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Shattered Memories: A Eulogy

Okay, this apparently went live Tuesday on the front page of Kombo.com, but I was too distracted by my recently defunct computer to notice. Anyway, I hope you take a moment to hop over to Kombo and check out my first guest article for them!

Over the years, my obsession for the Silent Hill games has nestled into my life like an infection. Akira Yamaoka’s music, which balances so beautifully against Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s and Joe Romersa’s haunting vocals, effortlessly spreads its tendrils under my flesh. The gritty visuals poison my veins, the nightmarish town rots my bones, the psychological illusions deceive my brain, and the lingering terror grips my soul in my sleeping hours. Despite its deathly visage, I can’t help but experience a sort of inexplicable, Gothic fascination for the series whose stories have always rattled me. But when the recent Shattered Memories caused my dry throat to constrict and my eyes to wet, I knew the usual horrors weren’t culpable.

Tags: Climax Group, Kombo, Konami, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill
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PSP Review: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Hooray! It’s been half a year since my demo and Konami interview at San Diego Comic-Con, but I finally sat down to play Shattered Memories. So … did I enjoy it? Well, that’s a tricky number. The game is quite a mixed bag of good and bad, but ultimately one lone feature redeemed the entire game for me. Find out what over at OneMetal.

Silent Hill has dramatically evolved since the original game, presently a decade behind us. Now Shattered Memories lifts the ashes and exchanges the rust-colored decor for a colder touch. Put down the chainsaw and stop running—the latest installment dares you to revisit the classic town and remember everything you, and Harry Mason, tried to forget.

Shattered Memories logs a relatively short length, and the gameplay and story elements are profoundly redesigned. In fact, fans will recognize the changes before they even start pressing buttons. The game invents more personality for characters, polishes familiar locations with fresh attributes, and incorporates the depth absent in the first run-around. Borrowing the first-person technique utilized in The Room, the psychologist sessions allow the game to profile you by translating various exercises, like coloring a picture or answering intimate questions, into Harry’s adventure. The characters and locations might remain, but this isn’t the game you remember. Shattered Memories molds to your unique personality and develops a new and engaging spin on an old story.

Tags: Climax Group, Konami, OneMetal, PlayStation 2, PSP, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill, Wii
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Spawn Kill Favorites: Silent Hill

Oh, Silent Hill, how I adore you. Thanks to the PlayStation Network’s inclusion, I recently revisited the PSOne classic on my PSP. So despite the voice-acting that makes soap operas sound like Shakespearian language, what distinguishes Harry Mason’s experience and keeps the aging title memorable? Find out at Spawn Kill.

One decade ago, Konami left a neoteric imprint on the survival horror genre with Silent Hill, a video game that would inspire a number of future titles, a movie, and several books and comics. But Harry Mason’s investigation into the fog-covered town and its strange occurrences accomplished more than just a household name among the likes ofResident Evil. The heart-pounding adrenaline rush introduced gamers to a nightmare founded on psychological Japanese horror and an equally unnerving musical score by composer Akira Yamaoka.

Tags: Konami, PlayStation, Silent Hill, Spawn Kill, Team Silent
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A Look Inside The Room

Many gamers disregard Silent Hill 4: The Room as an unfortunate blip, undeserving of the Silent Hill name. I’ve already discussed the many pros and cons of the video game, but why is it really worth playing? Why does it rank, in my view, alongside the much idolized Silent Hill 2?

In my latest series feature, which landed a guest spot on GamerNode, I discuss the overwhelming influence of voyeurism and how it uniquely relates to the characters (especially Henry Townshend), gameplay techniques, and story involving Walter Sullivan’s 21 Sacraments. The Room achieves some rather interesting effects, both similar and new to the Silent Hill cannon, so I hope you enjoy this in-depth look into the game.

Unlike its predecessors, Konami’s Silent Hill 4: The Room coaxes the player away from the namesake town, changing the honored formula and permanently altering the series’ requirements. Besides distorting audience perception, the fourth game introduces a first-person viewpoint, interspersing the usual monstrosities with ghosts and establishing a limited inventory system, to name a few. Fans recognize the series’ essence within the theme of isolation; although gruesome horror and twisted psychology present less wondrously in The Room than prior titles, the game’s subtle achievements rival the likes of the celebrated Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams. Unlike the latter, however, Silent Hill 4 does not concentrate its efforts on making the player feel wholly alone — quite the opposite, in fact.

