Konami has announced that Silent Hill Origins for the PS2 shipped to retail stores in North America yesterday. Originally to be released in May, they pulled a fast one on us and never sent word that the date had been changed. Nice surprise though isn’t it?

Featuring enhanced visuals for the PS2, Silent Hill Origins tells the tale of Travis Grady, a lone truck driver making a routine delivery when he makes an unfortunate detour to the mysterious town of Silent Hill. Players must help Travis escape the city’s horrific inhabitants and unravel the mystery of the strange hallucinations from Travis’ past, visions that have plagued him since childhood. Throughout the game, Travis can use his fists, his wits and an array of weapons including a meat cleaver, pool cue and sledgehammer to fight his way through the nightmarish world of Silent Hill and face more than one possible ending.

For more on the PS2 version of the highly popular Silent Hill Origins, click here.

Around the middle of January, I posted Amazon and Gamefly listings for Silent Hill Origins and everyone was curious as to whether this was just some sort of mass slip-up or if it was a legitimate listing. Today, we received confirmation from Konami that Silent Hill Origins is indeed coming to the PS2 in May.

Acting as a prequel to the popular horror series, Silent Hill Origins follows troubled truck driver, Travis Grady, who gets stuck in Silent Hill while making a routine delivery. He quickly discovers that all is not well in the fog-smothered town, and that its shrouded streets hide grotesque creatures and dark secrets. Moreover, as he explores the seemingly abandoned town, Grady is confronted by crippling memories from his troubled past and it becomes clear he must escape from this horrid town while resolving the memories that have plagued him since childhood. Cool! Nothing is scarier than a demented truck driver trapped in a town overrun with demonic creatures.

The PS2 version will of course offer a visually enhanced version of the PSP version, with elements that are new to the franchise and it also promised to provide the player with an enhanced sensation of isolation. Creepy! While retaining the cinematic experience of the previous games, it also has an intuitive ‘Cineractive System’ that allows players to face down horrifying monsters while the control scheme changes intuitively for each situation. Players also have an enhanced camera system that actively tracks Travis, and fans of the series can will be happy to know that the original soundtrack was composed by Akira Yamaoka.

For more information, check back often as more details and screenshots are sure to emerge.

Via: Press Release

It’s Wednesday again; the day I look forward to a new episode of Yahtzee Crowshaw’s razor wit in Zero Punctuation. This week, Croshaw takes on the rail shooter Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. If you’ve seen his review of Silent Hill: Origins, you may have an inkling as to what to expect. This update of the classic rail shooter forcibly reminds us that “the good old days” weren’t always so good.

via The Escapist

Is this legitimate or just a slip up of some sort? Who knows at this point, with Konami being silent as the grave and refusing to make an official comment either way regarding a PS2 port of Silent Hill Origins. However, this has not stopped Amazon or Gamefly from listing it on their websites with a posted release date of March.

Granted, the boxart pulled from either site looks legitimate enough, but until official word comes spewing forth from the mouths of Konami higher-ups – don’t get too excited like I did and knock your drink over onto your keyboard.

Stay tuned folks until we find out if this news is true or not, and until then, like the enigmatic Rev. Jessie Jackson always says “Keep Hope Alive!”

Thanks: Siliconera

Ah, it’s another Zero Punctuation Wednesday, featuring another hilarious review from The Escapist’s Yahtzee Croshaw. This week, Yahtzee takes a trip to the creepiest town in gaming history in Silent Hill Origins. Since there’s about a good 80% or so chance of Yahtzee hating whatever game he’s reviewing, you can guess where a new Silent Hill game would fit in. He finds very little (i.e. nothing) good to say about the franchise’s latest foray into the PSP. Considering the series effectively peaked with number two, it may be time for the series to go through a major overhaul.

Via The Escapist

Konami’s website has apparently just put up the box art for the upcoming PSP title, Silent Hill: Origins. They still list the name as a “working title” though, so for all we know this could be changed later. Some people have already gotten a chance to play some of the game, via a demo that was leaked online last month. Already, it’s looking to be just the thing to give PSP owners a severe case of the willies.

Via Konami.com

A couple days ago, a demo for the upcoming PSP game, “Silent Hill Origins,” began to appear on various torrent sites for download. It has been confirmed by developer, Climax, to be legitimate, but Karl Jeffrey, CEO and founder of Climax, swears it wasn’t leaked by his company:

“All I can say is that code did not leak from Climax – 100 per cent guaranteed. The code that is out there is fingerprinted and was supplied solely to Konami for marketing purposes…At Climax we have strong and proven security procedures that protect all of our code, assets and builds. We have developed over 100 titles in 20 years in business and have never had a leak or theft from inside the company.”

The video above appeared online shortly after the demo. It’s pretty grainy and the sound is a little distorted, but rest assured, when the picture gets really choppy and the sound starts going nuts near the end, that’s when freaky stuff be happening.

Via GamesIndustry.biz

There was much mystery surrounding Konami’s press conference announcement today but as Mark Franklin took the stage there was little hint of what was to come. Initially the company began with the expected – two new DDR titles (Wii and 360) and a next gen entry to the popular Silent Hill series. Interestingly this Silent Hill seems to take a far more active character to the fray in the haunted locale – centering on Alex a former military man who is searching for his brother.

The military character is a break in the series. Silent Hill has always centered on showing the every-person in a dangerous situation reacting to the events in the psychological town. Also it is being developed by Westerners, not Konami in Japan so we’ll have to wait for more information to see how the story develops.

Other titles announced include Hellboy, Contra 4 for DS, Dracula X Chronicles and Silent Hill Origins for PSP,

Hideo Kojima took the stage moments after the general announcements and the crowd exploded. Then the same trailer shown at the Sony event earlier today for MGS4 rolled. Yes, it is the last Kojima MGS game. Yes, it is delayed. Yes, it is still PS3 exclusive at the launch of the title. Oh and Kojima wants the old E3 back, he says this year is all business and boring.

So what was the big mystery? Silent Hill 5. As psyched about this as I might be it doesn’t have as much impact as the build up insinuated.

A few weeks back, Sony distributed their ” SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA PREVIEWS ROBUST SOFTWARE LINE UP FOR PLAYSTATION® PLATFORMS” . Although most of the news included is out there, I haven’t seen the full word for word document many places. The full statement in it’s entirety is listed below after the break. I think the PS3 is definitely headed for some good times in the future. Many critics have been extremely tough on the system, but only time will tell. They are obviously behind the curve right now, but I feel like the Nintendo Wii will eventually lose it’s hype and it will just be Sony and Microsoft on the field at that point.

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