TGS 2001 Fall: Hands-On: Silent Hill 2 X

Microsoft added a dose of creepiness to its TGS booth with a playable build of Silent Hill 2 on the Xbox. Dubbed a director's cut of the recently released Silent Hill 2 for the PlayStation 2, the game is slated to offer new modes and extras not found in the PS2 version. The early build of the game on the floor didn't seem to offer much, but it was still looking quite solid.

The graphics weren't much of an improvement upon those of the PS2 version, though they were tweaked. The "noise" in the PS2 game was modified, and the graphics appeared to have a slightly cleaner look, making the graininess found in the PS2 slightly more effective. Rather than look grainy and out of focus, the game offered a cleaner look--but it retained the appearance of old, processed film. The load times were better than those of the PS2, thanks to Konami's use of the Xbox hard drive. It was difficult to get a true feel for how effective the in-game sound was, especially if it was truly taking advantage of the Xbox hardware, thanks to the high-pitched sound tornados that are the various stage shows on the TGS show floor. The game handled well with the Xbox controller, the button layout was suited to the pad's configuration, which, of course, had us longing for the Japanese controller to be released in the US. So far, it looks as though SH2 is shaping up nicely for the Xbox. Konami currently hopes to release the game at the Japanese Xbox launch next February.