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PS3 Fanboy review: PAIN
There were a lot of great titles shown off at Sony's Gamers Day in May of this year, but one of the surprise hits was the PSN title, PAIN. Maybe it was just because it was so different than everything else shown at the event, but the ability to launch your character from a giant slingshot and bounce him around an active city seemed to grab the attention of quite a few of the journalists attending. Though praise was high, there were concerns even early on that there might just not be enough gameplay in PAIN. Sure the idea of smashing some Jackass-esque guy into a wall is fun, but would it be able to keep our attention for more than an hour or two? Seven months later, PAIN has been released to the general public and we have the answers to that question -- unfortunately, it turns out that some of the fears about longevity were definitely warranted.The basic gameplay of PAIN revolves around firing your character (a rather Xtreme looking fellow named Jarvis) out of the world's largest slingshot and trying to cause as much havoc and chaos as possible across the city. Though it sounds pretty basic, there is actually a surprising amount of depth in just how you cause your destruction. Even before the launch, you can adjust the angle and power of the slingshot using the analog sticks. It's once you've launched yourself into the air that you realize there is more going on that just sitting back and watching your guy smash into walls and monkeys. After you've fired your guy towards the city, you can help guide him in any direction using the analog sticks, as well as change his poses for extra points and the ability to hit specific objects that you might not normally reach. You can also grab onto pretty much anything by pressing one of the face buttons in the direction of the item you want to latch onto. The timing can be a little tricky but it's pretty satisfying flying through the air, grabbing a swinging girder, and whipping around to land on some cantankerous old lady.%Gallery-3203%
Pain: an experiment of in-game advertising
Have you tried the newest PSN downloadable title, Pain? If you have, you'll have noticed the abundance of billboards that litter the virtual city. While currently focused on SCEA games, such as Buzz for PS2 and the upcoming High Velocity Bowling for PSN, there are plans to start infusing real advertising into the game. Thanks to Sony's partnership with Nielsen, advertisers will now be able to track how often their ads will be seen by gamers."You can imagine people like Lionsgate, who publish Blu-ray movies, getting involved. Media, creative agencies and brands all want to be involved in this program," Darlene Kindle, director of Sony's in-game advertising unit, told Adweek.There's a high price of entry to advertise in Pain: $30 CPM (cost per thousand), which rivals costs of traditional advertising, such as ads found in newspapers and magazines. The CPM will rise and lower, depending on how many views are tracked through in-game metrics. However, with such a targeted demographic, advertisers may find this to be quite a lucrative offer. Sony's hoping in-game advertising to become a success, with twenty games planned to have in-game advertising by the end of next year.[Via GameDaily]
PSN Thursday: Heap on the 'Pain' with Resistance maps and Motorstorm vehicles
This week's PSN Thursday update brings the Pain (sorry). The idea behind this $10 PSN downloadable game is to inflict as much pain as possible on your pitiable pixelated counterpart through myriad ill-advised (and physics-based!) scenarios. If you enjoy watching people getting launched from a slingshot into the side of a building, then we know the game for you (and we've also got the number of a great therapist). Not into the pain thing? There are also new maps for Resistance: Fall of Man, vehicles for Motorstorm, David Bowie Rock Band DLC, and Oblivion's Shivering Isles. For the PSN European update please check out sister-site PS3 Fanboy, US folks can hit up the full update list after the break.
Simroid robot lets dental students know what hurts
We've already seen medical students operate on robots that bleed, yap and flat-line, but it's about time dental students underwent the same kind of scrutiny, don'tcha think? If things go as planned, future dentists in Japan could soon be practicing on Simroid, a humanoid that resembles a young woman and can talk back when students hit a nerve. Reportedly, the bot can exclaim "it hurts" and move her eyes / hands whenever discomfort is felt, but best of all, engineers included a "breast sensor" to determine if that area has been touched inappropriately during training. Nothing wrong with ensuring the ethical treatment of robots, we suppose.[Via Physorg]
PAIN arriving this Thursday
A new post on the PlayStation.Blog has let us know that the upcoming PSN title PAIN will finally be made available for public consumption this coming Thursday. The game has previously been confirmed to be priced at $9.99 in America, though price information for other territories is currently unknown. It has been mentioned by the development team that they want a worldwide release for the game, but whether that's the case is still unclear.If you're still unsure about purchasing the game, then be sure to check out the new trailer on the PlayStation.Blog as well as previous video showing a few of the game modes. The latest PlayStation.Blog post also includes a few interesting tidbits and quotes from the development process which are quite amusing.
