|
Post by Fleck on Aug 28, 2011 21:03:49 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Aug 28, 2011 21:18:35 GMT -8
At some point, I'm planning to download SH1 since I've only played it once, but I already own SH2 and SH3. HD might be nice, but I thought the graphics were good enough already, so screw that. Silent Hill has always been awesome because the graphics were more realistic and not beautiful. I always loved that the people weren't flawless. They had pores and baggy eyes and unkempt hair and whatnot.
Sucks to hear that voice actors are getting screwed. That's quite the dick move, and yeah, Konami just doesn't get Silent Hill. I didn't think the movie was BAD, but it's NOT Silent Hill. I thought the movie captured the general atmosphere decently well, but the story was all wrong, like that bit about the coal mine fog and such. I don't MIND the coal mining story, but it isn't Silent Hill.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Aug 28, 2011 21:31:39 GMT -8
Apparently TP has also released a voice-actor comparison for the original and the HD versions. Eddie's new voice is flat and completely not insane (which is, you know, the opposite of his character), and while I like Mary Elizibeth Mcglynn (she was great as Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell, and I like her songs in SH3), she's a simply terrible Mary/Maria. Her voice lacks the realness and the kindness of Mary, while also lacking the edge of hysteria that Maria sometimes takes. Even worse, she plays Mary and Maria as THE SAME. I can't tell the difference between them. I've always felt that the voice acting in SH2 was a bit awkward, but it was a cast of awkward characters, so it fit. Like Bob was saying, it's not bad, but it's not Silent Hill. www.youtube.com/user/TwinPerfectChannel#p/u/0/7GKtsHcJOMI*starts nerd riot
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Aug 28, 2011 22:57:21 GMT -8
Oh, well that sucks. Probably give it a miss then, it's the kind of dick move that will stop me buying a game that I was already sorta on the fence about because I've played SH2 already. Eddie's voice is awful in the new one. Also, James sounds a little more angsty and a little less earnest in the remake. I know that's the trend with male protagonists these days, but the whole point of SH2 was that James was a cheery guy who crumbles away as the game goes on as his past comes back to haunt him.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Aug 29, 2011 0:44:17 GMT -8
If you can get your hands on it, I recommend SH3. It's arguably as good/better than SH2. The plot lacks the intricacy and the subtext of SH2, but it makes up for it by having a more complicated mythology and, I think, more natural characters. I didn't think it was as scary as SH2, but then again maybe my nerves were too fried from SH2 to be able to judge properly. SH4 has one of the more interesting premises, but it's marred by boring characters, a relatively sparse plot, and the fact that you have to do all the levels twice (I nearly quit when I realized at the halfway point that yes, they were going to make me do it all again). Homecoming is completely skippable, as is Origins. SH: Shattered Memories is worth a look, but only for the plot. The gameplay is about as scary as breakfast cereal and the puzzles are childish. SH1 hasn't aged well at all, and the cutscenes are painful to watch and the graphics are so muddy that you can barely tell what's going on. However, all the real mythology of the series builds off of the core premise of SH1, so if you want to be able to see how much the new, post-SH4 games/movie have altered the original storyline, you'll have to check it out.
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Aug 29, 2011 12:45:10 GMT -8
Yeah, 3 seems like a good'n. I remember playing a demo of Silent Hill 1 on the PS1 and I still remember just how dark it all was. I get that it's a survival horror, but they just didn't have the quality lighting effects to make it dark enough to be atmospheric and scary without making the game an exercise and squinting and headaches. I would love for them to remake it though, like they did for Resident Evil 1 on the gamecube. I'm not a great resident evil fan and can say I prefer Silent Hill (I've only played a little of each), but I do like the love that Resident Evil seems to get from developers in the form of remakes and the like.
I've seen the film and that was a fair bit before I played any Silent Hill whatsoever, and quite enjoyed it. I thought it had a lot of atmosphere and was genuinely creepy, especially compared with most horror films today. I have heard that it isn't faithful to the games though, and fans of the series don't like it. As a standalone film for a viewer with no understanding of the franchise though, I think it's pretty successful as a horror film.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Sept 2, 2011 21:03:42 GMT -8
You can stop chanting/torturing me, because Episode 5 Part 1 is up. A bit of a different direction this time, and a welcome change of pace for me. Hopefully you guys like it.
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Sept 2, 2011 22:18:40 GMT -8
This pleases me. Bob, put away the pins and get the whip, because we know Fleck loves that really!
SPOILER | | | | | | | \/
It's good to see the game actually getting more 'Silent Hill' than 'game show' with the big attack from the winged thingies. It had atmosphere before, but with the way things got disposed of so easily until now there was no feeling of actual danger in it. This is amplified for team Brookhaven, who now have an injured party member in Kaufmann. He's more likely to be a liability in tasks unless he can get a role that's purely mental, which doesn't look good for him if they lose the next immunity challenge.
