HD Collection PS3 Exclusive (Hah! 360 too) /New VAs

[Smiley]

You realize that you guys are one step away from killing each other over video games. Like bludgeoning people for a copy of Metal Gear.

[Rombie]

tags: first world problems; subheading gaming :p

Yeah I think it's why the Australians refuse to create an R18 label for games, due to fears it'll create more bludgeonings.... jokes. :p

I forgot too, your "released at the same time as ORC" comment reminded me as well Silent Hill Homecoming was pushed back in Australia and NZ and ended up launching the same day as Resident Evil 5. That wouldn't have helped it's sales around here. I think I made a thread about it on here too at the time. I'd ordered both online and they arrived in the same package on that day. RE5 went straight in the console. Silent Hill waited a few weeks. :p

I did moan a lot in the last couple of posts but releases are getting better and we normally now see the same pre-order bonus' and extras everywhere else does, and often at the same time. The other thing I can also say positive about Konami is that their SE/LE sets were also some of the first we ever saw here. I have the rare MGS PAL LE from 1999 on my shelf, and a friend of mine has the LE Castlevania SOTN PS1 set with the bonus art book and soundtrack CD. I think those two were the first I ever saw sold in local stores (keeping in mind we had no "game specific" retailers in our country until later that year).

[Smiley]

Well it's like I tell some of my SH friends. They think Downpour is going to dominate the survival horror market, and I tell them that it's nowhere near the sales and hype that Resident Evil has. As far as the mediums go RE is always two steps ahead in the market. SH has all the tools to deliver more genuine scares than RE, but so long as it wants to gain fame it tries to take the same steps RE does.

Make an action oriented game? Homecoming. How about a spin off in game play? Book of Memories and the Arcade game come to mind. Once RE6 was announced you barely hear anyone talk about Downpour anymore. All the survival horror buzz is going on about the one RE6 trailer. We already have a teaser for the fifth movie and supposedly the second Silent Hill movie is trying to get released this year as well.

Now this is all based on fame. I'm usually scared by SH games more than RE ones, but in terms of success it seems RE is very much on top of things so they best not try and compete in sales.

[Enetirnel]

Yeah same thing happened here in NZ, except the stores decided to stick by the advertised date even though it was sitting in their backrooms for half a week. Friend of mine called to let me know it was in so I could pick it up knowing I was looking forward to it, except due to a classification issue the Limited Edition pack with the artbook didn't come out here and so I've paid Gene to send me a copy from Australia instead. Irony too given the classification laws in AU is usually more of an issue there than here.

My understanding is here that Downpour and the HD set are already due on the same release day in Australia and NZ anyway, so I don't think any date slips would make a big change for us. All it would do is the same, put the HD set release after Downpour which looks to be the same as elsewhere then.

I can't speak for Enetirnel, but I'm use to delays in this part of the world... even delays on already delayed product, or very limited releases of items which shouldn't be. It's been happening for as long as I can recall in games. Konami titles seem to fair poorly above many others too because the AU distribution is poor.

I had to wait an extra 2 week for the original Silent Hill 2 release to arrive because of poor distribution planning and when it did it was a very high price of $140NZD, $40 more than the average PS2 game at the time. And when Twin Snakes came out on Gamecube, I was lucky to be online that day when a friend told me it had arrived at his store elsewhere in NZ the night before but he warned me there was limited copies nationwide. So I went down to the closest game store to find they had 3 copies only and the staff had reserved 2, and they'd left the last one out the back in case the other staff member wanted first dibs. But because I asked first I got it before he did. Very lucky. Oh... and the MGS4's LE with the Old Snake figure was limited to around 250 units NZ wide also, and sold out everywhere in a day.

This is pretty much why I haven't gone through all of the Silent Hill games. I tried to order SH3, they took my money and there was no stock for it and they never got it in. Gave up trying to get it, I put in an order however, for Downpour but I'm expecting the usual delays and fuck-ups that I've seen with Konami.

