I didn’t have high hopes for Silent Hill Downpour. As such, I didn’t buy it new. I waited two weeks, bought it used off ebay, and finished it over a weekend. Sadly, pretty much all of my pre-release expectations turned out to be true.
Upon booting up the game, I was immediately given mixed opinions about the game. There was a mandatory install, which fortunately only took a few minutes, but which is always an annoying thing to sit through (except for Metal Gear Solid 4, which managed to make it somewhat amusing). After the install though, I was treated to a stylish title screen with new composer Daniel Licht’s enjoyable title track.
Then the game starts, and the very first thing you do as the new main character, prison inmate Murphy Pendleton, is murder a defenseless fellow inmate during a combat tutorial that takes place in the prison showers. Murphy clearly has some beef with this fellow inmate (named Napier), and it seems like Napier probably deserved it, but murdering a defenseless person in cold blood is hardly what I’d expect from a Silent Hill game.
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a67ddc95-77b6-40e5-9a04-23f4912e6f2b|9|4.4
Tags:Silent Hill Downpour, Silent Hill, Silent Hill Homecoming, Konami, review, PS3, Achievement unlocked, Murphy Pendleton, survival, horror, survival horror, fan fiction, XBox 360, Vatra Games
Konami recently released a new promotional video that supposedly showcases the improved visual quality of the HD remakes of Silent Hill 2 and 3.
Does the video make the HD versions look considerably clearer than the PS2 counterparts? I wouldn't blame you for saying "yes". But to the trained eye (and to experienced Silent Hill players), this video is a blatantly disingenuous attempt to make the PS2 versions look bad.
First of all, all the HD clips are shown with the film grain effects turned off and some of the fog effects disabled as well. This is a cheap trick on Konami's part, as these settings can be turned off in the original game, and doing so clears up the images considerably. The fact that Konami didn't even bother to compare the shots on an equal footing goes to show how far out of their way they are willing to go to make the original games look worse than they actually are. [More]
Back in the middle of February, I participated in the Civilization podcast PolyCast episode 140 along with hosts DanQ, Makahlua, TheMeInTeam, and qnl. We discussed several topics relating primarily to Civilization V, including:
- An interview between GameInformer and series-creator Sid Meier about the future of the franchise.
- Discussion of recent forum topics on Civ Fanatics, including flaws in Civ V's score calculations and the best civs to use in ranked multiplayer.
- An open-mic call-in from Verade regarding our favorite game in the series and how Civ III stacked up against Civ IV and V.
You can listen to the entire podcast below, or visit PolyCast's website at http://civcomm.weplayciv.com/polycast/.
Participating on the podcast was fun, and I hope that the fine folks at PolyCast invite me on again in the future. We had some good discussions, and it was very nice to have a chance to talk to some hardcore veteran Civ players, since I sadly don't have too many friends who are big fans of the series. [More]
3ad01189-b8dc-4602-9624-5a5639ec4684|1|4.0
Tags:Civilization, Sid Meier's Civilization, Civilization V, Civilization V: Gods & Kings, PolyCast, Sid Meier, Christopher Tin, podcast, DanQ, Makahlua, TheMeInTeam, qnl, Civilization III, Civilization IV, Civilization V
Following the review of Silent Hill 3 on Twin Perfect’s "The Real Silent Hill Experience", DerFuzhwar, Fungo, and Rosseter assert that Silent Hill 3 should have ended the series: "Silent Hill over".
Twin Perfect declares "Silent Hill Over".
They don’t seem to have any confidence that Vatra or any other developer will be able to replicate the success of Team Silent, and that future installments are only going to dilute the quality of the series as a whole. Although they appreciate Silent Hill 4 for making a contribution to the game’s universe, they also say that it was not necessary to make, as Silent Hill 3 wrapped up the story of the franchise successfully and satisfactorily.
While I agree that the outside developers have completely squandered their attempts opportunities with Silent Hill, I respectfully disagree with their position that the series should be terminated. I still think there is plenty of material in the context of the first four games that is left to explore. [More]
1547f117-5041-48b2-9340-d3d15a6162f6|13|3.8
Tags:Silent Hill, Silent Hill Downpour, Konami, K.C.E.T., Team Silent, Vatra Games, Tomm Hulett, The Real Silent Hill Experience, Eternal Darkness, Twin Perfect, Cybil Bennett
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