New Updates Bring the PAIN

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Whatup!

My name is Travis Williams and I am the Senior Producer for PAIN for the PlayStation Network. It’s been a while since I last posted on the Official PlayStation blog. Every time I have it’s been a great experience. You all have shown me “da-love” so I wanted to make sure that when there was something cool to share with you that I would be back. I want to tell you what we’ve been doing with PAIN and why you should pay attention to us in the months to come.

PS3 MGS Bundle

Before I continue let me say welcome to the new PAIN users that have come via the Metal Gear Solid PlayStation 3 bundle. We’re happy to have you. Between your covert world saving missions you might want to take some time to pass a little gas. I won’t tell.

Snake SNAKE SNAAAAAAAAAAAKE!

Ahem…. Where was I? Oh yeah….

Tomorrow, the 19th of June we are releasing our next free update to PAIN. This will be a two-week process where each week we release new features and content to PAIN. This is a two-week process because we are perfecting our content delivery process. We have always had this goal with PAIN that we should be able to move faster with our content delivery than most games. If you are a normal PAIN blog reader you might laugh at that comment. They have been waiting for months for us to pick up the pace. Some of them were wondering where I’ve been lately.

While we are not completely done with this exercise I believe we have come a long way in making sure that the PAIN content delivery process is ironed out. In the coming months you will see new modes, characters, environments, and content options that everyone has been asking (or demanding) since we released in November (in the US). The great part about all of our future work is that it is worldwide. If I knew it was going to be this hard I would have shut my face before making such bold comments.

Oh well.. at least I am finally makin good right? Right?!

PAIN_Ginger_02

So what’s in the 6-19 update then? Here you go…

    Jukebox Play – Now you can play your own tunes inside of PAIN. If you have some time go back to my previous blog posts and you will see where you users took us to task about including this option. So it’s DONE.

    New Downtown Layouts – We have new configurations for downtown. Demolition and Block Party. Go to the trophy room after your update and you will see how to unlock these areas. You can also play these areas in HORSE now too.

    Multiple Character Selection
    – Many of our players wanted to play two player games with different characters. So there you go.

    Logo Skip – Now you don’t have to wait for the logo sequence to get right to the game.

PAIN_Ginger_01

The next PAIN update will happen a week later… This will include…

    Nigel – A nod goes out to Sony Europe for helping us make a hoodlum the right way. Nigel will be available for download.

    Platinum Club – If you are awesome at PAIN and earned all your Platinum medals then you will get brand new layouts for Spank The Monkey, Mime Toss and Fun with Explosives. You even have an exclusive leader board. Now that’s elite. If you are in the Platinum Club trust me… you have skillz.

That’s all for now. The PAIN content train is gaining speed. I’ll be back next month to tell you all about our brand new “Abusement” Park and how we are still as ridiculous as we were when we made Downtown.

I really should have more supervision… *Evil Laugh*

Peace

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110 Comments

11 Author Replies

  • *****************************************
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    Im Glade To hear that the PAIN team is working hard on Online Play hope to see it around when or before HOME launches :D

    Little off subject: Can’t wait for HOME because will make a better closer relationship with all of our PSN Friends ;)

    Reason for that would be because of not only hearing them I would have someone to look at and talk to in front of me and be the life of a Social Community :P

    back on track: Be updating it when it goes Live ;)

    Skater_Ricky,
    *****************************************
    *****************************************

  • sad to say – I’ve not played this game, keep seeing on the store but never quite got to buying it as yet

  • ha ha, the funny thing is travis, YESTERDAY, i decided to go check your blog again, and nothing was new, and then , BLAM, you posted here, it was like i KNEW.

  • Sweet no more waiting for the logos.

  • Travis,

    I appreciate the reply.

    Is there any chance we could get a small demo for us to judge if the game is worth $10? I am interested in the game, the only thing that’s preventing it is the price (or the fact I’ve never actually played it to justify the price) What can I say I’m cheap.

  • Nice update.

    keep up the great work.
    The whole SONY team is on the roll lately.

    Thanks

    SPARDA

  • @Bender: Well I am just going to kinda gloss over your condescension and answer the question that you kinda sorta asked but not really. We have been working on more than one level my friend. Just because you haven’t been notified of our work doesn’t mean that there is no work being done. And it doesn’t matter that you delete PAIN you can download it again because the rights are tied to your account. You’re missing out. I can understand that you are tired of waiting but when the wait is over you might want to revisit your viewpoint.

