I'm a HUGE Silent Hill fan, but I've stopped getting "excited" about new games and have started to become skeptical. I won't get my hopes up until I'm certain the game is as deep, scary, and incredible as the franchise's legacy should indicate.

I am happy about the return of fixed camera angles. Cinematography is a very important part of mood and atmosphere, and a free-camera really takes that carefully designed, expertly-crafted sense of guided vision away.

I'm interested to see how the loss of Akira Yamaoka will impact the game. He's been the heart and soul of the series since the very beginning, and he's left, taking his iconic musical score and many of the talents attached to him along with him. The trailer music for Downpour was beyond generic, and it'll be hard to match the mood, soundeffects, and ambiance that he brought to even the weakest games in the series.

I also hope that the developers understand the importance of how best to handle the monsters and action. Too many horror games, especially the most recent Silent Hill games, seemed to believe that the games would be scarier if they upped the combat and threw more enemies at the player. Quite the opposite; like JAWS, the monster is scariest when you least encounter them. Pyramid Head in SH2 was a great monster that only showed up a few times, but when he did you were scared and you ran as fast as you could.

As Akira Yamaoka even said in an interview, "A good horror game will scare the player, but it won't KILL the player. Why? Because if you die in the game, you get a game over screen. You get taken back to a menu. You cease to exist in the game and you are taken out of the experience. The illusion is broken. A good horror game implies the fear of death, a sense of immediate danger, but should not strive to kill the player. It should be the fear of the creatures, the fear of the town itself, that frightens the player, not the fear of a "game over" screen."

Here's hoping...

SH....what wonderful memories From SH and SH2,specially the first,totally incredible game,the best survival horror game i've ever played.

I hope this new game at least delivers some connection to the old games,gameplay wise and aesthetically speaking.

Cautiously Optimistic is where I stand with Silent Hill Downpour

I loved Yamaoka's music but I'll give the new guy a chance and I like the music in the trailer except one part in the middle when he is searching the apartment I hope in situations like that it is silent. Keeping up with "suspenseful" music like that tends to take you out of the game.

The monsters like the Tall man look good. If they drop down as silently as they did in the trailer and they're used during the fixed camera angles I know they'll unnerve me. The second monster seems like it will be similar to a screaming monster which sounds promising.

Like I said before, Cautious Optimism. Here's an Interview with The Producer.
And here's some facts they took from the recent Game Informer Article.

and agree 100000% w everything u said.

Look-wise, this is a game version of the movie, which I think is a HUGE mistake. The little girl theme is done and DONE! Alessa is gone, Cheryl is gone, Harry is gone... enuff w the little girl.

I am one of the few ppl who REALLY liked SH4, I thought how each ghost had a distinct persona and personality really captured the apartment mentality... but thats not the point lol, the point is im not necessarily against change in the series, but I think its just turning into a generic, monster-recycling (seriously... PH or boogieman or whatever had no business in neither SH0 not SH5)

Yeah I liked SH4 also. It wasn't a true SH game, but I found that one to be very deep. Walter is the greatest hands down. I also hated the fact that "The Bogeyman" was in Homecoming. C'mon, seriously guys? WE all know that you were listening to the stupid side of the fans that asked "We wunt mo piramed hed!!!!" when he clearly shouldn't be in the other games at all. Unless James fucking Sunderland is in the title, you shouldn't include him at all.

@Garlador: Yeah it's a total bummer that the mighty Yamaoka isn't doing the music in this next installment. Shame, because that's what also hooked me into the series. I seriously have every single AY song he ever did onto my ipod, and I listen to them all the time. It's really great stuff. I really hope they go the ambience way with what they did in Silent Hill 3. That game was nearly dead silent the entire time. The background shit is what really gets me. When you hear cries of unknown creatures and footsteps above your head are pounding at the ground. That's when it's getting really good. And don't get me started on the first time I did the bloody mannequin head. /cringe

I'm happy about the change in the camera angle. Will bring back the memories of the earlier games. I just hope the music is just as good as from past games. I read in Game Informer that there will be no weapon menu. Weapons are picked up one at a time and will eventually break, just like in SH Origins. You guys like the idea of this? I think it will add to the scare factor of this new SH because you can't be loaded up with shotgun shells and rife shells.

The game series stopped being entertaining when they americanized it and stopped treating Jacob's Ladder as referential material.

Hell, the whole first game is one love letter to Jacob's Ladder.

And what a beautiful love affair it was... while it lasted.

Silent Hill has been a popular franchise in my household since the first one.
I was a bit iffy about Homecoming before I actually played it but I actually loved it.

I don't like what they've called this game, but I've pretty much heard nothing about this game so it probs means something.

