Resident Evil (Game)

Resident Evil, originally known as Biohazard​ (バイオハザード Baiohazādo?) in Japan, is a video game series and media franchise consisting of comic books, novelizations, films, and a variety of collectibles, including action figures, strategy guides and publications. Developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami, the series has sold almost 40 million games as of May 2009.

History
Resident Evil made its 1996 debut on the Sony PlayStation and later on the Sega Saturn. It was a critical and commercial success, leading to the production of two sequels, Resident Evil 2 in 1998 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999, both for the PlayStation. A port of Resident Evil 2 was released for the Nintendo 64. In addition, ports of all three were released for Windows. The fourth game in the series, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, was developed for the Sega Dreamcast and released in 2000, followed by ports of 2 and 3. Resident Evil Code: Veronica was later re-released for Dreamcast in Japan in an updated form as Code: Veronica Complete, which included slight changes, many of which revolved around story cut scenes. This updated version was later ported to PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube under the title Code: Veronica X.
Despite earlier announcements that the next game in the series would be released for the PlayStation 2, which resulted in the creation of an unrelated game titled Devil May Cry, series' creator and producer Shinji Mikami decided to make the series exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. The next three games in the series—a remake of the original Resident Evil and the prequel Resident Evil Zero, both released in 2002, as well as Resident Evil 4—were all released initially as GameCube exclusives. Resident Evil 4 was later released for Windows, PS2 and Wii. In addition, the GameCube received ports of the previous Resident Evil sequels. Despite this exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, Capcom released several Resident Evil titles for the PS2 that were not considered direct sequels.
A trilogy of GunCon-compatible light gun games known as the Gun Survivor series featured first person gameplay. The first, Resident Evil: Survivor, was released in 2000 for the PlayStation and PC, but received mediocre reviews. The subsequent games, Resident Evil: Survivor 2 Code: Veronica and Resident Evil: Dead Aim, fared somewhat better. Dead Aim is actually the fourth Gun Survivor game in Japan, with Gun Survivor 3 being the Dino Crisis spin-off Dino Stalker. In a similar vein, the Chronicles series features first person gameplay, albeit on an on-rails path. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles was released in 2007 for the Wii, with a follow up, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles released in 2009.
Resident Evil: Outbreak is an online game for the PS2, released in 2003, depicting a series of episodic storylines in Raccoon City set during the same time period as Resident Evil 2 and 3. It was followed by a sequel, Resident Evil: Outbreak: File 2. Raccoon City is a fictional metropolis located in the Arklay Mountains of North America that succumbed to the deadly T-Virus outbreak and was consequently destroyed via a nuclear missile attack issued by the United States government. The town served a critical junction for the series' progression as one of the main catalysts to Umbrella's downfall as well as the entry point for some of the series' most notable characters.

Resident Evil Gaiden is an action-adventure game for the Game Boy Color featuring an RPG-style combat system. Also, a Resident Evil-themed pinball game was released on Game Boy Color. It featured boards with characters, settings, and monsters from the game. There have also been several downloadable mobile games based on the Resident Evil series in Japan. Some of these mobile games have been released in North America and Europe through T-Mobile. It has also been announced at the Sony press conference during E3 2009 that a Resident Evil title will be heading to the PlayStation Portable, entitled Resident Evil Portable.
At E3 2010, Keiji Inafune stated that the franchise will be heading to the Nintendo 3DS "in a totally new way", while announcing the title Resident Evil: Revelations.

Silent Hill (Game)

Silent Hill (サイレントヒル Sairentohiru?) is a survival horror video game franchise, developed and published by Konami. In the series, the player takes control of an "everyman" protagonist traversing through the decrepit and nightmare infested remains of the town of Silent Hill. Typically, the storyline unravels a psychological repression regarding the cast of characters along with the tainted history regarding the eponymous town.
The first four games in the series were created by Team Silent, a development staff within Konami, which has since disbanded. Subsequent titles have been created by other developers: Silent Hill: Origins and the reimagined Silent Hill: Shattered Memories by Climax Studios, Silent Hill Homecoming by Double Helix Games, and a currently untitled installment from Vatra Games. There is also a series of comics, books, and novelizations based on the series. A film adaptation loosely based on the original game was released in 2006 directed by Christophe Gans. A second film is currently in pre-production.

