PayDay: The Heist Message Board older than one year ago

Guten Tag from gamescom! Sony Online Entertainment kicked off the first day with three of our newest PSN titles – Rochard, PAYDAY: The Heist and Sideway: New York. These latest games will engage you in graffiti adventures, environmental puzzlers and high intensity bank robberies, and will launch early this fall on the PlayStation Network via digital download.

Rochard puts you in the shoes of astro-miner John Rochard as he uses his wits and everyday mining tools to fend off space pirates. You must save his team of missing miners and solve the mystery behind the discovery of an ancient alien artifact. The tools and crazy space gravity make for awesome puzzles, but it’s Rochard’s snarky sense of humor that really drew us to this game. Rochard will be available September 27th for download on PSN for $9.99.

PAYDAY: The Heist throws you straight into the action with high-stake heists, including bank robberies, prisoner extractions and armored car hijackings, you are forced to work as a team to control incredibly intense situations. This is a great game to play with a band of friends in search of the ultimate score. PAYDAY: The Heist will be available October 4th for download on PSN for $19.99.

The game can also be pre-ordered from September 20th until September 28th on the PlayStation Network and is included in the PSN PLAY program, which showcases the season’s hottest titles. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive an automatic 20% off every PLAY program purchase. Additionally, DLC expansions will be released later this year.

Sideway: New York puts players in the role of Nox, a graffiti artist sucked into a twisted graffiti world, where you to explore the backstreets of New York City and navigate through a 2D adventure platformer set in a 3D world. While the task at hand is to defeat Nox’s nemesis Spray, it’s a blast using window ledges, drainpipes or graffiti tags to navigate around corners and onto rooftops of the city. Sideway: New York’s soundtrack brings an underground hip-hop vibe, which perfectly matches the theme of the game. Sideway: New York will be available October 11th for download on PSN for $9.99.

We’re really proud of all the effort and hard work that went into developing each of these games. Each game offers something unique and innovative for players and we know you’ll enjoy them as much as we have. So, if you’re lucky to be in Germany and at gamescom, please stop by and say hi to us in Hall 7, Booth 1. If not, check out these cool new videos and screen shots!

Sony has just announced PlayStation Network PLAY, "a new program showcasing four of the season's hottest action titles." We'll just cut right to the quick here, guys: It's Summer of Arcade, but for PS3. Oh, and with a way dumber name.

The four games on offer are Street Fighter III Third Strike Online Edition which will be available on August 23 for $15; the latest DeathSpank adventure The Baconing available August 30 for $15; the impressive BloodRayne: Betrayal, available for $15 on September 16 (a delay for PSN); and lastly Avalanche's Renegade Ops, available on September 15 for $15. There's one last game in this lineup of four: If you purchase all four of the above titles you'll be gifted Payday: The Heist by way of a voucher code "for redemption when the game releases." One caveat: You've got to be 18 or older (read: lie on your PSN account). If you don't want to bother with all that, you can pick it up solo for $20.

So that separate free game also sounds a lot like Summer of Arcade, but since we already know how Summer of Arcade works, we've taken it upon ourselves to catalog the ways that PlayStation Network PLAY is, in fact, totally different than Microsoft's initiative:

• You can pre-order titles; each pre-order nets you a free PS3 theme
• "PLAY also offers gamers a separate gift with purchase for each order made throughout the duration of the program" - we're not sure what this is, but "gift" sounds nice!
• PlayStation Plus subscribers get "an automatic 20% off every PLAY program purchase"
• One final difference: Unlike Summer of Arcade, it doesn't appear any of these titles, short of Sony's own Payday: The Heist, have any exclusivity. We're following up with Sony and all of the individual publishers now.

And that's about it. Get the full details at that Source link below.

Supervise the extraction of the panic room in this gameplay!

Extract the panic room in this brief gameplay trailer!

Right before E3, OVERKILL Software dropped by the Blog to debut PAYDAY: The Heist. At the time, he described it as “an action-filled first person shooter for the PlayStation Network that lets you take on the role of a hardened career criminal executing intense, dynamic heists.”

