The contest is simple, launch AXE’s Smooth Jarvis character into any PAIN area, then execute the Double Pits to Chesty move. Then, use PAIN’s in-game video capture feature to record, edit and post your combination to your YouTube account – making sure to use the tag “PAIN AXE Jarvis.” If your combination is funnier and more challenging than the rest, you could be in the running to win the grand prize – which includes a new 42” Bravia LCD HDTV to enjoy PAIN and your other favorite PS3 games on, as well as a sweet PAIN AXE Jarvis Maquette and some other cool AXE prizes.

The contest starts tomorrow, September 1st at 12:01 AM PST and runs through September 30th. Don’t delay the PAIN! The first 250 contestants to earn the AXE trophy in game will also win a PAIN t-shirt. Check out www.PAINPS3.com and the video below for complete contest details!

Combine these moves successfully with any of the eight original standard PAIN moves and not only will you earn classic points and trophies, you’ll also rack up some bonus points to help take that final score to the next level!

The fun won’t end there though. Keep practicing those moves because it may just earn you bragging rights for your favorite combo as part of a four-week PAIN contest. Players will be able to use PAIN’s in-game video capture feature to capture and post your favorite combination to your YouTube account, putting you in the running to win a host of cool prizes.

Contestants with the best moves have the chance to win prizes that range from a one-of-a-kind custom “Smooth Jarvis” collectible character action figure to a brand new 42” Sony HDTV to enjoy PAIN and other favorite PS3 games on. Contest starts September 1st and runs through September 30th.

Keep an eye out here and in the game for more details on how you can use the Double Pits to Chesty move to score more than just a fresh scent and the attention of the people around you!

I told the producer of that game he better come correct. I know where he sits. That game looks AWE-SOME! You think he would let me put some PAIN characters in that game? Ed, Cookie, Jarvis and Tati would be sooo awesome as Mods!

Anyways.. where wuz I?

If you have been keeping up with our PlayStation Network game PAIN lately you would realize we just released SORE SPOTS. This particular release has been good for us in that we really got to address some core improvements to PAIN as a whole as well as create a multiplayer mode filled with player suggestions we have had for a while now.

Some of the improvements to PAIN include:

• Revamped Menus
  We’ve added so much content that the old menus just were not working for us anymore.
• Trophy lists inside modes
  Players hated leaving modes to figure out how to get all the trophies. So now you can see those requirements inside the mode you are playing.
• PAINalympics!
  It’s a good exercise to browse our message boards and pick out some of the wackiest ideas we have gotten from the community. I remember one player wanted a mode where you could see how long you can go without touching the ground. Another player wanted to swing and kick people… I could go on for a while here, but the request list usually starts to disturb me.

One user suggested we make an Olympic mode.. (And everyone else agreed) So this was a good excuse to tie a bunch of insane acts together and compel people to become good at them. PAINalympics is now my go to mode to play with my friends. As a thanks to some of our community helpers we gave them some love in our new video. Enjoy it!

Thanks again everyone for making PAIN such a joy to work on!

Now where is that ModNation E3 version….?

Not only does Sore Spots continue the rich tradition of the silly fun that is PAIN, Sore Spots also includes a new multiplayer Mode that I’d like to introduce. It’s called “PAINalympics”, and it’s where two to four players can compete in the following events:

Horseshoes – There are four giant horseshoes floating in front of the launcher, and your task is to snatch them and try for a ringer. You have four launches.Whatcha gon’ do?

Bull Ride – Imagine a large group of mechanical bulls, each atop a large column. Launch, grab, and hold on to as many bulls as you can. Ready to ride, cowboys and cowgirls?

Rope Kick – Test your Ooching skills by launching and grabbing a rope that you have to hold onto and swing on, knocking down as many of the characters in the area as you can in 30 seconds.

Balloony Bin – You have 45 seconds to push, pull, drag, or otherwise force balloons into trash bins. Extra points for the red ones!

Stack Whacker – All you have to do here is knock down a wall of boxes in as few launches as possible. If you’re good, you can probably use some exploding objects to help do the job more quickly.

