Silent Hill 4 pics

[zurich]

http://www.the-magicbox.com/game010604a.shtml

Not sure if I like the main character design.. seems like the Konami suits have decided to milk a little more out of their investment in the SH3 engine. Hmmm...

Hopefully it'll be a good balance between Silent Hill 2 and 3 in terms of story, horror, etc.

 

[Sonic]

This has real potential to end up destroying a series that could continue into the next generation. Konami is definitely milking this franchise for what its worth but they should give the series a rest for now. It may end up like Resident Evil in that the sales won't be able to back the series up through further sequels. The graphics are sure to be awesome though and the story should be there. It's just a tad early to even think of a Silent Hill 4.

 

[marconelly!]

As long as they can keep the quality of everything as high as they did with the last two games, there's no need to complain, IMO. It will be one more great game to play.

Zurich, I think they are using different/improved SH3 engine here. There are pictures in that other thread which show outdoor scenes with no fog whatsoever, as well as some really nifty looking bloom lighting on the night scenes.

Look at the two small pics on the left. Very Ico-ish yet with their disturbing look smeared over

Btw, the full name of the game is SH4-"The Room", and from what I've found out so far, it's based around the connection of the room where the main character is locked in, and the alternate world that is intersecting with that room. Sounds like a pretty cool premise.

 

[zurich]

This has real potential to end up destroying a series that could continue into the next generation. Konami is definitely milking this franchise for what its worth but they should give the series a rest for now. It may end up like Resident Evil in that the sales won't be able to back the series up through further sequels. The graphics are sure to be awesome though and the story should be there. It's just a tad early to even think of a Silent Hill 4.

I definitely agree Sonic.

Marc,

Yeah I noticed the bloom lighting, but I still don't expect it to be as much of a facelift as SH2->3 was.

edit:

Weren't SH3's sales pretty disappointing? IIRC, they weren't as high as SH2..

 

[marconelly!]

Yeah I noticed the bloom lighting, but I still don't expect it to be as much of a facelift as SH2->3 was.

Neither do I, but it's nice to know that they are at least not just flat out recycling everything. We'll see, there was that rumor that was saying that engines for SH4 and MGS3 were developed collaboratively between MGS and SH developers. The bloom lightng here solidifies that rumour a bit as MGS3 has that effect as well. Furthermore, it might mean that SH4 will have more focus on larger open environments, as well as MGS3.

SH3 sales weren't bad, but definitely worse than SH2. I think gameplay in all the horror games is long overdue for an overhaul. That would actually attract some new people to give them a chance, otherwise they might end up with P&C adventures where their fanbase adores them for what they have to offer, but most people don't care.

 

[London Geezer]

Well, slaes only tell part of the story. I mean look at how the platform genre has evolved since the release of J&D. aweosome platformers havbe been released, some of which are near perfection both technically and in gameplay, still, sales are not as high as one would expect.
In the same fashion, should the survival-horror genre get a much deserved "evolution", there is the risk that whatever developers do, sales won't reflect the effort.
If the public has had enough of something, it won't buy it. Of course there are exceptions though.
Think about it, which one of the 2 (SH2 and SH3) should have sold more? My bet would have been SH3, much more in-your-face and commerciable than the highly psychologic SH2. However, SH2 sold more. The market is already showing that we are buying less and less survival horror titles, as good as they are.
Personally i will always buy SH games cause i just love everything about them, but thinking a 4th sequel (as good as it might be) will suddenly boost sales of an already milked franchise is a bit optimistic.

 

[cthellis42]

Survival horror is also just more spread out, and offering more choices--hence people will tend to what type they prefer, not just "whatever comes out." SH also tends to have little replay value, so it might be interesting to see rental statistics on top of game sales to see how much it might be eating into it.

Platformers as well, really. A lot more, more choices--both across the games themselves and the platforms, as no one is really dry on them. Meanwhile, they're usually not hugely time-consuming or replay-worth, so renting might be taking a bit out of this too... or at least waiting to buy them used and/or a lot cheaper down the line.

 

[Sonic]

You guys are onto something here. I also think a lot of it has to do with games of the same genre being shoved at us from all different directions. There may be a wide variety out there, but the quality of that variety is getting highly redundant. Platformers don't sell well any more because although there is innovation from within them they were practically shoved down our throats for so long that most consumers just don't want to try them. The same goes for fighting games. They used to be the pinnacle of gaming at a time and now they don't sell well enough of what they used to. The only really solid genres out there are sports and racing games. People gobble up sports games because each new year there is new content from the actual realm of sports to feed the games. Racing games just seem to have a certain crowd of people that will never stop buying them. It's only a matter of time before RPG's fade back into lackluster sellers and only a few are the big sellers. It may already be happening.

Just give the series a rest for a while and release a new iteration on the next gen consoles. That would be one way to revitalize interest.

 

[V3]

You guys are onto something here. I also think a lot of it has to do with games of the same genre being shoved at us from all different directions.

People always complained about lack of games, not having choice, etc. Now they have alot of choice, perhaps they're just excercising their choices.

The same goes for fighting games. They used to be the pinnacle of gaming at a time and now they don't sell well enough of what they used to.

Its a different generation. Fighting games are games that have high learning curve, and it doesn't help the popularity with newbie when the loyal fans are asking for more complexity.

I mean average people will have alot more fun moving their mouse around and click, click, click, click........

That said, horrible fighting games like Dragon Ball Z can sell really well, just base on the license, so its just seems you required good will of some sort.