After going hands on with PAYDAY, media referred to it as “Left 4 Dead with Banks” and “My favorite discovery of E3.” With the game’s release scheduled for later this year, we had some questions of our own. Fortunately, OVERKILL obliged, with creative director Simon Vicklund providing detailed answers about the game, as well as this new trailer.

PlayStation.Blog: What was the inspiration for PAYDAY: The Heist? Why was it important to focus on four-player co-op and not going the Left 4 Dead route with 4 v 4?

Simon Vicklund, OVERKILL Software: The idea came from way back – a pet project of sorts for the guys on the team. Part of what eventually caused us to start working on the project was the profound truth that Dane Cook shared when he said that “every guy wants to be part of a heist” – we realized how incredibly accurate that statement is, haha. Then of course, a lot of inspiration came from several epic Hollywood movie movies such as “Heat”, “The Dark Knight” and “Die Hard”. There’s also an ambush sequence in one of the heists that is inspired by a scene in “Clear and Present Danger” – but you get to be the guys that are doing the shooting!

PSB: Casing the bank pre-heist: Is it purely for atmospheric effect, or can you use it to your advantage in any way?

Simon: While it definitely adds to the anticipation of the heist there is of course a tactical aspect to casing the joint. The more information you can gather before letting the cat out of the bag, the better. In order to actually start the bank robbery you need to put your mask on and draw your weapon – and within a certain time from that point, the police will show up. So you’ll be “ahead of the game,” so to speak, if you have already scouted the place and know where the guards and cameras are, and where the bank manager – who you need to find – is located. Random elements make this a worthwhile approach every time you play the First World Bank Heist, and there are other heists with similar intro sequences. Other heists are even more dependent on sneaking and scouting. We have a Diamond heist where casing is even more important as you’ll be taking out alarms, avoiding laser beams and sneaking around guards.

PSB: You’ve mentioned that PAYDAY has “endless replayability.” How widely can individual heists vary? In what kinds of ways?

Simon: The objectives in the heist remain the same; the way you achieve those objectives can be different from play-through to play-through. It’s not just the pacing of the attack waves and the enemy’s entry points that change, but also things like the behavior of NPCs and their tactics. Certain people you need to locate are always found in different places, a bag of C4 dropped from a helicopter sometimes lands on the roof, sometimes in the back alley, etc. There’s a heist we call “Slaughterhouse” in which you shoot at an armored car to make it stop. Depending on when you manage to stop the armored car, its final position will differ – and that greatly effects how the rest of the scenario plays out! Another element that adds to the replayability is the statistics that measure your success during a heist: How many civilians did you kill? How fast did you complete the heist? You can decide to try to do a “clean hit” and complete the level without killing any civilians, or simply polish your completion time. On top of this there are four difficulty settings, and while your are playing the game you constantly get new weapons and toys that you make you want to try new tactics in each heist: What if I set up trip mines here? What if I put a bag of extra ammo there? The scenarios weave into the hub style level design in such complex ways that seeminly small decisions can make a great impact.

PSB: You can tie down civilians to take them out of commission — why is crowd control important? Will civilians ever attack you or impede you?

Simon: First and foremost, civilians are important to the game from a thematical perspective. If you rob a bank, there will be customers there, and that’s something you’ll have to deal with. Civilians can be an asset to you, as you can use them to trade with the police – but if you kill civilians you will be penalized.

PSB: There’s a “call out” button that you can use to communicate with your buddies and A.I.s. This is an interesting choice, why did you make it?

Simon: Civilians will panic and start running around if you don’t “remind” them that they need to stay low, and if they run around they tend to get shot – and you don’t want that. This is a great marriage between a thematical concept and a gameplay mechanic, and it also adds a sense of chaos to the experience that makes it all even more exciting. The same button can also be used to shout at police officers to try to intimidate them and make them drop their weapons, or certain character that you need to urge forward and move from point A to point B. Shouting and communicating in general is a big part of PAYDAY, so each of the four heistmen has well over 2000 phrases.

