Silent hill 5

Other Games
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Excerpted from CVG:

[quote]Silent Hill 5 details emerge
Friday 20-Apr-2007 3:38 PM Fifth version of the horror series to be similar to Silent Hill 2, says Akira Yamaoka

Akira Yamaoka has worked on Konami’s Silent Hill series for a while now. He was producer on the PC version of Silent Hill3, but he’s more famed for his work in the sound department. Yamaoka have given a few details on Silent Hill 5 in a recent magazine interview.

“At the moment I cannot reveal much detail on the story, or our progress, but I can tell you that this game will resemble Silent Hill 2 in the terms of the way the player is directed and the characters’ behaviour,” he told Game Pro magazine.

What platform the game will eventually appear on still seems up I the air. We reported in August 2004 that a final decision for what platform the game would release on wasn’t set in stone. It was that long ago we were still calling Xbox 360 Xbox 2!

PlayStation 3 is the obvious target given the history of the series, but with a smaller install base than Xbox 360, could 5 be launching simultaneously on more than one console?

“At this time we are still not sure,” confessed Yamaoka . “We are thinking of putting the next game on the next generation consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but we have had a good past experience with PlayStation [where the series was born] and we hope to continue that trend, but there are no definite plans as of yet.” [/quote]

Link.

Anyone here looking forward to this as much as me? Silent Hill 4 was bold in trying to break from the set pattern of the older games, but taking place away from the town of Silent Hill itself made it shakey on a fundamental level. Not to mention the lead character had less personality than paint drying on a wall. The game had enough things going on in the background to make you feel a part of a non-static world (such as people trying to break into your apartment) until hafway through the game when you lose all sense of purpose (whereas up until that point you are trying to save people’s lives).

In fact, the most emotional scene can be seen not far from the beginning (notice how Henry asks Cynthia if she’s ok in his own inimitable dense way while the room is splattered with her blood):

Link

In light of the huge costs involved with making games for the next generation platforms, I see a PC port as an inevitable part of expanding its potential audience.

What I am eager to do the most is delve into the mysteries that await within the town itself where as we have seen already, incarnates/personifies a person’s inner demons. I’d like to discover if the town itself is real or the product of someone’s imagination, and if it is real, then find out what happened to the people living there (eaten alive by their own inner demons come to life no doubt, or maybe it’s a matter of perspective where a monster of one person is a normal person to another).

Let’s not even discuss the movie.

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[quote=“Geoffrey Duke”]
In light of the huge costs involved with making games for the next generation platforms, I see a PC port as an inevitable part of expanding its potential audience.[/quote]

The dev costs on next gen certainly do push a lot more publishers to put games out on PC, but unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to expand the audience. Most PC gamers do not like console-style games, so the sales for console-to-PC ports are fairly minimal. However, the cost of porting is usually fairly cheap (that’s a relative term), so it helps bring the game to the few people who want to play who can’t play it otherwise, while at the same time providing a low risk (but low return) way of increasing the bottom line.

(How’s that for a corporate approach? :anjou_love: )

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I thoughtSH 4 was dire myself . I admire the team for trying to take the series in a new direction but it didn’t really work for me, I also thought bar the graphics (which were pushing the PS2 to it limits ) SH 3 to be a bit poor and boring .

That said I keep my eye’s onthe game

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I don’t know anymore guys. Maybe MMORPGs have taken control of the PC market, and maybe console gaming will share the same fate?

I always figured games would eventually, but gradually, turn into interactive movies with the choices you make steering the course of the outcome, since it’s pretty clear by now puzzle gaming has lost its charm to most people. It’s the idea of being swept up by a grand story where we fill the shoes of the central character or live out a fantasy through them versus hurdles too high to jump for those with little patience looking for narrative. We want to be kept in suspense, and at the same time, do not. Human nature I guess.

Obviously, here we have a niche that is entertaining people by scaring them to death while at the same time letting people keep their distance. Gaming is a safe vicarious visceral experience for those wanting to broaden their horizons.

Silent Hill 3 was too linear and confining. Nonetheless, I cannot see how most people couldn’t be frightened by dark blood encrusted walls pulsating to life and the unadulterated sense of isolation. The problem with SH3 was anyone who hadn’t played the first game would have struggled to keep up, so it was the lack of a self-contained story that may have put people off. The problem with SH4 was that it just wasn’t a Silent Hill game as much as it does have qualities that redeem it. You will see these lessons learnt in SH5.

So we will enter the town of Silent Hill again, only to discover people eaten alive by their own nightmares come to life. Konami have been clever in covering up the source so that they keep the mystery alive. I think if you manage to actually share the fear of the lead character, the creators have succeeded. A lot of creativity will go into the new games to achieve that result. Konami won’t be lazy.

The supernatural theme won’t be for everyone of course, but there’s more things between Heaven and Earth than is dreamt up in your philosophy.

It should be interesting to see how SH5 compares to the more mundane theme of RE5…

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There are more things in heaven and earth,[Horatio,] than ARE dreamt OF in your philosophy.

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I’m actually more of a fan of Fatal Frame, but I’m glad the series is over. Still, I do love the shocking, gory nature of Silent Hill. I’m also interested in seeing how this new Alone in the Dark will play out.