Trailer for new PS3-exclusive Rain is as unique, beautiful and sad as a clinically depressed snowflake

If there's one thing Sony has consistently knocked out of the park this generation, it's using the full potential of downloadable console gaming to flex its teams' experimental, creative muscles. From Fl0w right up to Journey, it's made the PS3 the go-to console for more leftfield artistic button-poking. The latest addition to the canon? Rain. It looks lovely.

It tells the (hopefully quite abstract) story of a boy following the silhouette of a girl through the washed-out greyscape of a rain-sieged city. The catch? Everything inhabiting the city is invisible, and soon the boy is too. Thus, only the pattering of rainfall and the quiet trailing of footprints can pick out the shapes and movements of the boy and those around him. On an aesthetic design level it's a gorgeous idea executed wonderfully, and should make for some excellent and potentially terrifying gameplay mechanics if explored to its fullest.

How it will be played out on a metaphorical and narrative level is currently unclear, but being a Sony Studios downloadable game, expect this one to have the artistic chops to back up its captivating aesthetic.