M@

I thought it was worth dusting off my account for this, unless it turns out I'm just way behind with my SH news. http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm2.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm3.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm4.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm5.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm6.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm7.jpg http://silenthill5.net/silenthill5/scans/silenthillvegm8.jpg All from http://silenthill5.net/, surprisingly.

I think what I love most about this is how it develops. I tried listening to just the 'chorus' (for want of a better word) from around the 1:24 mark, and it just doesn't sound as good without the build up from the rest of the piece. It was like trying to climb a mountain by skipping out everything other than the summit, thus missing out on a wonderful experience. The trouble I always ran up against when I dabbled in arranging myself was that, due to my somewhat shallow levels of creativity, my pieces always seemed to go from A to B with no real fanfare. This is the complete opposite, everything here is nicely varied without anything sounding superfluous, and so it all works together, climbing to something awesome. Bravo!

'sup fellow Ghostship non-fan? The opening scene to that movie, with the wire and the decapitation and all, was cool as hell. It's a pitty the rest of the film, bar, say, when you saw how the original passengers died, was weak as hell. Returning to SH, anyone have anything new of SH5? This is all I have to report: I love how they contradict one another The message being, I guess there's little out there to go on right now.

If I remember correctly, until you pull all the spears from the bodies surrounding the arena and stab them into the bigger body after feeding it the umbilical cord, Walter is invincible.

SH2+3 SPOILERS! (but not really) He turned up in the UFO ending and abducted James. Also, it's worth pointing out that James is in SH3...he's having a tea party with Harry and an alien in the UFO ending just before Harry wigs out and blows up Silent Hill) Ah... Having the original PS2 version, I've only seen the 'Dog' ending. I’ve seen the UFO ending in 3 though. That song rules! Well yeah, but that's not the TV. Half-way through the game it'd make perfect sense to do something weird with the TV like show that video or have the hand woft out of it... (When you get that far, you'll understand why) I've gotten that far and get what you mean, and agree, but there're probably loads of references they could have put in from that point in the game onward. It took me a game or two to figure out that taking the Doll isn't too great an idea, too. Damn kids. Get out my wall!

Harry was in SH2? I think Ghost-Cynthia is pretty much a reference to The Ring in itself, with the hair and the crawling and whatnot. The doublehead enemies are supposedly representative of the twins in question, as detailed in the victim files on the official website.

I tend to believe that 3 was a knee-jerk response by Konami to the fans of the fist game that complained about the second being unrelated to its predecessor. That said, I still enjoyed it, my only major complaints being that it was insultingly short, and that the reuse of Brookhaven Hospital and surrounding area seemed a tad lazy on the developers' part.

Warning – mild spoilers. Oh, I don't know. SH4 wasn't up to the hype, that's for sure, but I think people are giving it more stick than it deserves. I’ll start with the controls, something everyone seems to dislike. Me, I instantly switched to configuration 3, which allocated square to be used for cancel/run ala past instalments, which helped me ease into the new item swap system by assigning circle to this task, which once operated the flashlight. Configuration 3 was the more logical default option, in my opinion, as fans of the series needed not to become familiar using circle for cancel/run and square for item switching, halving the amount of new things to learn. Having played MGS alongside SH in the past, the switch to 2D movement wasn’t so much a shock either. The only problem here I similarly encountered in Devil May Cry, that sudden switches of camera, of which MGS had little, would rocket Henry in the wrong direction should I neglect to move my thumb in time. In fact, the main problem I encountered with regard to control that few have mentioned, was the function of L2. In the past, this has been used to let the player move the camera a little, usually by way of swinging it around a touch with the right analogue stick as to get a better look around. Now the camera transposes instantly behind Henry’s head when L2 is pressed, and the right analogue stick serves to perform the original function independently, only with less freedom of movement. As I was used to almost permanently using this feature in past games, its new execution took some getting used to, and often left me disorientated. Battles, I feel, were not as hard as people are letting on. I played first in easy mode, and met few problems other than getting stuck around downed ghosts, which, due to their undying nature, were solidified unlike other enemies and became unavoidable obstacles if downed in the wrong place. This was more of a design flaw than a combat issue, and Eileen sure as hell took advantage of this to frustrate me. In the pet shop for example, she was sandwiched between Cynthia, Jasper, and some other victim for some time, and I was not too impressed. I felt the new charge gauge could have been tweaked though, to have more than two attacks per melee weapon. Considering the size of the gauge, varying degrees of damage could have been issued dependant on the charge, as opposed to ‘some’ as it fills or ‘lots’ when it’s full. Hell, gently or fiercely pressing the attack button performed this task in past instalments, in less time, too. This gauge could be easily exploited to render Henry near invincible, too, as enemies could not damage him during a powerful attack. All that need be done is to execute an attack as an enemy does, and your attack takes priority, damaging the enemy when their faster attack should, logically, damage you. Some bosses would have been nice, too. Also, how many of the weapons were actually useful? Some had imagination; the spade was fun, as were all of Eileens’ weapons – if not a little kinky. However, an absurd amount of golf clubs and some bladed weapons, many of which were redundant, are hardly innovative. It was nice to step back from the mundane Handgun – Shotgun – Hunting Rifle / Good – Better – Best routine, but I didn’t bother with the pistols at all, as having to carry separate rounds was a terrible hoax, and coupled with the need to run back to the item box should you run out, a step beyond backward. SH isn’t supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to be fun! The item box I can agree, hands down, was a mistake. On the other hand though, I found portals to be liberally scattered throughout the areas, so the need to go back was hindered less by a huge trek, but more by loading screens. Mind, play with your analogue sticks during these and watch what happens. Simple, yet amusing. More fun than watching footprints appear. The story isn't too bad either. In fact, I enjoyed how the 'main' SH story revolving around The Order was branched out from Dahlia/Alessa into something glanced over in SH2. It would have been nice to hear Frank mention James though. I know we all want to hear more from that guy. Hrm, that’s all I can think of for now, but I’m sure more defences will come to me soon, heh.

