I was in the town of Thamasa. The town of assholes.
Then I got to the Imperial Observation Post.
Well, fuck. I assumed all those years of “the floor is
lava!” would have prepared me for this.
Then I had a fight with Kefka. I was mildly pleased to see
him.
Still really loving the battle scene cut scenes.
And then I found Maranda, and in there I found…dog fighting?
There are soldiers and townspeople gathered around the two dogs that go back
and forth in the ring. If it were just the Imperial soldiers, I’d be like, Yup, Imperial scum doing scummy things. But
having civvies, including a kid, involved in dog fighting makes me hate Maranda.
Yeah, right, pyro. But I’m not going to judge.
Terra, give the man some peace!
Speaking of poo…
Terra barged into the bathroom to speak to soldiers, found
this one on the toilet, and proceeded to have a fight with him.
And then this happened. Great use of my last 11 seconds. I
wish the soldier after was like, did you
just pee in front of me? WTH game.
Ah no not Kefka! Here come the choices of RPGs. Seriously though, you wouldn’t pardon someone after they had poisoned Doma. I
didn’t think the Emperor would want me to tell him to execute him, so I said to
leave him in jail.
In the end, I got the second best level of rewards. I didn’t
know I was being scored, and the only thing I did wrong was opening all the
chests. This game hasn’t had any repercussions for opening chests so far, so I
didn’t think about it.
I was also told to go back to the Blackjack to see a special
scene with Setzer. I enjoyed getting more depth from him, and he reminds me of
Cid from VII and Vaan from XII.
And here, I took a break. I’m actually starting to enjoy
this game much more. The Empire has seemingly backed down, and the espers have
become enraged and may destroy the world.
I honestly forgot where exactly I was supposed to be going.
The village where I parked my airship had nothing. So I wondered to another
town.
Whiiiitee giiirrrrrl waaasteeeeed!
Um...No?
I got to the town I needed to go to, but I looked away when
the town name came up. So I have no idea what’s going on. Some guy wants me to go behind this crate with him...at least buy me a drink first.
You're just so cute with your vibrant clothes and evil laugh!
Squee, Kefka.
Oh no, Celes!
I don’t remember this from the last time I played.
Apparently she is an imp? How did I not ever see this status before?
I don’t remember this at all, honestly. Which is a good
thing, because I’m experiencing this again “for the first time.”
And then this asshole tried to kill me. What if I was
looking for the bathroom? What if I just wanted to know if he had a moment to
talk about the Invisible Pink Unicorn?
Speaking of unicorns...
It’s the laaaasstt
uniiiiiicooorn!
Whoa, plot!
Da da duuuun!
Cool it on the graphics.
Graphics!
Then I became badass. I should look like this all the time.
I wish I hit the screenshot button a few seconds before. Two
sparkles dance and fly together, and then – that’s how a baby is made!
And this is where I called it quits. I played way longer than I wanted to.
Setzer’s Slots ability in battle is fun to use. It hasn’t failed me yet, though I am sure one day it will. I was lazy and forgot to rearrange my party, so it's still Edgar, Locke, and Setzer, and I'll be too lazy to fix it tomorrow too.
I finally got around to really
giving my time to SH: HDC. Why’d it take so long? At first, I waited for the
patch. Then the patch wasn’t coming for the Xbox 360. I did Downpour and
Homecoming, and then this one. When I started I was in the middle of my third move
the 2012 year. I had to leave people I have become attached to, and it was
particularly hard. My comfort is not found in chocolate or ice cream or chick
flicks. It’s in my favourite video games. One of my all time favourites is
Silent Hill 3. To stop thinking of my shitty life, I dedicated a week to
getting all the achievements. Since you can easily play SH3 in about 2 hours
and 30 minutes, getting all the achievements was not as hard as I was
expecting. If you’re an achievement whore, this game is easy, but you also have
to get all of SH2’s achievements to get them all. As of posting, I still haven’t
gotten the achievements for SH2 on Hard Mode. And yes, I know that this post is
long overdue, and it was difficult to organize between the two games, new and
original, and the console differences.
Disclaimer: I love SH3. I love SH
the universe. If I could only play one series for the rest of my life, this
would be it. I still have my PS2 copies, and I will always love these games.
I’m not opposed to change, but it better be change for the better.
Graphics
HD remakes
of PS2 games are not the kind of things that I get very excited for, especially
if there is not going to be new content. That being said, the HD graphics are...alright.
Necessary? No.
