At long last, the Downpour Review is finally finished! You waited, you hoped, you dreamed… But wasn’t it worth it? Well, you may not know it now, but after you sit through this, the longest single section of The Real Silent Hill Experience to date, you will know. We not only shed light on some more confusing aspects of Downpour, we saturate it in blinding floodlights… of knowledge. That’s something not easily done, as you TwiNebulans may surmise.
Tomm Hulett may be gone from Konami now, but he isn’t getting out of this one so easy…
Rosseter here! Today marks the 1st birthday of Silent Hill: Downpour! So, where’s the review?
One year ago, a special few of you donated enough money for not only two copies of Downpour, but a copy of the Silent Hill: HD Collection as well! Playing both, we saw an urgent need to start with the HDC, as that was the one we helped the original voice-actors with and the one that needed the greatest attention (being the most broken mess of a port ever). Six months later, a two-hour review was released. Given that the original run of TRSHE took three years to complete, I’d say that was a job well and quickly done.
It’s been a year since Downpour’s release, but it’s only been six months since the release of the HDC review. That means it’s about time for another two hours of TRSHE magnificence, Downpour style! I know that isn’t fast enough for SOME OF YOU PEOPLE… (Sheesh)… Well, I’ve been working my hardest to get this goldang thing done and released today, but Dark Forces were plotting against me. Everything that could have delayed it did delay it, and I’ve still got a little bit of work ahead of me. So, not to let the moment go unmarked, I’ve prepared a small preview of our opening scene for you all to enjoy while you wait for this last, short stretch.
Since production on the Downpour review is crawling/stopped/crawling, Rosseter and Fuzh decided to sate your Silent Hill hunger with a podcast about the new movie, Restoration 3D.
Special guest Sheabert joins the two as they have a feature-length discussion that’s as long as the movie and 10 times as entertaining. Spoilers abound as they recap the film in its entirety.
Pretty much what we’re trying to say is if you have a choice between the movie and this, watch this.
DerFuzhwar just came back from a trip to California, where he had the chance to sneak his camera(phone) into the Silent Hill-themed haunted house attraction at Universal Studios. While the footage may be mostly black, the few glimpses you’ll see are worth sitting through the discussion perpetrated(?) by our brave heroes, Rosseter and Fuzh.
This is our first experiment with podcasting. Call it Twin Perfect Podcast 0.2.0.9. We call it a success.
Being sound guys here at Twin Perfect, we have no problem noticing bad/poorly mixed/peaking audio. This HD Collection is a train wreck on our ears. You guys got a taste of what it was like, but we left out a few things or didn’t dwell too long on others in our review. I would like to take a moment to show you some other sound mistakes in the Silent Hill HD Collection. This is a MUST listen. Check it all out after the break.
Now that we know just how awful the games are visually, aurally, and functionally, we can move on to the BRAND NEW AND IMPROVED VOICEOVERACTING! It’s funny that that was the biggest concern before the game’s release and now it’s secondary to the complete disaster that is Everything Else. Little did we know before writing the review that our biggest concern would not be either of those things.
A few of you may remember the Silent Hill HD Collection voice acting rerecording fiasco last year and the videos that followed. After fighting so hard spreading the word about Konami’s mistreatment of SH’s voice actors, the issue was resolved for Silent Hill 2 and (maybe) Silent Hill 3 (?) (possibly?) (nobody knew anything at the time…). We were happy knowing that even though we were happy with our PC versions, new fans could be brought to weep at the feet of these masterpieces.
After the months of terrible screenshots and crazy video-demo glitches and problems Konami was throwing out, the games were released. Now we are filled with the deepest regret that Silent Hill 2′s amazing actors are associated with what can be called the worst port in history.
Thankfully, Silent Hill 3′s actors did not suffer this fate, but the damage is done elsewhere…
Guy Cihi, we are so sorry this happened…
Thanks to all our fans who donated! This would never have happened without you. We hope the 2 hours and 10 minutes that follow are worth your money (HINT: They are). Part 2 hits tomorrow! Downpour review coming soon…
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Twilight Nebula Citizen and Friend (Bestest) Taylor the Impaler was up to his trix again, plumbing the depths of Masahiro Ito’s knowledge. For those who don’t know who this amazing man is, Masahiro Ito was the Silent Hill series lead art director up to and including Silent Hill 3.
In our supplementary video to The Real Silent Hill Experience we made the argument that everything in Silent Hill and all it’s goin’ ons is happening in the REAL world, not some craziness spanning forty dimensions of time and space.
This received a lot of confusing backlash despite its sound logic. Jeremy Blaustein, localization and acting director for Silent Hill 2-4, was asked for his take on the feelings of the original team.
Blaustein: …the SH team stated all the time that there was a real world and the otherworld. So I have to say that … there is the REAL WORLD and then there is the changed world as it gets infected or influenced by the dark forces. So my answer … is that there are 2 worlds in SH…
It is clear that J Blau is describing what we had previously described as an easy way to refer to the nightmare-changed real world. They are merely the same real world in two different states. Yet, his words were not as clear as all that for some people. Arguments still originated from the Making Of Silent Hill 3 featurette, where Masahiro Ito is apparently “quoted” saying that players move back and forth between one world and a “parallel” world (despite the word “parallel” not being spoken by Ito himself. We regard this as a translation error).
Taylor the Impaler to the rescue! Taylor decided it was time to stop mincing words and get a straight answer from an actual member of the original team! Below is Taylor’s full conversation with Masahiro ito via Twitter:
Taylor the Impaler: I’m not sure if someone has asked you about this before, and if they have, I apologize for bringing this up again.
But In the ‘Making Of’ video for SH3, when you explain the meaning behind Valtiel… the subtitles say ‘In Silent Hill 3, you go back and fourth between the real world and a parallel world. Valves that the monster opens and closes represents the passage of these two worlds.’
This a little unclear for most people, are you actually saying “parallel world” in Japanese? Did you mean ‘Otherworld?’ Can you please explain in better detail behind these words? Thank you.
Taylor the Impaler: So you meant it more like the real world changing and twisting into another world, rather than going to a separate ‘parallel world’?
It’s the word “world” that’s the cause of all this confusion. While characters in Silent hill may see two perceived worlds, this does not necessarily mean they are two parallel, physical worlds on two planes of existence. Because guess what? Two planes of existence = two “dimensions”. And now we know for sure it ain’t that.
