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‘Silent Hill HD Collection’ And ‘Silent Hill: Homecoming’ Now Backwards Compatible on Xbox One
Earlier this week, we reported on the recently-released Silent Hill retrospective documentary that covered the series’ highs and lows. One of the lows was the hamfisted “remastering” of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 for the Silent Hill HD Collection. Whether it was Konami’s recasting of the voice actors (and the sleazy royalty issues), the bugs introduced by developer Hijinx Studios that weren’t in the original games, and just overall poor quality, you’d have to wonder why people would actually want to play these remasters.
Well, according to Xbox’s Larry Hyrb, people who want to can now do so, as the Silent Hill HD Collection and Silent Hill: Homecoming are the latest additions to the Xbox One’s Backwards Compatibility program. This is now also the only way to play Silent Hill 2 and 3 on the current generation of consoles.
Originally released on the Xbox 360 back in 2012, the Silent Hill HD Collection was notorious for having more bugs and performance issues than its PlayStation 3 counterpart. As for 2008’s Silent Hill: Homecoming, the game deviated farther from the series’ Survival Horror formula with focusing more on action than scares. Unfortunately, focusing on the already-clunky action sequences without refining them wasn’t the smartest idea.
If you still own a physical copy of either title, you can simply pop the disc into your Xbox One and begin playing. Alternately, if you’ve previously purchased either of the games digitally, they will automatically appear in the ‘Ready to Download’ section of Xbox One’s My Games and Apps menu.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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