Silent Hill HD Collection Miffs Series Art Director

[Marshall Honorof]

Silent Hill HD Collection Miffs Series Art Director

The textures in the Silent Hill HD Collection aren't quite scary enough for the original games' art director.

Between passively evil small towns, Euclidean lunatics with gigantic swords, and tragic backstories coming back to haunt protagonists, there are some pretty scary things in the Silent Hill series. For Masahiro Ito, the art director of the first three Silent Hill games, the scariest thing about the recently released Silent Hill HD Collection on PS3 is a screenshot. When a fan on Twitter showed him a side-by-side comparison of the HD Collection games compared to their PS2 counterparts, the art director was not amused. According to Ito, the PS3 itself deserves some of the blame for its texture processing, but he remains incredulous that Konami would re-release an eleven-year-old game in such a condition.

The fan in question sent Ito a side-by-side screenshot comparison of two characters standing by a waterfront with fog obscuring the background. While in the original PS2 version, the fog rests atop the water and creates an eerie atmosphere, the HD Collection port presents a relatively clear view of the environment, only fading into the mist as the water meets the horizon. "I guess that it was a problem of PS3. PS3 has a weak point for using 'translucent texture,'" tweets Ito, where "translucent textures" refer to features like fog and mist. Aside from his analytical comments, Ito also tweeted his displeasure with the screenshots' quality: "It's poor ... It's really a released version? Really?"

While Ito has suggested a patch for the graphical issues, the PS3 does not process textures the same way that the PS2 does. In practice, this means that a patch would likely require more time and resources than Konami is willing to put in, as it would require a graphical overhaul. Based on the screenshots, the Silent Hill 2 portion of the HD Collection definitely has some visual issues, but do these take away from the game as a whole? If nothing else, it's probably much harder to be scared by the sights and sounds of Silent Hill when there's no dense layer of fog to hide them.

Source: Destructoid [https://twitter.com/#!/adsk4]

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[RaikuFA]

They also cut the Pyramid head scene down, turns out it was a bug though.

Eh, don't care, my copys gone and my ps2 is in a box. Better to just play this. As long as they don't replace the guns with walkie talkies.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I heard they changed voice actors in silent hill 3? What about silent hill 2? I've never played any silent hill expect for Homecoming(which I thought was pretty good)

They changed SH2 also, but with that game you can change it to the original ones if you want, but not for SH3.

OT: Not really surprising since I heard that the fog was heavily used to cover the graphical limitations of the PS2, but it made the games really scary.

I have the originals still and my PS2 so I still don't have a reason to buy the collection.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I have the originals still and my PS2 so I still don't have a reason to buy the collection.

Same.

I knew I was right not to bother buying this so-called "collection." 2 games out of a possible 7 in the franchise does not a collection make. Now that I have heard this news, not to mention the fact that the original voice actors were (mostly) replaced I think I'll definately stick with my original, functional and downright terrifying copies.

I heard they changed voice actors in silent hill 3? What about silent hill 2? I've never played any silent hill expect for Homecoming(which I thought was pretty good)

Goodness me... if you thought Homecoming was actually good, you'll be blown away by the original 3 games. Homecoming may have a higher texture resolution but the art direction is lacking. It may play slightly better in the combat department but it's still pretty dire, especially the dodge mechanic. It's certainly not as scary and the story isn't up to much either. Homecoming wasn't terrible in the strictest sense... but let's just say there are better Silent Hill games.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I have the originals still and my PS2 so I still don't have a reason to buy the collection.

Same.

I knew I was right not to bother buying this so-called "collection." 2 games out of a possible 7 in the franchise does not a collection make. Now that I have heard this news, not to mention the fact that the original voice actors were (mostly) replaced I think I'll definately stick with my original, functional and downright terrifying copies.

"Collection" bothers me with this whole thing since it's not a collection, but a selection of the good ones. I really want to know why the original Silent Hill isn't in there since in SH3 there are heavy references to it, so that's also puzzling to me. Also, no offense to Mary Elizabeth McGlynn because I love her, but I don't like the choice of her voicing Maria because to me her voice just doesn't fit the character.

This whole thing just makes me very sad.

 

[Rad Party God]

Ouch... if those screenshots are of the actual finished title, then I'm dissapointed by the new HD collection. Admittedly, those screens were of the PS3 version, we've yet to see how the 360 fares on the proper renderization of Silent Hill. And by proper I mean "It doesn't look like shit".

If I was one of the original art direction guys like Mr. Ito, I'd certainly be rightfully pissed too.

As far as I know, the PC port didn't have any of these issues.

 

[Talvrae]

What about the 360 version?

 

[DirgeNovak]

He's right to be miffed. Look at this shit:

Spoiler: Seriously, look at it!

