Topic: Silent Hill: Homecoming - Update: Euro version delayed until Feb 2009

[MysterD]

Heh... you should play the game anyway.  The plot is so crazed and confusing it's awfully hard to "spoil".  Really bizarre game.

Ain't that the truth.

[Quemaqua]

Gametrailers.com Review - they score it lower than seems logical.  They don't like the story all that much, but I'm not getting that from most fans, so take that as you will, and all the video just looks absolutely fucking amazing.  Jeez.  It just looks so good.  I can't wait.

[MysterD]

Gametrailers.com Review - they score it lower than seems logical.  They don't like the story all that much, but I'm not getting that from most fans, so take that as you will, and all the video just looks absolutely fucking amazing.  Jeez.  It just looks so good.  I can't wait.

That review actually sounds so glowing most of the time, until they throw in the one-liners without much explanations -- such as "the game's not balanced enough b/c the hero's too powerful in combat," "the game is straightforward with some cliches", and at the end the "still status quo - they played it safe."

How'd they play it safe?
--They fixed the combat system.
--The hero's not a weakling.
--The game's not cryptic in its storytelling

Playing it safe would've been not doing the three mentioned things above and sticking to the usual three SH staples of wonky combat system, lead character's a loser, and a cryptic as hell storyline.

If he wants something that's going to be revolutionary in the survival-horror/thriller genre (given Remedy's past, I have this funny feeling it will be from everything I read about it so far), tell him to wait for Alan Wake -- which sounds like what AITD 2008 could've and should've been.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, that's a good point.  Silent Hill Origins is the one that really played it safe.  This looks quite different.  Even the characters and dialogue seem much less oddball and stilted.  That alone isn't really all that Silent Hill-like, because even Origins had that same sort of off-kilter feel.  I'm very curious about the way this one will feel.

[scottws]

Schweet.  Pyramid Head is back.  SH2 was easily my favorite.

[gpw11]

Schweet.  Pyramid Head is back.  SH2 was easily my favorite.

Yeah, I liked it a lot, but that doesn't mean much - I never went all the way through either of the other ones.

About that, how good is SH3 to just pick up and play if one doesn't know and/or remember anything about SH1? 

[MysterD]

Mini-Spoiler of the SH1-SH3 Connection

(click to show/hide)

The big revelation of who a certain someone at the end of SH3 actually really is will be way more important to the player, if you played through SH1 (and understood it).

[Quemaqua]

If you're looking for a self-contained story, you won't find it.  If you just want a creepy game with crazy shit happening, it works perfectly fine.  You could understand what's going on well enough if you just read a quick synopsis of the first game to refresh your memory.  It really isn't that complicated when you strip away the storytelling and layers of mystery.

[gpw11]

Interesting.  I'll probably check out a synopsis at some point and play it.  I played the first one a bit, but it was in like 2000 or something at a friend's house.  If I remember we played through most of it, but we smoked a lot of weed and my memory of what actually went down is hazy as fuck.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I just finished playing through the first couple of hours of this and I'm impressed so far, the combat is the first noticeable improvement besides the awesome visuals.  I'll post some more detailed impressions when I've gotten a little more into it.

[MysterD]

Looks like Europe is just gonna have to wait until Feb 2009 to get SH: HC.

Silent Hill gets Euro 2009 delay
Monday 13-Oct-2008 3:51 PM Not out until February in Europe
18 Comments

Konami UK has sent out the surprising news that its survival horror instalment Silent Hill: Homecoming has slipped to 2009 in Europe... despite already being on sale in the States.

The 360, PS3 and PC horror instalment was originally due out in Europe for Halloween - and hit North American shelves late last month.

It's now down for release in Europe next February, 2009. No reason was given for the Euro delay.

Homecoming, which had development moved over to US studio Double Helix from Japan, received moderate reviews from North American press, suggesting to some that the slip this side of the pond could be a quality issue.

More than likely though thanks to the many language spoken by our European cousins, is some problem with translation or certification in various regions.

The new release puts Silent Hill almost head-to-head with Capcom's Resident Evil 5. Good luck with that.

When quizzed on the phone though Konami wasn't prepared to give a specific reason for the slip. Quite a disappointing outcome for Silent Hill fans, then.

[Xessive]

That's weird.. We have it out here, although I believe it's the Asian version.

[TheOtherBelmont]

So I just finished the game about an hour ago and I am quite pleased.  The game turned out to be very good, the improved combat added a new layer of gameplay that I enjoyed and made things more tense, especially with the melee weapons and counterattacks.  The visuals were great and it was nice to see something a little different on the visual side with the nightmare Silent Hill world, but not completely foreign as to not feel like a Silent Hill game.  The main character was pretty likeable and the plot he was a part of was pretty solid.  There were also a lot of little things and references to earlier games and surprisingly the movie that were pretty neat to see in the game.  I will definitely be doing a few more playthroughs of this, since I just looked up there are 5 possible endings.  Overall, this is game worthy of the Silent Hill title and while a few very minor things(that I won't mention for spoiler reasons) might turn some veterans off, I was glad I played it.  I won't go into too much more detail as to not spoil it for anyone, but anyone with interest in the Silent Hill games should definitely play it.

[scottws]

Holy crap, this is out already and people beat it?  Wow how things change.  Six years ago I would have possessed this game on the date of release or even pre-ordered it if it was available for pre-order.

[gpw11]

It's out for PC now on STEAM.  Now, I'm not as opposed to STEAM as some, and I will buy small games from it, but fuck paying full price to download  4-6 GB.

[MysterD]

It's out for PC now on STEAM.  Now, I'm not as opposed to STEAM as some, and I will buy small games from it, but fuck paying full price to download  4-6 GB.

If Gogamer has an Import copy (for when it gets a DVD Retail release in the UK), I'll be so all over it.

[gpw11]

Yeah, I'll probably do that. Or play it on a console.  Whatever.  I just can't impulse buy a $50 game that takes a day or two do dowload.  I might as well just steal it in that case.

[gpw11]

So I caved and bought the dvd version of this online a while ago. Kind of a mistake.  I messed around with it a bit, enjoyed it and then didn't touch it for a while.  Tried it out again today but was really let down.  The technical flaws aren't really all that apparent when you just mess with it, but they are there. I haven't hit problems that a lot seem to have come across such as sound issues and graphical glitches, but there's a controller bug that is hugely annoying.  Basically, no matter how you set the bitch up, the buttons are labeled wrong when they pop up on screen.  Not a massive problem, but something that really bugs me personally.