Anvil Toss – Snatch an anvil out of the air and chuck it as far as you can. Watch out for the cherry bombs and exploding chemicals on the floor, though!

Relay Race – Keep your Pimp Slap Hand strong and smack, smack, smack your way to the finish line in the best time…and don’t forget the baby powder!

Punt Ball – Knocking a ball through a goal is sometimes a lot harder than it seems. Extra points if you hit the characters who are dancing between the goal posts.

Swing N’ Dunk – Grab the ring, swing, release…wait for it…wait for it…Oooch your character through the basketball hoop. Harder rings grant a higher reward.

Sore Spots is headed your way on Thursday, May 14th, and we’ll be releasing Ded Baron, a new launchable character, the following week. At the same time as Sore Spots, though, comes a little bonus – You’ll also be able to get a free download of another beloved PlayStation personality, which you may have just read about. He’s a little shy, but here’s a screenshot that will give you an idea of who we’re talking about.

See you in Sore Spots!

Coke

PAIN was never designed with online play in mind. The sheer number of active objects flying around at any given time during a single launch is ridiculous to process, and then when you factor in the possibility of each of those objects hitting another object – perhaps an exploding one – the situation becomes even nuttier. With that in mind, we were a bit stupefied when the People said that they wanted PAIN online. That is by no means a small task, but somehow the evil geniuses at Idol Minds have managed to pull it off, and the patch is now live. The patch is free, and it will allow you to play all your favorite multiplayer PAIN Modes against your buddies online. You can get your text chat on, of course, but it wouldn’t be PAIN without being able to talk trash, so we’ve included voice chat as well. Personally, I think that getting a strike or even a spare in PAIN Bowling with Jarvis’ L2 + X pose says more than I ever could, but it’s your world.

We’re about to drop the Smack Pack on you (sold separately), which includes the Darts and Fortress game Modes. As I’m sure you know, traditional Darts wouldn’t be suitable for PAIN. We wouldn’t dare make something as simple as launching a character into an oversized dartboard. Instead, you have to launch you character toward a giant sticky billboard with multiple bullseyes painted on it, in the process grabbing another character (or bomb) and chucking it at the billboard. Sounds simple enough, eh? Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that your opponents have distractions to jack you up during your flight to the billboard. It makes it even more satisfying to clear the distractions and pull off a bullseye, so I hope your game is in order.

Fortress is the other half of the Smack Pack, and it pits you against up to three opponents, each of you with a giant fortress on a floating platform in the sky. On offense, your task is to aim at an opponent’s fortress, launch and grab an exploding object, and chuck it at their fortress to inflict maximum damage. Every bit of damage you do costs that player points, and when their score reaches zero, that player is eliminated. Obviously, we’d never make it easy for you to do something like that, so at the beginning of each game, every player gets a chance to select their defenses, which range from everything from reinforcements that toughen up your walls, to flying mailboxes and cereal that knock launching enemies out of play, to blue screens that fly up and take out enemies and/or their projectiles. Fortress is a blast to play (no pun intended), so make sure your trash talk is ready.

Like all of the current offline multiplayer Modes in PAIN, Darts and Fortress are playable offline, too. In both modes, the various objects and distractions in the game depend on the environment in which you’re playing. For example, if you’re playing Fortress in the Amusement Park, you’re grabbing and chucking exploding teddy bears. Likewise, if you’re playing Fortress in the Movie Studio, you might see some cameras being used to strengthen your opponents’ walls. Both Modes will be playable in all future environments as well.

As always, we look forward to hearing back from you all on online multiplayer once you get a taste. It’s a nice addition to the world of PAIN, and I have a feeling that everybody’s going to be “leveling up” their PAIN skills as a result of the new competition within the community. Let us know what you think. As always, we’re listening. So get out of here and GO ONLINE LATER TODAY!!!!!!

Do you really want to hurt me? Holla at the Hoff in PAIN: Movie Studio beginning this Thursday, November 13 exclusively on the PlayStation Network.

What am I doing in PAIN you ask? It’s the Movie Studio! What’s a movie studio without The Hoff? You can now put The Hoff into a launcher and fling me into harm’s way – exploding crates, cars, people – everything is fair game. And best of all, you’ll never even put a scratch on this mug of mine!

