Windows Hate

So I found myself realising that my current computer is definitely dying and I'd rather prolong it's suffering by not using it for gaming anymore. Having not so much money available, I went affordable and grabbed a laptop - which came with Windows 8 installed. I thought: "Not too much of a problem, apparently this 8.1 thing is supposed to be a marked improvement for non-tablet users, and they'll be supporting it for much longer". Note that this is the same rationale I used when I got Windows Vista, self-delusion basically.

Got it home, fiddled a bit, looked around for 8.1, spent the afternoon waiting for it to download, then hooray, install time. Except it won't let me. It seems others have had this issue, and still others refuse to make/use a Microsoft account and provide contact information (one person was even paranoid enough to think they were giving this info to the NSA, which is silly because it's more profitable to sell it to direct marketers, and they're far less discreet with it). But not I, you see. I got to the step that says "Help us protect your account" - which is where they ask for further contact details - and while there is a "skip this step for now" button that just reloads the same screen, it won't actually let me provide further information. I enter an alternate email and it says it will send a code to it in the next step - a step I can't get to because the "Next" button just reloads the same screen. Try a phone number for text (or call), same thing.

This is a new level of incompetence here. They go to all the effort of making the damn thing only to screw up the part where people get to use it.

Howl stretching time

So the people at Overkill decided to extend the Halloween event for PAYDAY 2 for a few more days... I'm noticing a pattern, let's call it the "holiday season" (because it's already called that anyway). The weird thing here is that it's an extension after the holiday in question (though it's not so holy). All that build-up to Halloween and all its associated nonsense fueled by capitalism. Although it might have been slightly overshadowed by the fact that preparations were also underway for Christmas, as of a couple of weeks ago I've already seen the "photo with Santa" stations in shopping malls. Anyway, the point being that prolonging the season after the holiday (whatever, it's the word people use) is what is striking me as odd. Since it's usually all prelude then out with a bang and then roll over and fall asleep. Christmas being the noteworthy comparison here where the only extension of the holiday is the post-Christmas sales. Then it's a week long plateau before the great piss-up known as New Year's Eve. You don't really get extensions of those holidays.

And why the hell was I seeing children doing trick-or-treat? This is Australia, we don't do that sort of thing here. I wouldn't be surprised if it were being used as a way to teach children the importance of disappointment. That I would approve of.

Nightmares in 1080p

So I actually get to do a Halloween post, complaining mostly about the PAYDAY 2 Halloween weekend event. In short, it's BS. Overkill have decided that what gamers find scary is ridiculously overpowered enemies that are in the game just to piss off the people who paid money to play it. The Bulldozer enemy has been upgraded to a headless horseman with at least four times the health of the regular Bulldozer. Yay, just what we all wanted, even more BS in our "entertainment". They even added a special Halloween job called "Safe House Nightmare" because apparently bank robbers have nightmares about evil forces taking their hard-stolen money away. And floating baby face masks, because why not? In this job, the only enemies you face are Bulldozers. Lots of Bulldozers. I found it easier to try to avoid them than fight them, that's how BS they are.

Most of the youtube videos I've seen about PAYDAY 2 were from a couple of months ago, after which there seems to have been a game patch that made enemies do more damage, or armour less effective, because I've seen videos of Enforcers really tanking, and you can't do that now, you die too easily. So here's another developer who seems to think that when you're facing endless swarms of respawning enemies that outnumber you 50:1, the biggest problem is that the players don't die quickly enough. The other developer would be Gazillion, the makers of Marvel Heroes. At least those are two I've encountered recently, I'm sure there are more.

Basically, if you normally play PAYDAY 2, I'd recommend you avoid trying to grind for experience this weekend, it's more trouble than it's worth.