Silent Hill (Spoilers, All Series)

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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BareKnuckleRoo
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

can't find source, needs the shit debugged out of it, oh i know, let's rush this fucker to release, nobody will notice the plague of bugs

Why am I not surprised?
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by njiska »

Oh that is a whole new level of fail. Please tell me Kojima Productions is handling the business end of the ZOE HD, not the buffoons at Konami.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by njiska »

So I officially kicked off my Survival Horror Marathon today with a healthy dose of the original Silent Hill. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that this is actually my first time playing it proper. Aside from a few minutes fooling around with my Japanese copy, I've never really touched it; though I did spend more than a reasonable amount of time with it's much beloved sequel.

As of right now I have just made it to the save point in the nightmare version of the school and so far I have been very impressed. For the limited about of graphical power available, Team Silent has done an amazing job crafting the world and the unsettling tones of Yamaoka's soundtrack only serve to highen the immersion and tension. I'm particularly impressed with art design for the nightmare world. All that rust and chain-link is horrifying and gives off a slaughterhouse vibe.

The one thing that does surprise me is the amount of ammo. For a survival horror game of that era they sure seem to give you a lot of it. Which is a good thing, because so far I've found the melee weapons to be very difficult, if not impossible to use effectively in combat.

Very much looking forward to the ret of the story.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by trap15 »

Yeah, I personally think I like SH1 better than 2. I had an absolute blast playing through it.
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Re: Silent Hill

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SH1 and SH2 = survival horror easy mode, at least where ammo and healing items are concerned. As long as you don't do anything stupid in SH1, like fight the infinitely regenerating enemies in outdoor areas, you'll be okay. A melee weapon found a bit later on is also surprisingly effective against humanoid enemies, so making use of it will put you in better stead still.

SH1 is hardware limitation turned into a lethal weapon. Masterful! I just wish the voicework had been closer to MGS1 than SOTN. -_- Harry's VA in particular really chokes the life out of what would be a simple, emotive script. Not surprisingly Takayoshi Sato's incredibly expressive silent CGs fare much better. Still, speech is relatively sparse, and the crushing atmosphere dwarfs its presence.
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Re: Silent Hill

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BIL wrote:SH1 is hardware limitation turned into a lethal weapon. Masterful! I just wish the voicework had been closer to MGS1 than SOTN. -_- Harry's VA in particular really chokes the life out of what would be a simple, emotive script. Not surprisingly Takayoshi Sato's incredibly expressive silent CGs fare much better. Still, speech is relatively sparse, and the crushing atmosphere dwarfs its presence.
While I agree with you that a wooden board is more expressive than the VAs in SH, I honestly haven't been minding it. Partly because bad dialog is a staple of that era of game design, but also because the disconnected emotion almost aids in creating a feeling of detachment from reality. Either way you're completely correct about the atmosphere crushing every imperfection.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by BIL »

Image

http://neogaf.net/forum/showthread.php?p=40100401

LMAO. Hopefully that's the end of it. Konami could fuck up a cup of coffee these days. Mothball it already. Actually, go under already if it means no more farmouts from Bargain Bob's Outsourcing Basement.

Been thoroughly enjoying my usual summer replay of SH1-4. It's sad Konami were running the series into the ground as early as SH3, never mind SH4. Each needed another year in the oven. Sucks that the former didn't get a remodeled Old Silent Hill complete with Midwich and Alchemilla. But even with the obvious environment recycling shortcuts, their sheer detail and character keeps me noticing new stuff just like the immaculately-produced first two. C/Ping in SH2's South Vale and Brookhaven is lame, but Leonard and Stanley's ghastly bromance is quality stuff.
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Re: Silent Hill

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I love the fact that Konami is not only not-patching the X360 version, but continues to sell it. No self-respect.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/10/konam ... box-360-u/
BIL wrote:Been thoroughly enjoying my usual summer replay of SH1-4. It's sad Konami were running the series into the ground as early as SH3, never mind SH4. Each needed another year in the oven. Sucks that the former didn't get a remodeled Old Silent Hill complete with Midwich and Alchemilla. But even with the obvious environment recycling shortcuts, their sheer detail and character keeps me noticing new stuff just like the immaculately-produced first two. C/Ping in SH2's South Vale and Brookhaven is lame, but Leonard and Stanley's ghastly bromance is quality stuff.
I'm just getting around to SH2 now, but so far it's been every bit as enjoyable as the last time I played it. Like the first game the music is just amazing and emotive. Unfortunately my Xbox is apparently on it's last legs so I've not been able to get past the first combative encounter with Pyramid Head in the Apartments without the game crashing or getting stuck loading.
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Re: Silent Hill

