If you haven't yet played the console versions, here's the setup: Silent Hill 2 puts players in the shoes of James Sunderland, a 30-something man whose life is upended when he receives a letter from his wife Mary, urging him to meet her in the resort town Silent Hill - a place of many memories and emotions shared between the two. It was giving me all these really messed-up dreams.' No, I couldn't hang with that game at all.' We were a little shocked - enough, in fact, to sort of blurt: 'What, are you kidding? You thought it sucked?'
He looked at us, shook his head a little too slowly, and said (in surprisingly perfect and colloquial English): 'No. We somehow got talking about the merits of Silent Hill 2. You just knew he was a jaded, hardcore gamer nerd, the kind of guy who'd sneer if he caught you playing a demo game on easy. Silent Hill Anecdote #27: We were rummaging around a new and used games/comic shop in Tokyo last summer, one with lots of action figures on display, 'swimsuit' calendars and looping videos featuring the virtual cheesecake of Dead or Alive Volleyball, and a large and somehow arrogant-looking fellow working the counter.