That being said, with the danger stakes being raised and Kaufmann being the only fully qualified doctor on the team with Lisa leaving, he might suddenly find a niche use in the group that will protect him from being voted off even if he performs poorly in challenges. Cybil's knowledge of first aid will also make her more useful, and her helping out Kaufmann will no doubt score her some much-needed popularity with the others. It might lead to Maria being the highest target if they fail the next immunity, as she's not got the physical presence to deal with attackers effectively, lacks medical knowledge, and is starting to be noticed for being more devious than she looks. Then again so is Vincent, but so far only Kaufmann appears to be onto him. Kaufmann's paranoia is bang on this time, but he's been crying wolf so the others are unlikely to pay attention to him from now on. He'll just be the resident doctor.
Alex is in a good spot now in Alchemilla. He's the strongest guy around, pretty popular with half the cult, and since Alchemilla lacks anyone with medical skills that I know of (maybe Claudia or Dahlia might know something, but I dunno), they're going to need the strong people to deal with threats, especially as they've used up plenty of ammo already. I expect more bullets will start turning up in reward challenges now, but they can't rely on that. Meanwhile Brookhaven didn't appear to use any bullets on their attackers, and seemed to have fewer things attack them in general, although we only saw it from the perspective of Kaufmann, really. I'm guessing they weren't attacked as harshly because one of their own didn't lose the Water Prison challenge.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Sept 2, 2011 23:36:40 GMT -8
Yeah, up until this point, SSH's balance between Silent Hill and Survivor has greatly favored Survivor. When I first started, I wanted for there to be a greater physical danger in the game, but once both cults cleared out their respective hospitals, there wasn't much opportunity to really threaten the cast. So the focus has been on the strategy portion of the game, which is fine, but it was definitely fun for me to get away from that for awhile.
Brookhaven received the same number of monsters as Alchemilla, but A: their windows and doors are in better condition because of their tool kit (and an abundance of free time with which to make repairs) and B: I didn't want to repeat myself, so I skipped a lot of the fighting and room clearing that I could have put in, instead focusing on Kaufmann and his injury. Cybil DID use her weapon (I believe I have a throwaway line somewhere that says something to the effect of, "they could hear gunshots coming from another floor"), but Cybil is much more conservative with her ammo than Alex, so she used far fewer bullets than he did.
And the monsters are Air Screamers from SH1.
And that has been today's Behind the Scenes of SSH! Tune in next week!
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Sept 3, 2011 9:14:49 GMT -8
Ah Air Screamers. Memories. Gotta replay SH1 one of these days, but I definitely remember that guy. And dogs. And babies. And those sewer assholes. And stuff. It's funny because I was both rooting for Travis AND Walter in the Water Prison. I like Walter more, but with Travis, you'd be guaranteed to have people that MIGHT actually communicate at the prison. Eddie was not very friendly and Walter doesn't talk much, so as long as Walter's there, there won't be much talking. But still, I have a soft spot for ol' Walty. Such a nice boy. Aww. Walter. Aww. Yeah, I enjoyed the addition of Silent Hill aspects that add to the physical danger. It changes the dynamic a tad. Not that it was bad before, but now instead of being "Survivor with Silent Hill characters and themes" it's more of a combination between reality TV and survival horror. Thanks for the spoiler tag, Count! I'll start making sure to read episodes before reading these things, but I probably would've screwed up again today
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Sept 3, 2011 13:50:49 GMT -8
Haha, you're welcome I didn't know whether to put it here or in place your bets because it discussed the actual story as well as the characters therein, and I couldn't be bothered to make two separate posts about it XD I'll continue to do so if I post here. And I wanna play SH1 too!
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Sept 3, 2011 13:56:48 GMT -8
I looked it up on PSN and I think it's only something like $10 to download it. When I get more time, I plan to do that. I'll bet it's outdated as hell, but playing a game is so much more interesting than just watching playthroughs.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Sept 7, 2011 20:34:51 GMT -8
SSH NEWS!
For one, Saturday will be another double update, so gird thy loins for that. For two, I found and corrected an error in my notes and now SSH is probably only going to run 14 episodes instead of the originally planned 15.
Traditionally, Survivor runs for 14 episodes, but because I had a cast of 20 plus the Redemption Island/Water Prison addition, it seemed impossible to cram in all the stuff I needed to do in a mere 14 episodes. However, there was always something about my numbers that seemed off to me. After tearing out a bit of my hair trying to figure out where my math was wrong, I realized that I was planning for too many eliminations. Instead of whittling down the cast to the Final Three (like I'm supposed to), I was working towards whittling it down to just one person (which I'm not supposed to do). So I had two extra challenges that I didn't need. Once I took them out, I found room to squeeze two episodes together, and now we're down to 14. This not only knocks at least a week or two off my total completion time, it also streamlines a lot of episodes, fixes my notes, and makes it easier for me to calculate the days. For those of you familiar with the concept of math, you probably realized that my current rate of "1 Part = 1 Day" was unsustainable with 15 Episodes and 39 Days. The problem isn't fixed by shortening it down to 14 episodes, but it makes it a lot easier for me to put a couple of days together to reach the goal.
Just figured you all should know.
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Sept 7, 2011 21:07:30 GMT -8
Knowledge is power.
I initially thought that with AFFR, too. "12 teams means 11 episodes, plus a few non-eliminations! ......waaaaaait a minute."
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Sept 7, 2011 21:32:22 GMT -8
This is why I don't do math. Or meth. Both are bad news.
|
|