Dante Posted August 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 EGM Info It would seem The Collective is very honored to be working on Silent Hill 5 and rightfully so. After Konami announced they were passing on the developer work to an outside company, it was discovered that quite a few developers wanted to work on the IP. In the end, these other developers were "scared" out of doing such an ambitious title. The Collective, evidently, is not so easily frightened. Character Debacle Although Alex may look similar to other protagonist’s in the series, he is an altogether different character. Alex Shepard is 22 years old and with that comes the attitude and thinking’s of a standard young adult. While SHV will feature an entirely new plot (ala SH2), the developers have said that the player should not be suprised to see themes, settings and other surpises familar to series fans. Along with Alex and his family (more on that later), a new host of characters will be featured in this entry. That doesn't mean however, that settings, situations and settings wont be familiar. "It's important that the characters fit into the overall style of Silent Hill," says Brian Hourton (SHV Lead Artist). About that story bit... (what follows is a recap of the story we know so far) Alex is in a Military Veteran's hospital, recovering from a near fatal wound he received. (It is not specified how he received the wound). While there, Alex has a premonition that his young brother, Joshua, is in danger. "Alex will be confronted with horrors that reflect his psychological state" Horton adds. He leaves the VA for his New England home town of Shepards Glen. Upon returning however, he finds his mother in a catatonic state, his brother and father missing and the entire town shrouded in a bizarre fog. Along his travels, he will team up with a spunky upbeat girl named Ellen. It isn't known at this time if she will be playable or not but she seems to be a cross between SH2's Maria and SH3's Heather. The developers feel the game and its characters seem to lean much more to Silent Hill 2 and its psycological thematics. It is confirmed that the player will actually GO to Silent Hill, not any hole buisness ala SH4. Gameplay Alex's military background plays both into the game dynamics and the theme of the story. Knowing this however, the developers aren't attempting to create any sort of political standpoint. The developers want the battle system in SHV to be tougher, more interactive and ultimately engaging. Seeing as Alex is a former solider (tentative), he is more agile and better suited for doing actual "battle" with his adversaries. It seems Alex can unleash a flurry of heavy or light physical attacks and has several melee weapons at his disposal. Each melee weapon, saw, pipe etc, will have its OWN set of moves and combos (giving a much more actiony feel to battle). The player can also use grapple techniques, counter moves and can expect the same from enemies. Strangest of all? Alex has a dodge roll. The developers have yet to confirm any info on the gunplay mechanics yet though they promise they aren’t turning this game into a "shooter." Graphics To sooth everyone's soul, the grain filter will indeed return for Silent Hill V, however in addition, other filters will be added as well. Filters that give hairline cracks in the screen or are filtered with debris allow the developers to change the mood and atmosphere of the game WHILE it's being played. Interestingly enough, the game is using the Havok engine in a unique way. The middleware is being used in the same capacity as it was in Saints Row and in the upcoming game Halo 3. Now when you bump into chairs or tables or open doors, the game will register that action in the in-game environment. Bump into a chair? It will in turn bump into a table causing not only a response physically but also audibly. This new "noise", the running on creaking floors etc, can and will alert enemies to your position. The fog in Silent Hill V will also be receiving a graphical overhaul as well. EGM wasn't able to see much of it, it's still in development, but what they saw was amazing. The fog ebbs and flows in the air and occasionally chunks of ash or debris filter down. It is meant to be specifically interactive, it swirls around you and as Alex cuts through it, the fog conforms to his shape. Wounds will also be shown in real time. "We want it to feel physical and alive, like you're carving the fog with the beam of your flashlight," adds Hourton The camera is now controlled using the left analog stick and allows the player to view the horrors much better then earlier iterations. Inspired by Christopher Gan's movie adaptation, the worlds in SHV, or rather the transition between the two, will all be done in real time. Like in the movie, the setting will peal and melt away or suddenly burst into flesh painted walls. (Teh Flashlight Confirmed.) All the Rest Boss battles will be revived in this entry as well. The Collective is obsessed with delivering cinematic massive, epic boss battles. Interestingly, they are looking for Zelda like encounters...hmmm. Endings....yes there will be many, though a number has yet to be given. The developers are looking to make the decision on which ending you are given to be much more player induced then before. Missing an item or killing someone wont automatically move you to a predetermined path. The actions you do, the way you speak to the different people you meet. These interactions will have a much more fluid transition into the story upon up intriguing possibilities. Monsters are now fully motion-captured (ala the Silent Hill movie) and all new beasts are set to make their debut. One such creature, Siam, is a fusion of a male and female body. What’s left is a pulsating, overtly sexual enemy. Monsters will now have visible effects on them. So if an enemy has busting pustules or bleeding mouths, it will be animated, in real time and will be effected by Alex's attacks. Some of the enemies are humanoid in nature, favorites such as the nurses, will indeed return, however the variety of creatures is said to be quite large. (Side Note: In the Silent Hill games, the "enemies" are usually physical manifestations of the protagonists mind. It can even be argued that the "monsters" they see aren’t even real or that perhaps what a character see's as a monstrosity might in fact be human after all.) Closing Words There seems to be some worrying that Silent Hill has gone the way of Resident Evil 4. I can assure you that this is not the case. The battles seem to be more focused on action than wild flailing and we've yet to see how this will play out. This is still, first and foremost, a psychological HORROR game and the developer is doing a good job so far proving that. For those worried about the "real time" transitions....DON'T. It goes far beyond simple instantaneous morphing of the environment. Audio will also play a role in transitions as well, imagine walking in an apartment hall way and suddenly a dozen hands come reaching our of the walls near you. Transitions are being held very carefully and I give them credit for what they've done so far. Of note however