Silent Hill 4 pics

[London Geezer]

I hope that SH4 does not feature "Silent Hill" city, I am sick of visiting Brookheaven Hospital in SH1/2/3.....after playing FF2:CB; SH2/3 doesn't feel scary a bit....IMO they should focus on psychological horror...I mean through thing you can't see rather than what you see.

OT, has anyone played Clock Tower 3?? GameSpot featured it among best games which no-one played, shall I try it?....Amplitude was the winner though.

Well, Silent Hill is the name of the city, so i guess it should be the same place as usual... However, yeah i'm kinda tired of playing in the same place with different stories and characters... Although there are differences between one game and the other. The only place that's in common is the hospital (between SH2 and 3). SH2 had the apartment, the hotel, the park, while SH3 had the shopping centre, the amusement park and the chapel thing at the end...
I expect the hospital to make an appereance in SH4, it HAS to since SH games are all about mental illness patients and stuff...

 

[maskrider]

I hope that SH4 does not feature "Silent Hill" city, I am sick of visiting Brookheaven Hospital in SH1/2/3.....after playing FF2:CB; SH2/3 doesn't feel scary a bit....IMO they should focus on psychological horror...I mean through thing you can't see rather than what you see.

IMO, the part for the hospital was far too long in the SH2/3 game. I don't want to stay there as many hours as I have spent in the Hospital of SH2/3 again in SH4.

In Zero/Zero~CB, you also see them (the ghosts) and you hear some heart beats everytime they are near or they are going to appear. Much like the radio static in SH games.

With regard to causing fear and panic, Siren is over both the Zero and SH series.

 

[London Geezer]

Can't wait to play Siren...

Yes, in SH4 they should cut the time spent in the Hospital. In SH3 the time spent in the hospital was already cut from SH2 (<-- bit of a pain, i remember). Although overall, SH3 was just a shorter game altogether...

 

[Deepak]

In Zero/Zero~CB, you also see them (the ghosts) and you hear some heart beats everytime they are near or they are going to appear. Much like the radio static in SH games.

But one crucial difference is that CB has human form of horror....means ghosts/spirits etc whereas SH2/3 has monsters sort of creatures, former is more *horrific* definitely IMO. Also the fact that Mio/(what is 2nds name?) have only a camera and nothing else is a big plus.....coupled with cleverly used cinematic camera angles (which only addes to the atmosphere) and noised filtered cutscenes.

 

[maskrider]

In Zero/Zero~CB, you also see them (the ghosts) and you hear some heart beats everytime they are near or they are going to appear. Much like the radio static in SH games.

But one crucial difference is that CB has human form of horror....means ghosts/spirits etc whereas SH2/3 has monsters sort of creatures, former is more *horrific* definitely IMO. Also the fact that Mio/(what is 2nds name?) have only a camera and nothing else is a big plus.....coupled with cleverly used cinematic camera angles (which only addes to the atmosphere) and noised filtered cutscenes.

The panic in SH2 is isolation and excessive silence, SH2 is based on the accumulated fear than shocks.

SH3 is too action oriented to get you too scared. You mind your shooting business than being scared by the creatures and atmosphere.

Zero/Zero~CB gives shocks at first, but you will get use to it very fast.

The girls in CB are too lovely (especially mayu), especially with the other costumes on them, that is one thing that has an adverse effect on the shocks and fears.

From a thread in SH forum, looks like there will be someplace like a hospital treatment room again, really hope that the time that you need to stay in the hospital is much reduced in SH4.

The thread by Silentkill in SH forum
http://www.silenthillforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6393

 

[London Geezer]

The more action oriented the game is, the less scary it is, at least for me. There's something disturbing when you have very little defences against someone who's trying to hurt you. Especially if that someone is a monster thing you don't really understand. Humans fear what they do not understand.

That's why i found SH2 more "interesting" than SH3... Much less in-your-face, and James was just a weird character by default. Buffy girl in SH3 never made the game really creepy...

 

[maskrider]

Whole pages scans, by "Zombie Nurse" in SH forum

http://silenthill.tsubomikoneko.com/sh44.jpg
http://silenthill.tsubomikoneko.com/sh43.jpg

 

[London Geezer]

The i guess it's confirmed it will come out for Xbox too. How about those gamers who would like SH3 for Xbox? I don't see why releasing SH2 and SH4 but not SH3...

 

[maskrider]

SH1 and 3 are linked.

SH2 and SH4 are supposed to be independant.

 

[London Geezer]

Yeah i'm aware of that, however it would be nice, for completness' sake... you know what i mean...

It's like the FInal Fantasy games, they're not really related to each other in the storyline (apart from FFX and FFX-2), but it would be weird if they released FF7 for PS1, skipped FF8 and then released FF9....

Oh wait, FF11 is not going to be released here in Europe, so maybe it's common practice (Now that was sarcastic...)

 

[Lazy8s]

Microsoft courted Japanese publishers intensely at the beginning. They had a co-publishing agreement with Konami from the PC previously, and the companies continued their relationship when MS pursued Konami and got them to commit some big franchises for Xbox. The Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams timed exclusive went on to sell pretty well for an enhanced port.

Konami's committal to Xbox was always rather reluctant. When MS saw that native market titles were selling its system much better than foreign ones, they let the Xbox's market potential speak for itself when attracting Japanese houses. Support dropped off.

Konami was more than happy to name Silent Hill 3 as a PlayStation2 console-exclusive. The game's worldwide sales, however, did not turn out so stellar.

