Silent Hill 3

[Concept]

Use the handgun to bring the demon's head down. Shoot twice. Now change to the mace or katana. Hopefully, you should be able to get two hits in with a melee weapon before the thing reacts. After this quickly turn around and run away to the centre of the back of the room. When the creature starts spraying fire along the floor, run towards it in a half circle and around back to the end of the room again.

Shoot twice again with the handgun. And keep repeating. If you run out of bullets just wait a while and avoid a couple of fire lines instead. Eventually the head will come down for hitting, anyhow.

You've just got to learn the pattern. Unfortunately, without much ammo, it'll probably take you about ten minutes or so.

When I first faced this boss, I had 25 shotgun rounds and 100 handgun bullets. Even then, all my ammo got used up and I had to resort to using melee weapons.

[Bleeders]

Cheers Concept!

Edit:...Just done it! ^___^

[marcus]

Finished this last night and am quite impressed. For me the strongest point in the game was also the most empty. I loved the step back into the normal mall after it being like hell. Long silent corridors, normal looking shopfronts contrasting what had been seen before, I found wandering the deserted mall at night to be a strangely eeire experience. The last section was also quite good, and suitably horrific. I think the series is in need of a new injection of life though, which I hope SH4 will bring. The religious overtones I found to be a little dull, and I never really got into the story as much as i did in the second game, which I consider to be the best in the series so far. I beat the boss very easily after working out its pattern, and look forward to playing through the game again. I have a strange feeling I will enjoy it more the second time round. I guess my anticipation was so astronomical that it would never totally satisfy me, but it did a very respectable job nonetheless.

[Squirtle]

So, finished this last night.

It is good, but so damn annoying in places. For a start there are far too many instant death moments. The red light that chases you down a corridor, the beast in the water, the bit right near the end after claudia eats the fetus... Too many. I also thought the boss encounters were quite poor as well. The initial worm was just way too easy, and the rest were more annoying than anything.

However, graphically it is really remarkable. Beautiful character models. Superb background art. Just look at the background behind Heather as she stands up to finally confront God at the end. Outstanding.

But the game... It was basically Silent Hill, only slightly more so. Not sure what ending i got, the one where Heather jokingly threatens Donald in the park before wandering off.

Scare wise... Hmmm. It was just too similar to the first two games, games which i have played through more than once. There wasn;t one moment in it that was as movingly terrifying as the bit where Lisa dies in the first game, nor as movingly sad as when Angela walks away from James up the burning stairs in the 2nd game.

I'm not sure i like the way the plot tried to explain the first game as well. I kinda liked the idea that what had happened in the first game was causing the town to be some kind of lightning rod for ****ed up people, drawing them there to relive whatever torments they had gone through in life in some metaphorical, but ultimately evil, way. With this game and the first one, the 2nd one now seems out of place.

So overall, it was kinda exactly what i was expecting. Good, but not great and certainly not as scary as Project Zero.

[Papercut]

Wise fwom your gwave...

Anyone know if there are any differences between the different versions of Silent Hill 3 (apart from the soundtrack CD and Japanese language).

cheers

[Concept]

Hmm. Well, I think the US might have a few further secret costumes/t-shirts to unlock (based on American videogame websites), but apart from that there isn't much I believe that's different between each version.

(Where's Che or Jet when you need them?)

The PAL version struggled to stream now and again during some small moments walking around Silent Hill, so those sections may have been optimised for the NTSC releases. Yet I am speculating with regards to that. And of course, you know about the soundtrack the US version got bundled with...

So for the game's content, and the majority of secrets, as far as I am aware nothing was substantially changed after the European release.

[Papercut]

ah cool, thanks for the info.

sounds like I did the right thing getting the US version then

[Adam Stone]

Sorry to resurrect this thread (which i may add is pretty fantastic to read) Im extremely late to the party...

Sadly, I?m quite an amateur when it comes to the Silent Hill series. Not owning a Playstation 1 or 2 means I only briefly played around a friends house at best, but have always been intrigued by the titles nonetheless. Today however, am going to experience my first proper indulgence of Silent Hill 3. Shall be playing tonight, alone in house, lights off, with ear phones in? cant wait.

I don?t personally have a PS2, yet I am borrowing one of a friend of my older brother. The real reason behind me borrowing it is because of Metal Gear Solid. I only played the first on the PSone for around 10mins, and am absolutely drooling with anticipation for Twin Snakes. To build upon this excitement, I wanted to play through Substance (almost bought a Xbox the other day just for it too?) but borrowing a PS2 off a friend is a lot cheaper

Yet, they didn?t have the blasted game for rental in Blockbusters! Madness. So instead I got Silent Hill 3, and am actually really glad it did. I?ve read the excellently written review here (must stress how much I enjoyed reading it) and also read through this thread.

Off to start playing a little now, but will wait until the isolation of the dark before I truly indulge.

[Concept]

This game is startlingly good. I played the first three titles of the series in anticipation for the film, and in doing so, out of all of them Silent Hill 3 is still the one that's withstood the test of time the most. The whole pacing and atmosphere and technical execution are superb. I stil maintain that these are some of the best character models, both in terms of artistry and facial animation that I've seen in any game. The environments too are simply jaw dropping.

In terms of the feel... the whole set up and twenty minute twist in the middle (getting back home and then departing for Silent Hill) effectively means there's two sides to the experience. It mirrors Heather's predicament and

->Open Spoiler<-

split personalities/spirits residing in her body.

Anyone else recently been playing Silent Hill?

[Dogg Thang]

Hmmm...I have two main problems with SH3. Firstly the story. In particular the roles the characters play in the story. For the most part they are cartoony fantasy cult type characters driving a very linear and pretty dull plot - like from a poor episode of Buffy or Charmed or something. Vincent's lines are atrocious and that blonde woman is plain embarrassing. My second problem is the sheer amount of enemies which, in my mind, actually made it far less creepy. When you're spending your whole time running through areas to avoid attacks or actually killing bad guys, there is no time for the atmosphere to get to you. I found it far less creepy as a result. And it's not as if the combat in SH games is actually rewarding - in terms of game aspects, SH combat is pretty dull. I found the enemies really detracted from the game.

The first two games, and even the fourth game, had far more breaks in the action and that's when the atmosphere built - the room with the lockers in SH1 for example, or the hotel in SH2. There were many empty spaces and it was in these that I found my mind actually being affected more because it simply had the time to let the atmosphere creep in.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that SH3 is my least favourite out of all four games.

[Shoju]

The film Solaris, on yesterday reminded me alot of SH2. The game's water ending is still the stongest and most depressing ending I've seen in a game. There are issues you can relate to in the real world, and they stick in the mind.

SH3 was very good, not as deep or memorable a storyline as 2 but scarier and alot less wandering around. Some of the best graphics I've seen on the PS2. Some weak enemies that struggle to hit you and poor boss battles let it down a bit though.

I didn't like SH4. The structure, level design, stoyline and irritating enemies all put me off. There was very little in the way of scares.

[Rebelli0n]

SH3 is the most 'gamelike' of the series in my opinion. I think it hangs together the best in terms of a game from start to finish. I remember a few people complaining about things like the SMG not really being in the style of sh, but i figured it was fine, not impossible to imagine finding one in a US town.

But, like a lot of people, i hold SH2 up as best in the series, it could be because it was the first one i played properly (i played sh1 in the day, but gave up due to the wandering, foolish child i was then), but i think by being a bit deeper, and a bit more vague and open to interpretation, it comes over as the more weighty game overall.

I loved the idea and story of 4, but it just wasn't executed in a fun way, too much repetition.