Silent Hill HD Collection Message Board

When Konami released the Silent Hill HD Collection back in March, what should have been a celebration of gaming horror classics, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3, instead produced a collective sigh, as fans mucked through the countless technical issues within.

These issues were far more pronounced on Xbox 360 than PlayStation 3, and not long ago Konami issued a patch attempting to smooth out the PlayStation 3 version. Now, we know why Konami didn't release an Xbox 360 patch then: they have no plans to ever.

Here's the full statement released by Konami this afternoon:

I'd normally take out the registered trademark junk, but if Konami's not feeling up to it, neither am I.

When asked if Konami will be offering a refund program for Xbox 360 owners, the company pointed me towards its customer support website.

The Silent Hill HD Collection was an embarrassing mess of technical issues, and it’s taken too long for Konami to address them. A long-promised patch (it was announced on April 25!) has been released for the PlayStation 3.

Konami producer Tomm Hulett announced the patch’s availability on the Sillent Hill Community message boards, but made no mention about when the patch would arrive on Xbox 360. I've reached out to Konami about it.

The patch is intended to remedy (or, at least, address) the following issues:

• Improved Framerate
• Voice Sync is greatly improved
• Missing sounds have been fixed
• Missing music has been addressed
• Fog density issues are resolved
• Other minor visual/audio improvement

Let’s collectively remember how rough the Silent Hill HD Collection was upon its recent release. Yuck.

Like any series fan, I’d heard there were substantial issues with Silent Hill HD Collection, and they were profoundly apparent when I sat down to play the “upgraded” versions Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 for today’s Quick Look.

In a rather fortunate coincidence, just hours after the Quick Look went live, Konami issued a press release promising a patch for both the Silent Hill HD Collection and the latest, not particularly great sequel, Silent Hill: Downpour.

Konami claims it “understands the issues some users are experiencing." It's reportedly developing a patch to address frame rate issues (that’s an understatement, especially at the end of today's Quick Look) and audio syncing within the HD Collection, and auto save glitches (which came up in our Quick Look not too long ago) in Downpour.

The patches don’t have a date yet, but Konami said they were planned for the “coming weeks.”

Of all games, Silent Hill 2 deserved better. Hopefully, this patch is a step towards making that happen.