Iga_Bobovic said:

SteelAttack said:

gamingeek said:

LOL at the Rock band switcheroo.

I think the PSP and PS2 ports of this game are a good way to mitigate any risk in developing a Wii exclusive. Just like I think multiformat Grand Slam Tennis is a good move.

But the idea is to make it with the system strengths in mind first.

I love how the developers aim is to make it look like a 360 game in SD, same as Conduit. Okay it may not be that good, but that is what everyone should be aiming for anyway. Enhancing the visuals and enhancing the design using the features of the system.

Yeah, pretty much. Besides, the genre and setting of the game itself lends perfectly to achieve higher-than-average results, considering the hardware specs. And I'm not talking about HW limitations in this case because in my book, there are no such limitations if PS360 versions are out of the question. Big consoles had their chance with homecoming and the result was lackluster at best. But I digress.

What I was talking before was that by definition and history, the SH franchise takes into account lonely settings, with few, if any, NPC around, and of course not too many enemies, which are always deadly and sparse in numbers, and apart enough from each other to make every encounter significant. That means less polygons to push onscreen, and leaves enough hardware room to work on the scenario, lighting and the such.

Horror games by definition do not need lots of polygons. The scary part in horror is not what you see, but what you don't see. Check out the movie Jaws, half of the movie the only thing you see is the underside of a boat while music plays.

TeNEE.....Tenee... Tenee..Tenne.teneneneneneneneeeee!!!

But Jaws isn't scary.

This has little to do with Silent hill. 

It's important because its the same developers. Climax, doing Overlord on Wii

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/overlord-dark-legend-overlord-minions-preview?page=2

The most remarkable thing to report is just how extraordinary it looks. Considering Nintendo's first-party releases as the only measure of a target to beat, Climax has squeezed incredible detail out of the limited tech. Look, we'll just whisper this, but... we think it looks better than Zelda. Apparently they've used clever techy pre-instancing to get 128MB of a level into the 64MB Wii. It sounds like witchcraft, but the result is the ten hours or so of game, with up to 25 minions on screen at any time, across twelve domains, looks at least as good as anything else we've seen on Nintendo's cutesie-pie console. Whether the game itself will live up to the graphics is yet to be seen, but so far our hopes are high for a decent, hardcore Wii release.

Foolz said:

Umm, wasn't Zelda a Gamecubge port? 

 Yup, but if you head into the Factor 5 thread and check out the HD video of Dark Legend on youtube, you'll see that it looks leagues ahead. 

Through clever programming they've essentially got double the memory performance:

"Apparently they've used clever techy pre-instancing to get 128MB of a level into the 64MB Wii. "

Music samples from the game here:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RussianYulia17X&view=videos&start=260

Whoa

"What's certain at this stage is that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is absolutely packed with potential. It's wildly ambitious and – if it all comes together – could easily usher in a new era for survival horror. It makes brilliant use of the Wii's unique functionality and really pushes Nintendo's console to deliver a technically stunning, massively atmospheric experience. Shattered Memories mightn't be Silent Hill as we know it, but we can't wait to make its acquaintance later in the year."

gamingeek said:

Whoa

"What's certain at this stage is that Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is absolutely packed with potential. It's wildly ambitious and – if it all comes together – could easily usher in a new era for survival horror. It makes brilliant use of the Wii's unique functionality and really pushes Nintendo's console to deliver a technically stunning, massively atmospheric experience. Shattered Memories mightn't be Silent Hill as we know it, but we can't wait to make its acquaintance later in the year."

This is what I was talking about before. Games need to be developed with the hardware's strenghts in mind.

Does anyone find the filter is far too pronounced?

Overkills filter looks so good, but when I see the screens here or the Grinder video the filter is just blandly applied. It makes everything too distorted. 

gamingeek said:

IGN walkthrough videos

In three parts. It is SO worth watching. This is my dual game of show.

what a copout

This game now has the Chobot seal of approval as game of E3

http://blogs.ign.com/Jess-IGN/2009/05/29/121738/p2

That game? Silent Hill: Lost Memories. 

Casamassina has been following it like the sly fox he is for quite some time now. I hadn't even noticed it until today after he dragged me to watch the captured vid from his hands-on time with it. 

After what I saw, I'm ashamed to call myself a Silent Hill fan. 

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is coming out sometime this fall on the Wii. It utilizes the new motion controls EXCELLENTLY and in the way that Nintendo and 3rd party games should have been doing in the first place. Interactive environments play an important role in, not only saving your ass from the inevitable attacks from Hell spawn but also in solving puzzles which, once accomplished, will progress you further in the game. 

Graphically, In my opinion, something like the RE4 port STILL looks better. Textures and such in SH:LM DO look good but not as good as RE4. 

BUT 

The saving grace to this potential graphics complaint is the lighting. Talk about DYNAMIC! In a game where you are plunged into darkness 90% of the time, something as simple as the beam from your flashlight 
becomes a major component within the look and feel of the game. When pointed around a room or at specific objects, the light really kicks the color up a notch, sets hard and convincing (and scary) shadows across walls and really gives one a sense of being THERE. 

Despite my previous statement that it's a tad lacking in graphics, it DOES have clarity. You can go up to posters and writings on the wall and actually read them directly off of that object rather than needing a separate pop-up translation. 