As a series, Silent Hill’s energy traditionally draws from its backbone of psychological cunning and Japanese subtlety. The first game blames the town’s cult religion as the freakish activity’s root but wisely marks the occult phenomena as a mere precursor. The true power manifests from the depths of characters’ minds, laying the groundwork for series chills just as the surrounding fog emphasizes the blurred line between reality and dreams. But Silent Hill 4 departs from the usual darkness, removing many of its self-defined conventions such as the flashlight and sirens and clearing the veil shrouding the town’s mysteries. As gamers, we now stand on the edge, looking upon Silent Hill as an outsider; through that perspective we experience new psychological dangers perhaps more threatening than we initially realize.

Tags: GamerNode, Restless Dreams, Silent Hill, The Room
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Let the 2010 Games Begin

What upcoming games are you eagerly awaiting? Over at RadNerd Beau Ryan and I discuss some of our most wanted 2010 titles, including a few I’ve already covered here on the blog (like 3D Dot Game Heroes, for instance). Click the link or above image to access the feature!

If we missed something good, let us know which games should have made the list. Cheers!

Another year of gaming has rocketed through our memories, dropping new favorites at our feet. Batman: Arkham Asylum brought fans and wary newcomers together in an action-packed, stealthy tour; the smash hit Street Fighter IV echoed the sound of button mashing world-wide; the addictive RPG Demon’s Souls watched proudly, a tear glistening in its pixeled eye, as we coursed toward certain doom. Many games inspired us and woke our systems from the slumber induced by less promising titles, but what cards is 2010 playing close to the chest this winter/spring? Here are a few titles we can’t wait to test run.

Tags: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Alan Wake, Bayonetta, BioShock, Dante's Inferno, Final Fantasy, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect, Prince of Persia, RadNerd, Silent Hill, Splinter Cell
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Silent Hill: A Decade of Nightmares

I’ve been meaning to catalog the full Silent Hill history for awhile, but now couldn’t be a more perfect time. Unless I’m screwing up the math (which is possible, trust me), then January 2010 marks the full ten-year anniversary of the survival horror series. What better way to celebrate than to take a look back on the years with all their missteps and achievements? … Okay, well, I guess we could all dress up as the crazy gang of monsters and characters and put on a performance enacting famous scenes from the video games in a thematic party, but maybe that’s a little much. Eh, there would be punch, though.

Who’s your favorite Silent Hill individual?

For the last ten years since its 1999 debut, the Silent Hill video games have launched gamers into the heart of a macabre town crawling with unearthly creatures, cult secrets, and enough horrid psychological chicanery to justify a happily executed lobotomy. Despite the series’ notable footprint on the surface of the survival horror expanse, each installment bears its respective weight in flaws as terrifying as its disgusting creatures and unsettling music. So what makes Silent Hill unique and massively popular among horror addicts? Here’s a rundown of the Silent Hill landmarks that established the series and an envisioning of what fans can expect in the years to come. Feel free to add your own tribute in the comments below!

Tags: Climax Group, Double Helix Games, Konami, Microsoft Xbox, OneMetal, PC, PlayStation, PSP, Silent Hill, Team Silent
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Konami Just Won’t Break the Ice

Our appointment with the psychiatric Silent Hill remake, Shattered Memories, has been moved … again. The game that was supposed to debut in late October was then pushed back to early November, and now Amazon and other sources have the title listed for even later dates. Currently, the Wii version is expected to hit shelves in early December, but for PlayStation 2 and PSP owners, Konami will be keeping the game on ice even longer. The inexpensive alternatives won’t be ready until late January.

That’s just cold.

On the other hand, a prolonged release usually means a better game.

Would you rather have the game now or later? What console will you buy the game for?

Tags: Climax Studios, Konami, PlayStation 2, PSP, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill, Wii
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Explore Silent Hill: Where Your Dreams Become Reality

The very first Silent Hill game was re-released in North America this month on the PlayStation Network for both the PS3 and PSP consoles in anticipation for the new Shattered Memories game in October. This is a great chance to shake off the chains of that iffy movie adaptation and the disillusioned shroud of the upcoming retelling. Now you can enjoy the horror adventure all over again, or discover it for the first time.

Just lay off the walkthroughs, would you? Instead, head over to RadNerd and take a tour through the town that started it all with this handy and totally not misleading brochure.

Tags: PlayStation Network, RadNerd, Shattered Memories, Silent Hill
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