It doesn't look too shabby, does it? The boss is pretty impressive...definitely not something I'd want to be caught alone with in a circular room, armed only with an axe. Everything looks a bit too orange though. I suppose it's a step up from brown, but still. Hit the link to go to GameCinemaHD's Silent Hill: Homecoming page, where another exclusive clip should be appearing shortly!

Silent Hill: Homecoming [GameCinemaHD]

The game will be available as a digital download through Steam and is expected to launch in September.

In Silent Hill Homecoming you play as Alex Shepherd, who returns to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother and the strange occurrences taking place around town. Shepherd's story takes him from his childhood home to the streets of Silent Hill, as searches for his missing brother.

This latest Silent Hill will feature a graphics overhaul, new combat system, new soundtrack and, of course, plenty of new weapons.

It's not like Silent Hill has ever had an exemplary control set up. Homecoming at least gets some credit for making the experience feel a bit more intuitive, once one breaks old Silent Hill habits and allows for easier access to your inventory. After some grumbling — and a confused search for a quick turn button — it felt like a change for the best.

Visually, the game has gotten some flak for not feeling like much of a graphical leap. After the gorgeous Silent Hill 3 wowed PlayStation 2 owners with its lifelike characters and detailed textures, Silent Hill: Homecoming was (rightly) slammed for feeling like a step back.

It's kind of true. Our hero can look blurry, blocky and low-res under the right circumstances. The wee monitors at the Konami meeting room weren't doing the game any favors, but there are portions of the game's visual make up that look rather attractive. It won't knock your socks off, but it gets the job done.

Silent Hill: Homecoming's environments are definitely more interactive. You'll bump into chairs, knock over vases and feel like the world — while still barren and empty — is more live in.

The other big change to the series is its larger focus on action. During one brief set piece, we had to take on a demonic denizen, some spider-like humanoid thing, while riding an elevator. Pop in the head once with a bullet and it would scurry away. The experience felt familiar, but also added a bit of tension to the game. The very limited ammo made it felt more "survival horror" than psychological horror, as some refer to the series.

Hero Shepherd's expertise with swinging a pipe didn't do much to add to the gameplay — we didn't encounter much in the way of enemies — but the combo mechanic still feels a little out of place. Still, fewer deaths from average controls will be welcome in the final product, we assume.

We also solved a quick, if frustrating puzzle, one that involved rewiring an electrical box that allowed to ride said elevator. To call it uninspired would be... well, accurate.

Walking away from our brief time with Silent Hill: Homecoming, we weren't horribly impressed, but we certainly weren't willing to write it off yet. This kind of game does not demo well in E3-sized bites. It might not be such a visual treat for the eyes that some were expecting and we have our reservations about the direction, but it appears there's some of the game's spirit within.

Whether that's going to make it worthy enough of a successor or not remains to be seen.

While the demo was cut short by Iga's entrance, two bits of news to come to light. Pyramid Head will indeed be playing a part in the game, and now the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game is coming to PC, as did Silent Hill 2, 3, and 4 before it. What will Pyramid Head do in the game? Not sure, but I'm ruling out the hokey pokey.

Tale of Tales has an interesting little interview up with Takayoshi Sato, who was responsible for the art and CGI direction of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2; after relocating to the US, Sato did art for some big titles, then made the switch to 'serious games.' On making the switch, he has this to say:

I feel that games are being standardized into only a few formats lately: FPS, RTS, MMO, 3rd Person Action and Sports. There’s a tendency to create the same games over and over with only a visual upgrade. And the only thing artists are supposed to do is “be professional” and gift wrap the same game elements with a pretty new skin.

Then I encountered serious games. Despite of the downsides -small budgets, clients to satisfy, etc- serious games allow us to convey social messages, for instance. There hasn’t been an opportunity for deep story telling yet. But even making a game about behavior changes in the context of social problems, seems a little more creative than just making more and more weapon concepts. I find it hard to like games that only provide a “kill kill kill” experience. Since serious games are in their infancy, I thought it might be a great place to seek future possibilities. I hope that very interesting things will happen down the road.

It's brief, but has some good thoughts on art in games and where Sato's headed next. On the serious games front, he sounds like a man after Ian Bogost et al's hearts.

