Silent Hill 2

Following on from the success of Silent Hill, Konami set to work on a second game. This would be released on PS2 as the console was brand new and it seemed like a great idea to bring one of the scariest games of 2000 to a better platform and with breath taking graphics.

In 2001, Konami released Silent Hill 2 on Playstation 2.


The story of Silent Hill 2 is not a continuation of the first game, but rather a stand alone story which isn't tied to any other game in the series.
It follows the story of James Sunderland, a man in his late 20s who has lost his wife three years prior to the events in the game. He comes to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from her saying she is waiting for him in their "special place"

The game features the radio and flash light from the previous games which still serve their purpose of detecting monsters and lighting the environment slightly. However, this game's otherworld is only featured twice in the game and it is not bloody and rusty like in the first game.

The game also takes place in a new area of Silent Hill, south of Toluca Lake which features Blue Creek Apartments, The Silent Hill Historical Society and Brookhaven Hospital among other scary environments.



The graphics in this game was fantastic for PS2 at the time. Sharper images and more polygons allowed for more detail in the characters and the environments. This also allowed for a scarier game experience too, and indeed it was. Silent Hill 2 gave a more psychological experience as everything in the game was constructed from James' mind and subconscious. Through the monsters and events we get to know the character and sympathize and even hate him, something the previous game didn't do. It also gave birth to Pyramid Head, a firm fan favorite but sadly very over used.



The ending has a superb twist to it and has landed this game one of the best in the series. It's beautifully written story is so sad, so depressing, yet fantastic gave this game a great feeling, as well as the environments and fantastic music from Akira Yamaoka, this has to be the best Silent Hill game in the entire series.

It was a firm success which lead Konami to go ahead and make the next game in the series.

Silent Hill

With Silent Hill 6's big reveal only hours away at E3, I thought it would be nice to do a blog about the Silent Hill series, having a brief look at the games and how they redefined Survival Horror.

In 1999, Capcom's "Resident Evil" was pretty much dominating the survival horror genre in video games and with Resident Evil 3: Nemisis just around the corner, Konami wanted to try and create their own survival horror game.
They came up with a game that was completely different to Resident Evil and other previous survival horror games. Previous games had an emphasis on fighting and shooting monsters with the occasional "jump scare" tactic to frighten the player, Silent Hill decided to take the atmospheric route and have a psychological scare.

So in 1999, Konami delivered Silent Hill.



Silent Hill followed the story of Harry Mason. He travels to Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl for a holiday. While driving at night on the outskirts of town, a police officer roars past on a motorbike, shortly after, Harry sees the motorbike discarded on the side of the road with the police officer no where in sight. As he looks back to the road, a figure of a girl steps out in front of the car, Harry tries to avoid the girl and crashes into a gully.

Awaking from the crash, he sees fog is all around him, he turns to check of Cheryl is ok, but she is nowhere to be seen. Panicking, Harry leaves the car and heads to a deserted town in the distance.

This is where you take control, following what looks like Cheryl into town and down an alley. Once in the alley, the true feeling of Silent Hill's horror sets in. A dead dog lying in a pool of it's own blood, darkness quickly growing and an ominous siren lowly wailing in the distance all add up to a feel of unease and confusion.

Further down the alley, a loud squeaking can be heard, a broken wheelchair lies on it's side with one wheel slowly spinning, next to that, a hospital gurney with a covered body lying on it. The concrete fades away to reveal wire mesh on the walls and floor, and a dead body strung up with barbed wire hangs in front of Harry's lighter, the only source of light he has. And after that, there is nowhere else to go. Turning around reveals 4 monsters coming towards Harry, completely defenseless, Harry succumbs to their attacks and passes out....

Playing this for the first time scared the hell out of me! Thankfully Harry wakes up in a cafe and then the game really begins. But that opening section really defined what survival horror really could be! The atmosphere and uncertainty of what was happening made the game a terrifying experience. The fog severely hindering the players view also added to suspense and unease as you couldn't see any monsters coming, but you knew they were around due to the radio emitting static whenever they are near.

Silent Hill offered less emphasis on combat and more on story and atmosphere, it created a truly terrifying experience and once it finished, it left us begging for more!

The Monster Ball

So I went to see Lady Gaga in Manchester last night with my boyfriend and my god it was amazing!!!
We were right at the front so we could see Gaga clearly and the show she put on was just fantastic!!!!

Amazing sets with keyboards everywhere, a HUGE Fame Monster and Gaga with her amazing outfits.
At one point she looked right at me and Richard and leaned over to touch us! We were INCHES away when a security guard stopped her. But my god it was fantastic! She also managed to tell off the entire security staff for not allowing people in with coke cans in their hair. Thankfully security listened to her and let people keep the cans in their hair.

I absolutely adore Lady Gaga. She is down to earth and really cares for her fans! I would deffo go and see her again!!!

