Silent Hill Patches Incoming
News of incoming patches for both Silent Hill: HD Collection and Silent Hill Downpour was announced by Konami yesterday. Both games were recently released to mixed reviews, with many reviewers citing fairly serious frame-rate issues and poor combat mechanics with Downpour, as well as some users experiencing issues with the auto-save feature. On the other side of things, the HD Collection is also having frame-rate dips, but more interestingly, the fog of Silent Hill – often one of the scariest elements of the game, as I’m sure many of you will remember – isn’t as thick as it was in the original, ruining the experience for many older players who are more used to the near-zero visibility offered in Silent Hill 2 and 3. Probably the biggest issue for the HD Collection though is that many players have claimed to have problems with the audio-syncing during cutscenes, which many players find off-putting and altogether show a lack of effort by the developers.
Konami have apparently been working hard on these announced bugfixes, and will hopefully be implemented within the next few weeks. We can only hope that these issues are ironed out as soon as possible, as they’ve put a lot of expectant players off from buying either game which is a real disappointment, as both Silent Hill 2 and 3 are some of the best survival-horror games ever to have existed; for newcomers, a bad experience won’t let them appreciate the games as fully as they should be able to, whilst returning players will just be disappointed over how their nostalgia has been ruined by frame-rate issues.
So, will these patches influence you to rethink your decision regarding these latest Silent Hill games, or, if you’ve already bought them, will they be able to sway your opinion?
The full press release from Konami is below:
[quote]KONAMI ANNOUNCES UPCOMING PATCHES FOR SILENT HILL DOWNPOUR AND HD COLLECTION
New online patch will correct frame rate and audio sync issues
Today, Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. announced that online patches for both Silent Hill Downpour and Silent Hill HD Collection are currently in development and will be released soon.
Understanding the issues some users are experiencing, development teams are currently creating online patches for both games, which will fix the frame rate issues, the audio-syncing in Silent Hill HD Collection, and the auto-save issues in Silent Hill Downpour. Players have voiced their concerns, and solutions to these issues will be fixed and launched in the coming weeks.
Patches for Silent Hill Downpour and Silent Hill HD Collection will be made available on both XBOX®Live Arcade and PlayStation®Network. Both Silent Hill Downpour and Silent Hill HD Collection are available at retail stores nationwide.[/quote]