When I was first approached about PAIN, I really didn’t know what to think. I mean, it’s great to think that someone would want to put me in a game, but THIS game is all about flinging people into walls, smashing them into cars, and spanking monkeys. While I wholeheartedly approve of the monkey spanking, I wasn’t too sure about the rest of the game. When I finally got my hands on PAIN though, everything changed, and I “got it”. If anybody can understand silly fun, it’s me.

I am a man of many emotions so when you throw me around the Movie Studio, I need to express myself. What better way than in song! So to commemorate my invasion onto the PS3, I made a cover song of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” exclusively for PAIN. I’m really happy with the way the track turned out. We definitely brought something new to such a classic, well-known tune, and when you hear it, you’re going to like it. Sure, you know David Hasselhoff, but this song is like nothing I’ve done before.

So, after a lot of hard work by a bunch of talented people, Hoff Day is coming on Nov. 6! I’ve got the keys to the Movie Studio … who wants in? After all, do you REALLY want to hurt me? Wait….don’t answer that. Just go download The Hoff and play PAIN!

PAIN design is liberating. We don’t have to worry about context, story, logic, or even reality. In a lot of ways, PAIN development is about as chaotic and creative as you can be. So before I dig into what’s next, let me thank all of you for buying PAIN because it really has granted us freedom to try new concepts.

November is an exciting month for us as we are launching the next environment for PAIN. It’s called Movie Studio, and it’s our take on the wackiness of movie making.

So to directly contradict my earlier statement … PAIN development is (at least somewhat) a democracy. We have listened to what you wanted and tried our best to make sure all the things that you wanted are in this area. That includes (but isn’t limited to):

• More than one launcher location (There are three that you can dynamically switch to)
• Single Player Fun with Explosives
• New Cratetastic Mode
• Unlockable FREE Character
• HORSE Mode
• Bowling Mode (With all new distractions)

Movie Studio is the first area that we created after hearing all your input (democracy again). Amusement Park was started before PAIN was released (and took quite a while to make). Movie Studio was made in a third of that time, and I think it shows how much better we as a team have gotten at this since the original PAIN area.

We also have a new single player mode in the Lot called CRATETASTIC. I think you will love the mode if you were in any way a fan of Spank the Monkey. Take Spank the Monkey and replace the monkeys with explosives. This mode gets hectic because you can switch launch locations.

We heard everyone comment about the lack of a free character with a purchased area so we kidnapped Buzz and locked him up inside the Movie Studio. Unlock the Afterparty area and get enough points, and he’s all yours.

Bowling and HORSE are also back. There are no mimes in this Bowling mode, but I am confident you will enjoy what we victimize instead.

You can thank your collective outrage for the Fun with Explosives inclusion (democracy + demonstrations = action). The Movie Studio just entered testing when Amusement Park came out. You all really went off about the lack of Single Player FWE inclusion. I called Jeff and told him how I wasn’t willing to explain why it wasn’t in Movie Studio. The funny part was how we all agreed that it was our favorite mode. So the designers burned the midnight oil, and it was added to the content push.

Lastly, you always vote for the PAINdemonium like areas as your favorite modes. So instead of doing two of these, we made three of them. Strangely enough they are easier to design than all the other modes. We thought it might be a good idea to give you more than what we usually do.

Watch the movie. Check out the screenshots and most of all, keep making your opinions heard. It helps us make better content. Stay tuned for the next couple weeks too. We will have some more cool content to share with you.

…and GO VOTE! I sure am.

The NEW PAIN Amusement Park represents quite a bit of gameplay evolution from the development side and substantial input from people who post here and on our community site: www.painps3.com

We also took a long hard look at the trophy requirements and after your extremely candid reactions to them decided that it was much better to dial them down. Not everyone who plays PAIN is as good as the top 10%.

