Silent Hill 5 baby

Well what I like in an old war veteran character is the large possibilities they can bring for his background story. War is a nightmare, there are lots of traumatic experiences and psychological trauma. His history could have brought lots of great ideas in plot development. And Silent Hill can be a reflection of a person\'s past experience (ie: James\' or Alessa\'s).

What just occurred to me though about this character\'s change in looks and find interesting is that he could be the same young model. No change in age. But the distress from the Silent Hill twisted world may change his look. His hair may become gray because of the terror surrounding his environment. This can happen for real. Humans age faster and their hair may grow gray in a matter of seconds if they experience extremely stressful situations suddenly.

[Paul2]

like a George H.W. Bush\'s wife if I recalled whose hair got white after one of her babies died from leukemia.

I didnt know that

Silent Hill 1 was a father figure.

Silent Hill 2 was a male tragic figure

Silent Hill 3 was a female bystander figure

Silent Hill 4 was an isolated no-one figure

In Silent Hill 5 I d love to see an old war veteran.

I think you\'re failing to see the \'bigger picture\'  of the potential the viewpoint from a \'young\' Alex would\'ve had.

It\'s not about \'strong soldier / weak soldier\'. SH storylines, like MGS, reflect upon and comment to society and SH is that viewport through which we see all the bad things in society in skewed metaphores.

Young Alex viewpoint & storyline is potentially a criticism
towards US policy to send their young boys to war, from Vietnam to current conflicts ; and what it all does to those \'young guys\' .

That is EXACTLY the reason I don\'t want to see a 42 year old frail Alex. That would have been appropiate for a WW2 veteran telling war stories to his (grand) children.

Besides.. what have we got in the land of \'mature oriented gaming\' ? Old Snake in MGS4. Veteran Sam Fisher in SC Conviction, and let\'s not forget the aging of Max Payne in the sequel.

As Clips hints at : what threat is a Silent Hill world where weak frail characters beat the shit out of monsters ?

Young Alex is competent, but no Solid Snake and without truckload of weapons, let alone sufficient ammo.

The potential i see lost, is a 22 y o who got traumatised and mentally/pshycologically old in no time.

Besides.... in context of 3D character modeling, the new model looks like 3 steps backward in both style & quality.
Polygon count on the head looks like 3rd of the original Alex head.

This is just crap.

I think you\'re failing to see the \'bigger picture\'  of the potential the viewpoint from a \'young\' Alex would\'ve had.

It\'s not about \'strong soldier / weak soldier\'. SH storylines, like MGS, reflect upon and comment to society and SH is that viewport through which we see all the bad things in society in skewed metaphores.

Young Alex viewpoint & storyline is potentially a criticism
towards US policy to send their young boys to war, from Vietnam to current conflicts ; and what it all does to those \'young guys\' .

That is EXACTLY the reason I don\'t want to see a 42 year old frail Alex. That would have been appropiate for a WW2 veteran telling war stories to his (grand) children.

Besides.. what have we got in the land of \'mature oriented gaming\' ? Old Snake in MGS4. Veteran Sam Fisher in SC Conviction, and let\'s not forget the aging of Max Payne in the sequel.

As Clips hints at : what threat is a Silent Hill world where weak frail characters beat the shit out of monsters ?

Young Alex is competent, but no Solid Snake and without truckload of weapons, let alone sufficient ammo.

The potential i see lost, is a 22 y o who got traumatised and mentally/pshycologically old in no time.

Besides.... in context of 3D character modeling, the new model looks like 3 steps backward in both style & quality.
Polygon count on the head looks like 3rd of the original Alex head.

This is just crap.

I feel that you are confusing Silent Hill with other games that are aiming to be something else.

First of all I would never compare it with characters found in either Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid. These games are depicting military experience with MGS trying to show the ugliness of imperialism, politics and society in broad way as well.

Also politics and nations have nothing to do with Silent Hill. Thats a job for other games.

Silent Hill is a trip to the dark parts of the character\'s subconscious or history and the few people surrounding his personal life. It is a more "centralized" plot than MGS\'s or Splinter Cell\'s.

And lets not forget when the Vietnam war ended. This old character could have well been a Vietnam war soldier and it doesnt necessarily have to take place in 2008. You can see a similar point of view as yours in my last post regarding the plot potential. The young version looks like he is around his 20-30\'s. And now with wars in the middle east and such, and countless of games using that setting it has already become a cliche\'. And personally I believe that Vietnam was a more traumatic experience.

