Monday, January 31, 2011

Happy Birthday Silent Hill!


Today is the 12th anniversary of the debut of our favorite vacation spot, Silent Hill. Click over to HellDescent.com who had the sense to keep track of this, and be sure to stay and read their interview with the voice of James Sunderland, Guy Cihi, who also happens to celebrate a birthday today.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Design a tombstone for Downpour


More action from Konami promoting Downpour, as fans will have a chance to get their own graveyard memorial included in Silent Hill: Downpour. Konami is sponsoring a contest via Facebook where you can submit you own design for a graveyard memorial to be included in the upcoming game. Three lucky winners will be selected, and will have their designs immortalized in the game. All the details can be found in Konami's PR release on their Silent Hill Facebook page (login required).

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

An audio peek at Downpour


Joystiq posted an MP3 peek at Dan Licht's upcoming score for Silent Hill: Downpour. Konami has kept the news on this title coming fast and furious since the Game Informer magazine article--hopefully they can continue to generate buzz on this title until it is released. If you don't have the latest Game Informer, the site has done a really good job of tracking development as well.

I think a lot of fans are a little nervous to see what Dan comes up with. He's got the pedigree for sure. I guess the most interesting thing to keep an eye (ear?) on will be how far he is allowed to stray from the path set by Yamaoka.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Konami's in charge

HellDescent.com has posted an interesting story about the modern state of Silent Hill gaming and Konami's direction of the series. According to Kenzie Lemar, an artist who worked with developer Double Helix on Silent Hill: Homecoming, Konami is definitely the driving the evolution of the series.

You have only to cruise the forums of the interwebs to see how core fans have criticized Silent Hill's changes since Team Silent was disbanded. They have been displeased with their beloved franchise, and put the blame on the developers who have shepherded Silent Hill onto the next generation of consoles.

IMHO, I think this is a misguided view by a minority of core fans (great fans who have supported Silent Hill) of how Konami is evolving the series, and not necessarily fair to the new blood. I also believe that it is likely a small minority who complain loudly. Konami knows that Silent Hill is a flagship series--after all it is the only (? or one of the few) Konami IP's that was made into a major motion picture. When you look at the history of Team Silent, from an early point, its eventual dissolution was there as Keiichirō Toyama left after the first game to work for Sony on Siren.

There are lots of other factors too. Developers and publishers of current gen consoles are still trying to balance HD budgets with non-HD processes and schedules. That's why Konami pushed SH to the PSP, added a PS2 port, and published on the Wii--its very, very expensive to make and publish games this generation. Also, with lower install base this gen, it's been challenging at best, for publishers to make a profit on titles that are not smash hits.

It's to Konami's credit that they recognized opportunities in outsourcing to US and EU development studios--Western studios bring unique perspectives, different processes, and likely cost savings. It's a move that Capcom mirrored in recent years, and was a hot topic amongst the Japanese game development community at TGS this year.

Love it or hate it, outsourcing is here to stay. Enjoy the different experiences possible with each new iteration of Silent Hill. You might not like everything Konami publishes, but at least they are trying hard to give us something unique each with each new title.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Game Informer's big reveal of Silent Hill: Downpour


Game Informer Magazine scores the big reveal for Silent Hill: Downpour. The new issue features an article that describes a demo by Game Informer staff accompanied by a slew of photos from the game. If you don't get the magazine, be sure to keep an eye out at the usual venues (Destructoid, Joystiq, etc.) for upcoming coverage of the game, or just jump over to Game Informer, as they have a whole slew of material covering this upcoming chapter of our favorite vacation spot.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Years resolutions being what they are...

New Years resolutions being what they are, I am hoping I can get this blog together, to track all things that are Silent Hill. I'll try and keep chit-chat outside of the SH sphere to a minimum, or on another blog.
 
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