Beautiful Thing

So I have just finished watching a really good film. It's called Beautiful Thing and it was made through Film Four, so you know it's gonna be a good British film.

It's quite old I have to say, and you can tell it looks dated. It was made in 1996 and it's got a very strong 90s feel.
It's set in the Thamesmeade estate in London and it's about Jamie who lives with his mam and her strange hippy boyfriend. He has two neighbours, there is Ste who lives with his abusive father and brother and find himself sleeping at Jamie's to get away from them. There is also Leah who spends her time listening to Mamma Cass records.

Ste and Jamie become close and eventually become lovers. It explores teenage boys coming out in the 90s and the struggles that come with it, however it's not all bad. Once Jamie's mother gets over it everything is fine, besides the fact that Ste has to hide it from his dad.

Overall I'd say it was a feel good film because it is what it's title says, a Beautiful Thing. Visually it's stunning, it breathes life into the grey urban look of Thamesmeade's concrete tower blocks and shows just how nice gay love actually is.
Just a shame there is so much homophobia around.

If you haven't seen it before then do check it out, it is a gem of a film and I'm sure you will like it.

10 Reasons To Chain Smoke - Update

Just a quick post to update you on the latest film I am producing called "10 Reasons to Chain Smoke" written by Richard Gilroy.

We have halted filming for a week or so as our actor James Baxter was filming for ITV but now his schedule is clear, filming will start at the beginning of next week. I am aiming for a April 30th release date. And by release date I mean the date I upload it to youtube.

We also have the first 4 minutes edited and it is looking VERY good. James is a brilliant actor.

I don't think I will be making a trailer for this one as there is not enough footage to make a decent trailer without spoiling the story.

I'll give you another update nearer it's completion.

Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain is the new PS3 exclusive from Quantic Dream and it is not like any other game I have ever played!

It revamps and totally advances the style of an oldish game called Fahrenheit which was also made by quantic dream, however that game wasn't as directly interactive as Heavy Rain.

When I look at Heavy Rain I see it more of an interactive movie, or "Interactive Drama" as the developers call it, rather than an actual game. This is because the entire game is like a quick-time event where you press the right button at a certain time. However when I say that, you may be thinking about the Resident Evil 4 quick-time events but this isn't like that at all! Rather than have it tell you to press a certain button at a certain time, it asks you to press a selection of buttons in different ways depending on the action.

For example, at one part of the game, you have to disinfect someone's cuts. You do this by slowly moving the right analogue stick in the direction it asks you. Do it too fast and you cause pain to this person.

Another example is when you are grabbing something or preparing for a run up to something, the game asks you to press and hold one button, then while keeping hold of that the character takes a step back, then you press and hold another button, while keeping hold of the first, to take another step back, then release the two to take the run up.

It is fantastic! It is so immersive and the storyline is brilliant. There were numerous occasions where I was on the edge of my seat, and even parts where I didn't want to do certain actions because I felt so strongly for the character.

There is also no game over! You play 4 main characters, each have their own sections throughout the game, and if you kill one of them, the story continues but changes to that character is dead. Kill all of them off and that is one of the endings. This games the game so much re-playability as every action you do takes the story in a different direction. Not drastically but it gives it variation. It also allows you to play again to get all the trophies too!

It has a fantastic and emotional storyline and brilliantly executed controls. The only problem I have with it is that the sound kept cutting out now and again, but pausing and unpausing the game fixed it.

Seriously, if you have a PS3, then get this game! It's like nothing you have ever played before!

District 9

So I had the pleasure of finally watching District 9. Now, a lot of people seem to think it's Peter Jackson's film, HOWEVER he was only the producer. The film is actually that of Neill Blomkamp as he was the director. Obviously Peter Jackson will have had input as all Producers do but I won't divulge into that as quite honestly, I don't know how much input he had.

Anyway, onto the film itself.

It has a VERY different take on your average alien film. First off, it's not about an alien invasion. It's rather the Aliens came to earth accidentally and landed because they ran out of fuel. Us humans being territorial and all that jazz intervened and decided that they had broken their ship and were here to stay, so they imprisoned them in a large shanty town-like place called District 9, where they live.

The aliens are portrayed as animals who have a thing for cat food, and the humans aren't portrayed much better tbh. The humans go in trying to get the Aliens, or Prawns as humans call them, to sign eviction agreements as they want the aliens gone from Johannesburg.

So pretty much it's a nod to concentration camps and essentially racism. All the Aliens want to do is go home. They don't attack humans unless they are under threat, and even then they seem pretty harmless.

I thought it was very well done as you sympathized for the aliens rather than the humans. Also the visual effects were very good! The Aliens looked very real as did the hovering mothership.

This film was rather weird but very good non the less! Check it out if you haven't already, and I will certainly look forward to seeing more films by Neill Blomkamp in the future...