is the plot implications this might have, of which we are not yet aware of. In all past Silent Hill games, the transitions happen for a reason, not simply as a game play device (this is why in SH4, "climbing" into each world seemed so off base). ~Akira Yamaoka is indeed returning for the music and all sound design~ EGM Scans. Akira Yamaoka Level Interview Yamaoka: I had always liked Konami’s shoot-‘em-ups, but I would be lying if I claimed that I’d dreamt about working there. My attitude was that I’d resign after a couple of months – half a year at the most – and then return to my old life. And I thought so for quite some time, but as you can see I’m still here, haha. Q: Why’s that? Yamaoka: Konami is a rather special company, I’ve noticed. If I had been treated like a regular Japanese salary man, I wouldn’t have been able to take it, but Konami actually lets me be who I am. For I don’t see myself as a person who heads off to work between 9-5 – I see myself as an artist and therefore I demand a great amount of freedom. At Konami there’s room for people like me. But if the company were to change in the future and I wouldn’t be able to claim the same space anymore, then I will resign myself, just as I had originally planned. Q: Could you take up that space you demand right from the start, as a new employee? Yamaoka: When I had just started working at Konami, I was quite controversial. To begin with, I wasn’t happy with the way music in games sounded back then. It often followed a certain formula and always felt very thought-out, not as free and inspiring as other music can sound like. I wanted to change that. The first game I worked with over at Konami was Sparkster. The first drafts of my songs were received very poorly by my bosses, and I understood that I could never continue doing things that way. As I said, I had never been a person who wanted to compromise, but now I realized that I had to do that. So instead of changing videogame music over the night, I decided to write traditional gaming songs, but with details that were different. And with time, I could let the different take increasingly more room. Gradually, I tried to change the formula. Yamaoka: We who worked with Silent Hill were people who didn’t really fit in at Konami. A lot of us had failed projects in our resumés and were thinking about quitting. Also, everyone else at Konami seemed to hate what we did. They didn’t see any potential in the game at all and just wanted us to drop it. Out of that extreme situation, something very special was born. Yamaoka: I think that has to do with the fact that we in the team worked so close to each other. It created a special kind of dynamic that made it so we dared to do our utmost. Before, I had always been a person who preferred to go my own way. But now I realized that just as interesting things could be created if I put my ego to the side and let the group be the most important. Our way of working also made it that I got a good, whole picture of the game. I could see precisely what function the music had, which had not been the case with the games I had composed for in the past. Q:Another thing that you associate with both the MGS and SH series is a deep storyline. Both you and Kojima seem to be interested in not only to entertain, but also to say something to the one playing. Yamaoka: I partly agree, but there’s also an important difference. Kojima wants to send out messages, but I want to do the opposite. There are no messages in Silent Hill; no pointers or right answers. Instead, I want to ask questions to the one playing. Yamaoka: When we had completed SH2, a new producer was needed. Nobody seemed particularly interested in taking on the role. The room went completely silent when our bosses asked if anyone was interested. Everyone tried to look away in a different direction. Suddenly there was just someone in the team who suggested I should do it, and then there was no return. My bosses had decided that I fit, and there was nothing else to do than to simply accept that. In the beginning, it was hard to shoulder that new role. I was used to only being in charge of one particular area; now all of a sudden I was to handle everything – and compose all the music at the same time. But pretty soon I came to realize that it fits me perfectly to be a producer. I always try to picture the entire game I make as a whole, where graphics, music, story, controls and everything else are parts. When we made SH3, I had control over all those aspects for the first time, so therefore I said yes to continuing as a producer. Yamaoka: The horror genre hasn’t kept up. It has stagnated and gotten caught in caught in its tracks. At the same time, the gaming audience – at least in Japan – have put their stationary consoles in their attics and has begun playing DS and PSP instead. So for me, it feels very important to break the trend and make a horror game that really feels like something new. Hopefully I can get all the old SH fans to return to the TV again. Q: How much are you willing to change the series? Where does the limit go for when the game doesn’t feel very Silent Hill any longer? Yamaoka: For me, it’s the story that’s at the core of the SH concept. I could never compromise with that by making it light-hearted or silly. On the contrary, my ambition is that the story will get to take up much bigger room in the future and that we will be able to move player even deeper. But otherwise… I can imagine changing a lot of things; there aren’t a lot of sacred cows that I can’t imagine to sacrifice. Q: The music? Yamaoka: Sure, it could change – it completely depends on how the series evolves otherwise. I don’t see it as an end in itself to forever stick to the industrial sounds. Yamaoka: I’m so tired with regular weddings that I wanted to do something different. So I built it around a kind of an apocalyptic theme. The date was the 6th of June 2006, so the invitation cards read “6/6/6”. A friend of mine did fight choreography for Kill Bill, so he talked some of the stuntmen from that into coming to the wedding. In the middle of the dinner reception, they jumped out and cut the wedding cake to pieces with their samurai swords. I think it made quite an impression on the guests. Q: Can it change then? What do the Wii and DS mean? Yamaoka: Those consoles mean a lot since their popularity shows that advanced graphics isn’t actually the most important thing for people. A fun game idea will do just as well. It feels as if over the last couple of years, a lot of people who make games have doubted that’s the case, which is why the Wii and DS are important. They’re already on the way to flip the trend. Yamaoka: I look at a game as a whole, so I have no clear picture of how the game music of the future will sound like. Everything depends on the rest of the game. So if anything, I see a complete game in front of me, something that’s really different both musically, graphically and in terms of game mechanics. I also have plans for a game like that, and I wish I could say anything about it. But I think I’m going to wait until I’ve actually begun working on it. All I can say for now is that it’s very special.
