When Bloober and Konami announced that they were remaking Silent Hill 2 as part of a comprehensive series reboot, it made immediate if slightly deflating sense to me. Silent Hill 2 is the more feted of the Hills - if I were a calculating franchise custodian tasked with 'bringing back' one of the acclaimed original trilogy, that's probably the instalment I and my spreadsheets would fix upon. I mean, it's the game with Pyramid Head in it - the nearest thing Silent Hill has to a mascot, and it's not like there's an issue of cutting out plot material: each game in the Silent Hill series is, on some level, a distinct story with a distinct protagonist.
Still, the decision to 'skip' the first game in the series, whose world, narrative themes, music and art direction set the parameters for all the rest, made my brain itch a bit, and when I ran into Bloober's creative director Mateusz Lenart and lead producer Maciej Głomb at a Konami event, I had to ask about it.
]]>After years of rumours and leaks, including by Konami themselves earlier today, we finally have official confirmation of future Silent Hill games. The Silent Hill 2 remake from Bloober Team is real! The developers of Observation are making a new Silent Hill game! There's a third new game called Silent Hill f! Step below for the full list of what's kicking off in that foggy town.
]]>Konami might have just accidentally leaked the reveal of one of the new Silent Hill games due to be announced later this evening. Earlier this week, the publisher announced there would be a Silent Hill Transmission stream taking place today, October 19th, which would provide "the latest updates" on the series. At the time, there were no streaming links available, but in setting their YouTube page live this morning, Konami jumped the gun and included some of the game names being revealed. And it's the big one, folks. Spoilers within, obvs.
]]>We might finally be getting another Silent Hill game after a decade of mostly, well, silence. Konami have announced that a “Silent Hill Transmission” is set for this Wednesday, October 19th at 10pm BST / 2pm PDT. No details have been shared about whether you’ll be able to tune in on YouTube or Twitch for the stream, but Konami shared a link to a page on their site so you should be able to watch it there.
]]>The director of an upcoming movie based on Konami’s survival horror Silent Hill series has seemingly confirmed that more than one new game is being worked on. Christophe Gans, who directed the iffy 2006 adaptation of Silent Hill and is working on a second film, spoke about his involvement with Konami on the series in a French language interview. The interview was picked up by fans on ResetEra, who translated Gans’ comments.
]]>Images that allegedly show a Silent Hill 2 remake have been doing the rounds online over the weekend, featuring creepy nurses and the very shadowy back of protagonist James Sunderland’s head. They’re appropriately blurry, considering the series' penchant for mistiness, but still recognisably Silent Hill. Once again, it’s claimed that the game is being developed by Layers Of Fear studio Bloober Team.
]]>Images of what appear to be a new entry in Konami’s psychological horror series Silent Hill were posted briefly online over the weekend, before they were struck down by a copyright claim a few hours later. AestheticGamer, née Dusk Golem, posted the images to Twitter, claiming they were a "Silent Hill leak", and that they'd received "more than enough proof to believe" their source wasn't telling porkies.
]]>New reports citing anonymous sources say that Konami are going to return to development of major games, with both new instalments and remakes planned for Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and Silent Hill. As first reported by VGC, many of these games would be developed by external studios.
]]>We’ve had a secret Silent Hill game (PT). We’ve had a game that the internet insisted was a Silent Hill game, but probably isn't. The insidious nature of the series means this post could technically be a Silent Hill game, and if it is I probably wouldn’t know until it was too late*. Here's another hint that the series is coming back: horror-focused developers Bloober Team just announced a “strategic partnership” with Konami. Of course, they didn’t mention anything else, but with Silent Hill, you don’t have to. It’s all implied.
]]>Abandoned is an upcoming horror game set in a spooky forest that's coming out later this year. It was revealed back in April, and it didn't take long for folks to start comparing it to Silent Hill - it shares a similar brand of eeriness, plus a setting is reminiscent of early PT teasers. Now however, thanks to odd comments from developers Blue Box Studios, some really weird naming coincidences, and a strong desire for more Silent Hills, people actually think Abandoned could be a new Kojima game.
]]>Like a lot of people, I saw that announcement trailer for Knockout City last week and thought, "that seems like a game I will never play, but I hope the people that do end up getting it have a lovely time with it." Then I ended up playing this past weekend's beta for about three hours.
]]>Despite all the notE3 showcases and announcements this week, Konami have not announced a new Silent Hill. Not even hinted at one. Despite the rumours that they might have two coming. Ah well. However, two notable things have happened in the field of quiet mounds:
1) Dead By Daylight launched Silent Hill DLC, adding Cheryl Mason and Pyramid Head. 2) Konami put seven Silent Hill soundtracks back up on Spotify, including the best one.
That'll have to do for now.
]]>While the Silent Hill series still seems basically dead, and maybe that's for the best, parts will return in Dead By Daylight. The 1v4 multiplayer horrorshow's next DLC pack will introduce Silent Hill, with Cheryl Mason as a playable survivor, Pyramid Head as a killer, and the school as a new map. DBD has long had guest characters out horror films, from Halloween to Scream, so this is fairly natural. Hell, it's better than Konami tend to treat Silent Hill.
]]>For a game that never released and a Playstation-only demo for said game that now un-exists, there's been a sudden rush of (mostly) good news regarding Silent Hills on PC. No, not for the game itself, because that ship has long since sailed. But if you were enraptured by the spirit of the whole hullabaloo, there's a lot of neat bonus projects suddenly at your disposal.