PSN a source of PAIN this Thursday
If you're the sort who revels in the suffering of polygonal citizens, laughing maniacally as ragdoll physics drag their flailing bodies down the stairs and into physically awkward and often impossible positions, the PlayStation Network has the game for you this Thursday. Concisely dubbed "PAIN," the downloadable title hopes to indulge your vicious impulses and charge you $9.99 to repeatedly launch a man from a giant slingshot into an oncoming bus. Though the game injects several different modes (they had us with "Mime Toss") and online features into the proceedings, we wonder if the game's longevity will extend beyond that of the game's protagonist protagonized. We can't wait to find out.
Today's bone-crushing video: Pain
Gamevideos shows two new clips of Pain, the extreme health insurance simulation. Well, like the rest of our murder simulators, Pain only shows the id-worthy, visceral high of crashing your sim-like characters into obstacles. Pain unrealistically omits the months and years of recovery.Anyway, the jackasses in us have been scoping this upcoming, PS3 downloadable for its visceral high and unrealistic omission of months and years of recovery. See some of the ways you'll torture your characters after the break.
New PAIN video shows off gameplay modes
Travis Williams, Senior Producer of PAIN, has written a post on the PlayStation.Blog today outlining the six different modes of gameplay the game will ship with when it is released later this month. A video has also been posted which showcases these gameplay modes - be sure to check it out. Williams is also desperate for people to continue making suggestions about the game so that they can be incorporated later, even going so far as to setup a poll on the PlayStation.Blog sidebar with the question "Who would you like to see in PAIN?" (We voted for "Sony Video Game Characters, of course). PAIN's six gameplay modes will be split equally between single player and multiplayer and involve titles such as "Spank the monkey", "HORSE" and "PAINdemonium." It's clear the developers have a special sense of humour. So check out the blog post for more info, watch the video and vote on the poll. Isn't the internet grand?
Sony announces holiday lineup, still believes in Unreal Tournament 3
Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced its 2007 holiday lineup for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Network and PlayStation Portable. The full list (posted after the break) contains every released and unreleased title the publisher expects to add to the cacophony of "Buy me!" screams echoing throughout the aisles this festive season. Highlights includes the cringe-inducing PAIN, stealth saga Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus and Lara Croft gender bender, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for PS3. You'll also spot a burst of confidence regarding the timely arrival of one Unreal Tournament III, despite the fact that publisher Midway has written it off for 2007. Is Epic Games going to perform an unlikely Unreal miracle, or did someone miss the memo?
Pain arriving at the end of the month
If you don't remember the PSN title Pain it's all right, we won't blame you this time. The game is essentially a ragdoll fun-time game, where you slingshot, catapult, or somehow hurl a person into the air and watch as pain is inflicted upon said person. A lot of previews spoke highly of it, so we're sure there's a little more to it than that. Sony has confirmed that game is scheduled to come out around the end of November, but if a worldwide release date is scheduled, that date may move back into the beginning of December. Basically, we expect the game in December. We just hope its arrival isn't overshadowed by the block of other games arriving around the same time.
USB-powered infrared pad heals road warrior's aches
It's not often that we see a USB-powered gizmo claiming to "relieve tiredness, muscle strain or even pain," and considering that we can't leave our posts even for a moment to see an actual doctor (a non-robotic one, at least), we couldn't be happier about this development. The USB Far Infra-Red Pad gets all the power it needs from a spare USB port, and apparently emits infrared light onto your weary arms, back or biceps in order to leave you feeling completely revitalized. Interestingly, the manufacturer warns that leaving it on one spot for over 15 minutes can cause all sorts of problems, so yeah, there's that. Anyways, those who spend the majority of their time slaving over a keyboard can snap this (likely worthless) thing up for $21.99, but don't expect any miracles, alright?[Via EverythingUSB]
Low level hunter pets to level faster... someday
So there you are, a proud hunter at level 70, and you suddenly realize that you absolutely must have a low-level pet, such as the famous translucent ghost saber? What do you do? Up till now the conventional answer was: "suffer." Low level pets only gain experience when you kill something around your level range, not theirs, so the only choice is to just bear with it for a very long time while you try to kill high-level monsters with a low-level pet, or else just give up and not do it.Well finally it looks like Blizzard has in mind something to do about it. Drysc tells us: We have plans to adjust how quickly a hunter's pet will level if there's a large gap between it and the hunter's level. However, it's still just a plan and not something we've implemented and thus are not ready to discuss it.Something's going to happen -- we just don't know what it is yet. But really, for hunters anything would be better than what it is now. It's always nice to remove needless tedium don't you think?