Main series
Conceived by the game designer Keiichiro Toyama, the first Silent Hill was released in 1999 for the Sony PlayStation. The plot of the game centered on Harry Mason arriving in Silent Hill and his subsequent attempts at finding his adopted daughter, Cheryl. During the progress of the game, the protagonist Harry finds that Cheryl has a disturbing past as the details of her genesis are revealed. This game was followed by the release of the side story for Game Boy Advance called Silent Hill: Play Novel. Silent Hill 2, was released in 2001 for the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. The extended versions for Microsoft Xbox and PC are sometimes referred to by the name Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams and feature an extra subplot scenario, as does the "Greatest Hits" re-release for the Sony PlayStation 2. The plot centered on James Sunderland, who had received a letter from his deceased wife informing him that she is waiting for him in their "special place", which leads him to Silent Hill. The second full sequel, Silent Hill 3, was released in 2003 for the Sony PlayStation 2, as well as for PC. Highly tethered to the events of the first game, the plot surrounds a teenager named Heather as she uncovers the mysteries that surround her past — including her own link to the haunted town. Silent Hill 4: The Room was released in 2004 for the Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and PC. The plot follows Henry Townshend who finds himself mysteriously locked in his own apartment until a hole appears in his bathroom wall. The game features characters that are mentioned in previous titles.
A prequel, Silent Hill: Origins, developed by Climax Group, was released in 2007 for the Sony PlayStation Portable, and in March 2008 for the PlayStation 2. The plot features Travis Grady, a trucker with a disturbing past who becomes trapped in Silent Hill after rescuing a girl from a burning house. During his quest to find the fate of the burned girl, he encounters characters from the first game and some new ones from his own subconscious. The sixth installment, Silent Hill Homecoming, was officially confirmed on July 11, 2007, during E3 2007 for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and PC. The game tells the story of Alex Shepherd, a soldier who has returned from a war overseas. Shepherd discovers upon his arrival that his father has gone missing and his mother has become catatonic. Joshua, his brother, is the only one who can provide solace, but he soon vanishes. The game chronicles Shepherd's search to find his missing brother. Like Silent Hill: Origins, Team Silent did not develop the project; instead, development was done by Double Helix Games. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the original Silent Hill by Climax Group, and was released for the Nintendo Wii and later released for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It is "not a remake or a port" and all the character designs have been redone. The largest changes were a total removal of combat (monsters only appear in select areas of the game, where you're chased by them), and a focus on psychological horror. The game would test your personality at select points, and alter the game's story & monster designs accordingly. A new Silent Hill game was announced in April 2010. It is being developed by Czech studio Vatra Games for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was confirmed at E3 in 2010, and a trailer was displayed. The music will not be created by Akira Yamaoka, but by film and TV composer Daniel Licht.

Setting

The first map obtained in Silent Hill.

