The most heartbreaking thing about this collection is...

[Yuki]

Not buying it sends the message that people don't want Silent Hill products at all.

Only if they're foolish enough to believe they've been doing Silent Hill justice with their recent products.

The majority of fans I've seen love Downpour even with the slight graphical glitching, and think about it as a company: if one of your products suddenly stops selling despite trying to change it up multiple times, would you think "hey, let's change it again!", or would you just think "oh, they must not want this product"? Logic, man.

[Mothersdecent]

Buying it supports the butchering of Silent Hill, and emails expressing dissatisfaction aren't nearly as persuasive as piles of cash.

Konami will learn soon.
I doubt Downpour's sales are pretty to look at and with this broken Collection out and all the bad press it's been getting, i wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the plug on the series.
They'll have to learn soon enough.

[NarooN]

Buying it supports the butchering of Silent Hill, and emails expressing dissatisfaction aren't nearly as persuasive as piles of cash.

Konami will learn soon.
I doubt Downpour's sales are pretty to look at and with this broken Collection out and all the bad press it's been getting, i wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the plug on the series.
They'll have to learn soon enough.

People said the same bullshit when Origins came out, then when Homecoming came out, etc. The only ones who'll have to learn are TSK's like yourself.

[Mothersdecent]

Oh there he is again.

[astro]

The most frustrating thing to me about the collection is that everyone new picks the 'new and improved' voice-acting. I just registered here and I haven't read anything about it yet, but I absolutely despise the new voice-acting. Almost every line of dialog is a red-herring, everyone is a miscast and it absolutely infuriates me that people won't be able to experience the characters in the same and correct way that I was able to. I played Silent Hill 2 less than a year ago and I'm not nostalgic for -any- game, so it isn't just my arbitrary preference or whatever.

[NarooN]

How are the lines red-herrings when the dialogue is the exact same for both games? (besides a couple lines which had a word or two changed, but that doesn't affect the plot at all.)

I found the new performances for SH2 to be a massive improvement over the original stilted performances. I don't buy the whole "but the weird acting makes it more dream-like!" thing that people always say. It's okay if people prefer the old ones, but to say that the new acting is actually *worse* than the old is ridiculous. Donna Burke's Angela was abysmal compared to the new Angela, who actually sounds her age and doesn't have all these weird things going on with her voice (random pauses, which most of the actors were guilty of, sudden raises in pitch for no reason out of nowhere, etc.).

And James actually sounds like he's, well y'know, depressed and concerned rather than slightly annoyed when he's thinking about Mary and questioning what's going on around him.

Regardless, there's no "correct way" to experience the voices and characters. That's just an elitist viewpoint. Newcomers will get the same story and arguably the same emotions out of the games either way.

[Q. Valintyne]

The most frustrating thing to me about the collection is that everyone new picks the 'new and improved' voice-acting.

Show me documentation of this. You can't. Don't even try.

I just registered here and I haven't read anything about it yet, but I absolutely despise the new voice-acting. Almost every line of dialog is a red-herring, everyone is a miscast and it absolutely infuriates me that people won't be able to experience the characters in the same and correct way that I was able to. I played Silent Hill 2 less than a year ago and I'm not nostalgic for -any- game, so it isn't just my arbitrary preference or whatever.

The original voices are available for SH2. Why exactly are you bitching? Good grief.

How are the lines red-herrings when the dialogue is the exact same for both games? (besides a couple lines which had a word or two changed, but that doesn't affect the plot at all.)

I found the new performances for SH2 to be a massive improvement over the original stilted performances. I don't buy the whole "but the weird acting makes it more dream-like!" thing that people always say. It's okay if people prefer the old ones, but to say that the new acting is actually *worse* than the old is ridiculous. Donna Burke's Angela was abysmal compared to the new Angela, who actually sounds her age and doesn't have all these weird things going on with her voice (random pauses, which most of the actors were guilty of, sudden raises in pitch for no reason out of nowhere, etc.).

And James actually sounds like he's, well y'know, depressed and concerned rather than slightly annoyed when he's thinking about Mary and questioning what's going on around him.

Regardless, there's no "correct way" to experience the voices and characters. That's just an elitist viewpoint. Newcomers will get the same story and arguably the same emotions out of the games either way.

^ This. This is the most sense that has ever been spoken.

[Yuki]

How are the lines red-herrings when the dialogue is the exact same for both games? (besides a couple lines which had a word or two changed, but that doesn't affect the plot at all.)

