dusker

@spraynardtatum: It was a cool way to announce a game. I'll give you that :-)

@ll_exile_ll: Of course they'd say that. But that can't be true, can it? So we shouldn't be excited by how good P.T. looks, because Silent Hills might look worse? Of course not. They're very likely using a bunch of the Silent Hills technology in this, whether they will admit it or not. They're statement means zero. It's just a way for them to create mystery and drum up excitement. It's PR.

@adequatelyprepared: I don't think I ever said I wanted procedural generation in Silent Hills. What I was suggesting is that we have a lot of cool, new technologies and ideas and games coming out, and the fact that a new Silent Hill, which is one of my childhood favourites, is, ostensibly, being made with the same kind of design philosophy as the older games, and is getting this much press, is outrageous by contrast. I want the same level of innovation in my survival horror as I'm seeing in other genres of games.

@adequatelyprepared: Maybe I wasn't altogether clear in my post. I never said that I want Silent Hills to be procedurally generated. What I want is the world to react to what I want to do with it. It can be scripted within the confines of whatever that means. I just don't want to have to think about what Kojima wants me to think about. I think that's hubris. And I think it makes for a boring game.

@ungodly: I don't think I said that he has an affect on other games or what they're doing. I was trying to suggest that we have a lot of innovative, cool games, but some of the industry's rockstars, like Kojima, are getting a lot of press for using antiquated design techniques that aren't in the same league as those other games.

@glottery: Maybe. But, if they had the kind of technology that I'm asking for, why wouldn't it be present in P.T.? Besides, what I'm talking about is some deeper, fundamental issue with the way the game is designed. Kojima has *never even tried* to make the game I'm suggesting.

Also, I think the comment from Kojima is meant to assure people that you won't be walking down two hallways for the entirety of Silent Hills.

@sharkethic: I think I'm continuing to hold onto the belief that there's some hidden gameplay elements related to the story that I have to decipher through collecting all of the elements of a particular storyline. So, recently, when I was in Bellevue I was obsessed with collecting all of the Beacon story elements, and that suggested to me that there was some sort of vault that contained a special item. I don't know if that's true, but the fact that it *could* be true was what kept me going. I agree that, at times, the game can play like a really pretty screensaver though. Remember, auto-run is Num Lock ;-)

I can tell you what it is if you want...

Yeah, Jones getting injured suuuuucks. Hope your weekend is still cool dude. Make sure to get over to Insert Coins!

Maybe someone's already said this, but who the fuck cares about del Toro? Whether or not a movie he's involved in is good is a crap shoot. Pan's Labyrinth? Great. Orphanage? Kinda shit. Hellboy? OK. Mama? Pretty garbage. Don't be Afraid of the Dark?!?!? It's not like the guy *can't* make a good film, he clearly has the chops, but he's often involved in pretty lacklustre affairs. And, honestly, video games are just a completely different medium.

And let's not forget that people have kind of stopped giving a shit about Silent Hill. Shattered Memories was a legitimately great game, and it sold less than half a million copies (and only broke even because of the PS2 port), on a system, the Wii, that had a *huge* install base. Given that, what's the market these days for a great Silent Hill game?

Accidentally paused on this sick shot of Jeff during the Sony Destiny segment:

I think that's kinda how I felt during most of the press conference. I don't know how you can do those pressers better, but this shit suuuuuucks to listen to (despite me being interested in the games).

Nice, well, I won't post any story spoilers, because that's a large part of the game, and also because it's not exactly what I'm interested in discussing.

My thoughts are that the survival mechanics are kind of weak, and might be superfluous. I haven't found an area where I've become injured or sick (except when I fell through the world, haha), or lacked food so much that I couldn't survive. I just feel as though all of that could've been better implemented. I *do* like the sleeping mechanic, because it gives the game a lot more structure and pace than, say, Elder Scrolls, where I'm just constantly sprinting around the world fighting millions of vampires.

The map system is OK, but I think that Miasmata did it a lot better.

While I'm enjoying the game, my biggest complaint is that, for a game that's heavy on narrative, none of the mechanics are implemented in a way that make any sense. Why am I dropped into a forest with no knowledge about survival? Why do I not have any gear? Why is there random gear just placed throughout the world? Wouldn't it have made more sense if I had a guide and brought tools with me? The Forest does the survival guide well (at least in one respect), because there are, for example, berries that can be toxic. So, it's not as if the guide is giving you all the answers.

Anyway, I think the narrative is cool and the world looks beautiful. I've been running around for hours, haha, but I guess I just want more survival or less.