Yay! Now we get to see the PH rape scene in HD! And the scene where
James puts his arm into the disgusting toilet without even rolling up his
sleeve!
Well, now I can die happy!
</sarcasm>
That being
said, the graphics still leave something to be desired. The fog has been
redone. Previously, the fog was used to hide the environments loading on the
streets of Silent Hill. Additionally, it added to the creepy atmosphere-you can
never quite see far enough ahead to feel safe. Now, the fog seems to be further
away, giving you a larger area that you can see. But I don’t think they changed
how the game loads. Outside, it is easy to run too fast for the game, causing
lag and moments where you can see the environment building itself before it can
be hidden by the fog. My Xbox froze 3 times outside on the streets. I have a
new model Xbox, less than a year old, and as far as I recall, it has never
frozen on me before this. Why does lag (like what happened in SH: Downpour)
happen in games? While it wasn’t as bad as SH:D, it shouldn’t happen.
Post PS3 Patch
The patch did fix some graphical issues (but the patch was
only released for the PS3). If you want a comparison, go to Youtube and do a
search. The patch gives noticeable results, but not enough for me to care.
However, there are still a myriad of graphical issues on the PS3, even with the
patch. So in the end, an Xbox 360 patch wouldn’t have done much good anyway,
because Konami gave us a Band-Aid when we needed duct tape. And Konami
blatantly ignored one whole console.
What’s funny is that the current
god of the SH franchise is Tom Hewlett, who basically blames the glitches on
the data they were given to port. He claims that they were given incomplete
archive data, so you know…totally not their fault for delivering a broken game.
However, everyone is citing the fact that Blue Point Games (who did the HD ports
for the Metal Gear HD Collection, which is multiple orgasms on a disk) takes
retail versions of the games and uses that data, so they always get the final
version. Oh hey…that makes way more sense than using incomplete archive data!
So...why didn’t anyone tell Tom Hewlett how to do this? *Face palm.
Gamespot PS2 versions of SH2 and SH3 VS SH: HD (prepatch)
Voice Acting
This is
probably what everyone is talking about. And I’m going to talk about it because
while I am a rabbit, I wear sheep’s clothing.
How do I feel about
the new voices?
The voices
are...meh. I don’t know WHY this game needed new voices. Oh, wait, yes I do. It’s
because Konami figured recording new voices would be cheaper and they probably
didn’t expect Guy Cihi (original voice actor of James) to raise a fuss. And Mary
Elizabeth McGlynn and a few others wanted to carve their names into the fame
that is SH2 and SH3. And quite frankly, I used to be a fan of McGlynn. Her
vocal tracks for the Silent Hill games are phenomenal and they will be songs
that will probably stick with me forever. I love her songs, but I cannot
respect the woman. The arrogance of this woman that oozes from her statements
about the original and new SH voice actors is astounding. And she mistakenly calls
Mary/Maria Marie. At least try to pretend that actually care like you say you
do. You can watch a clip of her talk on Youtube, two sources being here and here. At the very least, I think they should have included the option to have
the original or new voices on both games, not just SH2. I have to wonder, what
was keeping them back on having the original voices on SH3? Heather’s original
VA was, in fact, easy to get a hold of, contrary to the rumour that was
circulating that they just couldn’t find her.
For the
next part of the review, I will be focusing on SH3 of the HD Collection. I will
post the SH2 portion at a later date.
Silent Hill 3 (HD
Collection)
Hi, I consumed Ester's
high school experience.
SH3 Graphics
At times the graphics appear to be washed out when compared to the original. In the PS2 version of the amusement park dream, there is a sepia-colour fog rolling about. It is not in the HD version, reducing the atmosphere quality. Overall the lighting is better, removing the black splotches that the shadows made. It makes the setting more naturalistic, though I liked the surreal quality of the lighting. You’re trapped in/infected by the Otherworld, a whole different reality. Making the lighting naturalistic blurs the lines between the safe reality and the uncertain and dangerous predicament that Heather is dropped into. Overall the whole thing is just meh and unnecessary.
SH3 Voice Acting
"Is every person here a mental case?"