PSB: You can trade hostages to reclaim captured comrades. How does it work? Does it have a downside?

Simon: As mentioned earlier, our aim has been to incorporate all the concepts that you associate with bank robberies and heists – such as civilians, shouting and taking control over a place, and also taking hostages and trading them with the police. If you lose all your health in PAYDAY you don’t die but are rather taken into custody – and although you are automatically released after five minutes, your teammates can speed up the process by trading you for a hostage. We don’t want any stiff menus or other tedious negotiation functions that interrupt the action, so the entire trading process in the game is very streamlined. The police are only willing to trade between their assault waves, so when an assault wave is over your accomplice on the radio informs you that a trade opportunity is open. One of the hostages you’ve taken will be highlighted and your teammate will be released from custody (and respawn right beside you) as soon as you run up to that highlighted hostage and release him/her. As you understand, the civilians are sort of your “extra lives” in the game, so you want to keep them alive for possible future trade needs.

PSB: There are three main classes: Assault, sharpshooter, and support. What makes them differ in terms of tactics and behavior? Are some classes better suited to certain roles, such as crowd control?

Simon: There are actually no classes in the game – we don’t want to limit players to classes. “Assault”, “Support” and “Sharpshooter” are the categories in which we divide our upgrades – they are each a branch in the upgrade tree. If you level-up on the “Assault” branch you’ll get weapons upgrades that are suitable for an “Assault” style of playing; shotguns, more health, etc. If you level-up on the “Support” branch you’ll get stuff that’s suitable for a “Support” style of playing; machine guns, bags of extra ammo, etc. Similarly, leveling up on the “Sharpshooter” branch rewards you with the semi-automatic assault rifle, trip mines, etc. You can change from branch to branch at any point during the gameplay, and the game always shows you what the next upgrade is on each branch, so you’re pretty much picking and choosing what you want as the next upgrade. Again, the Assault/Support/Sharpshooter names are a way to categorize the upgrades *before* you acquire them, but once you actually *have* them you can mix and match as you want and aren’t limited to any class system. There are a total of 144 weapons, upgrades and perks in the game – and more will be coming in DLC!

PSB: Can you spend your earnings to enhance your character or equipment in any way, or does the cash have any long-term benefit? Can you enhance and improve your character in any way?

Simon: You character improves through the weapons, equipment and upgrades you acquire by collecting cash and leveling up on the upgrade tree. The money you collect from each heist also has a prestige value and there will be trophies connected to stealing large amounts of cash. There is a definitely a Trophy for getting a Billion dollars!

PSB: Does the grandeur of the banks increase over the six heist locations? Can you discuss the highest-level challenges?

Simon: You pick your own order in which you complete the heists – we have kind of a “party game” approach where everything is availaible from the beginning. This is because we want you to be able to play the game together with your friends no matter when they started playing the game. There is however a progression of difficulty from one heist to the next. The First World Bank and Street Heists are considered more straight-forward and are available in a an easy difficulty setting that isn’t available for the other heists. Then there are three heists that we consider to be “intermediate” in difficulty, and they are all available in the difficulty settings above “easy”. Finally, there’s the “crown jewel” in your criminal career, the centerpiece on your shelf of accomplishments: The Diamond heist – this heist is only available in the two hardest difficulty settings (“hard” and “OVERKILL”). So, you take on the heists in any order you want to, but we suggest you play the easier ones and gain some skills and gear, and then take on the harder ones later on. Or just join an experienced crew, haha.

PSB: What kinds of security systems will you encounter, and how can they thwart your mission? What’s needed to overcome them?

