Silent Hill 4: The Room

[Guest]

Has anyone here played the pc version of this game?

Great Idea, awesome story... Horrible Execution. I picked it up for my pc the other day. It looks okay, it's not pretty put you can tell it's a ps2 port. But see I can get over the bad graphics, because the art direction is brilliant.

My problem is like my problem with all console ports. Controls. I have never played the ps2 version of Silent Hill 4. But I can bet that it wasn't that difficult to control your guy. I've never understood why the developers of survival horror for console have insisted on horrible and akward camera angles... sure they look okay. But control falls apart when you are switching from back angles to above angles to third person. Why is it so hard to lock onto an enemy and stay with attacking him?

I loved most of the Resident Evils. I even bought a Game Cube just so I could get re4. I loved Silent Hill 1 & 2. But I always played them on the original consoles. Why is it so hard to break the camera angles when porting it? Make it a third person game... directly behind the character, or just over the shoulder.

I think thats why I like Penumbra so much. It doesn't try any tricks with cameras to induce the mood. It relies simply on fear of the unknown, and wondering how the hell a defenseless chump like you can survive if something does happen.

Now don't get me wrong I still like Survival Horror games, I just wont be playing them on my computer anymore until they get the freaking controls right. I'm hoping Alan Wake takes less of a camera angle point of control and is more PC friendly.

Sorry for the rant, but have any of you come across this problem? Or do any of you have any other complaints about the current crop of survival horror games?

[Guest]

Lol, to tell you the truth, I dont think many people like SH4....It's a big step down in the ladder if you compare it to SH3. Silent Hill 4 is way weird, the camera is f-ed, controls suck and the game is kinda boring in the length.

But if you haven't tried Silent Hill 3, then play that instead and you will have a much nicer..uh...I mean...scarier experience, lol.

[Guest]

I'm not generally a video game fanatic. I feel like I bought a PC and if I want to play a game I should find one available to run on what I already have.

The last console game I played was Spyro the Dragon. It was interesting that you could control the camera independently of the direction of the character, but not that interesting.

Actually, I thought that everyone had already realized that a first person perspective was the only way to go.

I've been playing Super Mario Bros 3 a lot lately and I've been thinking about picking up that $20 USB game controller from Wal-Mart that my brother-in-law told me about.

I think that if they need to change anything about PC games it would be to offer more choice in controllers.

[Guest]

It's a big step down in the ladder if you compare it to SH3. Silent Hill 4 is way weird, the camera is f-ed, controls suck and the game is kinda boring in the length.

But if you haven't tried Silent Hill 3, then play that instead and you will have a much nicer..uh...I mean...scarier experience, lol.

Alright. I tried out SH3. I loved the art direction. That's about all. It's still plagued by the damn console surival horror camera angles, and the controls are disturbingly bad. I'm suprised so many people are so into these game. When the control scheme is so lacking. The only reason I die in these games is because the screwy controls. Not the fact that I am not prepared or don't know what I'm doing. When you are facing the camera trying to swing your weapon, and can't see the enemy... you know something is wrong. Keep it simple guys, make sure it is third person with a key assigned to looking back. Don't mess with these screwy camera angles that don't even add atmosphere to the game.

Thank you penumbra team for not forcing such a horrid camera angle scheme or control scheme on us.

I'd love to have a silent hill game with a third person fixed camera. Not one that changes angles so freaking much. If I wanted to see different angles, I would go watch Citizen Kane.

[Guest]

So for example...you think it's good that RE4 didnt have the same camera as the old ones?

[Guest]

Yeah I liked RE4 most. It didn't have the shock value of the original RE but it was a good game.

I like when in SH the camera angles jump behind you. Everything is so much better... you can see where the hell you are looking and can easily defeat baddies, while still being intimidated. I think that the companies make these games think that the cameras make it scarier. For the ingame movies I love the neat cameras... but for gaming it's just akward and cumbersome. It never made much sense to me.

It's like you're pressing forward and walking forward. All of a sudden the angle changes and your character is walking backwards. It's so frustrating. Forward should always be forward... it should NOT change depending on the freaking camera.

This is the only thing keeping me from being happy with the current breed of Horror Survival games.

[Guest]

I guess you're not used to that kind of things. It doesnt bother me anything.

Hate RE4 though, because it isnt even an RE game