The only really solid genres out there are sports and racing games. People gobble up sports games because each new year there is new content from the actual realm of sports to feed the games.

Yes, sports games and racing games normally are license stuff, and they have alot of good will associated with them.

 

[7upac]

Actually they are suposedly using a whole new engine for this game. Anyways i think it looks quite a bit improved over sh3 even form these blurry scans. The lighting and texturing defenitely seems improved. Question tho, is that bump mapping on the half body of the zombie with the green jacked and vains coming from his stomach?

 

[London Geezer]

Actually they are suposedly using a whole new engine for this game. Anyways i think it looks quite a bit improved over sh3 even form these blurry scans. The lighting and texturing defenitely seems improved. Question tho, is that bump mapping on the half body of the zombie with the green jacked and vains coming from his stomach?

And from blurry screens you can see it's a big improvement from SH3? Wow... I mean, kudos to u...

I dont see why using a completely new engine for SH4, in the end they could just add on the VERY GOOD old engine and that would be enough... And personally i think that's what they are going to do... They're cashing in on the franshise, increasing the rate of release of new SH games, and usually "new engines" don't come into the equation when u're trying to release a game every year, especially if the look is similar. The lighting features might be different or improved, but that woul dbe enough, SH3 was more than capable enough to give some good WOW-factor. Unless they "happen to have" a new engine (Namely the MGS3 engine) to use, that is. However it occurs to me that Konami games all run on similar engines (or different versions of the same general engine), that is i read somewhere that the ZOE engine was the same as the MGS2 engine, with only a few tweaks and of course different content (not THAT different though)...

Maybe Deano might be able to enlighten us, haveing worked on SH2...

 

[maskrider]

Check these 2 much bigger and clearer scans

http://www.sunflower.com/~shoun/sh4page1.jpg
http://www.sunflower.com/~shoun/sh4page2.jpg

Ripped from MentalNoiz's post in SH Forum which is originated from a message of TsukasaHojo in GameFAQs SH3 message board.

 

[Berserk]

Could the guy in the second scan (presumably the protaganist) be rendered in real time? I thinks so because SH3 had no prerendered cutscenes and the characters were almost of CGI quality,s so it should be the same case with SH4.

The man in the second scan looks good, very detailed even better than SH3 characters IMO. I mean look at the skin, eyes, hair (flowing hair this time?), the little stubbles on his chin => if the character(s) look improved in detail, this could mean an improved engine, no?

 

[cthellis42]

Probably. They already acheived impressive results in SH3, so I wouldn't be surprised if they kicked model detail up another notch.

 

[London Geezer]

I'm confident they will improve on the old engine. Just very unlikely they will use an entirely new engine, as i said.
The characters in SH3 were something no one thought could be handled by little old PS2, if they improve them even more i'll be rather impressed...
I just hope they work on the GAME itself too, graphics can only take u so far, although in SH3 it did push me to see all of the beauty till the end many times...
Playing the same game with different graphics over and over is not gonna be enough, even if i will buy it whatever the final result is...

 

[nobie]

SH3 didn't receive the same kind of promotion that SH2 did. I remember seeing alot of TV commercials for SH2, and none for SH3. That probably explains the lower sales.

 

[7upac]

london-boy iv played through sh1-sh3 many times and i can tell that the graphics have been improved quite a bit. If uv played sh2/3 then looking at these pics u would see right away that the lighting has been improved since its more gloomy/bright in your face, like ico. Now i can say the same thing about the textures in these pictures because they appear more detailed or shiny. Besides it having very good textures (which on the body of the zombie seem bump mapped or similar technique) the wall in the pic with the character stabbed by some sort of spikes on a bed seems to have a more bumpy and shiny look to it. So what im saying is they have definitely added something to the textures to make them look better.

 

[maskrider]

Official site is up

http://www.konami.com/silenthill4/

It will be on PS2 and X-BOX

Screenshots

 

[London Geezer]

london-boy iv played through sh1-sh3 many times and i can tell that the graphics have been improved quite a bit. If uv played sh2/3 then looking at these pics u would see right away that the lighting has been improved since its more gloomy/bright in your face, like ico. Now i can say the same thing about the textures in these pictures because they appear more detailed or shiny. Besides it having very good textures (which on the body of the zombie seem bump mapped or similar technique) the wall in the pic with the character stabbed by some sort of spikes on a bed seems to have a more bumpy and shiny look to it. So what im saying is they have definitely added something to the textures to make them look better.

I definately agree with you there, i've also played through sh2-3 many times (two of the few story driven games i've played through many times over actually), and the graphics have certainly improved. I was the first to kneel before Konami for what they made PS2 do, not only with the SH series. All i was saying is that it is very unlikely they developed a completely new engine for this one.
And yes, after seeing the bigger pictures, this one is right up at N.1 in my most wanted list. Absolutely amazing.
We'll have to see, in general (on ps2) every time someone said a certain game "looked" like it had bump mapping, it turned out to be very good looking hi res textures, sometimes with a specula map. In the end, if it looks good, who cares if it's bump mapping or whatever else... Just look at it and go OOOOOOOHHHHHH... Especially if it's all real time (which, after seeing SH3, i think it is)

 

[notAFanB]

looks great, maybe they are going for a twilight zone gig this time around?

All i was saying is that it is very unlikely they developed a completely new engine for this one.

to be fair London-boy, Developers (or any sort) are extremely unlikely to throw away their engines and build them from scratch, an overall rewrite is often more than enough to solve most demands.

Doom 3 being an exception of course.