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I love SH2's OST - my favourite of the series by far, and one of my favourite soundtracks from any medium period. Like the game itself, the mood oscillates finely between wistful and desolate, with an undercurrent of volatile energy throughout. None of SH3 or SH4's over-egged vocal tracks have the human character of "Alone in the Town," "Overdose Delusion" and "Promise," amongst others.
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Re: Silent Hill

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BIL wrote:I love SH2's OST - my favourite of the series by far, and one of my favourite soundtracks from any medium period. Like the game itself, the mood oscillates finely between wistful and desolate, with an undercurrent of volatile energy throughout. None of SH3 or SH4's over-egged vocal tracks have the human character of "Alone in the Town," "Overdose Delusion" and "Promise," amongst others.
The entire soundtrack is great, but to me Promise (Reprise) is the most beautiful piece of music in the entire series. It sets a tone that is pure Silent Hill. Probably the reason why it was used with such regularity in the film. Actually, the same is sort of true of White Noiz as well. And of course The Theme of Laura is also up there as far as outstanding music goes.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Twinperfect's HD Collection review is up. These guys are a bit clownish, but unlike the hacks Konami has farmed SH out to for the last near-decade they respect detail and craftsmanship so I like 'em. Skip to 12:30 for the postmortem fun!

I particularly liked the bit about SH3's nightmare Brookhaven elevator. Microcosmic. Like virtually everything in the KCET games, its violent crashes and screeches are calculated for effect, eroding any sense of refuge or convenience. And look at what the HDC farmhands did to it. Calculated attention to detail is why I still love these games a decade on, and why the HDC is a comedy gold mine. Thanks Konami!

Image

Man... I dread to think what they would've done to SH1's bone-juddering soundtrack.
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Re: Silent Hill

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I've just started 1 on Vita, not played this in maybe five years or so, perhaps longer. It's thrown into sharp relief just how badly the series went downhill even after 2 IMO. The atmosphere, soundtrack and audio, the visual design... I think only 2 ever caught the same vibe. And I agree with above that the slightly... Odd VA actually enhances the off-kilter otherworldliness of the game. I'd like to play the Wii game actually, that seemed to get some pretty positive reviews.
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Re: Silent Hill

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After two months I'm still stuck about an hour into Silent Hill 2. Not because of a puzzle or anything, but because my Xbox HDD is crashing. Think I've passed the first Pyramid Head fight about 5 times now and the game always locks up before I get to the next save.
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Re: Silent Hill

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The game has a particularly long load time when you exit to the west side of town at that point. It may well not help, but have you tried going back into the apartments after PH leaves, saving there and then trying to leave? iirc the door unlocks after the encounter.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Nah, that's not the issue. Trust me.

I'm playing on my original modded Xbox. The disc drive has been flakey for 3-4 years, so I ripped my disc to the HDD and have been playing off there. When SH locks up I can hear the HDD click. It also locks up the Xbox when I try to remove the files via BoxPlorer. I really need to replace the drive.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Fixed my Xbox and played through the main quest of Silent Hill 2 over the last two days. Man, what an amazing game. It's been christ knows how many years since I lasted played it, but it's still very powerful. Maybe even more so, now that I know the full plot inside and out. Got the Maria ending, which I had never received before. It's my personal favourite ending as it's the worst possible ending. I know many will consider "In Water" to be the bad ending, but that pales in comparison to the what the final moments of the Maria ending imply.

Best soundtrack I've ever experienced and by far the best reason to play. Promise (Reprise) still gives me happy little chills. Now on to Silent Hill 3. Though I have to admit I'm seriously considering playing through the HD collection, just to experience the badness first hand.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Oh my god, this is two hours. I love it.