Columnar Posted August 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 Looks quite good thank god - I HATED Silent Hill 4. Anyone else think SH3 is better than 2? Everyone I know thinks that the sequel is better??? (Oh and a remake of the original on Wii would be great, no?)
Hellfire Posted September 8, 2007 Posted September 8, 2007 Silent Hill always interested me, but they just bore me to death like the old REs. Meh. Maybe one day I'll play them, cause they look really good.
Solo Posted September 9, 2007 Posted September 9, 2007 Hmm, it seems to be taking elements from the film, which wasn't frightening in the slightest.
Hellfire Posted September 9, 2007 Posted September 9, 2007 Hmm, it seems to be taking elements from the film, which wasn't frightening in the slightest. I remember being "frightened" in one or two parts.
AshMat Posted September 15, 2007 Posted September 15, 2007 God, i watched half the film and turned it off out of boredom half way through.
Dante Posted November 29, 2007 Author Posted November 29, 2007 PLAY magazine scares up new Silent Hill V info The fine folks over at SilentHill5.net have uncovered new Silent Hill V details by way of PLAY magazine. We have learned that the flashlight and static emitting radio will make a return after they went inexplicably missing in Silent Hill 4. Also, monsters will react to your flashlight (or any light source), particularly the series' trademark nurses -- this becomes especially apparent (and frightening) when you have to use an X-ray viewer to solve a puzzle. Thankfully, Silent Hill V abandons cinematic camera angles in favor of a player-controlled camera, so hopefully you won't get jumped while solving said puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, the game incorporates button matching segments similar to those found in God of War and Shenmue for certain segments -- like loosening the straps on your gurney, for example. Why are you in a gurney? Don't ask. Finally, the game incorporates a new system in which players must tend their wounds. Untended wounds will affect gameplay. In a nice twist, wounds affect enemies too. Somehow, we doubt that fact will be of any comfort as scads of demented nurses use your body for surgical practice.
Dante Posted December 9, 2007 Author Posted December 9, 2007 3rd picture, giant vagina? Looks like one.
CoolFunkMan Posted December 9, 2007 Posted December 9, 2007 Hmmm, I'm not sure about this one. It's an American developer in charge of a Japanese-originated game, and American's are known for messing up Japanese franchises. Plus the more action-based approach and button matching sequences don't sound very Silent Hill like to me. It's supposed to be all about subliminal horror and a dark, twisted atmosphere. Overall, it's sounding interesting, and I'm glad the radio and flashlight are back, but I'm quite worried that it won't live up to the Silent Hill name.
Razz Posted December 11, 2007 Posted December 11, 2007 Hmmm, I'm not sure about this one. It's an American developer in charge of a Japanese-originated game, and American's are known for messing up Japanese franchises. Metroid Prime turned out pretty damn fine if you ask me.
Dante Posted April 21, 2008 Author Posted April 21, 2008 Renamed 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.
McMad Posted April 21, 2008 Posted April 21, 2008 New Videos It looks... Alright... EDIT: Argh the new name sucks balls. Well at least I won't have to wait too long now to see how bad it really is.
Solo Posted April 22, 2008 Posted April 22, 2008 Just watched the videos and those are some craptacular graphics. And why have they put the nurses from the film in it, the film wasn't scary damnit!
Mundi Posted August 21, 2008 Posted August 21, 2008 Just watched the videos and those are some craptacular graphics. And why have they put the nurses from the film in it, the film wasn't scary damnit! Weren´t they in one of the games?
Hero-of-Time Posted August 31, 2008 Posted August 31, 2008 360 version achievements list. http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/silent-hill-homecoming/achievements/
Dog-amoto Posted April 12, 2009 Posted April 12, 2009 WTF? This game has an option to invert the aiming controls, but not the camera controls. Any game without an inverted camera control option is unplayable. Literally played this game for 30 seconds and turned it off. Back to Lovefilm with you!
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