I found the new performances for SH2 to be a massive improvement over the original stilted performances. I don't buy the whole "but the weird acting makes it more dream-like!" thing that people always say. It's okay if people prefer the old ones, but to say that the new acting is actually *worse* than the old is ridiculous. Donna Burke's Angela was abysmal compared to the new Angela, who actually sounds her age and doesn't have all these weird things going on with her voice (random pauses, which most of the actors were guilty of, sudden raises in pitch for no reason out of nowhere, etc.).

And James actually sounds like he's, well y'know, depressed and concerned rather than slightly annoyed when he's thinking about Mary and questioning what's going on around him.

Regardless, there's no "correct way" to experience the voices and characters. That's just an elitist viewpoint. Newcomers will get the same story and arguably the same emotions out of the games either way.

I completely agree with this. I find the new actors, for the most part, to be leagues better than the originals, which just sounded stilted and awkward.

[astro]

I just got my hands on the HD collection (released today in Australia). I'll reply to you guys, but I want to play for a bit first. But James is a broken person, he didn't hit his head and develop amnesia. Him being more emotional sort of just makes him less interesting, his obliviousness and stilted-ness was instrumental in expressing how he utterly refused to realize what he had done. Think about that for a bit, if you like, I'll expand more on it later.

[Waverer]

But if any real person were in his situation, they wouldn't sound "harp-darp, I'm completely unaware of my surroundings. I have odd speech patterns and wander aimlessly in thought and conversation." His new VA makes him sound the way I'm sure any of us would, grief-stricken, confused, worried, etc. I don't see how being more emotional equates to less interesting at all lol.

The only VA I really have a problem with I guess is Heather, and it's not that the new girl is bad, just that the old one was so good. Other than that I see the new VAs as vast improvements, Angela more than anybody.

[astro]

But if any real person were in his situation, they wouldn't sound "harp-darp, I'm completely unaware of my surroundings. I have odd speech patterns and wander aimlessly in thought and conversation." His new VA makes him sound the way I'm sure any of us would, grief-stricken, confused, worried, etc. I don't see how being more emotional equates to less interesting at all lol.

The only VA I really have a problem with I guess is Heather, and it's not that the new girl is bad, just that the old one was so good. Other than that I see the new VAs as vast improvements, Angela more than anybody.

I don't really agree that it's better for James to snap, develop amnesia and basically become a new version of himself. James to me was always so interesting because he's fundamentally flawed in meaningful ways, but at the same time he sounds like a really sweet guy, (which Troy misses like a champ [his voice itself isn't suitable either]). He makes you reconsider and question what your idea of a good person is and he's incredibly authentic and human. Not because he's acting realistically, but because his character is so rich in base emotion and the juxtaposition of good and bad traits, which Guy conveys pretty flawlessly, I think anyway.

Also, he's aware of his surroundings, he's just broken and he wants to die. It's like if you made Dr. Breen sound genuinely compassionate during Half-Life 2 or something.

[Yuki]

But if any real person were in his situation, they wouldn't sound "harp-darp, I'm completely unaware of my surroundings. I have odd speech patterns and wander aimlessly in thought and conversation." His new VA makes him sound the way I'm sure any of us would, grief-stricken, confused, worried, etc. I don't see how being more emotional equates to less interesting at all lol.

The only VA I really have a problem with I guess is Heather, and it's not that the new girl is bad, just that the old one was so good. Other than that I see the new VAs as vast improvements, Angela more than anybody.

I'd agree with this. Depressed and confused people sound... depressed, confused, and upset. James' original voice sounded confused at some parts... but more often sounded bored or completely unaware of what was going on around him.

[NarooN]

Yeah man, James is such a sweetie-pie, he

REVEAL SPOILER

murders his wife brutally with a pillow and doesn't afraid of anything

just like all the other awesome husbands out there.

[astro]

But if any real person were in his situation, they wouldn't sound "harp-darp, I'm completely unaware of my surroundings. I have odd speech patterns and wander aimlessly in thought and conversation." His new VA makes him sound the way I'm sure any of us would, grief-stricken, confused, worried, etc. I don't see how being more emotional equates to less interesting at all lol.

The only VA I really have a problem with I guess is Heather, and it's not that the new girl is bad, just that the old one was so good. Other than that I see the new VAs as vast improvements, Angela more than anybody.

I'd agree with this. Depressed and confused people sound... depressed, confused, and upset. James' original voice sounded confused at some parts... but more often sounded bored or completely unaware of what was going on around him.