    @Linton: Well make it happen. When the multiplayer action happens you don’t want to be the noob do you?

    @CrazyPenguin: I wish I knew as well. I’ve been fighting the forces of bugs all day. But I was triumphant. It’s a beautiful thing.

    @Rikumasan: Yeah that was kinda annoying right? You just wanna get in there. So it’s all done.

    @psyXcho: I’ve been thinking about a demo. No promises but I have been thinking about how to make a demo of PAIN and have it represent what the game is about and not give away so much that people think this is all there is. For what my word is worth to you… it’s something I have been pondering. If there is a middleground I will let you know.

    @Sparda: Thanks man. We do what we can.

    @Everyone: If I hear more High Velocity Bowling news I will try to sneak some info to you. It’s a great game and the team is really dedicated. Don’t give up on them they are really working hard on new inventive stuff.

    @Phantasmn: The new areas are not free and you will hear about them within a months time (promise). However, the improvements to PAIN will be echoed in the Downtown area even if you don’t buy any other area. There won’t be simul-launching in PAIN. At least not in this iteration. That takes a lot of re-engineering. Bundles are handled by marketing. So we will see. I am the wrong person to answer that one.

    @EvilMonkey: (Low Bow) Hai! Thanks again.

  • The wife and I put TONS of hours in the game so far and have a blast playing it. Nice to see these updates are on the way, can’t wait!!!

  • Hey Travis… U DA MAN!!!!

    Thanks for the replies.

    Holla at you on PAIN’s blog…

  • Good to hear that additional levels are in the works.

    At this point, I would think that level design should be the major (if not solitary) focus of your development team.

    I’m sure we all bought an extra character or two — then vowed never to buy another as they didn’t really added any additional value or enjoyment to the game — especially when those characters were confined to the same “Downtown” level we’d already played to death (no pun intended).

    To be brutally honesnt, I’ve long ago stopped playing PAIN, and nothing short of some new levels will get me interested in the game again.

    …and I’m sure I’m not alone in those sentiments.

  • WOW. Travis, PAIN is now my favorite PSN game. Not only because all this awesome new stuff that is coming, but also because how hard you guys are working mixed in with how awesome you are replying to your fans. I mean, seriously, you replied to practically everyone and answered almost every question. SO, SO much props.

    In-game soundtracks, trophy support, new characters, new level, online(!), and so much more, is getting me hyped to play Pain again and again.

    Can’t wait! Plus I have been thinking about how cool split screen would be, like just messing with your friends you know… could be interesting.

    Oh and Travis, if you read this, I do NOT think you should do a demo. It is really tricky with a game like this, because it can give away far too much, you know. If you have to though, I would say be cheap and only allow them X number of launches or X number of minutes… Or a trial demo?.. But all in all no demo would be the right choice here.

  • Couldn’t have happened to a better game.
    Thanks Pain guys.

  • I bought the mgs4 bundle and im enjoying pain alot cant wait to check out the new stuff.

  • the only pain i got came from waiting for mgs4 to come out. no bundles existed when i bought the ps3. metal gear.

  • It’s great to see you replying here, I think it’s very important for us gamers, to see the devps are really hearing (or reading)what we have to say, thank you.

    When Pain came out I was really excited, because it seemed a great idea for me, but by the time, I had only 1 sixaxis, and left it gathering virtual dust, then when I bot the other controllers I had a blast with it, it’s really a very ejoyable experience, I also think you shouldn’t make a full demo of the game, but a trial could be nice, cause demos make people buy games, at least I do, that’s why I bought RFOM, Uncharted and Folklore…

    Kudos for your interest in the people’s voice, this game will be amazing with online simultaneous play, and voice chat…I know that’s something must’ve think of already…

    Greetings from Costa Rica…

  • PD:sorry about my english thoug…

  • Very glad to hear about the update; my partner, who isn’t generally into games, loves playing PAIN; “Suh-weeEEEeet!” has become a part of our household vocabulary, so looking forward to today’s update and more stuff forthcoming.

    As an aside, thanks for speaking up for the HVB team. The anonymity of the internet can make a lot of people more abrasive than they would be IRL (or at least I hope so), so I’m glad you answered some folks’ grousing with an explanation and reason for optimism.