Heather
What I liked about Heather’s
character was that she is a very normal character. She’s quick to anger, loves
her father, and is determined to get revenge, even though at one point it would
be totally easy to drive away and not go to Silent Hill. Heather’s new voice, played by Amanda Winn-Lee, sounds so nasally. You know what it sounds like? A grown ass woman trying to
sound like an anime character. The old Heather, Heather Morris, sounded much more natural, and
the new Heather lacks the enthusiasm in key moments (i.e. “Don’t talk about my
dad like that!”-of course, the noise of her hand hitting the door is absent,
killing the intensity of the moment). She was alright during the climax at the
apartment, though I dislike that they altered Heather’s speech to Claudia. OMG,
they added a swear, now Heather means business. Like no one took her seriously
before. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.
"You know that only God can
save us."
Claudia
The new Claudia, voiced by Laura Bailey, is bland. I feel
like she lacks the conviction of old Claudia, played by Donna Burke. She does try to sound like the
old Claudia to no avail. Claudia is a religious fanatic. She knows, without a
doubt, that she can bring God. God will come and purify the world with fire and
usher in a new paradise. She will create a new world that is free from all
suffering. Her convictions are unwavering. When she set out to do her task, even
though she knows that her sins are too great for redemption, in her heart she
knew she is right to do it. And I feel like Bailey just doesn’t
convince me of these deep aspects of her character. Most of the time she sounds
bored. This character is integral to the plot. She is the antagonist and has an
emotional connection to Heather. She orders an atrocious act that shatters
Heather, causing her to switch from her “let’s escape from all this crazy BS”
to “let’s vivisect Claudia” mindset. With her new voice, she is basically as
threatening as a cardboard cut out. Story complexity just went down the toilet.
"Monsters? They look like
monsters to you? Don't worry.
It's just a joke!"
Vincent
Vincent. Oh, god, poor Vincent.
His old voice revealed just how messed up he was. It was unsettling. The new VA, Yuri Lowenthal...isn’t creepy. His voice lacks that certain nuance that makes you unsure
about him. He holds all the answers, but he is clearly lying and quite possibly
mentally unstable. With him, you’re never quite sure if you should trust him.
Everything would be so much easier if Vincent would explain everything to
Heather. But...as she says, “There’s something wrong with you too.” I feel like
the new Vincent tries to play down what made Vincent’s character so awesome.
It’s like putting eyebrows on Claudia-it’s part of the character, don’t mess
with it. I know that they thought the original acting was weird. And it was, in
a very good way. This new voice actor sucks phallic imagery. And you'll know him as the VA who does Sasuke Uchiha's voice from Naruto.
"That's fine. Nobody's gonna cry
over my grave anyway."
Douglas
The original VA of Douglas, Richard Grosse (who sadly passed away before the game was released), was fantastic. The new VA, Kirk Thornton, sounds more gravelly, like the VA was pushing the “detective” stereotype. The old Douglas sounded natural. The new VA is trying to emulate the hardboiled noir guy. He tries too hard and it shows. If I had never heard the original VA, overall I would say that the performance was fine. Nothing to be excited about voice acting wise, but alright.
Sorry, Heather, the good points aren't
up here,either.
Judgement
Don’t buy the game for the
graphics or the new voice acting. Don’t even buy the game new. Borrow it. Rent
it. Buy it used. Don’t support a team of arrogant jerks. In the end, I don’t
know why they bothered other than to have a piece of SH pie with their names on
it. SH3 is watered down and subpar. Good for achievements.
I
don't want to do a whole review for this. Quite frankly, I like it a lot. Yes,
we all saw the end coming. I think it's more pertinent to make Alex realize the truth, and the player
needs to find out why Alex can’t see
it like we can. The graphics are great, I liked the interaction with The Order,
and I liked the story with Shepherd’s Glen. I’m tired of people exclaiming, “OMG YOU LIKED THIS GAME?!” Yes, I do. It’s
why I got all the achievements for it. It’s why I’ll play it a billion more
times before I die.
There are a few things I'd like to post though. You know who my favourite character is? This guy:
Curtis Ackers
People
cite him as one of the main antagonists, second to Judge Halloway.
I don’t really consider him a main, more like a mini-boss, and I’m not
convinced he’s always been evil. I don’t think he was part of The Order until
after you find his shop all locked up. I think they took him then and he
converted.
What
I find intriguing about him is his focus on fixing
and maintaining. He runs the scrap
yard/repair shop and he sees how people can neglect their possessions. With The
Order, he “finds clarity.” I’ve been wondering what his clarity is. He isn’t
part of the four families of Shepherd’s Glen, so I am uncertain if he was part
of that religion too. His clarity might have been religion. And since he seems
to be a grumpy guy who prefers to be alone, perhaps he found the people of
religion to be of his social taste. And they gave him a new job-to fix...broken
people. With a circular saw.
