payday 2

Featured The SPUF of Legend 

Payday 2 – Breaking the Stealth/Loud Dichotomy

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Was Skyping with Medic the entirety of editing this video, and we were talking about hypothetical heist designs that wouldn’t fit easily into either the “stealth” or “loud” category. Payday has steadfastly maintained those two categories of heists for the entire six years of the franchise’s existence, but at this point there’s so much content in Payday 2 that I think they’ve got the resources and the options to branch out from either “hordes of cops filling the building in waves” or “sneak around and avoid the security guards and cameras.” My first idea for breaking the mold was a heist… [Continue Reading]

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The Gun That Won the West

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I wrote a few articles in the past talking about some of my favorite firearms in video games, and after replaying Half Life 2 and seeing Father Grigori using the Winchester rifle I realized I needed to dedicate an article to the Wild West classic that didn’t stay dead. The Winchester rifle is an iconic firearm in western period pieces, designed for horseback riding and utilizing a lever-action reloading system that, while used by many guns at the time, nowadays is almost synonymous with the Winchester name itself. It’s a high-powered single-shot rifle with an iconic appearance, and that’s more than enough… [Continue Reading]

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Tactical Advantages You Can Gain with Weapon Skins

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In the spirit of my old series where I cover all sorts of tiny aspects of Team Fortress 2 and the ways you can gain tactical advantages from them, I think the time is ripe to cover one of the more controversial cosmetic elements added to our favorite shooter. Cosmetic weapon skins have slowly spread across the Steam FPS industry like a plague, with Counter-Strike Global Offensive being patient zero, and for the most part their only function is to make an otherwise respectable weapon look garish or possibly badass. But is there a way to use them to your advantage? Of course… [Continue Reading]

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Community Announcements Featured Random Game Announcements 

Upcoming Overwatch and Payday Halloween events!

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Today was a big day for gaming announcements! Over on the Payday subreddit, players were able to discover leaks suggesting that new weapons, DLCs, heisters, maps, and difficulties were coming to Payday 2. Yes, that’s right, new difficulties. ‘Mayhem’ will be between Overkill and Deathwish, and ‘One Down’ is going to be the new hardest difficulty in the game.  While its name suggests that players will only be allotted one incapacitation before going into custody, we don’t know much more than that. Hopefully it comes with some balance tweaks beyond just that. And today the official announcement finally went live: Safehouse… [Continue Reading]

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M1014 – The Ubiquitous Shotgun

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I’ve written two articles on several guns that make very frequent appearances in games I enjoy playing: The SCAR rifle and the Mac-10 SMG. This almost requires that I write third third article on the final member of the triumvirate: The M1014 shotgun. (We’re not counting the AK47, its popular enough that nobody’s surprised it appears in every game ever). In most games, the M1014 fills the role of the balanced upper-tier shotgun; there’s nothing wrong with it in particular, but some other gun might trump it in certain stats. In the original Counter-Strike, the XM1014 was one of only two shotguns… [Continue Reading]

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My Favorite Payday 2 Glitches

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Payday 2 is built on an outdated engine and has received years upon years of updates, new content, and balance tweaks. Completely divergent mechanics like flamethrowers, explosives, grenades, vehicles, and weapon skins have found their way into the original relatively-simple gameplay, not to mention an ambitious skill system with infinite combinations of dozens of abilities. This is a prime environment for some completely insane glitches! 5. When the Arkansas Toothpick granted 230 Concealment. I think Overkill meant to buff it from 27 to 30, but forgot to finish deleting the old value. Maximum armor, RPG, and Flamethrower? No problem, guards will never see… [Continue Reading]

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Mac-10 & Cheese

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Recently I talked about my brother’s primary weapon in his airsoft loadout, the SCAR rifle. His backup weapon is the Mac-10 SMG, which has an equally-illustrious career in video game history: The MAC-10 is an extremely compact submachine gun capable of spraying a truly devastating stream of bullets in a very inaccurate cone. This is not a sharpshooter’s weapon. Because of its high damage and compact frame, it has a reputation for being a criminal weapon, often appearing in the hands of villainous, poor or seedy factions. Left 4 Dead 2 factored this into the weapon’s design according to the developer’s commentary, which… [Continue Reading]

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SCARs of War

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As mentioned in this video, I recently moved from Texas to California. This has given me some quality time to reconnect with my family members who live on the West Coast. In particular, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my younger brother, who I have loads of memories growing up with but he was a little young to really remember me. While showing me his hobbies and life focuses, he revealed that he plays airsoft, and showed me his primary weapon: I was pretty surprised that the SCAR rifle found a way to once again sneak into my life,… [Continue Reading]

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Featured Random Game Announcements 

Five Free Weapons in Payday 2 Every Player Should Try

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In honor of my favorite pistol (number 3 on this list) getting its first ever skin in the most recent Sydney safe, I thought I’d write a Payday 2 article designed for new players, showcasing a number of free weapons that you should definitely give a shot. This guide assumes you own none of the paid DLC, and are subscribed to the Payday Steam Group for the free community weapons. 1. Platypus Sniper rifle – Sniper rifles in Payday 2 come with infinite penetration, meaning that you can kill as many cops as you line up. Even more importantly, it can penetrate Shields,… [Continue Reading]

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Featured Random Game Announcements 

I Attended DreamHack 2016!

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DreamHack was in Austin this weekend, which means it was a short fifteen minutes away from my house! Due to other obligations, I was only able to attend on Sunday, but I was okay with that because it meant I’d get to see the Grand Finals of my first ever Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. The CS:GO tournament in question was open only to North-American teams, though two Brazilian teams were also in attendance; Luminosity Gaming and Tempo Storm. Friday and Saturday had seen all but 4 teams eliminated in knockout format, and both of the aforementioned were still in circulation,… [Continue Reading]

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