I mean, it's kind of painfully nerdy at points. But it's impressively detailed and occasionally really hilarious. As someone who didn't have any interest in an HD Collection anyway, I'm weirdly glad that it was enough of a disaster to bring me a lot of enjoyment.
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Re: Silent Hill

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So I started SH3 today for the very first time. So far I've been enjoying it, but I do have a question. What is the point of the Vividness setting? If it's set on normal the game looks murky and noisey and awesome. Bump it up to sharp and all of a sudden everything looks really nice, but the noise filter is barely detectable and the atmosphere feels lost. I don't get the point.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by BIL »

It's just there for personal preference, like the similar options for more visibility in SH2 and SH4. As wrong as all three games look to me without their default noise levels, some do prefer them that way.
CStarFlare wrote:As someone who didn't have any interest in an HD Collection anyway, I'm weirdly glad that it was enough of a disaster to bring me a lot of enjoyment.
Ha, I know... I never cared either way, being perfectly happy with my PS copies of SH1-4. But now I love them even more. Feels good to know your copy of a game is final release code!
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Re: Silent Hill

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So, I'm a little ways into Silent Hill 3 and so far there's been two issues come up that have been kind of bothering me. The first is the train in the subway and making it appear. I have no idea what the actual trigger is, but the only hint the game gives is the correct platform to head to and I was dicking around on that thing for half an hour before I did whatever triggers the train.

The other problem I've had is the sheer amount of random instant deaths. Walk halfway across a catwalk, get grabbed by creature from the water that you didn't really have any warning about. Try to walk around a gate and get killed by a train in a cutscene. These moments just feel off.

Otherwise I have been loving it. Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 do far more interesting nightmare worlds than SH2.
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Re: Silent Hill

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The train that'll take you away from the subway shows up (along with a pack of dogs) when you reach Heather's stop, jump onto the tracks and try to open that tempting red-lit door.

The sewer monster is a bit of a cheap shot, since it's possible to miss the worker's note warning about it beforehand. I got killed by it the first time I played too, but only because I felt like being a smartass and crossing without improvising the "grenade" the note mentioned. :mrgreen: I think of it as a throwback to SH1's fridge and its potential instant death scene, if you don't neutralise it with a certain item beforehand (the cause of death is similar in both cases, even). Granted, a rattling fridge gives off more warning than a bloody walkway in a game full of bloody walkways. Should've done SH2's thing of placing a key item undeneath the note so it'd be impossible to miss.

The trains aren't sudden deaths per se - they're liable to show up whenever Heather is on the tracks, when you hear a siren it's time to get back on the platform (much like irl). I like that, actually - as menacing as SH1-4's environments can be, it's rare that they're actually hazardous. I also liked that it's possible for Heather to fall to her death in SH3 if you're not careful around ledges, something not seen in the other three games.
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Re: Silent Hill

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By the way, did you find the ghost in the subway? Neat little easter egg, that, and another sterling opportunity to get hit by a train. If I hadn't replayed it recently this would be making me want to do another SH3 run. I've still not touched any of the Extreme modes, maybe it's time I got on that.
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Re: Silent Hill

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BIL wrote:By the way, did you find the poltergeist in the subway? Neat little easter egg, that, and another sterling opportunity to get hit by a train. If I hadn't replayed it so recently this would be making me want to do another SH3 run. I've still not touched any of the Extreme modes, maybe it's time I got on that.
Oh yes, and it was great fun. Didn't really do much, but it was setup very nicely.

As for the insta-deaths, I still don't really care for them, especially falling. They're not ruining the experience by any means, but it is kind of annoying to be caught by one when you haven't saved recently. The train death I referred to happened when I tried to walk around a locked door via the tracks. Train death was a cutscene.

I also have to say that the VO is a thousand times better than it was in SH2. Heather in particular is beautifully voiced; doubly so for the car conversation with Douglas.
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Re: Silent Hill

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I do agree SH3's VA is stronger than SH2's overall, but I find the script a lot less satisfying to hear. It's a heroes and villains affair, where SH2 transcends that - it has flawed strangers colliding in ambiguous circumstances, with less theatrical but more human, nuanced interactions. Eddie has less dramatic lines than Vincent, but the former is a believably damaged social outcast and the latter a dastardly manipulator. Heather is superficially more emotive than James, but she would be with her innocent rage and him mired in denial and pulling in several starkly conflicting directions at once. And Mary is spectacular in the final reading of the letter.

