Put A Budget Behind Climax's Shattered Memories Reboot Before Heading Down The FPS Route, Konami.

Consider our optimism at the announcement of a new Silent Hill game well and truly slashed. Rumours suggest that Vatra Games are to turn Konami's premium horror-franchise into a ten-a-penny first-person shooter. We just died a little inside.

The report comes courtesy of GameRep, who claim that the studio's only listed release is an FPS due for release in Q1, 2011. Now, we know Vatra are working on the new Silent Hill game, Konami said as much, thus this is all a little, well frightening.

Seeing as recent headline releases in the franchise haven't been huge successes, Konami must want to reinvigorate the franchise. But they already did that: the PS2's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was a quality psychological experience that took the franchise back to its heart. Stick a budget behind that type of game, and you'll have something that'll definitely stand out from the crowd.

Turn Silent Hill into an FPS and you'll have a repackaging of FEAR with a once high-profile name on the cover. Then again, we suppose the game could focus on the first-person aspect rather than the shooting. In which case you have a repackaging of Condemned.

Either way, we remain hugely sceptical until someone can convince us otherwise.