silent hill: homecoming
News
Silent Hill: Homecoming Not Coming Home To Japan
2:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Konami’s Silent Hill Homecoming will not be released in Japan. On the title’s official home page, the Japanese company has announced that the domestic release of the game has been suspended. More »
No Gameplay Cuts to Silent Hill: Homecoming in Australia
10:12AM David Wildgoose | We’ve finally got our hands on some details around the revised – and unbanned – Australian version of Silent Hill: Homecoming. According to distributor Atari, the edits Konami made to the game only affect camera angles used in the cut-scenes and not the gameplay or the storyline.
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News
Frankenreview: Silent Hill: Homecoming
5:00AM Mike Fahey | Fans of the horror video game genre are very, very protective of their Silent Hill franchise, paying deadly close attention that each successive game is not only a high quality affair, but also stays true to the established canon of the series. It’s no wonder, then that fans were taken aback when it was revealed here at Kotaku that the fifth game in the series would be developed here in the states by developer Double Helix, rather than traditional developer Team Silent. Did handing off the beloved franchise to an all-new, Western team create a darker, nastier Silent Hill, or did it simply result in darker, nastier game critics? More »
Silent Hill: Homecoming Review: Hello, Zombie Nurse
6:00AM Michael McWhertor | The sixth installment of Konami’s venerable psychological horror franchise Silent Hill breaks ground on current generation consoles, now in the hands of a new developer, Double Helix Games, formerly known as The Collective. The titular homecoming is that of white bread war vet Alex Shepherd, who has returned to the town of Shepherd’s Glen, exactly one lake over from the perennially cursed town of Silent Hill, only to find his younger brother Joshua and his father missing. While on the hunt for his baby brother and an explanation for the decimation of his hometown, Shepherd encounters all manner of hell-spawn and cultist conspirator, dispatching them with steel pipe like a true American hero. With a new developer at the helm and new, more powerful consoles to showcase the world(s) of Silent Hill, does Silent Hill: Homecoming bring the series into the next generation? Or is just pure hell? More »
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
5:40AM Michael McWhertor | Out of obligation (and a dash of personal interest in the series still intact) I’ll be playing through the rest of Silent Hill: Homecoming this weekend. The game ships to North America on Tuesday, meaning a review is in order. It’s going to mean a bit of backtracking, unfortunately. Perhaps re-tracking, as I’ll have to revert to an older save to get the job done. More about that on Tuesday. Otherwise, I might tinker around with Doom III — never did get around to playing it — and punishing myself with some Wario Land: Shake It! challenge missions. Add prepping for a Tokyo vacation and TGS coverage and you got yourself a weekend? How’s about you? More »
News
Silent Hill Homecoming Refused Classification In…
1:40PM Luke Plunkett | …Australia or Germany? Go on, guess! OK, well done, the correct answer is indeed Australia. Still hamstrung by the South Australian state Attorney-General’s refusal to amend the country’s classification laws (currently games don’t have the R18+ rating movies do, and all six state AGs need to agree to change the law), Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the latest high-profile game to be refused classification in Australia, a move that practically bans the game from these antipodean shores. Those that have already played the game will suspect the decision was due to quality control concerns, but in reality it’ll have been down the game’s gore. Or, sorry, “gore”. No Homecoming [Screen Play] More »
UPDATE: Silent Hill: Homecoming Refused Classification
11:39AM Seamus Byrne | Word has hit the street that Silent Hill: Homecoming, due for release across major platforms in November, has been given the RC treatment by the Classication Board. That’s four this year, with one saved from the chop by judicious edits by Bethesda. We were unable to reach Atari for comment at this time.
If there’s ever a genre that speaks to a need for an R18+ rating, it’s horror. Clearly not for kids, dealing with mature themes, and scary as hell. And that’s why it’s called horror. Hope everyone has been sharpening their pencils to write eloquent letters discussing the merits of expanded ratings. We might still be awaiting the terms of public comment for the promised consultation on game ratings, but that’s a good excuse to start now and carefully polish a well reasoned contribution by the time they open the mailbox.
Silent Hill: Homecoming [Classification Board] (Thanks Matthew for the heads up)
UPDATE: According to Games On Net, the Classification Board report points to cumulative effect of “highly impactful” violence as the reason it cannot be classified MA15+. There’s some freaky stuff with drills and graphic kills mentioned. Doesn’t sound like the kind of content easily tweaked for re-submission. More » 
Silent Hill: Homecoming: Skinned Bodies Ahoy!
7:00AM Kotaku US Edition | I spent a little bit of time with Silent Hill: Homecoming on the 360 yesterday at Konami’s NYC event. I’ve been kind of lukewarm on the series since The Room, so my expectations weren’t extremely high going in. I must say, however, Silent Hill might be coming back on the upswing after this. The series has always looked great, and Homecoming certainly does as well, but the vastly improved combat mechanics will make this iteration stand out from the rest and, hopefully, capture a bigger audience. More »
