silent-hill-homecoming posts

Australia has been known for some time as one of the hardest countries to get an adult-oriented game approved by the local ratings board. The lack of an adult rating for games (unlike their movie industry) is the main cuprit. Now a title that was once banned for sale in the country, Silent Hill: Homecoming, has had that decision overturned.

According to a Gamespot AU story, Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification has now given Konami's survival horror game a MA15+ rating, the highest a game can get without being banned for sale. It's currently unknown if the publisher made a push to release the game as is or if any edits to the game's violent content were made. Last month a simiar ban on Monolith's upcoming horror shooter F.E.A.R 2 was also overturned.

Update: Games On Net confirms that the game was in fact edited for contest in order to receive the MA15+ rating

The National Institute on Media and the Family has attacked the game industry for years and has also issued their annual "report card" on both the industry and specific games. In the past they have generated a lot of publicity for their report card by holding press conferences in Washington DC with various national lawmakers also taking part.

However, the game industry has taken huge steps in the last few years to police itself through both its ESRB ratings system and enforcement of those ratings in retail stores. So this year's report card by the NIMF is very low key with just a media announcement and no press conference or senators around. Indeed, the actual report card on the industry has the industry getting almost straight "A"s (they got a B+ for ratings enforcement). So the organization is now focusing on getting parents involved in making sure they know what games their kids are playing.

The NIMF has also issued a list of games children should avoid playing. All of these games are rated "M" for Mature so the industry has already done its job in labeling them as not appropriate for kids. They include games released for the PC platform like Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Silent Hill Homecoming and Legendary (another game, Saints Row 2, is due for release on the PC this January).

If you have been waiting for Konami to fullfill its promise earlier this year to release Silent Hill: Homecoming on the PC, your wait is finally over. The latest game in their survival-horror series is now available to purchase and download via Valve's Steam service.

Konami announced last August that there would be a PC port of the game but that it was going to take a risk and sell the title only via Valve's Steam service. There are no plans at this point for a retail release of the PC version. Originally announced as coming out alongside the console versions, the PC port got delayed until after the console ports were released in late September. On the plus side, people who purchase Silent Hill: Homecoming via Steam will get 10 percent off its normal $49.99 price until Nov. 10.

Konami gave some gamers a bit of a surprise earlier this year when it announced that its survival horror title Silent Hill Homecoming would appear on the PC but would be distributed only as a downloadable title via Valve's Steam service. Originally the plan was for the PC port to be made available at the same time as the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions ship to stores.

However both the console versions have now shipped to stores. So where is the PC/Steam version? According to a post on the Steam message board, Valve's Mike Dunkle has stated, "Silent Hill Homecoming for PC will not become available until later this month. Please stay tuned for more information." There's no other word on why this delay has happened,

[Via Blue's News]

Australia continues to deal with the fact that their video game ratings system only allows for games to be rated as 15+, unlike their movies and magazines. Today Gamasutra reports that Konami's survival horror game Silent Hill: Homecoming has become the fourth such title in 2008 to be refused classification by the country's Office of Film and Literature Classification.

As one might expect the game got cited for its violent content including ""finishers involving ramming pipes through enemies' heads and stomping on their faces to pull them out, tearing their entrails loose with an axe, or simply some good old-fashioned bludgeoning." The three previous games that were banned in Australia (Shellshock 2, Dark Sector and Fallout 3) were later edited and given a 15+ rating. Silent Hill Homecoming will only be released on the PC platform via Valve's Steam service.

While the game industry is beginning to understand that they can sell high profile games any time of the year the truth is that the time period between the first of September and the first week of December remains the biggest time of the year for new games to be released. 2008 seems to be no exception to this rule as PC gamers have a ton of new and promising titles to choose from this year.