Developer's Studio: Travis Williams and PAIN
The PlayStation.Blog's "Inside the Developer's Studio" feature continues in its run up to E3. On the 25th we saw Cory Barlog (possibly our favourite developer, simply because his surname is so close to Balrog) discuss God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP. Twice. Yesterday it was Travis Williams' turn as he gives us some pre-E3 insight into PAIN, the upcoming PSN title.When asked what the developers of PAIN are doing on the PS3 that can't be done on any other consoles, Williams waxes lyrical on the virtues of the PSN and how it allows a direct dialogue between audience and developer. He says "there's a level of interaction with the game players that we couldn't achieve until now. We've got cool ideas, but I'm really looking forward to see how other people play PAIN." Speaking of cool ideas, Williams says that they're interested in developing new characters for the game before it is released. So if you have any thoughts on characters you'd like to inflict pain on by shooting them out of a giant slingshot, post a comment on the PlayStation.Blog post and, you never know, you might see it in the final version.Interestingly, the game Williams would most like to sit down in front of for an hour is Killzone 2. Apparently he's heard "it looks AMAZING". There's the pre-E3 hype we're looking for. Our own Andrew Yoon will be at the Killzone 2 official presentation, so we'll keep you updated over the E3 period. Check out the PlayStation.Blog to see all of Williams' responses to the, seemingly extended, question list.
Joystiq Podcast 008 - Sony Gamer's Day edition
After a short break marred by technical difficulties, Ludwig rejoins the podcast to go over the Halo 3 beta, the StarCraft 2 announcement, and Guitar Hero III. Song. By. Song. We also join up with Joystiq's Kevin Kelly who spent a couple days in San Diego at Sony's Gamer's Day event, to get the skinny on what Sony's got in store. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in iTunes (MP3) [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [Digg] Like the show? Digg it. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Hosts: Christopher Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann, and Justin McElroy Guests: Joystiq's Kevin Kelly Music: "We Weren't Put Together" by David E. Sugar Program: 0:05:10 - Halo 3 beta 0:13:41 - StarCraft 2 0:19:16 - Sony Gamer's Day 07 (see PlayStation Fancast for more detail) 0:21:08 - Little Big Planet, PlayStation Home, Pain 0:35:40 - WarHawk, Drake's Fortune, Heavenly Sword 0:44:35 - Socom Confrontation, Folklore, High Velocity Bowling 0:51:18 - Stranglehold, God of War: Chains of Olympus 0:57:58 - April NPD ("My Pokemans. Let me show you them.") 1:05:39 - PlayStation 3 1.80 1:08:44 - Guitar Hero III songs 1:22:05 - FIN
PlayStation 3 becomes a source of Pain
Click for a painfully larger version. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation_3/Pain_coming_to_PS3_s_PSN'; On Wednesday Sony revealed a new PlayStation Network downloadable game called Pain. After listening to all the "Ooooooooh" "Ouch!" "Dang" and "Man, that had to hurt" statements from bystanders watching the demo, the name seemed very appropriate. It's about what you'd expect from a game that cites Jackass as a major inspiration and rewards you for shots to the crotch.Basically, it's a simple approach that combines Havok physics with a big human-sized slingshot. You load up your player and launch him into a situation that causes the most pain, whether it be slamming into a moving car, hitting a propane tank (that promptly explodes, natch) or crashing through plate-glass windows. You can interact with the environment in a ton of different ways and in multiple (and curiously named) gameplay modes such as HORSE, Spank the Monkey, and Mime Toss.The game will also feature user-generated content (there's no escaping Game 3.0!) in the form of game replays that you can upload to the web, and possibly to YouTube, all directly from your console. They haven't announced a price point yet, but the developers told us it would be "reasonable." This title was a surprise hit at the Sony Gamers Day, so look for our hands-on with it soon.%Gallery-3175%
SGD '07: Pain announced for PSN, first gallery available
