Those who know me, know I love some Silent Hill. The first game is probably my favourite title, with the second game facing off in a pipe/whip cage match thunderdome duel with Castlevania. I’ve been unnaturally quiet on the subject of Silent Hill so far because the recent offerings from that dismal town have been lurching towers of suck and fail.

This may well change.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a retelling of the original game, with its own brand new quirks and themes. Unlike certain other versions of the franchise that shall not be named but involve random truckers, this Silent Hill game seems to know what it’s doing and where it wants to go. Oh, did I mention it’s for Nintendo’s Wii?

Since the game isn’t out yet, we don’t know much of it, so I won’t talk about that. Instead, here’s a bit of an infodump to chew through and see if you can’t find some meat to gnaw off these old, rehashed bones.

The Wikipedia page is right over here, always a good read.

IGN has a page full of preview coverage, including screenshots. Check it out.

Atomic Games claims the goal is to present an insight into a historical situation the way only video games can, and I do agree, video games have a great power to teach, inspire, and immerse people in experiences they’d never otherwise know. But somehow, I get the feeling that rocket-jumping isn’t a common tactic of our boys on the ground.

The announcement of Six Days In Fallujah has sparked some controversy, mostly from the type of people who use the phrase “war crimes” in casual conversation. While these shrill harpies and professional whiners can be safely ignored, there is something to the idea that maybe transforming real-world events that involve the deaths of thousands into a light evening’s entertainment isn’t the best way to go about things as a culture. Especially when those who were fought and survived are still alive. Still, we do have to come to grips with the even the most depressing chapters in our history, and maybe playing it through in a game is a good way to do that. A personal experience will always beat out a dry description or roll of statistics on the back page of some newspaper, and video games possess a great power to pour that experience directly into a player’s mind.

Atomic Games is also planning to use bits and pieces from the new game for a military training sim, coming soon to a high-school ROTC classroom near you.