I'm used to the delays, over-pricing as well - but I have to admit, I'm getting fairly sick of them fucking up releases in Oceania despite it being the exact same release that Europe gets so I just don't see how the fuck their distribution manages to constantly fuck up for us.

[Rombie]

^ If you still ever want a copy of SH3 on PS2 at all, there is a store here in NZ that sells it for under $20NZD these days when they have a (frequent) sale on. It'd be like $15-16AUD. Just let me know and we can organise something if you're wanting an 'unmolested' PAL edition unlike the upcoming PS3 HD version.

Konami's titles are currently released by Namco Bandai in Australia (having purchased Atari AU a few years back) which puts their titles at a frequent disadvantage as less money is spent on the releases that aren't Namco Bandai titles. But this is general mismanagement by the different holders since Sega Ozisoft closed it's doors in 2000. Inforgrames, Game-something or rather, Red Ant, Atari and now Namco Bandai just do very little with Konami's games.

@ Smiley - I have no illusions to the fact Silent Hill is no sales juggernaught either, but it's a shame it just seemingly wants to be labelled such an important franchise everytime Konami brings it up. But then seemingly when it comes to release time they shit all over it by putting it in weird release slots, putting it up against other titles in simular genres, or just burying it because of constant delays. Then turning around and bemoaning how poorly the games do when asked in interviews whats wrong with the franchise.

[Smiley]

We'll see if Tomm's sales plug will work or not. The real reason for the recast was over shoddy business practices, but he makes it out so that these new voices will appeal to newcomers of the series who pick these games up.

Here's how the menu for the game will look. As you can see, the moment you start up SH2 you have the option to change voices. With all this delay time you'd think this could be worked on for SH3.

Also this sounds disheartening.

[Rombie]

Menu is nice. Not so good on the cleaned graphics front though, clearly SH2 had some sort of layered texture work which has been lost. The fog though just baffles me. Cheers for the twitter grab though, when one of the designers in charge of said art style doesn't like it not a great sign. Sigh. Oh well. "At least I have my original copies."

[Gradon]

@Smiley, the reason they never included SH3 voices was because it was neglected, whatever-his-name-is who thinks he is the holy grail of Silent Hill refused fans ask Heather Morris to be back in it, what's funny is he was claiming that she wanted to be left alone and fans leave her be, when found she had no idea she was so popular and she was interested in coming back pffff. Then he said it was too late and the copies needed printed and such. Tbh, I haven't heard much of this new voice acrtress for Heather (because SH3 is neglected, again) but I hope to God she actually good.

[Mrox2]

When is it coming out , i cant wait , never had chance to play them , ill be getting them

[Enetirnel]

When is it coming out , i cant wait , never had chance to play them , ill be getting them

It's a little hard to say as the Silent Hill HD Collection has been pushed back repeatedly.

[Rombie]

Must be the 20th set now. Review up on Gamespot.

http://www.gamespot.com/silent-hill-hd-collection/reviews/silent-hill-hd-collection-review-6364629/

Includes a basic comparison between the PS2 and HD version. Ground textures have suffered as the earlier Ito tweet showed, everything else looks okay.

[Rombie]

Sorry for the double post. But achievements list for the Hd set and downpour are up. Possible spoilers in the downpour list.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/silent-hill-hd/achievements/

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/silent-hill-8/achievements/

[Dracarys]

Some of those SH2 achievements will be a royal pain the ass.

[Mrox2]

Hmm seeing that comparison vid , i see that the ground "Floor" Have been cleaned up but lacks the dust and rust O.O , But still Nice !

[Rombie]

Some of those SH2 achievements will be a royal pain the ass.

More time consuming than really difficult. The speed run, 500 damage points, and the less than 2 saves for both games are probably the hardest (although the speed run is made easier in SH3 if it allows the UFO ending to count because that is only half the game). Also the Green Hyper Spray in SH2 maybe (thats a 10 star rank which while not impossible is still not the easiest).