Silent Hill is a small town situated around the edge of Toluca Lake and a large forest, with the older sections of town located to the north and along the banks of the adjacent river. Due in part to heavy commercial development, the town is fairly self-sufficient; it has an elementary school, a shopping mall, a church, two separate hospitals, a sanitarium, and other stores and attractions. The majority of the town's businesses are locally-owned mom-and-pop stores, with no apparent influence of chain stores or franchises other than a burger joint (called "Happy Burger") and a Shell gas station. Old Silent Hill and Paleville have large residential areas with both apartments and homes, as well as several motels and the grand Lakeview Hotel. The beachfront area of Paleville also has a lighthouse and hosts the Lakeside Amusement Park.
Prior to the 17th century, the area where Silent Hill was established was home to an unnamed Native American tribe that used the land for rituals. At the end of the century, settlers arrived and founded the town; shortly thereafter, they began to rapidly die off. The deaths were attributed to an epidemic, and Brookhaven Hospital was built to treat those affected. Eventually the settlers fled the town, leaving it abandoned for nearly a century, until it was resettled as a penal colony in the early 19th century. Twenty years later, another epidemic broke out, and Brookhaven Hospital was rebuilt and reopened. In the 1840s, the prison was closed, and the town once more abandoned; in the 1850s, coal was discovered there by another wave of settlers, and it became a boomtown.
During the American Civil War, the town served as a prisoner of war camp; after the end of the war, the building used to house prisoners was converted into a state penitentiary, and later on, Silent Hill became a resort town. Around the same period, a group of religious zealots founded a series of small doomsday cults based upon the eschatology of the unnamed Native American tribe which occupied the land before settlers arrived. Collectively referring to themselves as "The Order", the cults, each of whom worshipped a different sub-deity, practiced human sacrifice and necromancy in an ongoing effort to resurrect "The God", an ancient deity which they believed would usher in an age of paradise by killing all humans. The belief system incorporated such obscure terms/concepts as "Gyromancy", "Mark of Samael" and "Seal of Metatron". To fund their efforts, The Order dealt a psychedelic drug called White Claudia, manufactured from a plant indigenous to the town. The drug trade served to increase tourism to the town from the residents of surrounding areas, who traveled there to obtain White Claudia. The drug trade was eventually crippled in the midst of a war between The Order and local authorities in which members of The Order murdered several police officers. Users of White Claudia often experienced hallucinogenic encounters with demons.
Silent Hill manifests itself in at least three distinct parallel layers, or dimensions: a normal, populated town; a quiet, seemingly abandoned town veiled by supernaturally thick fog; and a dark and decaying town (called the "Otherworld") filled with disturbing, hellish imagery. Only the latter two layers are explored by the games' protagonists, where demonic and disfigured creatures roam the streets and buildings (appearing in greater numbers in the Otherworld). Electricity and lighting are extremely limited or nonexistent as well. Occasionally, characters will transit between dimensions, and in some cases the dimensions may intersect with each other, creating an incoherent space called "Nowhere".
The different appearances of both the town and its inhabitants manifest from characters' personal fears, though not necessarily those of the protagonists. These manifestations may be shared between characters, or otherwise appear exclusively to only one of them. It is implied that Silent Hill always held a supernatural presence, but the town's virulent history since the early modern period had made these energies into something darker.
Commentary published by Konami has stated that the power of Silent Hill has "intensified greatly" since the events of the first game. While the first, second and prequel games featured protagonists who were drawn into Silent Hill, in the third, fourth and fifth games, the Otherworld has reached out to people in nearby towns of Ashfield, Portland and Shepherd's Glen.

Gameplay

A combat scenario in Silent Hill 2, with James preparing to attack an approaching monster.

The first Silent Hill title, which served as the gameplay model for its first two sequels, utilized a third-person perspective with fixed camera angles at certain points. Most sections take place indoors, connected by open streets and alleyways (though the third and fourth games feature greatly reduced exploration of outdoor environments). The alternating fog and darkness only allow the protagonist and player to see within a ten-foot radius at any time. At the beginning of the game, the character is usually equipped with a pocket flashlight and a seemingly broken pocket radio that emits static in close proximity to monsters.
Much of the series' gameplay revolves around solving puzzles, often to obtain a key or other item essential to the plot. Various monsters are also encountered in nearly all parts of the game. The player has access to a variety of improvised melee weapons and firearms, although most characters do not show any indication of experience with firearms.
All the games feature multiple endings. Silent Hill, for example, has a progression of endings from bad to good, depending on how many side objectives the player accomplishes prior to the final boss fight. The endings of Silent Hill 2 are presented as being all equal, with no clearly defined bad ending. There are also humorous joke endings in every game (except Silent Hill 4), most commonly referred to as the "UFO Ending" because the main character comes in contact with extraterrestrials. Silent Hill 3 and Silent Hill: Origins, however, both force a good ending on first-time players, with bad and joke endings for players who use a continuing save.

Tomb Raider (Game)

Tomb Raider is a media franchise consisting of action-adventure games, comic books, novels, theme park rides, and movies, centring around the adventures of the fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft. Since the release of the original Tomb Raider in 1996, the series developed into a lucrative franchise of related media, and Lara went on to become a major icon of the video game industry. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognised Lara Croft as the "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine" in 2006. Six games in the series were developed by Core Design, and the latest three by Crystal Dynamics. To date two movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, have been produced starring American actress Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.