Glad there are fixed cameras, that's something that Resident Evil should revert back to aswell.

Well they played with Fixed camera angles in that DLC episode "Lost in Nightmares"

Ya know I think Lost In Nightmares & Desperate Escape were tests to see which style the gamers preferred.
The fixed Camera/mansion/horror style or action packed/guns blazing/loadsa enemies style. Hopefully RE6 will be more horror than bang.

Anyways back to Silent Hill.

Is it still the same game seen at E3 with the escaped convict?

Yep. You still play as an escaped convict.

In related news, did you hear that an artist for Homecoming confessed that Konami themselves broke up the original team because they "wanted a new direction" (and then made overseas developers try and make the same type of game). Bad move there.

After the previous games its become increasingly difficult to get excited for a Silent Hill franchise. I couldn't stand how homecoming turned out. I hope this game re-invents the series

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99GqE4VNRs

Gameplay and interview for SH:D.

I demand the head of the idiot who made that decition, and I want it served in a silver platter by Salome herself!!!


Hmmm... that interview seemed kind of interesting... i give it the benefit of the doubt... hopefully it wont suck absolute ass

New trailer from today's Konami 2011 E3 conference

I'm hoping they show off some better gameplay soon at E3.

That enemy with the hammer atop the staircase is interesting looking as well.
Perhaps the equivalent to Pyramid Head?

I'll probably get it merely b/c of it carrying the SH name... but I am still skeptical because it seems like they are trying to recreate SH2... and I think they need to move forward... fresh and scary ideas that still fit in the SH universe

I don't see the SH2 look you're talking about Kam. Maybe it's just me.

Speaking of Silent Hill 2, SH2 and 3 are both getting HD remakes for the 360 and PS3 as well as other Konami titles.

Link

This news brought me to my knees, crying.
Tears of joy I might add.

This series has already been diluted beforehand.

Not to say it cannot be a good game, but overall I am sceptic. Hell, I even question SH2 sometimes.

This looks like, dare-I-say, one of the latest Resident Evil games, not a Silent Hill game. Something just doesn't seem right. It's like the camera is following what's-his-face too closely.

To be honest, the mention of 'sidequests' has me very apprehensive. Obviously sidequests did exist in the previous games (such as getting aglaophotis, and going to the inn in SH1, and I suppose the ghost encounter in SH3 in the subway (as you have to go out of your way to read certain memos and go to a specific spot)), but they were few and far-between. This makes me think of "Go Fetch" quests, or go kill 'x' of these, or find this person....
By the way, since when was Silent Hill located in the greater Northwest?!

The writer(?) for this game said he isn't (or wasn't) going to include anything about the whole cult/order plotline featured prominently in the previous games....
The whole basis for the series.
Gee. That's not a problem. *eyeroll*

Hmm. A tough cop lady, like Cybil.
The environment sure reminds me of Twin Peaks, too.
Also, the falling ash effect is taken straight from that craptastic movie.
The voice acting seems atrocious, and that Hollywood royalty-free scream doesn't help me take this seriously, either.

I'm sure they're going to also put in enemies that shouldn't be there. Pyramid Head, and the nurses are getting ready to break loose!
Once again, they'll send the character to Brookhaven or something. He probably also forgot he killed his entire family, too. *Sigh*

I don't mean to come off as a Negative Nancy, but this just looks like a cash-grab.
However, I will be completely shocked if this turns out remotely scary or interesting.

Whatever. Only time will tell.

Actually I am with Yahtzee on the cult thing: better left forgotten. Unclear motivation, token evil cult.

The protagonist is the town itself. Give face to the threat and you diminish it. Especially when it is a half-assed deistic aproximation of evil...

Just found out...

The game is going to be in 3D (I'm not a fan of 3D, myself), and....

KORN is doing the new Silent Hill game's theme song.

I don't hate KORN or anything (at least not when I was 13 or so), but going from the brilliance and perfection of Akira Yamaoka and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn to KORN is like going from Koji Kondo on Zelda to Good Charlotte or Nobuo Uematsu on Final Fantasy to Eminem. Why? WHY?! Having KORN do the theme song for HAZE worked SO well, right?!! Will Limp Bizkit do the credit songs and Slipknot do the menu screen?

Dammit all to hell.......

Well, it can't be as bad as adding Godsmack to Prince of Persia, right? Right?

*remembers how yesterday I argued that if games were an art museum, Silent Hill 2 could be its Mona Lisa...*

wat

.............

Yeah I just read that about Korn doing the theme, I really don't know what to say about that. Other than it's unnecessary. I guess we'll how the game turns out. I'm not one to judge a game before I even play it. I'll give it a chance. Unlike most people, I actually enjoyed Homecoming.