E3: Konami announces Silent Hill 5
- July 11, 2007 7:32 PM |
- By Ian Johnson
by Erin Bell, special to CBCNews.ca
Konami's big announcement of E3 (not counting the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer that was shown for the second time since the Sony event earlier in the day), was that Silent Hill 5 is currently in development for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The fifth instalment of the survival horror franchise stars Alex Shepherd, an ex-soldier returning from a tour of duty overseas. Alex has a turbulent family life – his father is in a catatonic state and his father is nowhere to be found – and one of his only sources of stability is his younger brother Joshua. After Joshua goes missing, Alex's quest to find him leads to the eerie streets of the town of Silent Hill.
A brief trailer showed the familiar bleak, fog-filled setting of Silent Hill. It was also confirmed that composer Akira Yamaoka would be returning to create the soundtrack for the game.
Screenshot from Silent Hill 5
Konami Producer William Ortel commented that Alex would need to make use of his military training to survive in Silent Hill, which could prove to be an interesting twist in the new game. Past Silent Hill protagonists have had varying degrees of experience with weapons, and their lack of explicit combat prowess added to the sense of dread and psychological terror that up until now have been hallmarks of the series. Having a trained fighter to control could change the dynamic significantly.
Erin Bell is a Toronto-based freelance video game and technology journalist, and is reporting on her fourth E3.
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Comments (18)
FOR TRUE!? Oh my GOD! I hope the voice acting doesn't suck in this one... though it's basically come to be standard with the SH series... still... HEEE!! THIS IS GOING TO KICK ASS!!
Once this has been out for a while, I'll be able to watch the runthroughs on YouTube and successfully deny myself a good night's rest if it's actually going to be frightening this time. SH1, 2 and 3 were the best, with SH2 claiming SCARIEST in my opinion. 4 was a joke.
I thought 4 was pretty fun.
Oh, no doubt SH4 was fun... but I just didn't find it... you know... "AH OH MY GOD!" enough. I would be walking around and there would be maybe three or four BOOM! UP IN YOUR FACE GHUH!! GET IT AWAY moments... but for the most part, I didn't feel that threat of impending "I'm going to die in a nasty way in five seconds" doom the way I did with, say... SH2? The nurses in SH2 gave me nightmares, man.
Silent Hill!!! Charles is right (although I do believe he's being sarcastic...) nothing was scarier than SH2...but the little ghost kids in the school in SH1 come very close..shiver... Hope we don't have to wait too long. Anyone know when its supposed to come out?
Personally, it was the nurses and the constant fear that I would run into Pyramid Head that scared me in SH2. I don't scare easy, but this game (and those annoying flash screamers) have kept me awake at night. The music especially, or lack thereof. The ghost kids were just... ghhh...
OH. AND THE WHEELCHAIR. THAT THING. GOD.
Long live pyramid head!!! Now that's a guy that I miss.. and everyone has a point about SH4 it was fun and interesting... but repeating the worlds was a little bit.. shall we say unoriginal>?
Happy to hear that there is a SH5 coming out, as long as you can still bash your way through a croud of freaks while screaming at the top of your lungs!
Amen to that, monkey. I have to add I'm really glad Akira Yamaoka is coming back again. Without Yamaoka-san, the game might have a completely different atmosphere.
Yup, you just have to listen to the music to know what's going on, when it stops though, you know you are in for some scary craziness, lol!
That funky radio noise when monsters are nearby always scares the sh*t out of me. Seriously.
Heh, especially when you thought you were standing alone in the dark... I got so spooked by the radio when I first started playing SH I had to shut it off... ended up dead too many times because of it.
In my opinion, the worst place to hear that creepy radio was the hospital... with those nurses just... coming after you... I couldn't handle hearing that noise, especially when you get the drum beats going with it.
And that's why if I'm ever in a hospital and the lights go out, I'm grabbing something and beating anyone that I see walking funny or dressed in white, lol
:O!
"Stop! That's my aunt! She's disabled!"
"THAT'S WHAT SHE WANTS YOU TO THINK!!!"
The second one was by far the least scary. Nothing in that game was even close to the first and third. The fourth one was more of a cinematic scary, which i didn't really think that one was scary either. I just don't see how you think the second one was scary. It's more of a book you would read and just feel good and bad reading, because there was NO scary elements in that one. It dove deep into personal feelings and moods but the characters were so inhuman that they just didn't make me feel much (with the exception of Angela). I hope the fifth retains the famous gameplay of the series and that it doesn't have anything NEAR Resident Evil (possibly the biggst joke of a game ever). The monsters, so far, are the most gruesome and vile things I have ever seen in my life. Heres hope for a more developed main character (something the second one didn't have at all.
Way to bash #2 with a... lead pipe, or did you shoot it down with... a pistol? Whats that doing here?!?!
I agree with you Walter that #2 was one of the most unscary ones but doesn't change the fact that there were some points where you had to jump out of your seat.
On that note I say #3 and #4 are the scariest.
#3 When you are in the hospital and there's a room with a big glass wall and blood leaks out of it and infests the room and you, which I beleive is on the 2nd floor
#4 When you're in the hospital.. again... and you walk into the room, that is linked to the hallway with the wheelchairs, and the camera angle changes at the last second and there's this huge face of that chick and its all messed up. Almost shat myself there the first time i saw it.
#4 When the ghosts come to get you and all you see is the screen blurring up and your controller rumbles, thats when I start thinking to myself, I'm screwed, until I light up a candle, put down some rose petals and invite it over for a picknic... but they always seem to run away when I offer a backrub, especially that long haired chick that totally wanted to give the main character some. :D
I hope they take the Resident Evil approach and at least refresh the series. It's become so stale. They could at least make it control better. RE jumped on the dual analog bandwagon, why can't SH?
All I have to say is that RE4 has some nice controls, I have it for PC and I definately like it alot more than the old style RE.
I think SH should follow suit...would make confrontations alot more, shall we say, in-your-face.