]]>Psst. I know mum said you weren’t allowed to listen to those hellions on your favourite podcast anymore, but the hosts of the Electronic Wireless Show won’t tell if you don’t. This week we’re talking about the games we weren’t allowed to play as youngsters, but did anyway. Alice suffered strict rationing of The Sims 2, and Dave (oh hello Dave) was looked at with concern while playing Silent Hill. Brendan’s parents didn’t seem to care. Let’s all go to Brendan’s house. He’s got GTA 2.
]]>Saying that something is like Silent Hill is, at this point, like being a gigantic idiot and comparing something that isn't Dark Souls to Dark Souls. (I stand by it. Don't @ me.) Or like calling everything Lovecraftian. Unfortunately, there's really nowhere else to go with this one. Someday You'll Return is leaning in hard on everything that would make a great first person Silent Hill experience, and oh god (or gods) (or lackthereof) does it look like the Czech-based team is going to stick the landing.
]]>The Silent Hill HD remake for consoles is one of the most famous muck-ups in gaming history. Konami rushed the project out the door, despite not telling consumers that they'd outsourced the up-rez'ing and -- most upsetting of all -- worked from incomplete files. Somehow, Konami misplaced the finished code for the original games, so it was left up to an understaffed team to replace art assets for two of the most beloved survival horror titles of all time; with a fandom that really, really notices when things aren't done right. Mistakes like... forgetting to include fog in Silent Hill 2.
Our friends over at Rely on Horror have an interview they published today with an anonymous source about what went wrong in the HD remake. We also have some links to resources for HDifying the PC versions, if you want to do Silent Hill right.
]]>As survival-horror town names go, “Shivercliff” is really skirting the edges of self-parody. But that’s what the creators of Husk [official website] have gone with. It’s a first-person psychological horror game that they’re describing as a tribute to classics like Silent Hill. Set in the dreadyear of 1995, you’ve been in a train crash outside the mysterious town but there’s no sign of your daughter and wife. You’ll be navigating the abandoned settlement, shining a torch at things and looking for your loved ones. Is that them, up ahead? No. That is a twisted and monstrous manifestation of all your emotionally repressed fears. Pull yourself together, mate.
]]>It’s the curse that keeps on giving. Allison Road [official site], the cancelled first-person horror about wandering around inside your family home stalked by a creepy girl with a bad case of the Blood Drools, has been revived. Its original developer, Christian Kesler, told IGN that he is continuing to work on it alone. Which is a scary prospect by itself, considering the game's spoooooky history.
]]>Resident Evil 7's [official site] demo, Beginning Hour, isn't available on PC but the final game will be in January 2017. I've played through the demo several times and have some doubts as to how it'd translate into a longer game, but I also think it's the most exciting thing to happen to the horror series since Resident Evil 4. The key to it all is found footage, an often maligned term thanks to the many movies that treat a handheld camera or webcam as a stand-in for a decent script. In Beginning Hour, however, VHS tapes hold the promise of something truly startling and sinister.
]]>The cancellation of Silent Hills becomes more distressing every time a new piece of information emerges. Guillermo del Toro's tweet stating that horror manga maestro Junji Ito would have collaborated on the game was a cruel blow and anyone who has encountered his work will understand why. When I first looked at Allison Road [official site], I hoped it would live up to the legacy of PT, the playable teaser for Silent Hills that caused such a stir. Now, the Kickstarter has been cancelled before reaching its target but that's because Worms developer (and indie publisher) Team17 have stepped in.
]]>MMORPG specialists Funcom have revealed more details about their ominous theme park-set single-player outing The Park [official site]. Although it's the studio's first solo-playing venture in nine years - Dreamfall: The Longest Journey in 2006 being the last - The Park takes place in The Secret World's wider universe.
The latest trailer asks 'What is The Park?', before taking a behind-the-scenes peak beyond the rope barrier as it arrives at an answer.
]]>Calgary-based developer Farhan Qureshi has racked up roughly a lifetime's worth of nerd cred by recreating the hallway from malaria dream horrorshow P.T. - the teaser for the potential Kojima-directed Silent Hill game that will now never be.
Good news for those of you who have been experiencing the cruel shakes of withdrawal since the original demo was removed from yer PS4. The remake is a one-man effort from Qureshi who describes his work and toil thusly:
]]>Sam Barlow has one of the most impressive CVs in gaming. By my reckoning, he only has six releases to his name but two of those games are comfortably inside my list of all-time favourites - the experimental interactive fiction of Aisle and the masterful Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The latter might never come to PC but hopefully it'll arrive in digital download form on the Wii U's eShop sooner rather than later.
Barlow's next game, Her Story, has elements of true crime, police procedural and confessional monologue. During a sprawling conversation last week, we discussed how it continues to play with interactive storytelling techniques, and how it has as much in common with Alan Bennett as True Detective.
]]>What's a Silent Hill game without combat? A moody adventure game where you spend too long kicking around a hospital, hoping you won't see more of those awful twitchy nurses. At least, that's what I've seen so far of Silent Hill: Alchemilla, a free fan game/Source mod which has all of the puzzling and rust without any of the stomping-on-squirming-things. It's relatively thoughtful puzzling too, and I only stopped playing to write this post because I was stumped. I'll return later though, as I want to see more of its unarmed first-person take on Silent Hill, and maybe more of those frightful nurses. I do like them really.
]]>Dear RPS,
There's a place that I sometimes go to but I rarely talk about it. I can't find the words. Maybe the only way to tell you is to go back there and to write everything down in a letter. So here I am. The first time I came to this place, this special place, I didn't have the courage to remain there alone...
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