Simon: The foundation of the gameplay can be summed up as “outsmarting law enforcers to get the money”, so all peripheral game mechanics converge into that in one way or another – that goes for security systems as well. In the bank there are cameras, and if you take them out the SWATs won’t be able to use as many entry points as they would have if the cameras were intact. The Diamond heist has patrolling guards and laser beams that you need to stay clear of to not set off the alarm (you can complete a great part of the heist by sneaking around unseen). Doors and gates can of course also be seen as security systems, and getting through them with saws and drills takes time – during which you need to survive the constant onslaught of law enforcers. The defenders of the law make a veritable army of police officers, FBI agents, SWATs and heavy SWATs – all with their own behavior and approach to taking you down. SWATs and heavy SWATs, for example, are armored and storm in fearlessly where bank guards and regular police officers are more careful. There are also special units like the SWAT with the riot shield that you need to flank to take down, and the guy in the bomb suit with the massive shotgun who just steamrolls into any situation and just owns everybody.

PSB: What happens when you successfully complete a heist? Is there a final “getaway” sequence? Do you choose your next target?

Simon: When you reach the escape vehicle you are in the clear. Take a breather and read the stats: How much money did you collect? How many headshots did you get? How do your stats compare to the rest of the team? Then, in line with the previously mentioned “party game” approach, you are taken back to the lobby where you can of course choose to give the heist a go again. Often you level up and get new weapons in the result screen (from the cash bonuses you get) and that makes you want to play another game just to try that new weapon out – trust me, this is a game that’s hard to put away! There is always the next score… right!?!?

Take a stroll through the Panic Room level of PayDay with Overkill Game Designer Simon Viklund!

Check out the robbery action of the Panic Room level in PayDay: The Heist!

The game gets real as the Panic Room Walkthrough finishes off with plenty of bullets and extra panic.

Payday: The Heist, as Quintin pointed out, looks like it should be a stealth-based bank robbing game, but is in fact a full-on murder-em-up. It’s Left 4 Dead, except they’re not dead until you show up. Which is an angle on bank robbery you don’t often see. Take a look at some of those angles in the screenshot gallery below.

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Once you start the heist, there's no going back.

Get the money bagged up and blast your way to freedom!

Payday: The Heist was just announced for the first time earlier this month, but Swedish developer Overkill Software had it on display front and center at Sony Online Entertainment's booth. I wasn't sure what to expect from the downloadable co-op shooter; the elevator pitch is that it's Left 4 Dead where you're stealing things rather than killing zombies, so I sat down with more questions than answers as to how it all worked.

Turns out what I found was a surprisingly deep co-op shooter, a game that respects both its heist movie influences and the complicated tangles of co-op multiplayer gameplay. As a shooter, it's not quite as polished or graphically impressive as some bigger budget titles, but for its depth and intelligence, I actually found Payday: The Heist to be one of the best titles here at E3.

A routine bank robbery quickly turns into a full-scale shootout in the second part of this walkthrough.

It's a bad day for bank guards when a group of heavily-armed robbers comes through asking for the loot.

Overkill's first game sadly isn't a Heat tie-in.

#dirtydeeds SOE's Payday: The Heist, an upcoming shooter for the PS3 and PC, looks kind of fun. I like how it's short, but in the way it structures its missions encourages repeat play and experimentation. More »

The Official PlayStation Blog has announced a brand new title called Payday: The Heist, a downloadable first-person shooter for PSN built around a series of six high-stakes robberies. With AI or fellow co-op players, you'll charge into banks, prisons, and armored cars to get the goods and get out as alive as possible. The graphics look ... serviceable, but there's supposed to be some depth here too, with three classes to play with, and an experience-based upgrade system to unlock new weapons and other accessories.

The game's being developed by Overkill Software, and all we know about them is they're run by Bo Andersson, a Swedish developer from Grin, the company that developed Bionic Command: Rearmed and the PC ports for Tom Clancy's GRAW and its sequel. So there's a little pedigree here to begin with. We'll have to see how the game looks in full action later next week at E3.

Have you ever seen one of those movies with an elaborate scheme to rob a bank and walk away with a huge payday? Ever wonder if you have what it takes to pull of such a caper yourself? Well, PayDay: The Heist, a new game coming to the PlayStation Network and PC, will give you the chance to find out...