When we first saw this gallery for the newly-announced PlayStation Network title Pain, we thought to ourselves "this looks like a more cutesy version of Flatout" but upon closer inspection ... yeah, it does. Not that it's a bad thing. Sending our little avatar into a world of hurt to score points or whatever seems like an interesting concept. Making himself into a human slingshot sounds fun, but hopefully the final product will have a wide variety of creative ways to induce a whole lot of ouch with minimal effort. We'll keep you posted as details emerge on this game. For now, check out our gallery and a new video of the game, after the cut.%Gallery-3203%
"iPod thumb" hazard of iPod use
Repetitive stress injuries. It's a problem that plagues the technological world. One of the newest diagnoses? iPod thumb. "Some users of Apple's iPod music player have also complained about the intensive thumb movement, according to leading British-based online IT magazine." The experts give simple advice. If it hurts, they say, stop. It's easy to laugh at and overlook these injuries so long as they happen to someone else. Up close and personal is another matter. TUAW readers, please take care of yourselves and watch for the warning signs of oncoming RSI issues: tingling, stiffness and pain.
Software in development to detect / monitor infant pain
Sure, we've got plenty of ways to inflict pain, but aside from obvious signs conveyed through body language, how can we be sure someone is actually hurting? In the case of infants, their facial expressions cannot be trusted to determine whether he / she is really aching, as hunger and desire for attention can yield very similar (and equally misleading) faces. Sheryl Brahnam, an information scientist at Missouri State University at Springfield, is currently developing software that has proven "90 percent accurate" thus far in truthfully differentiating between honest distress and false alarms. Brahnam's system, dubbed the Classification of Pain Expressions (COPE), analyzes facial signals such as "how scrunched up the eyes are, the angle of the mouth, and the furrow of the brow" to determine root causes. The system relies on a "neural-network learning algorithm" that has been trained on a database of 204 photographic images of 26 different infants taken during a "standard heel prick," which is widely known to aggrieve infants. Brahnam admits the software has "a ways to go" before ready for clinical use, but the ability to accurately detect pain could lead to quicker diagnostics in infantile issues, and probably keep clueless parents of whiny babies a tad more informed sane.[Via MedGadget]
De-glossing an Onyx DS is torture most foul [update 1]
It's always interesting to see what people will do to their systems. Especially their expensive, pretty ones. The Onyx DS (or, black DS) happens to be, in our opinion, the sleekest, sexiest system released on this planet. The fact that our fingerprints were visible after playing doesn't bother us. We simply carry around a soft cloth to wipe them away after long sessions with Starfox Command, and consider it a small price to pay to the gods of sleek design. While we have no problems seeing the DS covered in shiny goodness, some people disagree. This difference of views can sometimes lead to experimentation of the most brutal kind. NeoGAFfer Dice isn't too satisfied with the glare on his Onyx DS. He decided to experiment with this in a very painful way. Overt your eyes, weak-stomached ones. This one kicks you right in the gut. Behold what happens when you take equipment used for fingernails to a DS. The end results are icky and can be seen on the second page of the thread. Is there some kind of system abuse line we can call to make the pain stop? [Thanks JC!] [Update 1: Pesky typos!]
DS Lite Stress Test
We've known for quite some time that Nintendo products tend to be very, very durable. Why, I myself once left my Game Boy Advance SP on top of my car, and started to drive away; only at around 40 M.P.H. did the SP finally fly off into heavy traffic, careening onto pavement and quite literally getting run over twice. Sure enough, despite the number on the paint job, the damn thing still functioned perfectly. But I digress.Here we have a short video showing a sick, pathologically insane human being attempting to crush a DS Lite into utter submission. While he succeeds in making the fanboys shield their eyes to avert the pain, he absolutely fails to do any lasting damage to the unit. Rock on, Nintendo.Oh, and for bonus material, follow the link to watch several Xboxes set aflame.[Thanks, Richard!]