So which games are we most looking forward to playing this fall? Well it so happens that we have created a feature gallery that has our picks for the PC game titles we most want to play in the next few months. That list include a long awaited MMO, a new expansion pack to the biggest MMO, an alternate history RTS game, a number of great looking first person shooters, a post-apocalyse RPG and a title that some are already declaring "the greatest game ever made." (in fact you can get a clue as to one of the games on our list from this custom case mode we saw at QuakeCon).

Our list of games is ordered by their scheduled release dates. Keep in mind while checking our picks that release dates can and do change at the last minute. Our picks represent the best info on these dates at the time of the posting of this article but if any changes are announced afterward we will report on them on the news site.

Click on the image above to continue reading "Most Anticipated Fall 2008 PC Games"

Earlier this week we reported that Konami had plans to release a PC version of their upcoming survival horror game Silent Hill: Homecoming in September. At the time we noted that the only place Konami stated the PC version would be released would be via Valve's Steam service with no word on a retail release.

Now comes confirmation (via out sister site Joystiq) that Konami indeed has no plan to ship the PC port of the game to retail stores. According to a statement from the publisher, "Steam is currently the only method of distribution for Silent Hill Homecoming PC." This has to be considered a major coup for Valve's download service and an interesting decision for Konami to bypass retail stores entirely for one of their major franchises.

Konami rarely releases PC games but for their upcoming survival horror game Silent Hill: Homecoming they are making a big exception, announcing today that a PC version will be released at the same time as the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. All three versions are scheduled for release at the same time this September (the European versions are due out this November).

Silent Hill: Homecoming is the latest game in the long running survival horror series as your player character heads back to his hometown of Shepherd's Glen to try to find his missing brother. Naturally you will have to encounter some of the oddest and most frightening creatures ever made for a survival horror series. The PC version will be made available via digital download on Valve's Steam service. There's no word if Konami will release the game to retail stores yet.

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming over the weekend including the lastest of our E3 hands-on impressions.

	BigCast 004 -- English Is Hard! Listen as Xav stumbles about trying to pronounce simple words! This week we cover some of the biggest PC news from the world of E3, talk classic gaming habits and throw around the idea that maybe games are meant to be played instead of examined. Crazy thoughts and more in the epic episode with guest hosts Kyle Horner, Samuel Axon and first-timer James Murff. It's time to go big, right here at the BigCast!
	E3 08: Hands-on with Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 If the original Command and Conquer timeline is a fairly standard sci-fi affair and C&C Generals is a more realistic near future storyline, then Electronic Arts' Red Alert franchise is all about comic book goofiness and fun. The alternate history where the Communist Soviet Union is still large and in charge and wild weapons are plentiful will get a revamp this fall with the release of C&C: Red Alert 3
	E3 08: Dragon Age Origins impressions Our very last E3 2008 appointment was, ironically, not at the Los Angeles Convention Center but at a nearby hotel. Deep underneath the hotel's meeting room was host to BioWare's long awaited next fantasy RPG Dragon Age Origins. The game was first announced and shown in a very early form over four years ago at E3 2004 (when it was called simply Dragon Age) so we were expecting to be wowed by this new version.
	E3 08: Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II impressions So you think you know what Relic Entertainment is going to do with the full sequel to their acclaimed sci-fi RTS title Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War (based as always on the Games Workshop war game). Better graphics; more units, more visble units in massive battles, right? Isn't that the way sequels usually do things?

During a live demo of the PS3 and Xbox 360 title Silent Hill: Homecoming (the fifth game in the Silent Hill series), the game's developers revealed that a PC port is planned, although no time frame was specified. We doubt it will be day and date, but this is still good news. Lots of PC gamers have enjoyed the past three games in the series, although the original PlayStation title never saw a Windows release.

Just in case you're not familiar with Silent Hill: it's a Japanese-developed survival horror game. It's not much like the Resident Evil games, though; the characters you play in Silent Hill are not trained professionals. They're regular Joes or Janes who are faced with vastly superior and horrific monsters, as well as psychological trauma. The series is known for its deep storyline, multiple endings, and apallingly disturbing monster design.