    Last but not least, I’ve been to the Manhole, and the music coming out of the one in PAIN doesn’t sound at all like what I heard there O_O

  • @Travis

    See now that’s one thing I absolutely love about your blogs Travis, you actually take the time to address most of the intelligent commentees by name on the blog, and it’s nice to not see even a hint of annoyance, over having to repeat yourself… again much respect from the indy dev community, I’m on the PAIN blog, but under my ps-underground name (aka Truthc3ll) there.

    Keep up the great work, (both Idol Minds & HVB team) The update, and future updates are music to our ears… or is it eyes? because blogs are in fact read, and not heard? I think I should research that…

  • wow those are some great news.. Travis Williams, thank you for the hard work and the needs of us PAIN owners… thanks you so much for everything.

  • Very nice, I’ll be looking forward to the update especially since it has my favorite word “free”. I’ve been neglecting my pain doses here and there with MGS4 and GTA4 this update should bring the pain back in my life.

  • Eternity_Viper_Snake

    cool update thanks might look into it. :)

  • YET AGAIN, MORE BROKEN PROMISES FROM SONY…

    When will they learn to keep their mouths shut…

    US, Pain update is out, Europe, not a squeak..

  • I’ve been looking forward to the Abusment Park for a while now, glad to hear it’s on it’s way.
    I bought some extra characters but other than a few laughs they’re pointless. Maybe some characters from a few Sony franchises could intice me to download more, otherwise I think I’m over them.

  • well don’t this just suck all the more. i just got the pain update today, the ps3 fw update the day before and now i get this aweful error message when i start pain. “a network error has occured, you must restart PAIN and reconnect to access any online content”?? WTFH? i’m still connected to psn so it’s not the ps3, i’m here so it’s not my network/isp/internet. it’s either the 2.36fw or PAIN update.
    HELP!!!
    also, finally, my own music while playing pain, no more silent explosive playing. Chain by Back-On (theme from Air Gear) with it’s own explosive content makes for better PAINing. thanks travis, thanks alot (no sarcasm meant)

  • sweet thank you custom tunes in pain was well needed nice update :D

  • This is a Nice Update for PAIN!! But i want new Levels to.. And its nice that you guys put Jukebox Play in PAIN but… with the New firmwate 2.40 update for the PS3 comming in all, with IN GAME XMB… wont we have in game Music aswell??

    PSN ID: Kingvegeta809

  • so the others that have downloaded the update don’t have the connection error problem? i’m reading alot of people on the pain blog also have this issue. is it pain or is it 2.36fw?
    HELP?!?
    OH HELP!?!

  • Hey Travis, I just wanted to thank you for being committed to delivering content for this game, other developers should take note. Isn’t there some sort of Hall of Fame for developers like you?

    I can’t wait to see what other content you have in store for PAIN.

    Any chance you could make Aaron Greenberg a downloadable character? I’d love put him through a window…

  • cool i thought you guys got lost in the wind

  • Hey Travis,

    I installed the 1.67 Update just now on my American 60 GB PS3 and I get the following error everytime now when I launch Pain at startup.

    “A network error has occurred, you must restart PAIN and reconnnect to access any online content.”

    This error never occurred until this 1.67 update was installed. I even played Pain lastnight before the 1.67 update without getting this error. Now everytime trying to start or restart Pain I get this error message after the update.

  • Nice. I can’t wait for these updates.

  • I am getting the same error as 80.

  • Yep… same error as 80 but they said is the 1st part of the update of two so lets wait for the second one… btw, love the information thing of each song and the character select.

  • @83, i’ve already stated this problem. nice to know you guys read. now, if this problem prevents pain from connecting to the net, how the heck are we suppose to get the next update?

    @Travis, Coke, PSBlog staff, how about a solution to the problem of pain not connecting to the net. also, how about YOUSE GUYS tell us what exactly caused this. pain update or firmware update.

    @anyone getting this problem, your PS3 SKU doesn’t factor into the problem. stating which SKU you have is pointless here. people with every SKU on the market are complaining of the same problem. you can check that out yourself over at the pain blog.

