“Silent Hill 2’s remake is a faithful tribute to a horror classic that hardly holds anything back.”
Pros
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Detailed characters and world
Fantastic sound design
Strong puzzles
Redesigned boss fights
Original story is still impactful
Cons
Padded with backtracking
Combat gets old
After hours spent hiding from twisted nurses, I’m finally ready to escape Silent Hill 2’s Brookhaven Hospital. I frantically search for a front door key in the lobby, but I find one final doctor’s note first. The journal entry ruminates on an illness that’s taken over the small town, one that’s left its victims lost beyond the borders of reality. The medical world is on the hunt for a cure, but this doctor questions if it’s really a sickness at all. Sure, their patients are lost in a world within their head, but they seem at peace there — happy, even.
“So why, I ask myself, why in the name of healing him must we drag him painfully into the world of our own reality?” the writer wonders.
That’s always been the key to Silent Hill 2’s horror, and it’s carefully preserved in Bloober Team’s faithful remake. The PlayStation 2 classic is filled with creepy monsters that will stalk anyone unwise enough to enter the town of Silent Hill, but that’s not the source of its fear. The real scary part is what lies outside of the city limits: a harsh world where monsters roam free on two legs instead of hiding in the shadows. Maybe it’s safer in the fog.
While it may be an unnecessary project, Silent Hill 2’s remake keeps the original’s haunting essence intact by staying true to its unsettling atmosphere, off-kilter tone, and uncomfortable moments. It’s a respectful revisit that only veers off course when it tries a little too hard to add pounds onto a sleek horror game. Even with some extra weight, the tortured story told here is every bit as harrowing as it was in 2001.
Remaking Silent Hill 2 is no easy task. Though many games over the past two decades have been inspired by the PS2 classic, very few have quite nailed its feel. It shares DNA with genre peers like Resident Evil, but it’s a horror game that feels as otherworldly as its own alternate universes. It’s eerie, antagonistic, and always just enough off-center to keep players off balance at all times. I was skeptical that anyone could pull it off, let alone Bloober Team; psychological projects like The Medium have always felt indebted to Silent Hill, but they’ve never quite hit the mark. Perhaps sensing its own shortcomings, Bloober dials in on the original game to truly understand what makes it special and deliver a remake worthy of its legacy.
Bloober finds a new eeriness in its uncanny approach.
The core is still the same. It’s a survival horror game about James Sunderland’s trip to a foggy, monster-infested town in search of his “missing” wife. All of the set pieces, disturbing bosses, haunting music, and iconic cinematics appear as I remember them, but with a modern sheen. That begins with a visual overhaul that trades in PS2 dreariness for Unreal Engine 5 realism. Though the original release derives its power from its filthy textures, Bloober finds a new eeriness in its uncanny approach.
Characters are more painstakingly detailed, capturing more physical nuances from its top-notch cast. Characters like Angela benefit most from that change; she’s more manic when she’s wildly swinging around a knife, more detached as she ascends a flaming staircase. Eddie is especially haunting, with a rougher face and dead eyes that contrast with his total mental collapse. Then there’s James, brought to life by a well-cast Luke Roberts, whose unsettling nature is only emphasized by upgraded animations. He sleepwalks through some of the story’s most disturbing moments, seemingly unphased by it all, but he turns into an aggressive killer the moment he starts wailing on a monster with a lead pipe. You can feel that something’s off about him well before the truth of his quest is revealed.
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The town of Silent Hill is more realized here too, with more explorable spaces around town. A ratty American flag hanging from a porch gives me a better sense of who might inhabit its homes. When I run into a laundromat, I’m met with dingy washing machines that look like they haven’t been cleaned in a decade. Despite having a modern sheen, Bloober works more grit into every corner of the deteriorating town. It feels like a true ghost town, but one that’s still just left of reality.
More technical updates double down on horror. While the original release is plenty scary, it’s more on a psychological level. The remake brings more horror to the fray through darker lighting that hides monsters in shadow. The sound design especially stands out, creating a wall of unnatural sound that persists throughout. When an enemy is nearby, radio static erupts from my DualSense speaker. At first, I think that it too clearly telegraphs approaching enemies. By the end, it becomes a source of madness. When it begins to crackle, it triggers a Pavlovian reaction in me. I’m suddenly activated, sent into a blind rage as I try to smash every enemy I can find just to make it stop.