Lastly about the "weak frail characters beating the shit out of monsters", none of the characters in the old Silent Hill games gave the impression that they were unstoppable or strong characters when they killed monsters. Add a strong character that beats the shit out of predatory monsters and things will be much worse. And thats where 5 tends to go.
The reason why Silent Hill\'s (especially 1 and 2) managed to pass to the player that they were helpless and weak despite killing monsters was thanks to the fact that they did not boast any special moves. only some extremely basic moves, and fought enemies that did not give the impression that they were powerful. They intentionally looked pathetic and tormented. Even the huge ones. It wasnt the monsters themselves that made Silent Hill look like a thread. Thats why monsters were few and rarely seen but still the game managed to pass the sense of fear or annoyance. It was the whole world, the dark side of the mind, an unknown presence that turned the upside down to what the protagonist viewed as normal. It was a "nightmare" world itself that the character wanted to get out. The monsters were the details to color the Silent Hill world further.

[clips]

Hmmm...good points by both you and knotter,...just one other point...i did hear that the character will sport finishing moves now....from what i hear, it won\'t be the same ol\' stomping then to death animation,...i\'ve heard that the character will be able to pull back the monsters neck and violently slash it...resulting in blood being splattered on the screen....


I\'m not really sure what to think of that,..i guess it would make sense,...cause afterall this guy IS in the military,..and to be honest, they really did need to do something about that stomping finishing move.... it started to look kinda cheesey in prt 3 & 4 when you would stomp on monters twice your size...i guess i just don\'t think i like the blood splattering on the screen part,...that makes it kind of cheesey,.....again i think this is something i would have to actually see to make a judgement on it.

I feel that you are confusing Silent Hill with other games that are aiming to be something else.

First of all I would never compare it with characters found in either Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid. These games are depicting military experience with MGS trying to show the ugliness of imperialism, politics and society in broad way as well.

Solid Snake, Sam Fisher, i just brought those as examples of the saturated trend to feature older experienced veteran characters. SH 5 would do good to break from that trend.

Also politics and nations have nothing to do with Silent Hill. Thats a job for other games.

Then you clearly missed the broader message in the previous SH\'s. SH is NEVER ever solely about the mental depths of the individual protagonist.
Let\'s take SH2 for example. James is NOT the core of the story. If you have the limited edition of the game(the making of SH2 DVD), Team Silent even go so far to explain why the threesome relationship between James - Mary & Maria is the core (and of course, how people deal with death & disease of loved ones). All character\'s, especially Eddy reflect upon society (how people teased him for his fatness and the unique way each teaser had to put Eddy down)  to show how and what kind of monster he has become & also the incest committed by Angela\'s father ; domestic violence. ; and these characters were in no way directly related or dear to James nor vice versa.

How can you miss those society critic story messages !!!??? That\'s reflecting/commenting on a bigger scale. Silent Hill represents the decay of the world.

... SH3 is a great example of the thin layer of flashy modern society which we call the civilized world ; the shopping mall in decay IS in that part of the game, the main character, not Heather. And like the SH movie explored into, SH\'s is very much tied to the broader scope of religion in society and how people have themselves jump through hoops until they go mental to not \'sin\'. To say SH is centralized is imo looking at it with waaay to narrow view.

It was a "nightmare" world itself that the character wanted to get out. The monsters were the details to color the Silent Hill world further.

True, but for a change, the monster should indeed way more dangerous and effective in SH5 than in previous ones. Having a real threat layer on top of the pshycological threat of the SH world... that will bring the complete immersion, no more "they look scary but they won\'t have chance of killing me anyway" SH5\'s threat would be optimal when even a healthy young soldier will have trouble surviving it ; it\'s not about how tough a grunt Alex can be ingame.

Solid Snake, Sam Fisher, i just brought those as examples of the saturated trend to feature older experienced veteran characters. SH 5 would do good to break from that trend.

Well the same can be said about young military types

Then you clearly missed the broader message in the previous SH\'s. SH is NEVER ever solely about the mental depths of the individual protagonist.
Let\'s take SH2 for example. James is NOT the core of the story. If you have the limited edition of the game(the making of SH2 DVD), Team Silent even go so far to explain why the threesome relationship between James - Mary & Maria is the core (and of course, how people deal with death & disease of loved ones). All character\'s, especially Eddy reflect upon society (how people teased him for his fatness and the unique way each teaser had to put Eddy down)  to show how and what kind of monster he has become & also the incest committed by Angela\'s father ; domestic violence. ; and these characters were in no way directly related or dear to James nor vice versa.

How can you miss those society critic story messages !!!??? That\'s reflecting/commenting on a bigger scale. Silent Hill represents the decay of the world.

