The Mist is one of the best horror movies ever made. Period. I was blown away by it. The underlying themes and atmosphere are great, and the ending was nothing short of crazy. Although since the original story was one of the main inspirations to Half-Life, I couldn't help but be reminded of that game more than anything else.

Ah, touche! I can see the Half Life in it now.

BAH! I spent all day playing. Finally got to the last boss, and THAT'S where the game decides to crash!? CAMAAAN!!!! lol!

Lol, that's sh**ty luck, bro.


Dude, I cannot believe that SH3 and 4 still go for $30 USED. They should be about 10 bucks these days. I don't own them and I've been wanting to play them again recently, but there's no way in hell I'm paying that much money for games that old.

I liked Origins a lot. It had a very Silent Hill 1 and 3 feel to it for me. I think that Origins made the promise of making an action oriented Silent Hill game. The combat was tense and melee focused, and I was fearing it was going to rely on guns too much--I always thought 3 had too many bizare weapons that you acquire on the first/normal playthrough.

I hope Homecoming will improve on what Origins has brought to the series--Homecoming needs an original story line that relates, perhaps just loosely, with the original (or even 2). Homecoming needs to be a psychological horror, about the inner demons in someone's weak mind, and not being able to escape from those horrors. The combat needs to be enjoyable, easy, yet complex--more than just swinging a lead pipe around like in the past. The game needs to be longer than previous Silent Hill titles--most survival horror games are getting close to or beyond 10 hours (Resident Evil 4 for example), and Siren was nearly 20--Silent Hill games have been short in the past (excluding 4), and I believe this is one of the main reasons 3 suffered. The enemies need to be more intelligent in the past, which would add to the horror and intensity. The player must be given the ability to explore the town beyond what the story entails--this is to say that in Silent Hill 3 and Origins especially, you are on a set track on what to do. Silent Hill is a decent sized town with a lot of history, and exploring many parts of the town would be much more enjoyable. Side missions of some sort (not Warcraft sort or anything), special enemies (bounties in a sense), collectables (packages in GTA sort of thing), or multiple paths (Should I go through the sewer or take the long way around?) would be a good way to encourage exploration and still keep it fun.

These are the things I feel will make Homecoming a sizeable addition to the series. A sequal must improve on the good things that the original has brought to the table, while not changing the main product so much that it's something brand new. I think Homecoming will implement most of these things, and do them well.

It's been years since I played the original SH, so I started it up a few days ago. I still remember most of it, but for some reason, I've gone through almost the entire school section without finding the map. I must've spent 20 minutes looking for it when I first got there. There is a map for the school, right?.....dunno how I could have missed it.

I think, if i'm not mistaken, it's to the left when you first enter the hallway of the school. It's where the list of teachers with K. Gordon on it is I am pretty sure.

OK, got hold of a copy of SH:0 (not by legal means though.. *cough*), and impressions so far:

+ The plot seems fairly consistent with what happened in SH1
+ you can use TVs and toasters as weapons
- The battle controls are clunky and annoying
- The monsters are a tad too aggressive and hard to kill (due to the controls), and they will follow you and gang up on you
- The breaking weapons system is a pain in the ****

Origins isn't hard to find...I'm glad Homecoming is gonna be similar to Silent Hill 2, because that was the best SH I played. The only one I was missing was 3, but I got that for Christmas, so, I played all of them. But, 2 is the one that sticks out for me, it's the only one I replayed (other than Origins at school), I tried to play 3 over, and I couldn't do it. 2 was, without a doubt, my favorite SH. I hope Alex Shephard has some deep-buried secret like James. He was in the war, so you never know...

Homecoming looks amazing. Seems very much like an old-school SH game. The first and second games are still my favorite, so that's definately a good thing. I'm kind of concerned about the return of Pyramid Head, though. They used the exact design from the movie version, and it looks pretty awesome. But PH was supposed to be specific to James, symbolizing a punishment for the guilt he felt. Perhaps PH actually symbolizes this in general and will appear to anyone with those feelings in Silent Hill? I'm hoping they explain it in the game, whatever the reason. The video clip where PH just stares at Alex for like 10 seconds before walking away is very creepy. All the gameplay I've seen looks pretty impressive, too. The video of that boss battle is awesome.

I haven't kept track of this forever but I just watched through some of the videos and I'm impressed, I think they've pulled it off. I didn't think they'd be able to replicate the feel of SH2 but it looks like they might have done it, plus they've borrowed lots from the movie, can't wait to see how it turns out.

Yo Shake, what video is Pyramid Head in?

EDIT: Yamaoka.

I think Pyramid Head (or a form, i.e. The Butcher) shows up when somebody feels guilty about something, and goes to Silent Hill. Look at James, and at the bad ending for Travis.

You're right about the guilt but as far as the story goes, Pyramid Head was supposed to be personal to James, it was a manifestation of his own subconscious thoughts, so it doesn't make sense for him to appear to other people in the town as well, but the producers need to give the fans what they want. I'm not complaining.

I want Pyramid Head. He was awesome.

Well that's what I'm saying. Maybe PH ISN'T, infact, personal to James. Or he was until now. I mean, there was more than one executioner. I guess we'll see when the game actually comes out. I hope that Double Helix isn't going to ignore all the deep symbolism the series is known for. But I've really liked everything I've seen so far, so I definately have faith in them.

So you're saying they're going to go into another direction: Just pure, psychological horror instead of deep symbolism?

No, I was referencing Pyramid Head. I'm hoping they keep true to the traditional SH themes and not do something that will please people who only saw the movie and don't really know anything about SH. They have the movie version of PH, and the world shifts the same way in the movie. This is going to be many people's first SH game, so it's possible that they would do that, but I'm crossing my fingers that they won't completely go down that route and and try to cater to the old-school SH players more.

Ahh, but I could honestly care less. It'll be the game designers decision whether or not to make everything like it was in SH2 and SH1. The one thing I want, is for them to make the town MUCH bigger than they did in SH2 and 3. I want them to go back to the SH1 size.

EDIT: It will take a while to get used to the gameplay, if they completely screw it up, and make the controls all loopy (take out the targeting system, etc).
But, old-school Silent Hill or not, I can't wait for September 30th.

The controls and combat system seem pretty good, actually. It's not like they can be worse than the past games. Combat was never a strong point in past SH games, but it seems like this one is changing all that. I like the targeting system, and I like that you have full control over the camera, so no more erratic camera movements when you're in a tight space trying to fight. I am going to miss those creepy camera angles, though. Maybe they'll throw in a few?

So tonight, I decided to re-play SH2 for a third time. It's been awhile, because my PS2 broke (I fixed it), and I also lost my memory card. I decided to try and get 100% for once, so I set the game to Normal on Riddle and Action. Swept through the the Apartments no problem, swept through Pyramid Head no problem. When I got to Brookhaven, I died. It was so dumb, because I decided to fight 2 on 1 with the steel pipe. Works for length but not power. I was worried about Maria dying, and I just lost. I almost chucked my PS2 out the window...I hate Brookhaven.

The new images are grotesquely awesome.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/adventure/...ges;header;more

All of the new monters look horrific. I'm very excited about this game.