  • @84
    No, I don’t read you sorry but I see some people are so picky… anyway, uou still connected to the PSN and still can download things…. just failed to connect to their server and then that’s a problem they need to solve from there to connect the game to the PSN. Just my guess maybe I’m wrong but if still connected to the PSN and you can still download in the background… I don’t know…

  • yes, you are connected to psn still. but you are not connected to PAINs servers. thats a huge problem when trying to get the next update. the updates come from idol minds themselves, even though it would make an equal amount of sense to have them hosted in the psn store. i have read elsewhere about people claiming to have problems with games after updating to 2.36fw, this is why i ask which update is causing the problem. all i want is a solution and possibly an explanation.

  • That’s a 10-4 on the message about an error, I’m receiving it as well… almost went off without a hitch Travis… damn Gremlins huh?

  • What gives Travis, I can’t connect my game to the network now. What’s up with this? Also it has made everything on my xmb load very slow since I did this update. Man, this is not cool I just swapped out hdd’s and redownloaded everything. It took me hours.

  • It’s offical, it bricked my system. Man, this really blows. Here’s what happened

    – I logged on and went straight for Pain.
    Downloaded the patch just fine and rebooted it when told to do so.
    – When the game initialised and was checking for updates it said “network error”
    – I started the game anyways.
    – noticed nothing would load up. No game would start. It’d just sift thru the pain pictures with the jazzy little piano bits.
    – Reset the system and tried again. Noticed the xmb wasn’t loading up as fast and was laggy when it did load up.
    – Deleted the game and the files and the utility.
    – Redownloaded everything and tried my luck again.
    – Bam, in the face. System locked up yellow light and had to turn it off manually because the 5 second gig wasn’t working when you hold the button down.

    So yeah, I’m pretty happy about this update! Psn Thursdays are can’t mis events, lemme tell ya.

    Oh well, it can’t be helped I suppose. It was bound to happen sooner or later I just hope my new hdd is fine.

  • PAIN is fun, but it would be more fun if it had online play.

    Good update by the way. I don’t like waiting for the logos to play, I want to play IMMEDIATELY :P

  • Here’s a pro-tip, if you want people to continue supporting you and your game you need to do better than selling over-priced add-on characters when your game only has one level that gets old pretty fast.

  • Note: i have also noticed that certian things didn’t load. i unlocked aftermath, yet it’s no longer there? missing thropies, not the same medals (bronze or silver instead of golds and platinums) maybe you should have tested a little longer. fix this all please!

  • Good Job Travis and all the team. Pain is my favourite downloadable game, but i’d like to see more levels and characteres, because the game looks a little bit “nude” and incomplete.

    After downloading de update i have installed it. But when i start the game it appears an error, and when i check the new levels, they are locked and i can’t play them. It is suposed to buy them? When i am playing the game, it’s like i am logged out from de PSN, but onlny in the game.

  • terminatorvsmtrx

    yo PAIN is awesome and I can’t wait for the new content… and thanks to Travis for being a freakin blog champion.. its extremely rare that we get people responding as often and as well as you do

  • @Everyone: Our PAIN updates are worldwide and when Asia and USA patched Europe had a huge power outage and could not publish the update. They are working on the problem and will be up and running as soon as they can. Obviously you can’t work on deploying patches when you have no juice.

    When they are up and running. Which should be in the morning London time they will be able to deploy the patch. When that happens we will roll out the second part of our patch that talks to the servers and everyone’s issues will be solved. This was no ones fault as no one has control over power outages.

    @Vidarcr: Costa Rica?! Dude I am so jealous I wanna GO THERE. Yes, we will have online play, voice over ip chat and new modes and areas soon. I will talk about all those things before a month is over with.

    @Xoas: The Manhole is where grown men go to play. I think we have a different DJ. Haha

    @Kedaro: Thanks. It’s kinda hard sometimes to keep up, but most people appreciate it when you tell them what’s going on and don’t give them a lot of soft shoe. Thanks for the props.

    @Mgillespie: SCEE is not responsible for the lack of power to their location. It was just some bad luck. PAIN is a global project and if SCEE doesn’t get updated no one does. Please don’t feel like this was some plot to give you guys the shaft. They are hard at work making this problem go away. The guys/ladies over there do a great job. Don’t judge them too harshly they really have a lot going on.

    @DG: It’s coming… and I think you are going to love it.

