Getting both the HD collection and Downpour late April, early May. Pretty excited about both honestly. SH3 remains my favorite title in the series, it still holds up amazingly well too. Downpour I'm going to give an honest shot, am expecting an above average (7.5) type of deal, which is fine by me. The genre is dwindling a bit, so I'll take what I can get.

Ikari, you're not crazy. I too have grew fond of the game, despite hating it for a few years there. It's amazing what I thought to be bad back then when there were so many amazing titles and what I feel is good now, due to this underwhelming generation (in regards to that genre at least).

I took expect Downpour to be a 7 or so. But, that's not even a bad thing. I wouldn't call Homecoming any kind of amazing experience of loving memories. I'd call it a 7 at best too. But, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the game and it's story. It was a fun game that most people hate on, but, I actually quite enjoyed and had a lot of fun with. It's not something I would really play through again, but, it was an enjoyable experience while it lasted.

And that's all I expect out of Downpour. It'll be a fun game with a hopefully gripping plot that keeps me interested until the end. That's all I can ask for. It doesn't need to be a 10/10 game to enjoy it.

As far as 4 goes, I think most people hate it simply because it's 'different'. People hate change. Anything that changes up a steady formula is met with tons of disparity. Tons of people hate RE4 and onward for changing the formula because they resist change. Even many old school fans cited Revelations as not being good enough etc. Because they're stuck in the past believing old school RE is the only way an RE can be done, despite the fact the mechanics are just out dated and wouldn't hold up well in this age of gaming.

SH4 is a good game so long as you can put aside your expectations of what you deem a 'SH' game to be. Despite not originally being developed as a SH game, I still feel they did a good job at tying it into the SH world and it does in fact come off as a very solid SH game to me. It just approaches everything differently than it's predecessors. It still has the same feel and vibe though and a lot of the same mechanics.

I just wish they had included the game on the HD collection.

So I've NEVER played a Silent Hill game. Yes I know what the hell is wrong with me??

anyways I LOVE survival horror games so I'm interested in the franchise and want to get in on it. Obviously I will pick up the HD collection which is coming out soon and has SH 2 and 3.

My question for you diehard and experienced SH fans what other games should I get, or pass?

Downpour is out, but it's getting okay reviews; Should I pass on it?

What about the first game? If I get the HD collection am I going to be totally lost in terms of the games story?

What are your guys recommendations?

Silent Hill isn't necessary to understand Silent Hill 2. It's not 'entirely' needed to understand 3 either since 3 does explain a lot of the backstory, though 3 is a direct continuation of 1 so it will certainly make a lot more sense and have a lot more impact with it's twists and reveals if you've played through 1.

So I would definately recommend playing through 1 at least before playing through 3. But, it's up to you really.

As far as Downpour goes, that's entirely up to you. Just understand that Homecoming and Downpour are not made by Team Silent and go in their own direction. They're good games, and combat is far better in those games than any of the original 3, but, they're still not exactly the same as the original 3 games. I've played 1, 2, 3, 4, Homecoming and Shattered Memories and enjoyed all of them. Plan to get Downpour too and I'm sure it'll be fun. I just take each game as it's own thing rather than trying to compair them to each other.

Reviews are starting to come out for Downpour.... they're all over the show. But the game is averaging just above a 7/70 on Metacritic and 66% on Game Rankings. For one reviewer who likes one element, someone else doesn't, and so on. The only universal comments are on combat where most people don't like it. But again, if you're a SH fan you're probably not going to care about that as much.

Got the collection and it requires an install of 4GB. I needed to defrag the HDD since the game was stuttering quite a bit but enough to see that Hijinx has indeed managed to run, SH2 at least, at 60fps. May not be consistent as the Gamespot review notes but hell, it's better than nothing.

After the big patch last night I noticed the 4GB install base. Thought it was only 2. Christ.

@ SG79 - surely you mean 30fps?

About defraging - that on 360 or PS3?

No, 60fps, albeit inconsistent but it's clearly that. Boot up the original PS2 games to see the difference.

The defrag was regarding the PS3 and it doesn't do anything. That patch improved the stuttering somewhat but it's far from perfect still, but SH2 is still acceptable. However, SH3 is an abomination and I never thought I'd be one of those people but it really is. Right from the get go, you'll noticed the downgraded ground textures, missing fog and the changed colour palette (which gets worse as you go on). Slowdown to boot and get this: NO self shadowing.

Hate to say it but unless you're hankering to play SH2 in somewhat good 5.1 audio, I wouldn't recommend this collection.

I've read at a couple of places the patch for the PS3 ver changes a cutscene when Pyramid Head makes his first apperance (the scene where James hides in the closet and then shoots at it through the slats).

I watched a few videos, but I think the most telling for me was Smiley over at THIA posted up two different people's "Let's Play"'s - one from SH2 Directors Cut and one from SH2 HD of the Lake sequence. It's like night and fricking day different looking.

SH2 DC Original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhSz59KL ... ded#t=370s
SH2 HD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTZeeVJYS98

The pyramid head rape scene was not censored, it's a bug related to the PS3. Know of several people who have it on the 360 and still have the full scene.