Silent Hill 5 Renamed, Dated

[Gorvi]

Konami announced today via press release new details regarding it's next Silent Hill game for the PS3 and 360. From GamesIndustry.biz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/silent-hill--homecoming-ps3-xbox-360-instalment-gets-a-new-name-and-a-september-release-date-in-europe):
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced the official title of its first Silent Hill game for PLAYSTATION®3 and Xbox 360. Entitled Silent Hill: Homecoming, the game will be released end of September this year across Europe.

The sixth installment in the classic video games series, Silent Hill: Homecoming introduces another protagonist to the mythos. The story follows Alex Shepherd, returning to his hometown of Shepherd’s Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. From Shepherd’s Glen to Silent Hill, Alex must face the darkest of horrors in order to find his brother. Struggling with his own grip on reality, Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother’s disappearance, and confront the evil lurks in the seemingly empty streets of Silent Hill.
Despite the awful renaming, I'm still really looking forward to this. Silent Hill is one franchise that I can really see benefiting from the power of the newer consoles.

[violentp]

Oy. Bad move. I really hope these guys don't fuck it up.

[Dirty Harry]

Oy. Bad move. I really hope these guys don't fuck it up.

yeah isnt a "value" divison of Konami america doing this game?, I watched a video preview/interview of them and they claim they are revamping the combat system ect ect. Doesnt sound good for fans of traditional survival horror.

[Sl1pstream]

The Collective is doing this. Which is why the game won't be any good.

[Verity]

I want so badly to see this game turn out excellent, but it really feels like fans such as myself are going to be disappointed. Oh well, cross your fingers and prey.

[Dirty Harry]

The Collective is doing this. Which is why the game won't be any good.

Man they are really driving this franchise into the ground it seems.

[ghostgirl]

Why the hate for the Collective? I'm not familiar with other stuff they've done, but everyone I've ever met from there was super nice.
I'll play it because it has the words Silent Hill in it, and because the plot looks pretty good. Though, they missed out. If they'd made this PS3 exclusive, it would've been reason enough for me to buy one.

[Sl1pstream]

I'm sure they're nice people but they're the ones that brought us Star Wars Episode III, The Da Vinci Code and Marc Ecko's Getting Up. They were working on Dirty Harry, which seems to have disappeared (which probably means that it's canceled). Their Buffy game was decent and their Indiana Jones title seems to get decent (mid-70s) scores, so they should be able to make something that doesn't suck.

I hope they can pull it off, but I don't have high hopes. At least they'll have the music right.

[ghostgirl]

Oh ouch, ok. I remember Getting Up, mostly for when Marc Ecko told the world that the game did poorly because gamers aren't smart enough for his game. heh.

[EGO]

The Collective used to be great back when they did that xbox Buffy game but they've long since gone down hill to the point of being such crap they had to change their name and tell people they weren't gonna be crap anymore in a press release.

I suspect SH2 will remain the best in the series and this will be the nail in the coffin.

[Siraris]

I thought everything I've seen so far on this game looks fantastic. Why all the hate?

[Purple Santa]

I actually like the name. Homecoming...meaning back to it's roots or before SH 4...or homecoming to the same ole same ole...and telling by the plot so far...seems like it but that's ok with me. I like the twisted and a tad over the top "plot" of the town of SH. I'm looking forward to this...although it's being released in Sept. and i'll be back in classes...so it will be me waiting for December to play it...

[ghostgirl]

Whoa, they did the Buffy xbox game? That's one of my favorite games of all time.
Honestly, I could easily see crazyass licensor restrictions crippling them when it came to SW, Marc Ecko, etc. I will remain hopeful for Silent Hill 5. :)

[Variable Gear]

I thought everything I've seen so far on this game looks fantastic. Why all the hate?

I guess everyone wants their survival horror to have tank controls.

[H.Bogard]

The Collective used to be great back when they did that xbox Buffy game but they've long since gone down hill to the point of being such crap they had to change their name and tell people they weren't gonna be crap anymore in a press release.

I suspect SH2 will remain the best in the series and this will be the nail in the coffin.

Konami should totally do an SH2 remake... just re-do the voice-actor cast and include people who aren't drunk/stoned/on wheelchairs.

Oh, and this game's going to suck balls, mark my words.

[carnage11]

Why the hate for the Collective? I'm not familiar with other stuff they've done, but everyone I've ever met from there was super nice.
I'll play it because it has the words Silent Hill in it, and because the plot looks pretty good. Though, they missed out. If they'd made this PS3 exclusive, it would've been reason enough for me to buy one.

Same goes for me, this or RE5 would have made me buy a PS3 finally. Whatever though, now I can save my $500.:p

I have really high hopes for this game. I hope it strays away from 4 and is more like 2 and 3. And I really REALLY hope it doesn't suck.

[carnage11]

Konami should totally do an SH2 remake... just re-do the voice-actor cast and include people who aren't drunk/stoned/on wheelchairs.

Oh, and this game's going to suck balls, mark my words.


That's not a bad thing......as long as it has nice soft suction action going. I'll buy it just for that!:D

[Kelegacy]

Yay! More SH. I didn't get too far into The Room for some reason. Beat all the others, however.

Funny thing, Silent Hill the movie was on yesterday on some movie channel. Saw it for the first time, instantly hated it. Go figure.

I don't know if I like SH more than Resident Evil, but I do know that they are entirely different types of game. SH is more psychological and RE is more straight up monster-centric. Can't wait for the 5th entry (name wise anyway) into each franchise.

[Wedge]

I don't know. SH2 is pretty high up on my favorite games-list, but 3 and The Room disappointed me. Because of that I never bothered with Origins. I'll wait to see some reviews and opinions.

[ghostgirl]

I hated the Room with a passion. It was awesome at first, until the inventory made it impossible to continue. Looked great - wish it had played great as well.