... SH3 is a great example of the thin layer of flashy modern society which we call the civilized world ; the shopping mall in decay IS in that part of the game, the main character, not Heather. And like the SH movie explored into, SH\'s is very much tied to the broader scope of religion in society and how people have themselves jump through hoops until they go mental to not \'sin\'. To say SH is centralized is imo looking at it with waaay to narrow view.

You are right, but that doesnt necessarily mean that it is not directed to us at a personal level. How does "society" affect you and how do you react to it. It is a critic mostly to your personal weaknesses, fears, experience and such. Thats why it encompasses society and the external factors because your personality depends on these external factor. For that reason it is centralized on the character and the characters related to that specific character. It is trying to put you in his place and sometimes force you to take actions you wouldnt do under normal conditions. It is still isolated in the mind of the character and makes you identify with him and his environment. It is a microcosm of society that is reflected in your mind and personality. It is a critic of us in our environment. The examples you brought are very very specific. In the example of James, it puts you in Jame\'s and Maria\'s shoes, in their own relationship and at the same time it is directed to our relationships at a personal level. Eddy can be viewed from a third person perspective (how you as James viewed him and your hypocrisy) or from a first person view (are you who get mocked up by others because of your weakness end up any different than them? Eddy was killing people that did nothing to him, and a helpless dog becoming even worse than those that hurt him as a reaction). Then there is that girl who was being raped in SH2 (I forgot her name) by her father. There are too many "personalized" themes in Silent Hill games that at the end shows that everyone is guilty and a victim. SH is like completing a personal survey about how you deal with society vs writing an essay about society in general (other games). SH is a critic of our micrososciety and not of the macrosocciety.

If Silent Hill 5 tries to use the traumatic experience of war it wont care about who has sent the character to war or what political interests/reasons has sent him to war or at what age. It will dive into the traumatic experience of war in general and put you in his place. It wont matter if imperialism, political interests etc sent him to fight. Sometimes you end up in war without being sent only because someone attacked you in your country. It happened here in my country 34 years ago. It will matter how the war has affected him and can affect anyone else. It will bring the thoughts, traumatic experience and fears of the character and put you in his place. Hell it may even criticize the character himself for things he has done to others in war instead of criticizing his country for sending him. It could be an old war veteran who fought in a war at a younger age who despite his heroic actions that put his life in risk and his extremely traumatic experience, he was left isolated, without recognition, without anyone to care for him. Not even his country. It is a thought that tortures these people. For real. Some of them cant sleep at nights. They have nightmares. And as they grow old the fear of death and loneliness becomes greater. They feel that their efforts were in vain. SH deals with emotion

Well the same can be said about young military types

such as ?

 SH is a critic of our micrososciety and not of the macrosocciety.

If Silent Hill 5 tries to use the traumatic experience of war it wont care about who has sent the character to war or what political interests/reasons has sent him to war or at what age.

Good point. Touche.

Still, you gotta admit \'Vietnam war veteran\' = cheesy cliche by now...

[clips]

New gameplay...


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34050.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34077.html


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34057.html



Damn..the nurses got booty on them...:fro:....i\'d throw a bag on her face like how the wayan brother did to that possesed chick in scary movie two!!.....seriously tho...the gameplay is looking good...

He looks young in the new videos which makes me to believe that the old looking model is either because Silent Hill is screwing with his mind by making him look older or his hair went gray because of the stress.

[clips]

He looks young in the new videos which makes me to believe that the old looking model is either because Silent Hill is screwing with his mind by making him look older or his hair went gray because of the stress.

I think that they just scrapped that older looking model,....which is good because it just didn\'t fit with him searching for his brother,....it just didn\'t seem right with him lookin\' that old...it made more sense for him to look a bit younger for him to be searching for his brother....the older alex looks like he could\'ve been his older uncle instead of his older brother....i think it was a good move by the developer to go back to the younger looking alex...

... is either because Silent Hill is screwing with his mind by making him look older or his hair went gray because of the stress.

The developers were stressed and our "bring Alex version 1 back" petition made them change their minds :thumb:

Anyway, the Konami gamers day footage + screenshots have really impressed me ; i really sense the SH feeling back and imo it looks better in motion than
Siren. Alone in the Dark looks great at some points, but tacky in many other points too. Besides, it\'s based in New York. I get tired of NY in both games & movies as main setting.
The little Silent Hill town however, doesn\'t seem to tire me at all. lol

[clips]

New pics...a bit of a spoiler since i think these are bosses,..but the game is lookin\' good...:fro:...i\'ve been waitin\' for a good survival horror game to drop...and i\'ll definitely be getting this...

i\'ve been waitin\' for a good survival horror game to drop.

As have I...


Left 4 Dead looks promising. And I\'m a sucker for anything zombie related.