Today, we have four NEW content additions:

• One new PAIN Environment: The Amusement Park ($5.99 USD)
• Three new launchable characters: Tati, Yeony and Kenneth ($.99 USD)
• The Amusement Park: A new PAIN environment means you have new modes to cause PAIN, havoc and mischief all over again. Some familiar modes are back (HORSE, Fun With Explosives, Abusement Park) Some brand new modes are here to mix it up (Call da Shot, Clown Toss, Trauma, Hot n Cold) There’s more content in this add-on than there was in the original PAIN release!
• We also have a fantastic new experimental PAIN mode called PAINLabs. PAINLabs will be our chance to give YOU new PAIN-Based experimental environments EVERY WEEK. FOR FREE! Here we will work with the community (you guys) to build new and improved game modes that will make their way into future expansions. Make sure you are there to grab those Lab experiments when they are posted. We will change them every week! And when you see something you like, post to our boards. I can assure you we read them.

We’ve spent enough time in the incubation stage now. PAIN content is now starting to hit a stride. I hope you guys enjoy The Amusement Park. We have a lot more in store. See you very, VERY soon.

Peace

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune PS3 Bundle with 160GB PS3 System

The 160GB PS3 system announced at the GC will be available here as part of a new limited-edition bundle that includes the hardware, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune game, a PLAYSTATION Network voucher for PAIN, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller. We’re hearing from a lot of you that more PS3 storage space is important, particularly since the launch of our video delivery service, and this new model delivers more memory and a whole lot of content packed-in. The 160GB PS3 has all of the same functionality as the new 80GB PS3 that’s popping up on retailer shelves now, but obviously has twice the HDD space, so you can build levels to your heart’s content in LittleBigPlanet, download a ton of videos, and still have room for your entire music collection. The Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune 160GB PS3 bundle launches in November for $499.99 (MSRP).

New PSP Entertainment Packs with updated PSP (PSP-3000)

We also unveiled at Leipzig an updated PSP system (PSP-3000), which we’ll be offering here initially through the previously announced Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters PSP Entertainment Pack and a new PSP 4GB Memory Entertainment Pack. I’m personally excited about the 4GB Memory bundle because we’re including a – you guessed it – 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, which is the biggest Memory Stick we’ve ever bundled with a PSP. Similar to the new PS3 model, this PSP bundle is the result of the current consumer usage model – where more and more of you are finding that extra memory space is crucial. Check out the press release here for more details on what’s included in the bundles.

The new PSP retains the size and features of the current, slimmed-down PSP (PSP-2000), while incorporating some hardware updates:

• The LCD screen will have a wider color gamut and higher contrast ratio to deliver deeper, more vibrant colors, as well as anti-reflection technology so you can see the screen more clearly when playing outdoors. As you all know, the PSP’s screen is a key strength of the hardware, and this update adds an absolutely dazzling LCD screen to the handheld.
• A built-in microphone allows for Skype calls and multi-player gaming communication directly from the hardware – eliminating the need for attaching a separate headset.

Similar to our firmware updates, the new PSP is simply an opportunity to evolve the platform with the newest technology without adding to the cost of the system. The PSP Entertainment Packs will continue to be $199.99 (MSRP), and later this year we’ll release a standalone, updated PSP in a PSP Core Pack, which remains at $169.99 (MSRP).

PS3 Wireless Keypad

Lastly, we’ve announced a new Wireless Keypad for PS3 that will make text communications and Web browsing much easier. The Wireless Keypad snaps onto the top of a SIXAXIS or DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller and comes with some cool features, including a mode that turns the main key area into a touch pad (similar to a touch pad on a Laptop computer). Once in this mode, you can slide your finger on this area to move the cursor on the screen and tap to enter. There will be two short cut buttons on the Keypad that will enable users to jump directly to the XMB’s “Friends” icon and the “Message Box” during gameplay. The Wireless Keypad will launch in late November.

Last but not least, the Wireless Keypad is a Bluetooth device that can not only be used with the PS3 system but with any other Bluetooth enabled device that has Keyboard functionality. You will be able to use it with your smart phones and other portable devices that are equipped with Bluetooth. With the PS3 system, it can be paired and charged seamlessly just by connecting them with a USB cable.

That’s all for now on the hardware front. You’ll see much more on the games shown at GC in Leipzig in the coming days.