Of course, the most crucial part of Silent Hill 2 is its fog. That’s so important that its previous remaster was heavily criticized largely because of its changes to its density. Bloober opts for a white wisp haze over the ashen haze of the original. It may be contentious with nitpickers, but it works here. It’s less apocalyptic, but it’s still a thick wall that’s hard to see through. When I hear an enemy creeping nearby, I’m sent into a panic as I struggle to find it through the noise. It’s still an oppressive mystical force that lords over me, only showing me what it wants me to see and when it chooses to. I’m powerless to its almost holy presence.
The changes here aren’t just technical ones; Bloober gives the original a major gameplay rework too that brings it more in line with Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes. There are pros and cons to that approach that create a clear contrast into how the scope of big-budget games has shifted between 2001 and 2024. It feels like publisher Konami’s directive here was to make Silent Hill 2 feel like a modern game. Beyond the makeover, it’s a bigger game with expanded combat, more puzzles, and much larger explorable spaces. While there’s nothing about those changes that’s actively bad, they don’t always feel additive.
For instance, locations like Toluca Prison are expanded into sprawling mazes that take a few hours to complete. Bloober often justifies that growth with deeper puzzles that feel in line with the original release, even when they’re entirely new additions. One has me finding weights throughout the prison and correctly placing them on a scale to unlock different doors. Another has me matching snippets of poems about execution victims to make sense of their crimes. Each one very much feels in the spirit of Silent Hill 2, reimagining it as a more robust series of puzzle boxes.
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What’s less effective is all the backtracking that adds to the experience. The remake takes around 14 hours to complete, which is a few hours more than the original, but most of that extra time is spent running back and forth between corridors to solve puzzles. Brookhaven Hospital is especially exhausting at times, as I spend a lot of time trying to remember how to get from point A to point B again as I walk a far off item back to where it’s needed.
Combat has a similar dynamic. On paper, it’s a great upgrade. It’s a tense third-person shooter that effectively creates tension through resource scarcity. Enemies like Mannequins can be unpredictable, skirting away from my bullets. If I don’t want to waste my shots on a monster that skitters into the shadows the moment my flashlight hits it, I have to take my chances with close-range melee combat. That can be dangerous, as a short evasive dodge is only so effective against piles of limbs that erratically lash out.
That system does wear thin eventually, as the remake forces players into battle a lot more because of its tighter spaces. In the original, I could largely choose to leave monsters alone if I so desired. I could let a nurse keep roaming Brookhaven’s halls, leaving a creepy obstacle in my path. It’s more imperative to clear them out here, which reveals how few monster types the original game actually has. I’m largely fighting variations of the same three monsters who become easy to deal with once I know their patterns.
What does killing 30 more Nurses or backtracking Brookhaven for an extra hour or two actually add to the story?
It’s moments like that which bring the folly of remakes like this into light. The original Silent Hill 2 works as well as it does because of its dated design decisions, not in spite of them. Its smaller spaces and concise runtime keep the story moving while offering just enough to do between cutscenes. The remake, on the other hand, stuffs padding into that sleek sequence. The solution to making the PS2 game feel modern often translates to adding more “content,” but what does killing 30 more Nurses or backtracking Brookhaven for an extra hour or two actually add to the story? Some decisions feel more about justifying a price tag to new today’s audiences than supporting the story.
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There are plenty of moments, though, where the remake does add meaningful changes. The biggest example comes in its reimagined boss fights, which make some of gaming’s most uncomfortable moments even more visceral. In the original release’s most upsetting moment, James fights a boss dubbed “Abstract Daddy” — a sentient bed that visualizes Angela’s sexual trauma at the hands of her father. That moment falls a bit flat in the original, as James simply guns it down in a bland square room. The fight here is enormous by comparison. The beast chases James through a labyrinthian apartment, smashing through walls like a rampaging bull. Angela’s pain feels more tangible in that moment, her father getting better represented as the dangerous, destructive force he is. Interpretive changes like that are where game remakes can offer value, continuing a conversation with the source material instead of talking over it.
While Bloober Team’s remake takes a lot of liberties with gameplay and upgraded visuals, it stays true to the original where it counts. Silent Hill 2’s story goes largely untouched in the remake aside from some additional dialogue and collectible memos naturally weaved into the PS2 game’s script. Only a few new additions feel out of place and a scene or two loses its edge with cleaner visuals (the iconic prison chat with Maria doesn’t quite feel as haunting here), but it otherwise lets Konami’s original vision play out in all its glory. That’s a bolder decision than it sounds like.
The remake barely filters the original’s most grotesque moments.
On revisiting Silent Hill 2 for the first time in years, I’m struck by just how unflinching it is compared to today’s big budget games. It’s never out to please players, like the B-movie romp of Capcom’s Resident Evil games. It’s an actively uncomfortable game that skirts the boundaries of sensitivity, something that may shock modern players. But that’s not done without purpose: A story about the ugliness of humanity needs to be ugly.