    @TheVesra: Your problem will be fixed shortly. More than likely before you wake up from your nights sleep. The problem lies in the fact that there are two parts to the PAIN update and if we apply the second part it will not be good for Europe. So we are holding off so they can update. When they do we will apply the adjustments to the game that make it all better. This is an oversimplification but to go into too much detail doesn’t help anyone. To answer your other question… You are connecting to the PAIN servers, and what’s happening is PAIN is looking at your code and saying HEY YOU HAVE NEW CODE. Then it looks at everyone else and says… HEY THEY HAVE OLD CODE. And then it boots you off because something “aint right” so as soon as Europe’s PAIN servers agree with US and ASIA the servers will quit booting you off (Because everyone agrees then). I hope that makes sense. So this has nothing to do with the new PS3 OS. And everything to do with PAIN versions being off because of the power outage.

    @S-Hammer: First of all nice name. (I’m laughing over here). If there is a Hall of Fame there are some people on the team who deserve it more than I do. I just direct traffic and yell and scream all the time. It’s decent work if you can get it. Leave Aaron alone what did he do to you?! Haha

    @Bwhitlat: The error you are getting will be gone soon. See my explanation above.

    @Gamesblow: There is nothing about PAIN that could brick you. I am not debating you might have a hardware issue but I can assure you that it’s nothing PAIN is doing.

    @Gardea: Online play is coming. We are doing it internally now. We just need to test more and refine. It’s coming.

    @Wiitendotriple: We give you a choice in character selection. You don’t have to buy them to enjoy PAIN. We would like to think we make plenty of them available so you can pick which character you feel you would most like to abuse. And the assumption that character creation takes away from area creation is incorrect. We are making more levels and you will see the proof soon.

    @Vesra again: All our game levels load correctly. I am not sure what you are experiencing here. It doesn’t just disappear. Also I have never seen trophies disappear either. Are you sure you are looking at the right menu?

    @HeartbeatPT: Excuse our birthday suits haha. We are almost done making new clothes. They look pretty good too. I can’t wait to show everyone if only so I can stop having to say that over and over again. The new areas are locked but if you go into the trophy room you will see that we added over 12 new trophies. 2 of those trophies show you how to unlock the two new PAINdemonium layouts. So you just don’t get them right away you have to unlock them via the rules in the trophy room.

    WHEW! Hope that helps everyone. I will make sure to check in soon to make sure everyone is updated correctly.

    PEACE

  • @Terminator: No PROBLEMO. I have detailed files.

  • Ok, here’s the deal.

    I went back swapped the hdd 2 times now and just have pain downloaded at the time being. I can’t be bothered with the rest of the content at the moment. Anyways, It is working fine now, after I reformatted my 320gb hdd… However, I am getting a network error and it won’t let me online.

    I am still connected to the Internet and can play Resistance, Cod4, mgs4 and motorstorm online just fine.

    I can boot up Pain just fine and it’ll play everything but the online component down at the bottom of the screen and it says everytime when I boot it up “network failure reset the psn and connect to the internet”

    So that’s where i am at the time being. I don’t know why my hdd would brick my system since it was brand new but Samsungs aren’t as reliable as Western Digital it seems over at New Egg… Then again, Bricked might’ve been the wrong word to use.

    I have also noticed the xmb isn’t running as fast either. It takes a few second to load up everything.

    Anyways, lemme know if you know anything about the online aspect for the game. The error I am getting that is. I am connected directly into my modem and have flawless internet service with 40.5 mbps service.

  • @Gamesblow: You are fine dude. There is nothing you can do right now the rest of the work is for the PAIN team to sort out. Sit this one out and your problems should go away in less than 12 hours. Sorry this has made you nuts. If it’s any consolation I have been nuts too. What you are experiencing is a known issue with the online leader boards for PAIN that’s why you are being kicked off.

    320GB HDD?! You sir are the MAN!

  • @Trav, thanks and thanks again. maybe my last save game became currupted, or didn’t save at all? don’t matter, just gonna have to play more to get back to the last point i was at. so we’re looking at tom orrow to fix the other issue, great. after reading what gamesblow said, i became extra concerned. considering i’ve already had to send my unit to sony once. (the main reason i ditched the other guys entirely)

  • Thanks for keeping us updated on the PAIN issues Travis.

    The new features you guys have in store sound really fun, can’t wait to try them all out.

    Is PAIN going to have any Home integration?

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