Interview with Takayoshi Sato [Tale of Tales via GameSetWatch]

Silent Hill's identity is that Japanese teams create the kind of horror that takes place in the U.S. I'm not saying this in a negative way, but Japanese people creating a story taking place in the U.S. was part of Silent Hill's identity. This time we worked with a Western development team, with Japanese members also involved, so it's not just Western developers making this by themselves. We are involved, too. So it's different from the past iterations of Silent Hill, but I think it is something new and very interesting.

Yamaoka goes on to say that half the Japanese team members are really into David Lynch (pictured) movies like The Elephant Man. The other half are into other movies, it seems. Good for them.

Yamaoka Interview [Gamasutra] [Pic]

Hit the link for the rest of Gluhov's stuff, including something that may or may not be an S&M depiction of Resident Evil's Nemesis.

Михаил Глухов [Free.Lance, thanks Sergey!]

When I arrived at the kiosks I was the third in line and I stood, shifting back and forth from foot to foot like a grade schooler who has to pee, waiting anxiously for my turn. While I was waiting I took the opportunity to compare the graphics since there were two stations side by side; one on the 360 and the other on the PS3. Of course, I have no idea what the final builds of the game will look like, but at the present time, the graphics for the 360 version were much smoother than that of the PS3. Enemies (including the ubiquitous nurses) were marred by some serious jaggies around the edges which hopefully will be fixed before launch. That aside, the game looked absolutely beautiful, retaining all the terrifying filthiness that the franchise is known for.

The story concerns a young man named Alex Shepard who is returning to his home town of Shepard's Glen. He is on a search for his missing younger brother Josh, a search that will take him to the spooky depths of Silent Hill which seems to have an unnatural connection to Shepard's Glen.

When the demo starts, you found yourself on a gurney and being pushed by a masked fiend through a dirty hospital. As you look from side to side, all sorts of terrifying, shadowed scenes pass you by. Silhouetted depictions of horrible things being done to patients by un-seeable evil forces. Eventually you are left in a room alone, strapped to the gurney and here your adventure begins.

Once you have removed yourself from your shackles you are free to start roaming the halls and rooms, constantly blocked by various locked doors. An early puzzle involving some x-rays and a number locked door was easily solved and soon we were treated to the switch from Silent Hill to dark Silent Hill. As you may have heard, the game designers lifted the world changing mechanic straight from the movie. No longer is there a fade to black, but you actually watch the world change in real time, with parts of the room lifting away like peeling paint and disappearing into the sky. The effect is quite nice and translated well from the movie to the game. And of course there were the nurses. Their new character models were terrific and also seemed to be based somewhat on the movie versions of the characters.

The battle system was basically the same with a few improvements. The addition of dodges to the fray makes avoiding damage quite a bit easier. There are perfect and imperfect dodges that can be executed. A perfect dodge will result in no damage taken while an imperfect one will have the player taking less damage than from a direct hit. There are also power up attacks and enemies can be stunned so that deadly finishing moves can be performed. The finishing moves are much more interesting than the old standard foot stomp to the head. Each weapon has a unique finishing move for each of the various enemies that are shown in glorious, graphic detail

It is now much easier to tell where your health is with the addition of an actual on screen health meter. Gone are the days of trying to determine what your health is like based on the pulsing green or red frame in your character's status menu. Now there is a nice red crescent meter that shows exactly how much health you have so you can drink those health drinks accordingly. Another nice touch was the ability to tear through certain walls with your equipped knife. Cutting through them leaves what looks like a horrible gaping wound with teeth sticking out of it that you must squeeze through to get into the next area.

At this point there was a huge line forming behind me and out of respect for my fellow journos, I reluctantly gave up the controls to the next fellow in line. My time with Silent Hill may have been short but it left me wanting more which I guess is the goal of any good entertainment. Silent Hill: Homecoming will be shambling its way towards your PS3 and Xbox 360 in September of this year, ready to scare the pants off you once again.

"Killed" is more politically correctly described as being put on "permanent hiatus", but it's rare for these projects to be resurrected. As long as they don't muck up the next Silent Hill, we'll forgive this cancellation of a game that we weren't particularly interested in anyway.

Foundation 9 buries Harker [GameSpot]

The Homecoming of Silent Hill

Konami's first Silent Hill® title for Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3

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.

