Silent Hill

Don't Judge a Book by its Franchise

HIGH Finding my first flamethrower. Burn, motha*#@&$!

LOW The first two hours of play before GameFAQs.

WTF Why is so much vital info unexplained?

Survival horror games aren't what they used to be. Once upon a time, they were about survival and horror. It makes sense. It's what the genre is called, after all. These titles would encompass qualities of mystery and exploration as the player fought to stay alive with every step. Over the years, they've increasingly become about action, gunfights, and an overload of cheap jump scares. I prefer the former, despite a plethora of the latter.

I'm still between review games at the moment, so I started playing Silent Hill: Book of Memories on Vita. I liked the demo and I'm a big fan of dungeon crawlers and Roguelikes when they're done well, so despite all of the negative talk I heard, I decided to go for it. I'm about ten levels into the campaign so far, and I think it's actually pretty good—but that statement needs some qualification.

Who Can Stop the Rain?

HIGH The Hansel and Gretel play sequence—it's a cool setpiece that pays off in an even cooler way.

LOW Too close to call—clunky combat or the occasional crashes.

WTF Why are there so few enemy types in this game?

Dynasty Warriors wouldn't generally be considered broken, but it has been negatively seen by a large portion of critics out there. This series saw its best ratings early on, but as time passed, the ratings continued to drop. Warriors (as a whole) isn't safe from the ire of the gaming masses, but it's still a game that I love to call my guilty pleasure.

You were Always on my Mind...

HIGH A great game-ending twist.

LOW Almost every nightmare sequence is perfectly awful.

WTF It seems this therapist is a session drinker.

I wrote the headline to this story not really thinking—and only now does it dawn on me that "gets a street date" make it sound like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories went out and picked up a hooker…

That's not what happened, though. Instead, Konami has announced the release date for the title (or, the date the game will "hit the streets"). Wii owners can experience an updated version of one of Survival Horror's most revered titles on December 8th. PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable owners will have to wait longer as no date has been set for either of those platforms.

Early demos for the game have been impressive and I'm excited to check out the Wii version of the game—if for no other reason than because it will actually give me an excuse to turn on my Wii…

Jump past the break for a character breakdown from Konami's press release.

It's been a few years since the first Silent Hill movie came out—and while it wasn't as good as many of us hoped, there's so much potential in the franchise that most of us hoped Hollywood would take a second crack at it.

There have been rumors of a sequel for quite awhile, but invariably they've turned out to be false—until last night. THR brings us news that a new Silent Hill film is indeed in the works and will begin filming next year.

According to the site, screenwriters Roger Avary and producer Samuel Hadida will be returning to the project. No word yet on a director (Christophe Gans helmed the original), or any plot details, but you'll read about it here when those details start to emerge.

Ah Sunday, a day for rest and relaxation–and apparently a day for no horror news.

I saved this clip of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for a day just like today. The Wii-updating (I'm hesitant to call it a remake—it is technically a remaking of the first game, but it's bringing a lot of new elements to the table as well) of the classic survival horror game is looking pretty good. Don’t take my word for it, though, have a look at this new trailer for the title that appeared at GamesCom earlier this month.

Expect Silent Hill to hit retailers on October 13th for the Wii, PS2, and PSP—just in time to creep you out for Halloween.