I don't really think he ever sounds bored personally, but he sounds like he's unaware of what's going on and confused because he refuses to accept any of it.

[astro]

Yeah man, James is such a sweetie-pie, he

REVEAL SPOILER

murders his wife brutally with a pillow and doesn't afraid of anything

just like all the other awesome husbands out there.

Yeah, it isn't like there was anything else going on. Let's just oversimplify everything.

[Waverer]

Isn't that exactly what was going on..? With James anyway.

[NarooN]

Yeah man, James is such a sweetie-pie, he

REVEAL SPOILER

murders his wife brutally with a pillow and doesn't afraid of anything

just like all the other awesome husbands out there.

Yeah, it isn't like there was anything else going on. Let's just oversimplify everything.

I oversimplified it? I'm pretty sure that's exactly what happened. He did it because he's a selfish douchebag. I guess I left that part out.

[astro]

REVEAL SPOILER

The context of their relationship is obviously pretty important, them having a fairly strained relationship is hinted at throughout the game, but Mary and James both suffering through Mary's illness is what drove James to do it. It's ridiculous to just say "what he did was bad in every way there's no nuance at all, killing is 100% wrong 100% of the time always and if you kill someone you're a bad guy full stop no exceptions". Mary wasn't a happy person, she was very sick and going to die, and it took a toll on James, but he obviously loved her regardless, he didn't do it 'just because'. Like James always is when we see him, he was struggling to get through tough parts of his life, there's an aspect of him being childish and weak, but there's also him not really knowing how to deal with it, while being like an actual human being, with flaws like a human being would have. People are going to have different interpretations of what kind of person James is, but I don't think "he's a bad guy, period" is equally as valid as thinking it's a little more complex, which it obviously is. Silent Hill 2 has better writing than Amnesia: The Dark Descent, for christs sake. He developed "amnesia" (not that it's really an appropriate term for it) because he felt so guilt-ridden and lost in the first place.

[NarooN]

REVEAL SPOILER

It doesn't matter which way you tried to twist it, he killed her because he was sick of her suffering but also because he was sick of the way she was treating him, and the burden of having to take care of her. Hence, he's a selfish douchebag. It's not like she had much longer to live anyway, he could've just waited it out or something.

I refuse to give him a free ride just because he felt horrible about it when he finally remembers what happens at the hotel. I wasn't implying he killed her for no reason, but that still doesn't make it right, does it? What he did was indeed wrong if we're gonna go by morals here. Even without morals, it was a fucked up thing to do. Which is why I'd like to think the Rebirth ending is nice, with Mary actually getting revived and then murdering him.

I guess that's one reason so many people love SH2 so much. The wildly different ways we can interpret characters. Please don't take my posts as me trying to tell you that your interpretation of him is wrong, because it's not. I just disagree.

[astro]

How are the lines red-herrings when the dialogue is the exact same for both games? (besides a couple lines which had a word or two changed, but that doesn't affect the plot at all.)

I found the new performances for SH2 to be a massive improvement over the original stilted performances. I don't buy the whole "but the weird acting makes it more dream-like!" thing that people always say. It's okay if people prefer the old ones, but to say that the new acting is actually *worse* than the old is ridiculous. Donna Burke's Angela was abysmal compared to the new Angela, who actually sounds her age and doesn't have all these weird things going on with her voice (random pauses, which most of the actors were guilty of, sudden raises in pitch for no reason out of nowhere, etc.).

And James actually sounds like he's, well y'know, depressed and concerned rather than slightly annoyed when he's thinking about Mary and questioning what's going on around him.

Regardless, there's no "correct way" to experience the voices and characters. That's just an elitist viewpoint. Newcomers will get the same story and arguably the same emotions out of the games either way.

Alright, done playing the HD collection for now.

I don't agree with the dream-like thing either, to a degree it's meant to be a little stilted and awkward because they're not seeing the same thing and they're all messed up people under a lot of stress, but it isn't too sacred of a thing. However, Angela's a strung-out, emotional and insecure train-wreck. Her sounding old and 'off' was intentional because she's a very damaged character and Team Silent wanted to convey that, and you're going to experience her differently now that she doesn't sound older than she is, so it's pretty ludicrous to say that there isn't a correct and intended way to experience the character. You aren't going to have the same idea of her in the same way because a fundamental aspect of her character has been altered in a meaningful way, it's really that simple. I've already gone into James and I'd just be repeating myself so I'm not going to reply to that part, he didn't hit his head, he's broken, etc.