Masters's Silent Hill [PSN] review

This is a great review, Marc. You kept it nostalgic, but you did so in a purposeful (and captivating way) that revealed (and explained away) your broader critique of the game. There was a good balance of valuable discussion that will engage both fans and newcomers. Despite the flaws that you yourself recognized, I thought that you compellingly demonstrated to readers that the game was still worth celebrating. Nice work.

Thanks, Matt! Haven't seen you around in awhile. Still at TBG at all?

I didn't know this was on PSN. Maybe I'll cope better on a big screen... or maybe worse. I stopped playing this when I got totally freaked out about half way through with that part where you walk around on metal grids. I mean the enemies killed me, but the setting was so unnerving... I needed a break and never went back. It goes to show that you don't need graphical splendour when the ideas and setting are so clever. Thanks for reminding me. ^_^

Well played, Marc.

Really good review, too. Well worth the wait.

Hey threetimes, yeah that part is scary as hell. I didn't want to get too much into bits like that and spoil it for anyone.

Thanks, Gary. Good work on the screen stuff, as always, too.

@threetimes: ..I'm not entirely sure about our..er.. policy on this. But you will get the absolutely best result on a laptop with hdmi (..or an Eee.. the 1215n, for example) on a good emulator. Pcsx for example. Good software driver support, and even better opengl plugins available. Better internal resolution, no curious scaling or tearing on the fmv..

The ps3 emulator is very basic. No state saves, no screenshot functions, etc, etc, no remapping of keys, alternative gamepad support, very basic graphics acceleration..

On the other hand, of course, the ps3 gets you some of it on pure software emulation, with gamepad support and hdmi, etc. But the best option is hdmi+a good emulator..

That's a good point about the lack of options on the PS3. I started playing Medieval again on the PS3, had loved that game years ago, and the controls were so basic I gave up quickly. Somehow, using the original PS1 it doesn't matter so much not having choices or save states. But I'm not that keen on emulation except for old games I can't play any other way.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Medievil myself, and mostly it was the controls and combat.

I'm not that keen on emulation except for old games I can't play any other way
I agree. That's why I bought a Master System and begged a Mega Drive off my brother. Emulation isn't the same.

Actually, it often is, byte by byte.. :p just kidding.

No, no problem seeing how the portable emulation is generally a complete waste of time. Same with the older action-based games - if you don't have 100% timing all the time, it becomes a chore to play.

But.. on psx we're typically talking 99% timing on even a single-core 1.8Ghz computer with a 3d card.. So suddenly you actually get.. you know.. better quality playback on an emulator (such as pcsx, epsxe) with a usb gamepad/analogue sticks.. than you did with the original psx.. Never mind higher resolution and cleaner sound. The FF8 version with buffed internal resolution is almost up there with the 3d-accelerated windows-version, for example.. Besides, you can avoid the entire "just have to play for another hour and a half to get to the next save-point" thing..

Not all emulators are that good, though. But a general point about emulation software is that we are talking more and more about reasonably priced computers that are quick enough to run the reduced byte-code in time for every clock-cycle. So we can suddenly run emulation without any performance drops..

And we're going to see more and more virtualisation software that basically runs the actual instruction set unmodified. This means difficult licensing issues, though, so obviously this isn't going to happen in the near future...

But it's a possibility that we could be getting something like a "universal pad" with your favourite make of thumbsticks, resolution/screen, graphics post-processing filters, etc - that basically runs any amount of console-software with 100% perfect timing. Either emulated or virtualised.

Could maybe imagine that this is something publishers would accept more readily as well, since the logistical issues are less problematic than actually producing a full new port for another system, etc.

Then again, Sony and ICO, as well as Kojima Productions and Santa Monica Studios (together with whoever did their GoW port) chose a remaster approach. And if Ueda stands behind that approach over an emulation solution, and insists it actually is better than the first version - then I can't complain either.

Still - for the thousands of other less popular titles, they're all going to disappear, basically. And that's a shame, when you know that for example the psp is fully capable of (if you will excuse my swearing) running genesis&Nes, snes, ds, gba titles, etc. Same approach that's done with gba and snes games on the NDS. And here we're talking about the same layout.. so.. This is a viable approach. Practically, say, licensing out console-titles with virtualisation engines that can run on smartphones (ARM based processors, like the PSP/iPoon, most android phones that aren't mips, etc)..

Really, the future is so bright I cannot bear to look :p lol.

For Playstation, emulation is my preferred way to play by far (I use epsx). It looks nicer, plays smoothly, and I can use the Xbox 360 controller.

//Zig

I actually like to play PlayStation games on my PSP. Any crappiness in the graphics is harder to make out. But that's just one reason.