Angela's is the only SH2 VA I consider inferior among SH2-3's collective, ironic as she's in SH3 too. The character should be discomforting to witness and contemplate, and is, but the squeals and bizarre intonations are needless shock material that only distract. I guess Donna Burke struggled with playing an American teenager as well, considering she did a fantastic job as SH3's Claudia.

Oh, and Ernest Baldwin's VA (SH2 sub-scenario) just sucks. Practically a regression to SH1 levels of wooden clunkers. He's such a minor character I just write him off, though... like SH1's Harry, he's much better when read than heard.
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Re: Silent Hill

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So, just finished SH3. For all the praise I gave it, I'm kind of saddened to hear it end with, "Don't you think blondes have more fun?". SO CHEESY. Still, it was a good story, more straight forward than SH2, but also more of a story in general than the original game. Puzzles were pretty entertaining (fucking tarot cards), but not super, super hard. I'm sure if I played on a higher riddle level that I'd love them even more. Combat was also a step up for the series, though I almost never used block. It certainly was nice to move and swing with more control than that board and nail from SH2.

As for our conversation BIL, I'll happily agree that the characters in SH2 are more like normal people than the larger than life characters of SH3, but that's not really what my problem is. The heart of what makes me not overly fond of SH2's dialog is the pauses between lines. They happen far too often and make every extended section of dialog sound disjointed and weird. And I don't mean "Silent Hill" weird either, I mean $100 budget softcore porn weird. I'm not even sure if that can be blamed on the actors or the team who actually inserted the recordings into the game. The actual emotiveness of each character is other wise just fine by me, even Angela. And yeah, Baldwin sounds more like a person reading a script than he should. Just awful.

Will probably start The Room later today. Guess this means I need to go buy copies of Origins, Shattered Memories and Homecoming.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by BIL »

Haha, everyone hates that line at the end of SH3. For good reason.

I think I'd have learned to love SH3 by now if it weren't for the very cheap-feeling copy/paste of SH2's Paleville and Brookhaven. I can deal with the story being an epilogue to SH1, but a chunk of one intensely personal game unceremoniously dropped into the middle of another, totally unrelated one is hard to overlook entirely. It's a shame SH3 didn't take place in a PS2-remodeled Old Silent Hill, preferably with some serious mindfucks lying in wait for SH1 vets. It's actually the often complained about opening slog from the mall through the underground out the office block that I enjoy the most, since it really feels like its own game at that point (especially taking place far outside of the town itself). It does recover quite spectacularly at the Memory of Alessa encounter. I love fighting that boss with the speakers on full blast... and the Chapel is a superb climactic locale.

I still like it a lot as the simpler, louder, bloodier game of the series. The ambient sound in particular is even more enduringly nerve-rattling than SH1's, and sheer craftsmanship of the devs is just as apparent in the original material. It just sucks that it wasn't given the dev time of the first two games. That goes double for SH4.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Yeah, I agree that SH2's Paleville and Brookhaven appearing in SH3 feels out of place. Not just because of the fact that SH2 is a special place created to hate James (though everyone else seems to see the same building layout at least), but also because as a direct sequel to to the first game, not SH2, it should share the same town. This goes double once you realize that all of the notes Heather finds from Harry are supposed to represents points where he saved his progress, making the need for the original layout all that much more important. And actually now that I think about it, Heather's arrival at Lakeside was a real copout as the Park isn't supposed to be there and she just sort of pops off Nathan Ave. and appears there.

The Memory of Alessa encounter was brilliant, though what a fucker. I burned through all my ammo and all but an ampoule of health items. Why did she have to comeback to life four times?! Still, it was great to fight her. The carousel setting was a beautiful throwback to the fight with Cybil. My personal favourite locations were the Chapel, Hilltop Center and the Borley Haunted Mansion. Dear god was that location awesome.
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Re: Silent Hill

Post by Op Intensify »

Guess this means I need to go buy copies of Origins, Shattered Memories and Homecoming.
No you don't. As far as anyone should be concerned, the series ended with 4.
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Re: Silent Hill

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Op Intensify wrote:
Guess this means I need to go buy copies of Origins, Shattered Memories and Homecoming.
No you don't. As far as anyone should be concerned, the series ended with 4.
Rules of the marathon. For better, or in this case for worse, I have to do the full run. I'm one of those people who thinks the series ended at 4, or maybe even 3, but I'm doing them all.
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