I Love This Game!

My next batch of Easter games are here, some highly acclaimed RPG games which were long overdue to be part of my collection. Silent Hill: Homecoming was originally supposed to be part of the mix but the game is fast disappearing be it at Asia region or US so the chances of finding the game brand new is pretty slim now.

Valkyria Chronicles is actually easier to find than Muramasa despite Muramasa being the newer game as it seems Sega is still pressing new copies of Valkyria, the new blu-ray case certainly seems to suggest so. Muramasa on the other hand is an old copy from when the game first debut in September 2009, i discovered this when i peel off the price tag to reveal the old original price underneath. Looks like Muramasa will be joining Silent Hill: Homecoming as part of this generation games that will be hard to find in the near future, you heard it here first folks so quickly grab your copy while you still can.

Wet Dream Come True

I wasn't too thrilled when i first heard rumours of a Silent Hill remake heading to the Wii, if only because it was also rumoured to be appearing on the PSP and the fact that Climax Studios will be developing this only further strengthen my belief. Now the i have previewed the Nintendo Power cover story on Shattered Memories (the new subtitle for the remake) i'm much more optimistic about this remake and actually looking forward to it. Not many Wii games can prompt me to make a day one purchase but NP and Climax studio managed to do just that with still images and interviews alone! Ok maybe that's my fanboyism love for the series talking but to Climax studio credit, Origins was a worthy entry into the series so i have high expectations that this will more REmake than konami's own Twin Snakes for last generation.

What Climax is trying to do with the wiimote and storytelling is generally pretty ambitious, and has got me more excited about this than i ever was with Homecoming, the series debut on the current gen consoles. It seems everything you do and where you go will ultimately have an effect on who you meet and how the story will end. Now the first two Silent Hill games had a similar non-linear storyline where you could completely skip certain subplot should you miss going to certain area or put your character on-track to a different ending depending how long you spend with NPC and what file you pick up. The subsequent Silent Hill seem to have abandon this idea in favour of a more linear story and ending so Climax re-imagining of the original and ideas on how to implement the story seems like a welcome return to the roots for the series. I was also very impressed with how they plan to utilise the wiimote to function as the series trademark radio and flashlight, it seems like this could very well be a survival horror game that is only possible on the Wii. If only the texture and character model didn't look like PSP standards but i trust NP judgment enough when they say the game looks better in-motion than in picture. Time for me to dust off the original which i still owned on Platinum release and fire up that bad boy.

wait are those psp textures and character models i see?

Good Feeling

You know what feels better than buying a great game? Buying a great game and paying only half the original retail price. It seems my recent new approach of waiting out for new games to drop in price before picking them up is starting to pay off. Back when Silent Hill: Homecoming coming out, there was one other game that i was contemplating of in its place. That game was of course Siren : New Translation, a remake of sorts of the first underappreciated PS2 stealth horror game. I ended up not buying neither game as i realize i wasn't in a terrible rush to play either one of those games.

Now i find Play-asia having a weekly special for Siren: New Translation where you can pick up the game for less than half it's full retail price. Not a bad deal huh? Sure it's an asian version but seeing it was only available on Playstation Network except in Japan and Asia region, i guess i can make an exception for Siren: New Translation. It's been a while since i feel so great about a Play-asia purchase especially since havingto pre-order the rather pricey collector's edition of the upcoming Resident Evil 5.

Home is Where The Heart is

While having a conversation with some friends on upcoming games this Fall, i failed to come up with a game when asked which game will i most probably get this Fall. Shock, horrors, the guy with the most systems (among my friends at least) has got no game in mind for this upcoming Fall!

I suppose it has something to do with my distinct taste for gaming, as you can tell from this blog i don't usually play a wide-variety of games, in fact my friend would go so far as to pigeon-holed it as "anything horror or gothic with guns & bullets in it". While i don't deny the appeal, i would suppose it's one of the reason why i got so many system to cater to my distinct taste. One game coming out this Fall quickly slipping out of my radar is Silent Hill: Homecoming which received even less attention during this recent Leipzig. Is the game coming out this Fall and has everyone forgotten about it? One thing's for sure, i won't be getting it on release day as i decided to wait it out until the price drops. The reason?

There's no collector edition announced.

Call of the Siren

I recall seeing a forumer confessing that he only buy exclusive games, even to the extent of buying exclusives for console he doesn't own which he will then play on his friends' console whenever he gets the chance.

While it does sound pretty extreme (especially the part about buying exclusives for console he doesn't own), being a fanboy myself i do understand what he means and admit that i enjoy exclusive games too. Yes i enjoy exclusive games simply for the mere fact that i don't have to share my games with gamers who don't invest on the same platform, nothing to do with the myth that multiplatform games will be dumb down or compromised, those are just convenient excuse fanboys will use to defend their precious hardware in my opinion.

For a while back, i have been contemplating if i should get either Siren: New Translation or Silent Hill: Homecoming since their release are only months apart. Having played all the previous Silent Hill installments, i do have some attachments to the series and frankly, i'm interested to to see how the new development team will take on the series. The only thing i'm displeased about the new Silent Hill game is it's no longer exclusive to the PS3 platform and worse, during the recent E3 conference Konami announced that it's also going to appear on the PC platform. Now seeing how much i loathe my favourite games appearing on the PC platform, Siren is starting to look like the next best alternative.

After all, Silent Hill creator Toyama is still very much involved with this Siren and the game is also due for a blu-ray release in addition to the PSN release. The only problem is Siren is sort of a semi remake of original which I already played and though I enjoyed the chilling atmosphere and graphics, I couldn’t keep up with the timeline of the game.

Born From A Wish

If you happened to play Konami's Silent Hill Zero on your PSP you will notice a slightly amusing disclaimer right before the start menu, one that suggest that this game is designed to be played in the dark with your headphones on. For all intents and purposes, the game does manage to be a lot scarier when it is played that way but it also begs the question, when did handheld cease being portable? Well it all started with Sony making a brave foray into the handheld market with their Sony PSP. The approach was very clear right from the start, a handheld that is able to provide a console experience on the go. Well, Sony certainly packed a lot of horsepower under that PSP hood because the PSP still continues to amaze me with what it can do even three years after it's launch.

Silent Hill Zero does more justice to the series than Portable Ops did for Metal Gear, you don't get the sense of any compromise being made because it's a handheld game, the series' famed meticulous art style is still prevalent throughtout the game and the soundtrack is just awesome, albeit a bit familiar. I finished both this game and Umbrella Chronicles yesterday and came off wishing Umbrella Chronicles could be more like Origins and thoroughly surprised by the level of polish in this handheld title. It just goes to shows you can really revitalize a series by injecting new talents, possibly the reason why Konami decided to go with a different development team in Silent Hill 5. Sure the back-tracking and puzzle elements feel archaic by today's gaming standards but Origins had a good sense of storytelling which just improve and adds to the series mythos of the mysterious town. This is probably the last time you will get to play Silent Hill in its' traditional style as Silent Hill 5 is surely to reboot and reinvent the series in unimaginable ways.... so what are you waiting for?