Ok, there was no shortage of talk about violence in video games with the recent release of the latest installment of Grand Theft Auto - which I will confess is one of my guilty pleasures.

But what about a game that is based on nothing more than torturing someone? The game, imaginatively called The Torture Game 2, features a pale-skinned male suspended by ropes. The object is to torture him, using a variety of tools, including spikes, razors, etc. That’s about it. There is no scoring system. No points to be earned for anything. Just torture.

Winda Benedetti, MSNBC’s Citizen Gamer, has some interesting things to say about the game, which can be found at sites like Newground.com, which allows designers to distribute free games.

The game does, I should mention, offer you the option of customizing the face of your poor victim. I just put my own head on the body and attacked it with a chainsaw. This I did for one of my coworkers, who writes about medicine. She just shook her head and walked away.

I’m sure there are many readers out there who already think games like Grand Theft Auto go too far. What about this one? What sort of value does it have? What makes it fun?