Konami now must take a more fiscally responsible approach for a sequel. They recognized Xbox to be the next best chance for a cross-over market.

 

[Panajev2001a]

For tis audience Silent Hill 3 did n ot sell bad.

They did not want to remake Silent Hill 1 for Xbox and Silent Hill 3 was Silent Hill 1's sequel so they were both bound for PlayStation 2 which can also play PSOne games.

Silent Hill 4 is not linked with Silent Hill 1 or Silent Hill 3 that much if at all so a multi-console release can assure Konami the most money ( it is not like Xbox is a much better platform for the series or something ).

 

[Lazy8s]

Maintaining series continuity on platforms is not too high of a priority to publishers.

 

[maskrider]

Fans of the first SH game was on PS, it is natural for a company to release a direct sequel on the same/compatible platform, it is not about maintaining the continuity of the series on a platform, the sequel have a bigger chance of better sales this way than only available on another platform.

And BTW, PS2 is still the primary platform for SH games, X-BOX and PC are secondary. IMHO, releasing the game on the other platforms can test how well the game is accepted on them.

SH2 : PS2, X-BOX, PC
SH3 : PS2, PC
SH4 : PS2, X-BOX

May be Konami was not happy with the sales of SH2/SH3 on PC (I suppose this will be the cause) and decided to release SH4 only for PS2 and X-BOX.

 

[chapban.]

The big big flaw of SH games are the enemies are not frightful in any way. They are there, you know they are going to be there, they be staying there. You know they are mostly retardedly harmless, you know you can just skip past them, you know you can take them out with your shotgun easily. They are just there for there for show. For horror game IMHO, you cannot just rely on grisly environment, you need something to interact or something to feel the ph33r! SH just put you in those brown dead blooded environment and that is it! So boring, no suspense no panic. ZZzzz

 

[nobie]

Let me guess, you're a Resident Evil fan

 

[chapban.]

I am a Fatal Frame fan.
FF1/2 iz the bettar horror game IMHO. Best so far this generation.

 

[rabidrabbit]

The big big flaw of SH games are the enemies are not frightful in any way. They are there, you know they are going to be there, they be staying there. You know they are mostly retardedly harmless, you know you can just skip past them, you know you can take them out with your shotgun easily. They are just there for there for show. For horror game IMHO, you cannot just rely on grisly environment, you need something to interact or something to feel the ph33r! SH just put you in those brown dead blooded environment and that is it! So boring, no suspense no panic. ZZzzz

Sh games are not just that kind of games. Just as chap is not that kind of boy.
They do rely on disturbing environment, they do rely on you beig able to skip the monsters, they do rely on psychological terror more than 'ooo, is my weapon going to be powerful enough for those monsters, what if I run out of ammo, do I have enough herbs' kind of fear.

Silent Hill for some, Resident Evil for others.
SH proved to be succesful with the formula, after all it is what makes Silent Hill a Silent Hill game.

 

[ChryZ]

Silent Hill 1, gamerankings.com Avg Ratio: 85%
Silent Hill 2, gamerankings.com Avg Ratio: 85%
Silent Hill 3, gamerankings.com Avg Ratio: 84%

Fatal Frame 1, gamerankings Avg Ratio: 80%
Fatal Frame 2, gamerankings Avg Ratio: 83%

 

[chapban.]

The big big big flaw of FF games is the character art, yes The Tecmo Dolls!! That turn many off, as the mindset of the more realistic, the better able to feel the ph33r. Im sure if Tecmo take out the girls of FF and replace them with Heather and do the quality cutscenes, FF can reach out to a wider audience.

BUT ImhO, that do nuts for me, dolls or real. Games are games and they stay games. I dunno, i don see myself INTO the games, but just playing ALONG with it. MayB i ain imaginative enuFF to think of myself INTO Silent Hill but well it is still a game to me. Heather as realistically modelled, still looking like Polygon Girl to me.

The OTHER thing is, the rotting rusty hellish places/enemies of SH seem to struck a cord better than the haunted ghostly villages of FF, with many. A grisly environment may gross people out, but well the whole thing still look like a game to me. ie NOT real enough to recreate real gross stuff to turn the stomach ImhO. Nothing wrongy, since no console/PC can do that today. So putting the game lead into such places, ALONE, is not enough for me. There has to be something else to heighten the frights. AND there is where the unpredicable evil ghosts of FF come in. Add the salt seaoning to the final dishes! YummY! SH monsters as "grisly looking"(ie NOT) as they are, are more like pale flour. Tasteless and useless, to do nothing to make it YummY.

AND, NO. FF has as good ATMOSPHERE as SH. I PERSONALLY like the haunted Japanese village of FF more, Japanese scares alway seem the creepier creeps to me. The audio quality is great too. NO complains about both.

So it is NOT an ATMOSPHERE thing ImhO. The whole thingy is down to the VISUAL SETTINGS of the 2 games. The "cleaner"/"animey" like settings of FF are not likey to be love by some i guess.

OH HO! The last thing, it too be like Tecmo arent likey to be associated with tEh cool games with PS2 crowd, unlike say, Konami. NOT they hatey Tecmo(mayB, mayB not) but some are more likey to look toward a Konami games than Tecmo, for some (un?)-known reasons.

" OH HO! What? Konami announces a new game? Gotta check it out when its out! OH HO! Tecmo new game? Hmmm....i be waiting to see if i spot that in the bargain basement. "


WoW! That be long post man! I hope i get the points across.
Games are still games, they be likey by some, not likey by others. Hope people give FF a chance, even tho the game may look "kiddy" compare to SH.