Some SIlent Hill Homecoming gameplay footage. To head your whining off at the pass: yes, the graphics look like a PS2 on a bad day, but this is supposedly taken from very early code. Yes, there's a narrator. Guy's from a Russian mag, Igromania. So he's speaking Russian. Just enjoy the fact you get double the subtitles and hear the game called "Saileent Heeeeeeeeeeeeaall" and you'll get through the next 13:29 just fine.

Takayoshi Sato on Silent Hill, Serious Games, and Art

"Not Just Western Developers Making This by Themselves."

For upcoming Silent Hill title Silent Hill: Homecoming, Konami had Western studio Foundation 9 do the developing duties. How does the original Japanese team feel about that? Series composer and producer Akira Yamaoka states:

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]

The Konami Christmas Card, Featuring A Festive Pyramid Head

We're about up to our elf hats in Christmas cards from game developers and publishers this year, but Konami's effort, courtesy of the New International Track & Field web site finds room for a number of classic characters. Where else can you find Pyramid Head, Frogger and Evil Rose so happy to be in the same room? There's even a guest appearance from the Cardboard Box! And Sparkster! Boy, was he memorable...

Thanks for the heads up, Robert.

New International Track & Field [Konami]

Sexy Undead Nurse Shooting Finally Comes To Mobile Phones

Konami of Japan has released Silent Hill: The Escape for mobile phones today on FOMA 904i and 905i hand sets, making fantasies of shooting faceless hordes of sexy nurse zombies with your phone a reality. Silent Hill: The Escape uses the phone's built-in camera to monitor a user's movements allowing for aiming and reloading of your character's gun. The game also supports 3D sound and vibration to emulate the series' radio static feature that lets a player know how close enemies are and from where they are approaching.

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]

From Tubbypaws who brought you such memorable paper models as The Cutest Portal Papercraft, comes the Cutest Silent Hill Papercraft. It features Officer Cybil Bennet about to have a run in with one Silent Hill's ubiquitous nurses. The artist describes it as:

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]

Onimusha Plot Revealed, Shoehorns In Some White Folk

Roger Avary's Dream Film

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.

Pyramid Head Pumpkin

Continuing a long legacy of making me seethe with jealousy and bite my lip until it bleeds, the Japanese are getting yet another amazing freebie. Folks who pre-order Silent Hill Zero (Origins) for the PSP in Japan will receive this sweet Butcher figure. No mention is made about of how big it is, but a Silent Hill figure is a Silent Hill figure and I'll take it however I can get it. I believe this will require another one of those late night phone calls to Ash unless Konami decides to offer the same thing here in the States. I will cross my fingers and silently pray to a nameless god that this happens as my long distance bill to Japan is stacking up.

[via PSP Fanboy]

Silent Hill: The Arcade Hands-On Impressions

Who Do You Think Will Star in Wolfenstein Movie?

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.

No Gans Means No Avary

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.