I admit, I kinda loved the movie, if only for how awesome it looked. I own the boots Radha Mitchell was wearing throughout the movie, and omg, so comfy. Not that I've been chased by Pyramid head or anything, but if I were, those are definitely good runnin-from-monster boots.

[alienchild]

"Silent Hill" is a trilogy, after the first three it died. The other games are fanmade ones (and good ones at that). If you are a big fan of either of the first three, you know I'm right. There will never be a story like Silent Hill 2 ever again (in this series).

Sorry to burst the bubble here, but Silent Hill is dead :(

Edit: Just let me add a few things to that rant; I have every belief that The Collective will make a great game. After all, when Konami wanted to outsource the game, they asked a few companies. All other companies besides The Collective handed it their ideas on a piece of paper. The Collective are so big fans of the series that they made a friggin game demo of what they wanted to achieve. So these guys loves the series with a passion, which is good... but it's still a fan-game, and will most likely feel like a fan-game just like Silent Hill: Origins.

Oh, and what the hell is up with the music for Silent Hill: Origins? Where are all the cool stuff from the first three (actually, the 4th had some good tunes as well) games? Please make more like that, and drop the vocals... PLEASE!

[mkelehan]

"Silent Hill" is a trilogy, after the first three it died. The other games are fanmade ones (and good ones at that). If you are a big fan of either of the first three, you know I'm right. There will never be a story like Silent Hill 2 ever again (in this series).

Sorry to burst the bubble here, but Silent Hill is dead :(

Oh, and what the hell is up with the music for Silent Hill: Origins? Where are all the cool stuff from the first three (actually, the 4th had some good tunes as well) games? Please make more like that, and drop the vocals... PLEASE!

Couple things. First, SH4 was made by Team Silent. They decided to do a lot different, and some of it worked, some of it didn't.

As long as Team Silent is overseeing the development of these newer games, I wouldn't say SH is dead. For all the complaints I had about Origins, the atmosphere was there, andthat's the most important part of SH for me. Same with the movie: bad script, but the armosphere was spot-on.

And I really disagree with your criticism of the SH0 soundtrack. I love it. The vocals that are quickly becoming a series staple really work for me. That scene in SH3 where Heather is driving into Silent Hill and the song is playing during the whole thing may be my favorite cutscene in gaming.

[Spigot]

Agreed. The songs with the vocals are probably some of my favourite of the entire series.

I'm cool with the name. I'm cool with The Collective doing it. As long as it's better than The Room and more like the first three, I'm cool with that too.

I'm just cool :)

Speaking of which, I need to replay The Room. I got pretty far, probably in the end stretch of the game, but there were a few too many escort missions for my liking.

[Shodan2020]

It better not be SH4: Redux. I'll be so pissed.... at least it's coming out for the 360 so that's great news for me! :)

[Arnage]

Has there been any news on what the original team's been working on anyway? I wouldn't mind a mediocre Silent Hill if that meant that the original team is given the chance to create something completely new without the restrictions that a fifth sequel has.

[Chris_D]

Yay! More SH. I didn't get too far into The Room for some reason. Beat all the others, however.


Because of the repetitive gameplay with the respawning ghosts and janky combat I would guess. I tried really hard to like that game too. I heard that it wasn't even meant to be a Silent Hill game, being made by another Konami team, but it was later rebadged.

This is from the same guys as SH:0 right? I really liked that game actually, although it took a little while to warm up to it. I don't think anyone could have asked for much more from a prequel. Certainly I would recommend that anyone give it a shot now it's come to the PS2 (for $20 I presume). They had some fun new monsters like the ones my friends named the penis dogs (no idea what the official name is). The weapon system was a little silly but more interesting than previous SH in that breakable weapons forced you to practice using many types of melee weapons. Usually I would go through a Silent Hill game with just the one weapon equipped all the time. I think the weapons were maybe a little too breakable though.. Apart from that, throwing TVs was fun. The death of the Butcher was a little anticlimatic, but there were some cool creepy moments to be sure.

For me one of the more striking differences was having dialog that was written so naturally. The SH translations are usually very stilted, but I guess SH:0 was done in English and translated back. The character designs also weren't quite as nice as in SH2/3.

[Spigot]

People also need to remember that SH4 (aka The Room) wasn't going to be a Silent Hill game. It was a survival horror game done by Team Silent but wasn't going to be the next Silent Hill game until some bright bulb at Konami decided that it would probably sell a little better if it was branded as a Silent Hill game. That's why the game doesn't really take place in Silent Hill at all and most of the references to the town are tangential at best.

On its own, I do like The Room, annoyances and all. It's just that it's not really a Silent Hill game and it suffers for being branded as such.

[Evil Avatar]

Why the hate for the Collective? I'm not familiar with other stuff they've done, but everyone I've ever met from there was super nice.

The are fantastic people, but they don't make AAA games. Silent Hill 2 was a AAA game and it takes a certain "something" to make a game with a great deal of atmosphere and a creepy storyline.

I'm not sure The Collective has that special something.

It takes more than wall crawling 6-year old girls with wet hair to make a game scary.

[KamaItachi]

I was up for this until I saw the awful character and enemy designs that came out a few months ago.

http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/concept-art/2x4head.jpg

Seriously, what the fuck is that?

One of Clive Barker's shittier cenobite designs doing the hokey-kokey, that's fucking what.

[H.Bogard]

Agreed. The songs with the vocals are probably some of my favourite of the entire series.


Such as the ass-raping of the Silent Hill 1 theme which was re-done with lyrics in SH3?

[KidCactus]

Seriously, what the fuck is that?
There's a fine line between scary and funny, and that's just... awkward. :(

Here's an idea for the future: Never let the intern do the concept art.