SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - First Three Months of 2012 Bring Three Silent Hill Games

Posted: Nov 03 2011 06:21 pm

Quote:

Silent Hill fans are in for a real treat in the first quarter of 2012. Konami has announced release dates for three Silent Hill games, and all of them fall within the first three months of the new year.

The first of the bunch is the Silent Hill HD Collection, which was first announced last June and consists of HD remakes of Silent Hill 2 and 3. They each feature new voiceovers and will be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on January 24.

Following that sometime during the month of February will be Silent Hill: Book of Memories (pictured above), a brand-new Vita game. It's the first game in the series to support multiplayer in the form of a co-op mode.

Following that in March is Silent Hill: Downpour. It, too, is another all-new game, but this one is for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Players assume the role of convicted felon Murphy Pendleton who ends up trapped in Silent Hill.

That's the entire slate of announced Silent Hill games coming in about a two-month span. Should you be looking for something Silent Hill-related to play in the meantime, check out our parody game from earlier this year.

http://www.1up.com/news/first-three-months-12-bring-three-silent-hill-games

pretty cool. i wont pick up the vita game cuz i wont get a vita for quite some time, but the HD collection sounds cool, as does the premise for the next gen game.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 07:50 pm

The Silent Hill HD Collection is not a treat. Konami refuses to pay the original voice actors royalties for their work in the games, so they re-did the voice acting (which, in my opinion, sounds way, WAY worse than the original acting).

Silent Hill: Book of Memories is even less of a treat. YAY GUIZE NO MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL METAPHORS OR SYMBOLISM BUT NOW WE GET TO PALY CO-OPZ JUST LIKE CALL OF DUTIEEEEEEEEEE

I'm looking forward to Downpour, though.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 07:53 pm

having new voice actors doesnt bother me, as long as they are competent.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 08:00 pm

username wrote:

having new voice actors doesnt bother me, as long as they are competent.

But they aren't, that's the thing. At least not compared to the former voice actors. Particularly in the case of the Silent Hill 2 actors, I feel like the old actors captured all of the nuances and unstable moods of the characters perfectly, wheras the new actors sound like they're in a bad anime.

EDIT: On second thought, it looks like it's going to have both? If it has the original, I may consider getting it, considering that was the only thing holding me back. Razz

Posted: Nov 03 2011 08:10 pm

This franchise hit a wall seven years ago, much like the one Final Fantasy hit three years prior. But whereas that franchise took 10 (numbered) installments over 14 years, Silent Hill took 4 installments over 5 years.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

I honestly thought SH4 was second only to SH2 in terms of concept. Different strokes, I guess.

It's weird how the new voice acting sounds more "professional," yet it bothers me more. In SH2, everybody felt like they were incredibly unstable and off, like you couldn't tell what was an illusion. They sounded like real peoples' voices, but the poor acting threw in this uncanny valley feel that fit in with the constant "Is this real, or is the town controlling me?" feeling of SH2. I'm sure it was unintentional on the part of the developers, but it definitely added to the feeling of loneliness the game smothered your whole face with.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 08:38 pm

They should have remade SH for this bundle. Also I haven't played these in so long the voice acting is all but forgotten.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 08:53 pm

I didn't mean SH4 was bad. I actually like it. It just marked the end of an era.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

jprime wrote:

I didn't mean SH4 was bad. I actually like it. It just marked the end of an era.

Sorry, reflexes. I'm just used to neckbeards screaming "Doesn't take place in Silent Hill. Suk!" and immediately dismissing it, which is a shame, considering it's one of my favorite games in the series.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 10:17 pm

Douche McCallister wrote:

They should have remade SH for this bundle. Also I haven't played these in so long the voice acting is all but forgotten.

thats how i feel.

Posted: Nov 03 2011 11:29 pm

jprime wrote:

This franchise hit a wall seven years ago, much like the one Final Fantasy hit three years prior. But whereas that franchise took 10 (numbered) installments over 14 years, Silent Hill took 4 installments over 5 years.

What was wrong with Homecoming and Shattered Memories? (0rigins was fine, but it felt a little mediocre in the fact that it didn't bring anything new to the table other than the story)

Greg the White wrote:

It's weird how the new voice acting sounds more "professional," yet it bothers me more. In SH2, everybody felt like they were incredibly unstable and off, like you couldn't tell what was an illusion. They sounded like real peoples' voices, but the poor acting threw in this uncanny valley feel that fit in with the constant "Is this real, or is the town controlling me?" feeling of SH2. I'm sure it was unintentional on the part of the developers, but it definitely added to the feeling of loneliness the game smothered your whole face with.

Freaking THIS. This is exactly why I originally felt so aversive towards the HD Collection, I thought it would ruin the experience.

Posted: Nov 04 2011 12:22 am

0rigins turned out to be a disappointment, what with every melee weapon breaking, the sub-par unarmed fighting and the Energy Drinks. I never played Homecoming because I don't play Xbox 360. Shattered Memories was okay, but I prefer the original Harry Mason.

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

Meh. HD Collections are boring. Why not do some more remakes like REmake?? God knows we should have gotten RE2 remake for Cube.

Posted: Nov 04 2011 06:19 am

Yeah, it really sucks that RE2 never got redone the way the first game did, especially since it was everyone's favorite RE game before RE4 came out.

Also, as far as remixed Silent Hill remakes go, wasn't Shattered Memories supposed to be a REmake treatment of Silent Hill 1?

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

As someone who hasn't played SH2 (well i have played about 10mins before i crapped myself) and SH3 i will be picking the HD collection up and for that reason i don't care about the new voice acting.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

As far as my opinions go:

SH1: Creepy, but the most overrated one I've played. The whole "evil cult" thing is a dumb horror trope that removes the mystery from the plot. In SH2, it felt like I was fighting an uphill battle that I was sure to lose (reinforced by James basically saying he didn't care if he lived or died), but I kept going because the well-written plot made me just want answers.

SH2: I hate sounding like one of those parrots on The Escapist, but I do think in terms of concept and execution, that this is one of gaming's greatest masterpieces, and one of the greatest games to back the whole "games are art" movement. I'd need to write a gigantic thesis to explain it, but rest assured I wouldn't designate it as such without putting a lot of thought into it.

SH3: Not as masterful as SH2, and it insisted on keeping that stupid cult plot, but I definitely think it's the straight-up scariest in the series.

SH4: My second-favorite. Gameplay improvements and an interesting plot that separates itself from the rest of the canon were both very welcome for me.

I never played the newer ones, but I've heard they're more pop-scary and action oriented, and I'm not really to eager to play them.

Posted: Dec 20 2011 02:58 am

bumping this to plug this SH2 article/retrospective on 1up.com.

http://www.1up.com/features/silent-hill-2-last-survival-horror

Posted: Dec 20 2011 03:05 am

According to an interview with Guy Cihi (the voice and mocap model for James in SH2), Konami did work with most of the original voice actors (for at least SH 2; no idea on the others) to have the original VAs added on afterall. You WILL be able to hear James and company for the most part, though how easy it will be to access is another matter (from as easy as being a slider in the Options menu to as hard as having to beat the game X times on Y difficulty level in under Z hours).