Homecoming is the first Silent Hill title for the new wave of 'next generation' consoles, featuring all-new graphics that bring the fear and terror of Silent Hill alive like never before. Alex must survive attacks from the misshapen denizens of the town using an all-new enhanced combat system that provides a wide array of attacks and counters. Along the way, Alex will encounter a variety of weapons to battle these horrific monsters and must also solve deadly puzzles as he uncovers the darkest secrets of Silent Hill.

Silent Hill: Homecoming also features an all-new soundtrack by acclaimed series composer Akira Yamaoka.

Overall, the game's scares will be the biggest we've had, and that's not just jump scares - the eerie feeling of dread will be heightened because the designers can really immerse you emotionally through amazing environments and wild-looking demons. However, story wise, Silent Hill hasn't typically been "scary," as it's more about the depths of madness and terror it takes the player. Clearly I can't talk about the story of the game, but I can say that we have worked very hard on making it the most disturbing drama of the entire series. My hope is that players will be affected by the game's end.

While Doody doesn't give too much away about the plot of the game, his explanation of the writing experience is extremely interesting. Nice bit of weekend reading for Silent Hill fans.

Danny Interviews Patrick J. Doody, one of the writers of Silent Hill 5

The sorta poorly received Silent Hill Origins is making the jump from Playstation Portable to Playstation 2, Konami said today. The title is currently in development for the last-gen console.

"Console gamers can now expect the same chilling, suspenseful and fear-filled experience that handheld gamers encountered when we released Silent Hill Origins on the PSP system," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "This is their chance to learn more of the mystery and mythos surrounding Silent Hill that's been hinted at in earlier games and made the series such a success."

The game will still have you playing as Travis Grady, trucker extraordinare, but will also include updated controls for combat. Zero P will be so happy.

Survival Horror Title Makes Transition from Handheld to Console

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - January 22, 2008 - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today confirmed speculation that Silent Hill® Origins, released last year for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system is in fact currently in development for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. Now PlayStation 2 system owners will have the opportunity to experience this frightening and popular survival horror game, complete with signature sound and music from renowned Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka.

"Console gamers can now expect the same chilling, suspenseful and fear-filled experience that handheld gamers encountered when we released Silent Hill Origins on the PSP system," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "This is their chance to learn more of the mystery and mythos surrounding Silent Hill that's been hinted at in earlier games and made the series such a success."

Players take on the role of Travis Grady, a lone truck driver making a routine delivery when he makes an unfortunate detour to the mysterious town of Silent Hill. Players must help Travis escape the city's horrific inhabitants and unravel the mystery of the strange hallucinations from Travis' past, visions that have plagued him since childhood.

Updated controls maximize combat, allowing Travis to use his fists, his wits and an array of weapons including a meat cleaver, pool cue and sledgehammer to fight his way through the nightmarish world of Silent Hill and face multiple endings based on his actions.

For more information, please visit www.konami.com.

Amazon's details on the port don't mention any additions to Silent Hill Origins, so we expect something quick and dirty. Well, probably not dirty, but you know what I mean.

Silent Hill Origins PS2 port looking increasingly probable [Siliconera]

The latest Zero Punctuation almost had me fooled, I thought, for a second, that it was going to heap lots of love on the game, in that punctuation-free, staccato burst of insight that we've all come to know and love. But in fact, Ben Croshaw, you guessed it, hates Silent Hill: Origins also. Stop the presses.

Zero Punctuation: Silent Hill Origins [The Escapist Magazine]

There's a huge gap, actually. They're very advanced. I'm Japanese, and I think this is not just with Silent Hill but with the whole of the industry — I look at what American developers are doing and I think wow... Japan is in trouble."

Later he explains why he thinks his country is falling behind on the game development front, explaining that the nature of the publisher / developer relationship in Japan as well as low salaries contribute to games that need to be created fast and cheap, stifling innovation in the industry - much like we've feared would happen here for years.

So you've got pressure on these people to perform like they did when they were 20, and it's just not possible. I look at a game magazine, and I see interviews with the "important creators," like Mr. Sakaguchi. He's a great game creator, but he's not young. And I don't see many young game creators in Japan. Then I look at the west, and I see all these young guys coming up so fast, it's just amazing.

