Masashi Tsuboyama has been interviewed by Electric Shock Magazine [Dengeki Playstation] about the next generation of Silent Hill. He talks Silent Hill 5, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. No solid details but its a very good read.
TNS: “With the recent release of the incredible Silent Hill 2 remake, we reflect on the most underrated game in the series, Silent Hill: Homecoming.”
I didn’t hate it, in fact, I think the hate is unwarranted. It doesn’t have anywhere near the same feel of a Team Silent game, but if this were PTSD fake army man in spooky town: The Game, I think people would have really liked it more.
Now all I want to play is PTSD Fake Army Man in Spooky Town: The Game.... that sounds like a helluva game, lol
Conceptually, Homecoming works. On its surface the narrative is interesting and adds a lot of depth to the lore of the town. The misfire was in its execution i.e aping way too much of its visual cues from the feature film and themes from Silent Hill 2. The developers treated the game as a series of bullet points and checklists of what a Silent Hill game is supposed to be: Cult? Check. Otherworld? Check. Pyramid Head? Check. Trauma? Check. Sexy Nurses? Check. It felt forced instead of genuine and organic. It's a real shame because at its core there was a lot of great material to work with: a fraction of cult members branching off to do their own thing, Alex being a supposed military man, blood pacts and child sacrifice. This is all great stuff. It's just a shame that it never really came together.
Short story: it was mediocre with fun combat.
No memorable characters, no memorable atmospheric set pieces or visuals, lots of in-your-face gore, fucking around with lore by putting PH where he doesn't belong ...
And the ending where Alex also becomes PH and makes a roar was funnier(i remember laughing from disbelief) than the UFO ending in this instalment.
It wasn't terrible. It's one of those "if it didn't have this title" sort of games. It's actually pretty solid, but doesn't live up to the rest of the mainline franchise.
Downpour, however, and I'll die on this hill, is a highly underrated game.
I didn't hate Homecoming. It wasn't as good as 1-4, but it definitely wasn't bad. Downpour I think was just bad. But Homecoming was fine, and the music was really good. It was the game that came out after the movie, so they Americanized it. Pyramid Head was misused and was based on the movie design, not the classic Silent Hill 2 design. The town as well was not consistent with the other games, but rather the movie. The green Welcome to Silent Hill sign from the movie was even in Homecoming.
The sirens are sounding again, beckoning you back to the foggy ghost town as we rank all the Silent Hill games, from the chilling classics to the misguided missteps.
I mostly disagree with Downpour's position. Yeah, the game is not amazing by any stretch of the imagination but is much better than the HD Collection and Homecoming. The main issue is the performance, but that was mitigated by the patches, especially on the PS3. Personally, I put it a little behind Origins and The Room.
Having Restless Dreams as a different entry from Silent Hill 2 is also a choice.
Normally, we would not consider it a different game (Restless Dreams), but since it had a very different critical reception and had new content, it was allowed. As for Downpour, I would agree, but since that one is subjective, we let him make his case for the placement.
silent hill 2 is definitely the best one out of those.
for me personally, the whole ritual/cult stuff was always so weird to me in all the other games.
No disrespect but I put SH2 over 1. 1 is fantastic, but 2 took it all up a level.
Twinfinite: "They said it couldn't be done, be we've tried our best to rank all the monsters in Silent Hill according to their fear factor. Let's go!"
Pyramid Head is my #1 too, despite the fact you don't actually fight him much - and the few times you do are actually super easy. It's all in the presentation & close encounters.
I never thought the monsters themselves were very scary. It was the tension and the unknown, the silent moments that got under your skin that were the most scary to me.
Silent Hill has always been about the psychological horror more than it's gore.
DP: Are these limitations involving the Playstation 3's cell processor which is hard to utilize?
Tsuboyama-san: The Playstation 3 is a complex piece of hardware. With that limitation once worked around can result in something wonderful. Which is why the playstation 3 is harder to develop for because its new but when we work round the idea then it can rise above the other lead consoles in processing power.
DP: PS3 uses Blu-Ray technology, would you actually need this or is it just a novelty?
Blu-Ray will be a great asset to the developer in the future. 50GB of storage is a huge jump from what we had [9BG Dual Layer] at DVD level. Saying that, we have not had too much trouble fitting the games on a CD as was the case with Silent Hill for Playstation or DVD for Silent Hill's 2 to 4 but in those times we have not had HD involved and more complex environments and detailed character models which next-gen allows.
DP: Have you made any thoughts on the platform which Silent Hill will appear?
Tsuboyama-san: Like I said, we only have ideas but we have been assessing next-generation consoles such as Sony's Playstation 3. We have looked at other consoles too but they exact limitations which could delay progress. We have not decided the console yet.
I hope they choose the PS3 as their lead platform!!
dev are starting to notice that bluray was the smartest thing to do and that is why that 1 year wait sony did to make sure they got it all rite will blow the compition out of the water or force(which i know it will happen) the comp to come out with another system and force ppl to go buy it hahahaha the funny thing will be once MS launches another console with bluray in the next year or 2 which will be crappy because it would be rushed MS sheep will say its better lol then the PS3
Well from the interview i can tell you the PS3 will more than likely be the lead platform and there is at least a 60% chance the game will be exclusive to the PS3.
Hell no they'll make more money if they go multiplatform, except for the Wii doesn't look like it's gonna happen there, but it'll almost definately be on 360 also. I'll bet you 20$
Yea from a financial perspective it could go on the 360 but you can tell from his wording that he is in more support of the PS3. Silent hill wnt be coming out for another 2yrs by then if the PS3 has a solid install base trust me it will be exclusive