Throw yourself off a building

Teenagers thrive on random chaos. You don't need an extensive market research report to tell you that. But Sony went ahead and commissioned one anyway, found out that the kids also like creativity, community, competition and other c-words, and the result is a new physics-based "action comedy" game built by Idol Minds called PAIN. It's due out exclusively on PS3 Store this Christmas.

Using a powerful man-sized slingshot, PAIN invites you to propel yourself into a city in an attempt to cause as much damage to yourself and sew as much panic among the locals as possible. Havok physics and ragdoll tech make sure that you flail and crash into and off of things with conviction, and in-flight controls allow you to drift, strike poses and try and grab things. Initially you're just being slung across the street, but the game expands to send you arcing over rooftops, clipping trains, scaffold and all sorts of other painful snags on the way.

There are a range of game modes to get on with, including "Spank the Monkey" and "Mime Toss", along with online multiplayer "HORSE" and other co-operative and competitive modes. Idol Minds is taking a community-minded approach, saving every game of PAIN to the PS3 hard disk as an action-replay, and then allowing you to upload the most outrageous and interesting. Other PAIN players will then be able to download, rank and comment on your work.

You're right, it does sound quite interesting. There's no word on how much it will cost, but hopefully it won't hurt too much.