On top of that, Yamaoka explains that a lot of the tools and drivers they need to create more technologically advanced games are in English, adding translation problems even to games that are only seeing release in Japan.

Aside from shattering my ill-founded illusions about the state of Japanese game development, the interview also touches on working on the Silent Hill move, interactive music in video games, Yamaoka's CD iFuturelist, and his own musical tastes (woo PJ Harvey!)

Yamaoka Talks Silent Hill 5, Japanese Game Development 'In Trouble' [Gamasutra]

Thanks for the heads up, Robert.

New International Track & Field [Konami]

Given that the Silent Hill spin-off, which seems to share more with Silent Hill: The Arcade than anything else in the series, doesn't attempt to use a cell phone keypad for control gives it a much lower chance of sucking. Say, 98%. Not bad for a cell phone game!

Silent Hill: The Escape [Game Watch]

The official Climax site does mention that the group is working on a second unannounced project for Konami, but reps for the publisher have not yet responded to our request for confirmation that Silent Hill Origins for the PlayStation 2 is the unnamed title. If true, I certainly hope that Climax is giving the game a bit of a visual upgrade for those who passed on the on-the-go frightfest.

A blocky 3D paper fun model tribute to the foggy fog game, the second one, the one with the pillow.

I love this model (especially the flashlight light on the floor...genius touch) and will be putting it together for my desk, but if Tubbypaws would create a little blocky Pyramid Head add-on (sold separately), this would be about the greatest papercraft ever made.

Silent Hill papercraft [Tubbypaws]

Sure, the Onimusha series is no stranger to throwing in an out of place European or two, rather unexpectedly, but this just smacks of icky casting to up the white people quotient. Here's a snippet.

When Britta, the daughter of a Dutch merchant, is abducted on board a ship by seemingly invincible warriors, her tutor and confidant Jacob pursues her captors, vowing to rescue her at all costs. Meanwhile, the beautiful Princess Yuki is also kidnapped, this time by ninjas that reveal themselves, incredibly, to be part spider. In search of Yuki, Samanosuke joins forces with Jacob to vanquish their common foe.

I can only assume that the listing of Samanosuke and Yuki's existence in the plot line as secondary is indicative of the importance of their roles in the story. Since Gans churned out such a sloppy Silent Hill adaptation, I don't really have much in the way of faith for Onimusha. That's probably a good thing, since my attachment to Onimusha isn't nearly as strong as Silent Hill. More details on the film's outline are at Coming Soon.

The Story for Christophe Gans' Onimusha [Coming Soon]

Silent Hill: Origins (PSP)
Take a prequel visit to creepy Silent Hill and see how it got so creepy.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360, PC, PS3, DS)
World War II is finally over.

Empire Earth III (PC)
take your empire from humble beginnings to outer space.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (WII)
A dubious pairing. But who will win?

Gears of War (PC)
Marcus Fenix and his scarred legions arrive on the PC.

The Simpsons Game (PSP)
D'oh! Just a week behind.

Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War (X360, PS3)
Think Dynasty Warriors in medieval Europe.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (WII, X360, PS3, DS)
Relive Star Wars through the blocky world of Legos.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (WII)
Charge of the Dawn Brigade.

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate (PC)
I fear another expansion is in the works.

F.E.A.R. Files (X360)
Both F.E.A.R expansion packs in one fancy package

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (PC)
If the original wasn't enough for you.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (DS)
Hunt for monsters and make them do your bidding.

Bee Movie Game (WII)
Ok, let's be honest. Does anyone really care?

I'm doing an adaptation of the game Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I just love the World War II guys-on-a-mission movies; to me, 'Castle Wolfenstein' is all of that, plus monsters and horror and all that craziness jammed together. It's my dream film.

[via PSP Fanboy]

The story set up that no one cares about is that our male lead Eric has been having nightmares about a girl falling off of a steam boat, drowning in the rivers of Silent Hill. He wakes up in the hotel that's made a number of appearances in the series, only to be thoroughly confused by the newly creeping fog. Some of his shitty friends gone missing and the only way to remedy the situation is to shoot stuff. The obligatory little girl who looks just like some dead kid is also present, constantly running away from our heroes.

