn't describe (unless he came back to it later, I haven't finished the episode yet) was the skill trees. Completing jobs gets you experience which you earns you skill points you can spend on the trees. There are currently 5 skill trees (originally 4). Naturally, each one is aimed toward different playstyles. Points can be placed into multiple trees at the same time so you're not locked to one specific set. The Mastermind is focused more on healing and support. It allows you to deploy a doctor bag that can heal your team but has a limited number of uses. It has skills that help with crowd control of the civilians and even lets you take police members hostage and convert them to fight for you. The Enforcer is combat oriented. Enforcers can deploy ammo bags, wear heavier armor, deal more damage, etc. At the higher tiers you can equip a circular saw that lets you saw open things like doors and safe deposit boxes much faster than you can pick them by hand. The Technician is equipment focused. He can carry trip mines that can be converted into C4 to blow open doors and safes. He can also equip a portable sentry gun that can automatically attack enemies. He has skills that let him upgrade the drill to make it faster and quieter. The Ghost is stealth focused. He can deploy electronic countermeasures (ECMs). They block cell phones and cameras while active (20-30 seconds depending on your skills). They move faster and do more damage with silenced weapons. The Fugitive tree is new. Fugitives can drop first aid kits that work like one time use doctor bags. The Fugitive is generally focused on survivability. There's a ton more stuff in the game but I won't go into it. The last thing I'll say is if anyone wants to play (Thumbs included!) check out the Payday multiplayer thread. Like Gormongous said, a few of us played last night. We had varying degrees of success but it was a fun time overall.

Sorry man. If we could roll with a crew of 5 I'd have sent you an invite. We'll try next time. I can probably sit out if need be.

The four horsebags of the apocalypse

Jr. Mints wrote a timely article on Polygon about free horror games if anyone's interested

I think the John Wick movie looks so dumb I can't even find a parody of it amusing. Are we all talking EST? If so 6 might be a bit early for me but I'll try. You can start without me and I'll just drop in later and mess everything up.

Well actually... yes exactly. Basically what Twig said.