You
know who I hate? This lady:
I'm busy looking for my son. Oh, wait..no I'm not.
Totally useless. Yes, I get her emotional
trauma. She had to pick one son, but she gave birth to both. She’s mentally
unstable now, but you know how short/different the game would be if she was
like, “Oh, hey, about your brother...you know [insert plot reveal], right?
Remember? Oh yeah, I guess you’ve forgotten [other big plot reveal]. Guess you
have to go to Silent Hill now instead of meandering all over this town. Bye!”
There Be Spoilers Ahead!
Silent Hill Downpour has been out since March 2012, and I intended to do a review around that time. There were some lag issues and Vatra promised to patch that. And because I love the Silent Hill franchise that much, and because I strive to be a fair person, I decided to wait on the patch. I didn't think that it would arrive only a few weeks ago, about eight months later. Last night I got all the achievements for the game, which is huge for me. I usually don't bother. I did it for Alice: Madness Returns on the old account that I once used, and that's it. Until now.
Patch
The patch was designed to fix the framerate issues, save issues, and bugs concerning the "Homeless" mission and the subway system. I've only had a save issue happen once, and since the patch, it has not happened again. I didn't do the Homeless mission or use the subways before. However, I did post-patch and I noticed that passages that were supposed to be open in the subway were not. If I found locked doors and I had to leave the area and come back on the reload and the door would be opened. That was annoying.
The above issues are minor annoyances, considering the frequency of occurrence. My concern is the framerate issues. The patch didn't eliminate them all, no. But it lessened the degree of lag. There still is lag. It's not the end of the world though. I didn't consider the pre-patch game unplayable, and less lag is still better. Although, I might have to remind the world about why I hate the way the gaming industry relies on patches instead of making a functioning game to begin with.
Praise
I do have to say that I did enjoy the game. Downpour gets a lot of unnecessary hate, especially from old fans. And I am an old fan (from about 2001) and I enjoyed it enough to play through it multiple times for the achievements, and I am not an achievement whore.
I am a cult enthusiast. Cults fascinate me. Especially magic cults. If someone invited me to a cult that claimed they could do magic, I'd totally hop right into the sketchy van. Yet, I do like how Downpour did a story set in Silent Hill, a town basically run by old gods and the cult that follows it, without the cult element. Yes, DJ Ricks alludes to it when he says that they are always listening. Though he could be alluding to the monsters in general, or the old gods. But no where in the story does anyone stop Murphy and say, The Order is behind this. Mostly because, I think, they aren't. Yes, the old gods have deemed it necessary for Murphy and Anne to figure out their issues. The Order is busy doing other stupid shit. I like to think that they aren't concerned with Murphy and his troubles.
Officer Anne Cunningham
After playing through this game over and over, a few things have become apparent to me. And as a disclaimer, you can disagree with me. The great thing about the SH universe is that most of it is unexplained spookiness. I tried to watch the first Silent Hill film with my friend and with all his questions about how the universe works, I had to give up. It's magic, ok? The normal laws of our world don't always apply. It has its own rules. And he was totally fine with that answer. Or at least he stopped asking questions.
Anyway, I've been thinking about the meat of the story. It is about revenge. Anne: "My father was a good man. He didn't believe in revenge. But I do."
Murphy also wants revenge. It's what got him in prison. His deal and development is super easy to see. What I've been thinking of is whosestory this actually is. Today I am feeling that it is really Anne's story and Murphy is tangled up in it, in his own way. That the gods of Silent Hill wanted to give the darkness festering in her heart the opportunity to get revenge, or forgive. She mentions the "sick" things she had to do to get Murphy under her watch. Murphy already got his revenge and he was probably going to rot in prison. Anne had yet to get hers, but she had to pay for it before she even got the opportunity. Yet he was already technically "paying" for his crimes, but it wasn't enough for her. As with the sequence of final scenes when Anne shoots Murphy in the showers, he is her Boogeyman. She is fighting her monsters. Murphy is fighting himself, running away from himself.
What would be really awesome is if Anne could get her own game, or at least some DLC for her story. It's alluded to that she hasn't just been frolicking in the streets until she runs into Murphy or DJ Ricks. Too bad this will probably never happen. This definitely sucks because the series needs more strong female leads. Old E3 Trailer
Does anyone else remember the old official E3 trailer from 2011? It's interesting to see the changes that they made. I remember first playing it and waiting for the kids to push me and run past me. I guess they were supposed to be the kids you keep seeing in the paintings? I thought it was dumb that they were never really given a mention, they just appear in the art all the time. They were probably supposed to be part of something and they were cut completely. I'd love to play a version of the game before the changes.