And as I'm writing this, I find myself playing Devil's Advocate with..er..myself and thinking that the argument could be made that the fuzziness and simplicity of the graphics could be justified (and possibly even planned - which I'm sure is the argument that Konami will use) as being one taken as artistic license by the developers to truly distinguish a sense of "real" versus "un-real" or "alternative." 

As an example of what I am trying to say, let's go back to the flashlight. When the flashlight falls upon an object, such as a can or a box of instant food on a counter top, it kicks up a hard and obvious shadow, it's colors become brighter it becomes distinguishable. It becomes REAL. 

In the meantime, outside of the beam of light, in the semi-darkness and evil that is Silent Hill, things become less focused, softer and yet, more menacing. Less of what we are familiar with and thus, less of a sense of actually being what it is. Hence, it's un-real. 

By showing this dynamic through the use of hard light and color versus dull grays and shadows, it instills in us, albeit subconsciously, that Silent Hill is NOT REAL. Even when one isn't in the Hell-lands one needs to be vigilant that the world won't just disappear from under foot and swallow them whole. You, as a character, are given a sense that you must always be on guard if you want to stay alive - whether there are demons surrounding you or not. 

Enough about light versus shadow (hahah-I'm no Josef von Sternberg), moving on... 

Environmentally (as Matt pointed out to me since, being fixated upon the character on-screen, I didn't notice) but your Silent Hill staple, the snow/rain/ash storm that one always finds themselves in, is here and is done as well, if not better, than any of the previous Silent Hill games. 

Hell comes back as always but this time, as less of something you stumble into and more as something that's chasing and coming after you. Hell has become it's own character and it's approach is quite dreadful. You want to escape it, you try to escape it but honestly.. does anyone ever escape Silent Hill? 

Demons are after you once more (of course) but instead of fighting them, you're running from them...ALL OF THE TIME! That's right! With the exception of interactive areas to be used as self-made barriers and the occasional flare to scare Satan off, you have NO WEAPONS. Everything you do is DEFENSIVE only. 

I consider this to be a pretty ballsy move. When asked, Konami mentioned that, in their minds, constant aggression in playable-characters within horror genre games (think RE5) has turned survival horror into action adventure. If one wants to get really stinky about it (and I do), I would say, even less of an action adventure and just one more alternative way to cash-in on the shooter/ multi-player online crazy that everyone and their fucking mom get their panties all wet for. 

(aka: Chobot is OVER IT). 

Anyway, back to the original point, Konami, through this game play choice has brought the horror-genre survival back to it's roots: SURVIVING. 

Other thing to note: 

- An i-Phonesque cell phone which acts as your in-game interface BUT also as an important tools to find clues (through taking pictures of important areas) and story progression by talking with your missing daughter. 

- Yamaoka-san is, once again, involved in the musical score. And, once again, it's phenomenal. 

- Speaking of "soundtrack" I did not notice a radio BUT I did notice the familiar whiny warning sound of a lost signal letting you know you were about to get a load of whoop-ass from psychotic rabbit-furries and devils. Maybe this time it's coming from that "iPhone"? 

- Story line wise: This is being defined as a "re-imagining" of the first Silent Hill. Again, see a father lose his daughter and wander through Hell and back to find her. Stages? I'd assume a hospital, a playground, the standard SH fare. (Hopefully no subways. RE4 cured me of that). Satanic-cult tie-in? Who knows... 

Part of me likes this idea and part of me doesn't. As a fan, what I loved about Silent Hill was it's richness of story and how everyone had a thin but common strand tying them together. After Silent Hill 4, I felt the story seemed to slack and I was hoping that 5 was going to breathe new life into it. Sadly, me thinks all was for nought. After having Matt show me SH:LM I asked where this placed within the Universe, once again with the thought that this might re-awaken the original concept. 

Had Konami not done such a good job with SH:LM, I would be much more pissed than I am disappointed. Luckily, this thing looks as if it's going to rock my socks off and dust off my Wii, so the way that I'm justifying their "start over" is by telling myself that Silent Hill is always something different for everyone who enters it (in fact, wasn't that something Eddie said in Silent Hill 2?). Therefore, I'm having this new SH take place during the same time as SH 1, with similar circumstances but different protagonists and antagonists, thereby different experiences and thus a similar but justifiably unique game. 

Works for me  

- A psych profile that your character makes within the beginning determines the type of game you get. Check off the fact that you enjoy kinky sex and have cheated on your partner? Then the NP characters, situations, puzzles and monsters you come across will be tied into your psyche profile. Go back, play again but this time check off that you have feelings of self-doubt and insecurity? Then a whole new set of challenges and monsters are awaiting you. 

Big question is - Does that mean there will be a different ending to each? Hmm...I hope so. Countless hours of re-playability if that's the case! 


Things I hope aren't in the game: 

- big-tittied implanted nurses. 

- Recycled stages ala: Silent Hill 4 (Are you fucking serious!? I'm back at the subway/hospital/orphanage AGAIN!?) 

- Pyramid Head. I'm kind of over him and his B.S. 


Look for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories as a playable demo on the E3 show floor (tell 'em Jess sent ya   and on store shelves sometime this Fall!

Wow, nice new trailer here