Silent Hill: Downpour falling on consoles in Q3

At the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Konami debuted what it was then calling Silent Hill 8. Reports earlier this month indicated that the title was to be called Silent Hill: Downpour and was in development at Czech developer Vatra Games.

Those details have now been officially confirmed by Konami, along with another morsel. Gamers can expect to get their hands on the title sometime during the July-September quarter this year, with near-simultaneous releases expected in Europe and North America on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Downpour will be the first new instalment in the Silent Hill franchise in almost three years. The last instalment, Silent Hill: Homecoming, came out stateside on September 30, 2008, but didn't hit European consoles until February 27, 2009.

The game puts the player in the shoes of lucid-dreaming convict Murphy Pendleton, though gameplay and narrative details are still scarce. As with all previous instalments, Silent Hill: Downpour will be a third-person survival horror title, and water will play a prominent role.