Big surprise: Silent Hill HD Collection is a buggy piece of shit

I'll say right now that I have yet to play this game for myself, but all that would really tell me that I don't know right now is whether or not the gameplay was changed at all. All I'm talking about here is sound and graphics.

I've been warning you guys about Silent Hill HD Collection for a while now and what do you know, it turns out I was right. Being delayed from the end of last year all the way to this week was already a bad sign, but I had hopes that they might be able to iron out any problems by now. Unfortunately, according to numerous reports, there is a boatload of audio and visual issues with both games with Silent Hill 3 being hit especially hard.

Players have reported issues where the sound would cut out suddenly, music would fail to load up during certain areas or cutscenes, and some sound effects are noticeably lower quality than before with some even reporting startling popping or crackling sounds.

In the visual department, some players are saying that textures are missing and fog is much less dense than the PS2/Xbox versions leading to some areas where you can see outside of the game world. From some comparison screenshots and videos that I've seen, the visuals somehow look worse than the original versions in many ways, with lower quality shadows, less vibrant colors, flat textures, and a total lack of fog in the amusement park area of SH3 in particular.

Yo dawg, I heard you like dull, flat textures and a complete lack of atmospheric fog...

In a recent Destructoid article,  Jim Sterling details a frame rate breaking bug involving receiving an achievement during a cutscene, which causes the game to slow to less than 1 frame a second. All the reviews I've read so far also mention the frame rate stuttering in large areas which you'd think would be a non-issue with ports of 2 last gen games. I find this particularly vexing since the games included in the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (also by Konami of course) had much better frame rates than their last gen counterparts (and no busted textures.)

One other thing that isn't a bug but nevertheless pisses me off, is the fact that the original voice acting isn't an option in Silent Hill 3. I really had hope that the delay would give them the chance to include the original voice work but it seems that the licensing issues that I've mentioned in the past dissuaded them from doing it. I'd really like to know if Konami made any effort to reach out to the voice actors of Silent Hill 3. Again, back to the MGS HD collection: all the original voice acting was included. I really don't understand the issue here. Is it royalties or something more complicated?

I should note that the new voice acting isn't even that bad. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who provided the vocals for several songs in the Silent Hill series so she is familiar with it at least, headed up the re-dubbing of the games and provides the new voice of Mary and Maria. There are a few other recognizable voices like Troy Baker, who I think is fantastic, but here's the thing: it didn't need to be done. This isn't freaking Dragon Ball Z. You don't need to re-dub it every time you re-release it. Uhg, I give up on that one. Do what you want...

Konami, I would like to address you directly. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, you were one of my favorite game companies. I could list so many of your games that I absolutely adore to this day and have written about many of them on this blog in the past, including Silent Hill 2 (my second favorite game of all time) quite recently in fact. You are breaking my heart when you do things like this. I want to love your games as I did in the past, but when you keep betraying my faith in your ability to deliver quality, it gets harder and harder to take you seriously as a leader in the gaming industry. You are better than this, Konami.