Silent Hill and Project Zero

[Champloo]

Been meaning to pick up a good few survival horror games and the 2 series that have caught my attention are Project Zero/Fatal Frame and Silent Hill and having noticed that both series are on xbox and ps2, i'm not sure which to go for. If anyone could answer a few questions that'd be great.

Firstly, are all the Silent Hills (barring the first) available on xbox and ps2, or are some ps2 only? Likewise are all the Project Zero's on xbox and ps2 or is the third ps2 only (never seen it on the xbox) and have they all been released in english, i've seen up to number 3, not sure if there's any more in Japan land.

And is there any difference between the US and PAL versions of any of the games, don't want to be stuck with crappy 50hz on the ps2 games for example.

And finally, any reason to stick to one console for each series, for example can you carry saves over from one game to the next or anything like that?

Any help would be great, thanks.

[Soundwave]

PS2 has all four Silent Hill Games
X-box only has 2 & 4

Project Zero 3 is only on PS2 at the moment but I have heard an X-box version is in the pipeline

I dont know of any major difference in any of the series except that maybe the Box versions look prettier & deffinitley have Dolby Digital...which REALLY helps the atmosphere IMO

Also I think you should look into the Forbidden Siren games on the PS2 they are by all accounts brilliant

Not a great deal of help I'm afraid but it's a start

Neil

[Dogg Thang]

Well here's one account that says Forbidden Siren is a barely playable joke. Never played the sequel though.

In terms of Silent Hill, aside from the first game (which is PS1 only) there is no noticable regional difference between the games. Of course the Pal versions are going to be 50Hz - that's Pal after all.

For SH, aside from convenience, there is no major reason to stick with one console. SH3 does read the SH2 save on PS2 and that does give some tiny extras but no more than a couple of lines of text. They are all available as one set on PS2 too so that might be attractive. The XBox version of SH2 is ever so slightly prettier but it is so slight it shouldn't really be a factor. Never played the XBox version of SH4 to compare that to the PS2.

[Soundwave]

IIRC the X-box version of Hill 2 included an extra scene where you controlled the woman & branched the story out some more...could be wrong though??

Neil

EDIT - Apparently there was but it was later included in the PS2's Directors Cut verions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Hill_2
**BE WARNED SPOILERS CONTAINED ON THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE!!!**

[JazzFunk]

Strangely, PS2 Silent Hill 3 has a 60hz mode but 2 & 4 don't. The first two Project Zero games on PS2 definitely have 60hz modes, but I can't comment on 3 because I haven't played it yet.

[Champloo]

Do you have any links to this Silent Hill set for PS2 Dogg Thang? It sounds ideal, providing its US, I don't want no PAL 50hz crap now do I!

And, is there any differences between Project Zero 1 & 2 on the xbox and ps2? Still not sure which to go for here.

Cheers for all the help here.

[NekoFever]

I played PAL Silent Hill 2 and it was full screen. Can't speak for the speed because I have no frame of reference but it didn't strike me as a bad conversion. Plus you can get the three PS2 games in the Silent Hill Collection for a good price. Can't remember what the price is, but it was good

[MattyD]

The PAL versions of Silent Hill are all fully optimised but as you say, only the 3rd has a 60hz option.

The Silent Hill Collection is a pricey curate's egg. It's basically the standard retail versions of Silent Hill 2 to 4, in a cardboard sleeve. If you buy the individual games pre-owned you won't pay more than a tenner for each of them whereas the collection is going for ?45+. Also the platinum edition of SH2 has the extra episode that came with the Xbox version but it adds less than an hour to the game.

Silent Hill 2 and 4 are also available on PC as well as Xbox but personally I don't think that's any way to play a game like this. Big screen, loud stereo and no lights FTW!

[Champloo]

Cheers MattyD, i'll probably just pick up the PAL PS2 versions after all, unless I can find that collection for less on ebay.

[Emir]

The Xbox versions of Project Zero have small extra features such as unlockable costumes and I think* the Xbox ver. of PZ2 has extra endings.
The missus is a PZ nut, so I'll get back to you tomorrow with all the fine details. She's got every game for every system, a **** load of books and even some PZ porn! (Lusty Brown Butterfly )

[Champloo]

Yeah the second PZ on xbox seems to be a directors cut which is nice so i've got that on the way as well as the original. Both should keep me busy over christmas!

[Emir]

Didn't want to start a new thread for this, so here it goes.

Can anyone tell me if the Korean ver. of Silent Hill 3 has english language options like the JPN ver.? Cheers.

[Concept]

From recent times:

Project Zero.
Silent Hill 1-3.
Manhunt.
Resident Evil Remake.
Forbidden Siren 2 (the dub in the first game is atmosphere crushing)
Condemned

...are all true survival horror, even if there are other various elements in there (sci-fi/psychological thriller/fable elements etc.)

What I mean by that is there isn't much watering down of atmosphere to the action crowd, or shooters pretending to be something they're not. As good as Resident Evil 4 and Fear are they're not really survival horror games in the strictest sense of the genre - they use horror but they're mostly about delievering jump-shock scares on top of their action.

If you're able to go further back then the likes of Alien Resurrection (PSone) and System Shock 2 (PC) also offer some horrible, tense gameplay.

I would like to include Eternal Darkness because I rate it's story, gameplay ideas and atmosphere highly, but it's not really a horror game in the sense of the others. It's the videogame equivalent of a mystery chiller page-turner.

[EvilBoris]

If you Fancy something a little bit different you could try Lifeline.