Lara Croft
The central character in Tomb Raider is the British archaeologist Lara Croft, a female adventurer in search of ancient treasures. Lara was created by one-time Core designer Toby Gard, and grew out of a number of ideas discarded in early concepts. She appears almost invariably with brown shorts, a green or blue sleeveless top, holsters on both sides of her hip for dual wielded pistols and a small brown backpack. Over the course of the series, her 3D model has undergone gradual graphical improvements, as well as enlarged (and later reduced) breast size.
Over the course of time, the Tomb Raider series canon has undergone various changes or retcons. These changes correspond to the series entering a new medium, such as comic books or film, or being taken over by a new game developer. For example, in the first Tomb Raider game manual, Lara Croft is said to have survived a plane crash in the Himalayas at the age of twenty one, and was later disowned by her parents, who are still living. However in the comics, Lara lost both her parents and her fiancé in the crash. The films make no mention of a plane crash, Lara's mother died when she was too young to remember, and her father died under different circumstances. When development of Tomb Raider was transferred from Core Design to Crystal Dynamics, Lara's biography, only ever mentioned in instruction manuals, was contradicted by a new biography which supported an in game sub-plot concerning the deaths of Lara's parents.

Alison Carroll, the current official Lara Croft model

Several actresses and models have taken on the role of Lara Croft in real life for publicity purposes, including the British model Nell McAndrew, as an official model, and Rhona Mitra, in the early days of the games' success. In addition, playing Lara at game conventions is a popular type of modelling work. Alison Carroll is the current official portrayer of Lara. American actress Angelina Jolie was cast as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movies.
Nearly fifteen years after the release of the original game, Lara is still one of the most durable and recognisable video game characters. Alternatively viewed as a feminist icon or sexual fantasy, the impact of her character on popular culture is undeniable.

Video games
The Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 35 million units, making it one of the best-selling video game series of all time.
The original game, titled Tomb Raider, made its début on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC. Despite being released on the Saturn first alongside PC, it was one of the titles responsible for the PlayStation's success in the mid 1990s. The games present a world in 3D: a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara. On the way, she must kill dangerous creatures or other humans, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize, usually a powerful artefact.
Tomb Raider, an early example of the 3D genre, uses third-person shooter mechanics. The player's camera follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind. Until Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, the game's environments were largely orthogonal, as a result of the creators' decision to extend the 2D platform game genre to a 3D world. This is shown through Tomb Raider's gameplay, which is very reminiscent of older platform games like Prince of Persia and Flashback that had a heavy focus on timed jumping interspersed with combat.
Each game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth game, Lara could back flip off ropes and turn around in mid-air to grab a ledge behind her. Tomb Raider: Legend introduced an electromagnetic grapple that Lara can attach to metal objects and can, amongst other things, be used to make rope swings and pull metal objects (and enemies) toward her. Standard moves in Lara's range of abilities include the somersault, a roll, climbing techniques, the ability to swim, a swan dive manoeuvre, and a handstand. In Tomb Raider III, a sprinting move was introduced that allowed Lara to quickly speed up while a bar in the lower corner of the screen drained her stamina. In Tomb Raider: Chronicles, Lara was able to bar-swing and somersault/roll out of crawl spaces higher than ground level.

The storyline is usually driven by the quest for a powerful artefact, with Lara in a race against a sinister shadow league who want to obtain the relic for their own purposes. These artefacts usually possess mystical powers and may be of supernatural, or even alien, origin. Often in the series, the antagonist uses the artefact or bits of it to create terrifying mystical monsters, creatures, and mutants which Lara must defeat throughout the journey.
On August 18, 2010, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix released a download-only title, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, the first game in the series not to bear the name Tomb Raider. The omission of the Tomb Raider branding was said to separate Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light from the "pillar" Tomb Raider games, which are also still being produced.
In an interview with GamingIndians.com, Ian Livingstone, Life President of Eidos Interactive, announced that the next Tomb Raider was currently in the works. Livingstone stated "I think it will surprise a lot of people and reinvigorate the franchise." The official site revealed the next Tomb Raider game which is simply titled Tomb Raider, It is described as a reboot of Lara Croft. No official release dates have been confirmed.