I would like to thank Konami for giving me a reason to plug my PS2 back in. I'm definitely not buying this until those graphic and sound issues are fixed. And if Masahiro Ito is to be believed (and I think he is), they never will be.

 

[weirdee]

oh wow

how did they mess up the water textures that bad

it's like we went back in time

 

[XSTALKERX]

He's right to be miffed. Look at this shit:

Spoiler: Seriously, look at it!

I would like to thank Konami for giving me a reason to plug my PS2 back in. I'm definitely not buying this until those graphic and sound issues are fixed. And if Masahiro Ito is to be believed (and I think he is), they never will be.

LOL you cannot be serious, is that actually how the PS3 version looks over the PS2 version? Aren't a series that supposed be re-released in HD, oh I don't know supposed TO BE IN HD. nevertheless I will be buying it because I never got around to playing it when I still had my PS2.

 

[tippy2k2]

He's right to be miffed. Look at this shit:

Spoiler: Seriously, look at it!

I would like to thank Konami for giving me a reason to plug my PS2 back in. I'm definitely not buying this until those graphic and sound issues are fixed. And if Masahiro Ito is to be believed (and I think he is), they never will be.

No way...I refuse to think this is the case. How could it POSSIBLY look that bad

*Google for a few seconds...

My God...I...how.....what? Seriously Konami? This looks like someone painted a background on like those old PS1 games.

 

[DirgeNovak]

I think the worst part is that Jim Sterling is the only "official" critic who made these problems public. Gamespot's review barely mentions "performance dips" in SH3 only, IGN gave it 10/10 for presentation, etc. Only Jim had the professional decency to denounce this travesty.

we've yet to see how the 360 fares on the proper renderization of Silent Hill. And by proper I mean "It doesn't look like shit".

What about the 360 version?

Actually Jim reviewed it on a 360 and reports the same shit.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-silent-hill-hd-collection-224478.phtml

 

[Mike Richards]

I really want to know why the original Silent Hill isn't in there since in SH3 there are heavy references to it, so that's also puzzling to me.

Probably because they would have to more or less rebuild it from scratch to make it look good. The graphical gap between 1 and 2 is probably the largest in the series and it would take way more work then they had to put into the rest of the package to be successful. Besides, its already on the PS3 store and six bucks really isn't that bad.

The water thing certainly looks like a problem, I haven't gotten that far yet but I have noticed the transition to the fog is much sharper and not quite as good looking. That being said the rest of the production is excellent, with the only particular problem being some very slight framerate drag. I actually think the new voices are pretty good, though chances are I'll end up playing with the originals more often in the future.

I'm just glad its actually stable. My original copy I found a year or two back is for the Xbox and playing it on a 360 can lead to some annoying issues. Plus this will make it easier for people to play for the first time, hiccups and all its certainly worth that. Whenever the re-release/remake discussion comes up a lot of people seem to forget that not everyone had the chance to play these things when they were new (myself included).

 

[Talvrae]

we've yet to see how the 360 fares on the proper renderization of Silent Hill. And by proper I mean "It doesn't look like shit".

What about the 360 version?

Actually Jim reviewed it on a 360 and reports the same shit.
http://www.destructoid.com/review-silent-hill-hd-collection-224478.phtml

good to know

 

[Casual Shinji]

He's right to be miffed. Look at this shit:

Spoiler: Seriously, look at it!

I would like to thank Konami for giving me a reason to plug my PS2 back in. I'm definitely not buying this until those graphic and sound issues are fixed. And if Masahiro Ito is to be believed (and I think he is), they never will be.

They should've gotten Bluepoint to work on the HD collection, because this is fucking sad.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Accusation

Confirmation

Ohhh THANK YOU!!!! I almost bought it... almost. I was already a bit too upset it didn't have the original game, which is my favorite, and that was enough to already make me re-think this.

As much as I like psychological horrors, tangible horrors are more impressive to me. I liked the 'End of the world apocalypse' theme the first game had verses the salvation theme of the second game. The monsters in the first game where better to because they could just make any monstrosities they wanted, while they limited themselves in the second to special things relating to the main character. While that isn't too bad, as a huge fan of monster design that was very boring to me in comparison to what the first game offered.. ESPECIALLY with the final boss. I just laughed at the end of Silent Hill 2, and I know I shouldn't have. Silent hill 2 was still a spectacular game, I just think everything was better in the first (graphics excluded).

 

[Screamarie]

This makes me wonder if the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD collection is the same. I've wanted to buy it since it came out, just haven't had the money, but if the transfer to PS3 fucked the graphics, I might as well just try to find a old PS2 version. Anybody got the Ico/Shadow of the Collossus HD?