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Silent Hill 2 deals with deep-rooted trauma by meeting its characters at their lowest points. James is a guilt-ridden antihero who practically begs to be punished by the menacing Pyramid Head. We meet Angela in the midst of a breakdown as she struggles to process grief in tandem with grotesque abuse. Eddie, who is sure to uphold the title of the story’s most controversial character, finds himself pushed onto a psychopathic path after years of bullying. Each character is screaming out in pain, even when it’s through their disassociated eyes. And we’re trapped in the fog with them.
The remake barely filters the original’s most grotesque moments. A dog’s murder is described in brutal detail. James remains a loathsome worm of a hero. One puzzle has him wrapping a noose around his neck as it almost looks like he’s praying he’s actually receiving his final judgment. Creepy Mannequins are great for a jump scare, but these are the moments of lasting horror that will stay with me forever. The real fear is that there’s no hope for redemption in a world of unimaginable pain, a horror that feels just as suffocating as the fog of Silent Hill. Who would want to survive in that place?
“There is no healing of thy bruise,” one note scratched into a wall threatens. “Thy wound is grievous.”
We have only touched the surface of what drones can do and how ubiquitous they will become. This is also true in industry, where they have the potential to replace human labor in risky activities such as inspection at height.
Swiss startup Voliro operates in this space, with flying robots that can inspect wind turbines, overwater structures, and other infrastructure that’s hazardous for humans to reach because of factors such as height and weather conditions.
This is more than a visual inspection for glaring issues like corrosion; Voliro’s drones can poke around with sensors that can perform tasks such as dry film thickness, often eliminating the need for people on ropes. Yet, don’t expect CEO Florian Gutzwiller to tell you how many labor casualties the company’s drones are preventing. “I’m Swiss. If I were an American CEO, I would say we are saving lives every day, but I think it’s too aggressive,” he told TechCrunch.
Cultural differences aside, Gutzwiller has another reason to emphasize other aspects than accident prevention, such as productivity: Even when all goes well, which is luckily most often the case, industrial inspections cause downtime. Avoiding this downtime can save a significant amount of money for Voliro’s clients, which include Chevron and Holcim, as well as inspection and maintenance service providers.
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“One of my favorite examples is flare stacks,” Gutzwiller said. “Because a flare stack is hot, you have to turn it off. You have to cool it down. You have to build a scaffold. Then you do the inspection. After doing the inspection, remove the scaffold, and then turn it on again. This can be a matter of days or weeks, and we can do it in 20 minutes.”
Voliro’s competitors include Avestec, Flyability, and Skygauge, but Gutzwiller thinks versatile hardware gives it an edge. There are its sensors that can handle heat, combined with the core innovation it is based on: a tiltable rotor that gives freedom of 360-degree motion to its robots, meaning they can work on ceilings and apply pressure without losing stability.
This advanced rotor was developed by some of Voliro’s team within the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, before the startup became one of its many spinoffs in 2019. The commercial launch of its drones followed three years later, but that’s not what it sells: Its business model is a B2B subscription.
This model has many advantages, Gutzwiller said. For customers, it means accessing hardware and software upgrades as they are developed, in addition to getting support. For the company, it means recurring revenue that can fund R&D and showing the kind of cash flow that investors like to see.
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This may explain why the company recently managed to raise $12 million, despite a challenging fundraising environment for startups and robotics. Bringing its funding to date to $22 million, this new capital injection was led by Cherry Ventures, with additional investment from existing business angels, family offices, and a conventional debt facility as a minority part of the round, according to the company.
Commercial traction helped with VCs and bankers, but there was still an element of luck and serendipity. Voliro pitched many VC firms, as is the norm these days, but it hadn’t pitched Cherry Ventures until a Mexican entrepreneur Gutzwiller met randomly at a bus stop in the mountains recommended him to do so. Fast forwarded a few months, and Cherry led Voliro’s Series A round.
Gutzwiller’s journey with Voliro was also serendipitous. After selling his company Open Systems to private equity in 2017, Gutzwiller became an angel investor, but he didn’t stop at investing into the ETH spinoff: He became an entrepreneur in residence at the company, then its executive chairman, until he replaced former CEO Mina Kamel in November 2022.