Speaking of the original Silent Hill, this guy here has made a user-friendly GUI for emulation of the game. Essentially it's ePSXe optimised for the SH ROM (which is included in the 400MB torrent), but I found it a most refreshing alternative to playing the game on the PSX, simply because it looks, and plays, much better when emulated on a PC. Mind, you need at least 'mid-level' specs. to play with most of the good graphical options turned on or maximised. For anyone questioning the legality of my own actions in this instance, I have the original game, and as such believe I am entitled to a backup. M@ does not encourage illegal emulation. However, should you mods wish to edit this post, it's cool with me . I also had a picture of a signpost reading 'Bachman Ave.' which I'd share if photo bucket were not going retarded on me. Clearly this continuity error ruined my gaming experience and I was quick to pen a harshly-worded letter to Konami enquiring as to how many of their clearly sub-par employees were fired for such a catastrophic blunder. Has anyone else noticed any such errors they wish to share? One nice touch of emulating the game is that screenshots can easily be taken, which obviously aids discussion for a game such as this.

I always interpreted this quite differently. The hood that Vatiel places over God's head seems to retard her motion. If you look at her head during the battle, when she leans forward to swing her arms her head is held back by that hood. I always figured she'd be a more effective boss could she free herself from this restraint. My interpretation therefore would lean Vatiel more toward subservience to Heather, rather than God. Just a thought.

I didn't like the way the radio was downplayed in the third instalment, myself. Whereas I never really regarded it as key a gameplay feature as some, I still found the radio a neat and original little radar. I hope they don't have, uh, "music" play each time an enemy of sorts is near in 4, like in 3. That said, they downplayed the idea of using the town itself as a "world map" in the 3rd game, which is probably where the radio was the most useful – when surrounded in fog where you couldn't see your adversaries, so had to listen out for them. That has little use when you’re in a small room and can see damn near everything. Would have been nice in longer corridors, mind, like those in Brookhaven Hospital. From what I’ve read though, it doesn't look like they'll be using that technique again.

I always took them to mean that, as SH is like James' purgatory, they were butterflies, reflective of change and rebirth from his 'cocoon' of guilt. Then again, I never really thought about them too much.

Ladies and gentlemen, Silent Hill 4. James? Methinks not. From what I hear, 4 revolves around the above dude, whose apartment (Not in SH) links to the nightmare world. Each time he enters, he dies after a while. Then wakes up back in The Room -- Groundhog day style.

Wow. This is pretty damn awesome. You're remastering it? May I suggest that you up the volume on... uh... you, around 3:29 ~ 4:04 when the piece thickens up? You get drowned out a little, in comparison to the rest, and that's a damn shame. Other than that, I think the intro's a little long... you don't come in 'till 1:26, I think you could do so sooner. Gripes outta the way. Wow. I think my favourite part of this is the solo 4:04 ~ 5:22. Great stuff.

Heh. This is fun to listen to; it's very imaginative and creates a lot of imagery through the instrument choices appropriate to the style and addictive rhythm. My only real gripes come about 1:28~1:42 and 3:03~3:17 where I feel the melody is a little drowned by the dominant, although highly enjoyable, Mardi Graesque chords and bass. It seems less prominent than, say, the melody that’s first heard 0:44~0:58. I like the way you wove the battle theme into this, too. It’s very subtle and very effective, adding a little variation whilst maintaining the party feel of the piece. Well done.