http://www.konami.com/silenthill4/

http://gamesdomain.yahoo.com/feature/5087

Here's a 30 meg MOV trailer:
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/games/buzz/co...ent_hill_4.mov

I've said it once, and I'll say it again - now THIS is the stuff of nightmares. Kudos to Konami for refitting the series with brand new enemies and atmosphere. It really does look like hell in that game now!

I can't wait... although, I feel like I've played the whole game now after watching that revealing trailer.

Once again... great atmosphere and look... but will the gameplay advance at all? I didn't even finish Silent Hill 2 because it just felt as if I were wandering around an empty town by myself, finding "keys" and unlocking "doors" for no purpose other than to advance to another section. The combat was clunky, making battles a chore (it's easier to run anyway) so I was never sure what the focus of the game actually was?

If atmosphere is the focus... hmmm... oh well, my wife loves this series so I'm sure we'll be getting it anyway!

This screenshot looks promising however... perhaps we will have a more lively environment?

City Screenshot

(sorry... it won't let me link directly)

SH3 was better gameplay and story wise, than SH2, at least for me. The only thing that kills SH3 is that it is to damn short. Lower price now so the sting isn't as bad, paying 40 bucks for a 5 hour 45 minute game the first time through on hard isn't something I like to be doing very often. SH4 looks good but I have concerns.

1. Short game again, I plan on waiting for the price to drop like a brick this time.

2. It's being developed for Xbox and the PS2 at the same time. I have this feeling the PS2 version will suffer, unless they are making it the lead platform.

Actually, I'm in favor of that. As an adult gamer, one of the things that stops me from playing most games is I hate starting a game and not finishing it, but I simply don't have 40 hours to devote to any one game. I'd be hugely in favor of a trend toward short games that deliver a very memorable experience.

Of course, $40 is too much, but I'd happily pay $20 for such a game (same cost as a DVD...), and the prices might drop as the body of gamers continues to grow as it has (unlikely, I know.)

- David Stein

Oh no, I don't mind overall that it's short, it's just that $40 is to much for how short it is. Even 30 is a tad much for that length, imo of course.

Metroid Zero Mission took me 12 hours or so to finish 100%(I'm slow) and I only paid 21.60 for it at BB. $37.88 for SH3 and it was shorter than a GBA game. Even Viewtiful Joe which is just an action side scroller took me a little over 9 hours the first time though.

Short games in general don't bother me, at least Nes,SMS,SG and Snes era. Games the past two gens,besides a few here and there, don't lend themselves to the same replayability of past gens, aka they don't have the same addictive quality to try to beat your last score,time etc etc. at least for me. A big part of that problem is the move to 3D.

If game stories weren't still so mediocre overall, then the price wouldn't be so bad, unfortunately it's gonna be a long long time before we get to anywhere close to movie quality dialogue,voice acting as a norm.

Hmm - you might be surprised how quickly this is likely to improve. The visual quality of the next gen of games comes close to maxing out 3D flair as a distinguishing factor - i.e., they all look so photorealistic that the technical side of things (having a trillion particles on screen, for instance) is going to stop pulling people. Over the last 4-5 years, the emphasis has gradually shifted from technical merit to presentation. Typical voice acting is light-years ahead of where it was ten years ago, and that trend is likely to continue.

- David Stein

I didn't think it was possible for them to make a game sicker than Silent Hill 3 but this looks even worse with those 2 headed baby monster things. I'm looking forward to this one, it looks sweet. I'm surprised they aren't making it for Gamecube, there's already a huge audience for survival horror games on Gamecube with RE, RE0 (both which sold well), and Resident Evil 4 now being released.

I'm also hoping for a longer game, I was able to beat SH3 easily within the rental period I had with lots of time to spare. The joke ending in SH3 was so crazy, I can't imagine what they have instore this time.

I still do not see the appeal of these games... my friend keeps getting me try the genre, but I guess I'm just too chicken.

I still freak out about Silent Hill 2. I remember playing alone in the dark for a while and I'd have to stay up for a while trying to re-settle myself.

Your posts are really getting me interested in this series. I played part of Resident Evil 2 and loathed it - having to replay a sequence ten times so you can kill the zombie with two bullets instead of five is just horrible game design.

However, I've seen the trailers for the Silent Hill games, and they look wonderfully creepy - reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite games, Alone In The Dark. I've mentally queued them up to try them at some point, and your posts are making me bump them way up in the queue.

- David Stein

Believe me, Silent Hill is WORLDs apart from Resident Evil. Definitely start with Silent Hill 2, which has one of the best gothic storylines in a videogame since Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.

I'd start with Silent Hill 1 myself, and skip SH2 and just play SH3 since it's connected to SH1. SH2 tried to move away from the original premise of SH1 somewhat, so it has a different feel, which I didn't care for.

You should play the Fatal Frame series as well. It's the only game I can say that kinda scared me in ways, at least FF1 anyway. SH2 went for psychological horror and it just didn't do it for me, 4 legged mannequins with no head doesn't strike me as creepy or scary. I still liked SH2, just not as much as others in the series or other game series.

The Silent Hill series is a great one and im looking forward to this latest installment. It looks incredibly awesome and im liking the new gameplay innovations that are being added to make the series evovle a bit. I just hope its a stand alone story like SH2. Although i enjoy the whole series, im a bit tired of the whole Cult stuff that was 1 and 3. Since this next installment is being released so soon after the 3rd i dont really wanna revisit that main aspect of the game. But if they go that route again, ill be happy to go with them, this series kicks ass!

My favs in order:

SH2
SH3
SH

ew... gabriel knight: sins was kinda bad I thought. I thought the story was awful... as bad as the acting (Tim Curry as a southerner? and a manly hetero lady's man??!)... the puzzles were good enough to keep me playing through to the end though. In any case, Silent Hill series has a far better story than GK - not even in the same league, really.

All this talk about Silent Hill is making me want to go out and rent SH3 (seeing as it is apparently pretty short?)... Gameplay wise how are the controls compared to Resident Evil? I had Code Veronica for a short time, and I hated the control setup so much that I ended up trading it away very quickly. I watched the trailer for SH4 and it looked pretty creepy... I'm trying to move away from console stuff so I can get back into PC games, and have been thinking about selling my PS2 and the few games I have for it, but I might reconsider and try this series out.

Brian

the controls aren't like RE - in RE, up on the controller is gonna move your character forward relative to where he/she is facing... in SH, I think up on the controller moves the character to camera up. RE controls are fine if you get used to them. It takes a couple hours, but after that you're fine.

Gabriel Knight 1 was one of my favorite adventure games of all time

You can actually use Resident evil style controls (referred to as "3D control" in Silent Hill) or you can choose to use the controls that Trigger descriped (referred to as "2D control").

I can't stand the RE type controls for this type of game so having a choice is defintely a blessing.