Gutzwiller is now in charge of spearheading Voliro’s growth, and he’s bullish about its platform approach. For instance, it will soon support third-party sensors that can detect corrosion under insulation. In the longer term, it could go further toward repairs, for instance, by having its robots remove rust or add coating themselves. But first, the company will work on expanding its client base across oil and gas, energy, and other industry sectors that could benefit from needing less human work at height.
U.S. crude oil is set to book a nearly 9% gain for the week, after President Joe Biden indicated that the White House is discussing a possible strike by Israel on Iran’s crude facilities in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile strike earlier this week.
Oil prices would spike by $10 to $20 per barrel if an Israeli strike knocks out 1 million barrels per day of Iranian production over a sustained period, said Daan Struyven, head oil analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Just how high prices would go depends on whether OPEC uses its spare oil capacity to plug the gap, Struyven said.
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Here are today’s energy prices:
West Texas Intermediate November contract: $74.07 per barrel, up 37 cents, or 0.50%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil has gained more than 3%.
Brent December contract: $78.11 per barrel, up 49 cents, or 0.63%. Year to date, the global benchmark has risen more than 1%.
RBOB Gasoline November contract: $2.0992 per gallon, up 0.0067%. Year to date, gasoline has fallen less than 1%.
Natural Gas November contract: $2.924 per thousand cubic feet, down 1.55%. Year to date, gas is ahead about 18%.
Though oil prices have surged this week on geopolitical tensions, they have risen from a low baseline. Just last month, prices hit their lowest level in nearly three years as bearish sentiment swept the market on soft demand in China and plans by OPEC+ to increase production.
“The risk to the oil price outlook are definitely significant,” Struyven told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Friday. The oil market had largely ignored the escalating war in the Middle East until Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
“Geopolitical risk premium priced into oil markets until basically today was quite moderate,” Struyven said. Brent prices at around $77 per barrel are still below Goldman Sachs’ view of what constitutes fair value based on inventory levels, he said.
The risk premium has been modest because there haven’t been sustained supply disruptions over the past two years despite high geopolitical tensions, Struyven said. There is also about 6 million barrels per day of spare capacity on the sidelines that can come online and offset tightness from most supply disruption scenarios, the Goldman Sachs analyst said.
Users can ask the Gmail chatbot questions about the contents of their inbox or connected Google Drive, such as finding lost contact information or company data. The Gmail Q&A feature can summarize emails around a particular topic, surface unread messages or emails from a specific sender, and answer general questions from Google search directly within the inbox.
Here’s what the Q&A feature looks like in your Gmail inbox.Image: Google
Like the web and Android versions, the Gmail Q&A feature on iOS is only available to Google One AI Premium subscribers or Google Workspace accounts with Gemini Business, Enterprise, Education, or Education Premium add-ons. Google says it’s rolling out to those groups now, but it may take a couple of weeks to appear.
Cloudflare has claimed to have recently mitigated the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in history.
In a company blog post, Cloudflare outlined how, throughout September 2024, an unnamed threat actor targeted multiple customers in the financial services, internet, and telecommunication industries, among others.
Without naming any specific targets, Cloudflare said that the attack campaign targeted bandwidth saturation, as well as resource exhaustion of in-line applications and devices.
Bots across the world
The attack included “over one hundred hyper-volumetric L3/4 DDoS attacks”, many of which exceeded 2 billion packets per second (Bpps), and 3 terabits per second (Tbps).
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A hyper-volumetric L3/4 DDoS attack is a type of DDoS attack targeting layers 3 (network) and 4 (transport) of the OSI model (framework that standardizes network communication). It overwhelms the target’s bandwidth or network infrastructure with massive amounts of traffic, often using techniques like UDP floods or TCP SYN floods. The goal is to exhaust the resources of the target system, making it unavailable to legitimate users.
Of all the attacks, one stood out – when it peaked at 3.8 Tbps. This is, according to Cloudflare, “the largest ever disclosed publicly by any organization.” It predominantly leveraged UDP on a fixed port, the company said, and originated from across the globe. The majority of the endpoints used in the attack came from Vietnam, Russia, Brazil, Spain, and the US.
Detection and mitigation was all automatic, Cloudflare says. It added that the key reason why it was able to tackle it was because the company has servers across the world, which essentially water down incoming botnet traffic.
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Generally, DDoS attacks are done via botnets – vast networks of compromised endpoints such as routers, smart home devices, and similar. These attacks included traffic from MikroTik devices, DVRs, and web servers, as well as compromised ASUS home routers, which were likely exploited using a CVE 9.8 (Critical) vulnerability that was recently discovered by Censys.
Before this one, the largest-ever observed DDoS attack was 3.47 Tbps strong, and was mitigated by Microsoft in November 2021.
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