The shooting? Top notch. Pull the trigger and things die. Headshots make for a satisfying "POOM!" sound and cause things to fall down faster.

The voice acting, though. Oh God. It's thirty shades of awful. Lines like "Ew. It's smells moldy!" followed by "Better than the smell of blood!" will either leave you in stitches or slightly pissy. Every single interaction and line of dialog is just abysmal, almost impossible to have been read worse.

One more negative is the transporting of the console games' worst elements—constant door handle checking. You're presented with the option of going left, right or straight now and then, something that will inevitably lead to a key finding detour when some random door won't open. Not fun, since the game moves at a sluggish pace.

Despite the negatives, Silent Hill: The Arcade is a great light gun shooter. Many of the areas are lifted from various games, including Brookhaven Hospital and the Silent Hill Mall, so you'll feel right at home. You'll face mid-level bosses and end-of-level bosses that don't really put up a fight, and the game isn't much of a challenge, so if you get your hands on it, you'll most likely get your money's worth.

It's not much to look at, nor does it do anything outstanding in terms of bringing real scares to the genre, but it's fun. The game has been out for some time now, but playing it in an Akihabara arcade this week was my first experience. If you have an arcade that may carry the game, keep your eyes peeled. It's worth the trip (if just for all the cheesy dialog).

I mean, what's not to love? It's a WWII "guys on a mission" movie, which means you're going to be blowing shit up, storming bunkers, busting dams, derailing trains, and killing Nazi's. I love WWII films, but with Wolfenstein we get the creature effects as well, and the guys at id Software have already done all the heavy lifting for me in that department. They went to the imagination well and pulled up buckets of craziness — and as you know, I respond to crazy.

The folks at 1Up get a first look at Silent Hill 5 and man does it look great. From what I can see in the clips of the game shown throughout this piece, it's everything you are going to want from Silent Hill on a next gen platform. The scenes of Silent Hill changing to evil Silent Hill are delivered as promised, in real time while you are actually playing the game and draws directly from the method used in the Silent Hill movie. While it may have had it's faults, the film version did have a lot of interesting ways of treating the environment which translates quite nicely into the video game format. It's also nice to see that they are going back to the elements that made SH 2 the best in the series and steering away from the sometimes clunky mechanics of SH 4. If you are a Silent Hill fan, you're going to love this clip. What are you waiting for? Press play!

"All I can say is that code did not leak from Climax - 100 per cent guaranteed," said Jeffery.

"The code that is out there is fingerprinted and was supplied solely to Konami for marketing purposes."

Silent Hill PSP demo leaked online [GamesIndustry.biz]

Thanks Thor!

That the three are listed as for the PC may simply be in error, as the trailers themselves may just be shown non-interactively played from a PC. However, the USK also specifies that some trailers specified for Games Convention will be shown on a DVD-Player. On the other hand, there are plenty of titles, such as Crash of the Titans, Escape From Bug Island and Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 Mobile, that have rated trailers with a system specification of PC, releases that sound unlikely.

Still, why show a new trailer for Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow at Leipzig when the Game Boy Advance version was released in Europe over four years ago? Is Konami pursuing yet another Castlevania remake? Are they readying a Game Boy Advance collection for some other platform? Whatever the theory, it's a curious new entry.

The next rating for Silent Hill Orphan may reveal either the final name of Silent Hill V or the European localized name of the PSP prequel Silent Hill Origins. It's also possible this is a new product altogether, as it too is listed for the PC.

Finally, the Metal Gear Solid 4 Games Convention trailer has been rated by the USK, dubbed the "Camp Trailer." It is also, as specified earlier, listed as for the PC. The last Metal Gear Solid to makes its way to PCs courtesy of Konami was Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance.

As already mentioned, just because these trailers are listed for the PC doesn't necessarily mean they're coming to that platform. We'll keep an eye on these three titles and will be in contact with Konami USA in an attempt to learn more about the listings.

Titelsuche in der USK-Prüfdatenbank [USK]

I'm not gonna do Silent Hill 2. If Christophe's not gonna do it, I'm not...

First of all, he [Kojima] is an auteur. From the very start, he has a large ego, which is a necessary thing in order to drive a large number of people to follow a project. You've gotta have a big ego and be sure you're right about everything.