PS3 Fanboy

1UP has a pretty in-depth preview of Silent Hill 5 up which should dispel any misgivings you might have about the game's western development. Due for a fall '08 release the game seems to be coming along quite nicely and 1UP got a nice chunk of juicy details out of the developers.

For starters, Silent Hill 5 will be a standalone adventure with a separate story and new characters. The game still promises to be a part of the Silent Hill canon, however, and not just in name. Some series mainstays are back, including the crawling fog, levels that transform from light and airy to grime covered and bloody and a permanent grain filter over the action. All of these things have been improved on for the next generation of consoles.

New features will also be implemented into SH5, such as utilisation of the Havok physics engine to allow furniture to be accidentally knocked, alerting your enemy of where you are. The battle system will also have an overhaul, making combat a bigger part of the game than in previous iterations of the series. For the full lowdown on the game be sure to check out 1UP's preview for plenty more SH5 info.

Well... if you can handle the guy talking in a foreign language in the background (we won't even guess which language to save face), you've got a couple minutes of Silent Hill V to watch. The atmosphere is as moody and daunting as ever and it seems to be a throwback to the original game's tone -- walking into some random house, that is. Maybe we'll get more random homes to walk into. And the "checkpoint" that comes up on screen? Kind of strange, but if it gets rid of save points, that could work out for the better. We'll keep you posted as more details emerge.