Survival Horror

[gunswordfist]

I have Condemned 2. It's a pretty rough around the edges game. Overall fun, not scary at all though. I hate how you can't use hand to hand combat at all at the last level. So stupid

[Foggle]

Thank god I read the article instead of just the title. I almost had to buy a 3DS for a second there.

Seriously, though, a legit Fatal Frame 3DS game would blow my fucking mind. This just sounds dumb.

[Foggle]

My friend bought Silent Hill: Downpour, and I got a chance to play/watch the first two hours yesterday. It has a lot of really cool ideas, and it's easily better than any of the games since 3, but it's extremely unpolished.

What I liked:

• The Nightmare World sections are genius. Very creative, surreal, and exciting.
• Level design so far has been excellent. Just the right amount of puzzles, backtracking, and optional branching paths to keep things interesting.
• Puzzles appear to have obvious solutions but usually end up being more complicated than they look.
• The music is awesome. On par with Yamaoka's, even.
• Atmosphere is spot on. The game isn't scary, but it definitely feels like the original trilogy.

What I didn't like:

• Melee combat is abysmal. It basically boils down to flailing around with easily breakable weapons performed by intense button mashing. You will probably have to heal after almost every single fight... and the game seems to know this, as it gives you a medkit either before or after most encounters.
• Lots of frame rate drops. Major ones, too. It's not uncommon for the game to turn into a slideshow in certain areas.
• Sometimes the game lets you make choices during cutscenes. These choices don't actually matter because the story will always play out the exact same way no matter which option you choose.
• Loooooooong load times. Be prepared to wait 1-2 minutes per load screen.
• Sometimes you will freeze in place after getting hit by an enemy, forcing you to load a saved game.

But it seems to be pretty good overall, in spite of its problems.

[Spark Of Spirit]

That combat sounds dreadful, and the health kit thing sounds like it could remove a lot of tension from the combat.

Silent Hill strikes out again in the combat area.

[Eddy]

As far as combat in Downpour goes: stick with the double axe. It's strong and it's durable. It's pretty much the only weapon in the game I've been using.

[Eddy]

I just finished Silent Hill Downpour.

The wonky combat, bad framerate spots, and crappy save system aside, I love it. Easily the best "traditional" Silent Hill game (so not counting Shattered Memories) since SH3.

[Foggle]

Glad to hear that it stays consistently excellent throughout.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I'm watching a video of Silent Hill HD Collection. Does it really not have tank controls? It doesn't look like it.

[Foggle]

Don't buy the HD Collection. It's a broken piece of shit.

By default, SH 2 and 3 have tank controls. But you can switch to a "directional" scheme from the options menu, which is a lot more user-friendly.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Don't buy the HD Collection. It's a broken piece of shit.

By default, SH 2 and 3 have tank controls. But you can switch to a "directional" scheme from the options menu, which is a lot more user-friendly.

Why don't the RE games offer this?

Unfortunately if I want to play these games I might have to consider it eventually. It's not like Konami is ever going to re-port them being as lazy and useless as they are.

[Eddy]

Yeah, the HD Collection is really disheartening because it's obvious Konami really didn't give a shit. It's so slapped together it's embarrassing. I wish I knew that before I went and bought it but at least I got the 360 version and not the PS3 version, which has even more bugs and glitches.

[Foggle]

Unfortunately if I want to play these games I might have to consider it eventually. It's not like Konami is ever going to re-port them being as lazy and useless as they are.

I'd recommend the PC versions instead. You'll want a controller and you have to set 2 to run using only one core (which takes like 15 seconds and 3 mouse clicks of work), but they're probably the best versions of the games available. They have the graphics and extra content of the HD collection but with none of the bugs and design flaws.

[Eddy]

Plus they have the original voices which are so much better. It's true that the HD Collection offers the original voices for Silent Hill 2 but they don't for Silent Hill 3.

[Foggle]

What the hell? I can see replacing the voices for SH 2 (they're pretty bad), but 3 has great voice acting!

[Eddy]

What the hell? I can see replacing the voices for SH 2 (they're pretty bad), but 3 has great voice acting!

They sure did. And no option to hear the original voices.