Has Spoilers!
I've been playing F.E.A.R (further typed as FEAR because I can't be bothered with periods) and the FEAR Files. I love FEAR. I had the first one (Gold Edition) for the PC and I really liked it, but my computers have never been able to run it properly. Last summer I played FEAR 2 on the Xbox 360 but damn, the jump from mouse to keyboard was brutal for me. I don't play FPS...ever. Except FEAR. Because FEAR is that cool.
Except when you get stuck on random things. Like the corner of a chair and no amount of jumping or struggling will free you until that demonic chair is ready to release you. Is it normal in FPS to get stuck awkwardly on things?
So I finally got the first FEAR for the Xbox 360 and I played that over and over (on moderate difficulty, don't judge!!). I got FEAR Files as well, and I had only played the first expansion, Extraction Point, on the computer. One thing I noticed about both expansions is that the doors are now springy-that is, I can open them and they will close by themselves. WHY?! Sometimes I need the door to stay open to slink back in and use the door frame for cover. Now I turn back and smash my face into the door. No. This doesn't happen in real life. Unless a ghost, like Alma, is closing the doors, this shouldn't happen. You're ruining my strategies.
Extraction Point was ok, but as it wasn't canon I can't really get into the story. I bet they had fun killing off a bunch of characters though. And why the hell is Norton Mapes in there? Like he just walked away from the events from the first game...Uh...Norton, you got shot. You're not Van Gogh, you just don't pick yourself up and go home. You're not that cool. And even then, why bother with him? He's there for like 30 seconds to unlock a door and he's not seen again. Whatever, he's a ghost that unlocks a door. It makes more sense than he being alive. Other than that, Extraction Point was alright. A little repetitive, but what do people expect? I had a lot of fun doing the final fire fight on the roof of the hospital though.
I never played the second expansion, Perseus Mandate, until a few days ago. To be honest it was interesting at first. You are the second Point Man (like in the first game) and you are investigating the ATC. You have some comrades, Raynes and Chen who are more than cardboard cutouts, at least. But...why the hell does this guy have SlowMo? Thanks for not explaining. And then BAM! there are enemies that have SlowMo too and I swear the first time I encountered one it wouldn't die, no matter how much I shot it. Arg! Am I the only one who noticed that before you actually get to Armacham there are just so many health kits and light body armours? If health kits and body armour were cake in this game, this guy would be obese. Seriously. Up until Armacham, there wasn't much reason not to have 100% health and full armour for 90% of the time. And you can't say that I'm just too good for moderate difficulty because I suck pretty badly. Aiming? What the hell is aiming? I try and without SlowMo I would probably die in the first five seconds.
Anyway, have I finished Perseus Mandate? Nope. I have to restart. Once I got into Armacham it all went to hell for me. For awhile I had 25 health, no bullets on any guns, no body armour, and no grenades. Awesome. And now that Replica mech is chasing me through the labs and there are three mini-rocket launchers to get him with. I can make it explode, and a whole bunch of enemies come through the nearest door. And I have nothing but a rocket launcher, and no HP after the mech fight. Basically, the enemies kill me or I accidentally blow myself up. So I'm going to restart and go after some of the easy achievements, like not letting your flashlight die and getting all the upgrades...though I've noticed that they are mostly in the most obvious places.
Some interesting things about Perseus Mandate? Armacham, the evil guys, have Dell computers. This product placement wasn't there in the first game (or at least I never noticed) but it's in this one. I understand product placement and unless it is blatantly obvious and in my face and out of place, I don't really care. I actually liked the EB Games signs in Prototype. But Dell on the Armacham computers? I just find it funny that Armacham are the ones who started everything and are now trying to kill you. It's not just because I hate my Dell printer. Other things are that Perseus Mandate has no scares. At all. It's a good thing I was intrigued by the story or you know...I wouldn't be playing it. I like survival horror/horror-I LIKE being scared. I'm not interested in playing a FPS. I'll try Perseus Mandate again, but I'm really wanting to play FEAR 2 again, now that I have a much better handle on the controls.
Favourite thing in the expansion? The mini-gun. And the mini-turrets. Yay. The mini-turret is so cute...when I don't accidentally throw it on the floor instead of the wall.
