There are few unmade video games more famous than Silent Hills and its beloved Playable Trailer. Although P.T. is now very hard to find since Konami took it offline, an instructor in Japan is using it as a tool to teach students how to speak English.
Tsunan Secondary School in Niigata Prefecture shared a blog entry (via IGN) that demonstrated how an assistant language teacher utilized P.T. in class as a learning tool. Students were invited to play through P.T. in English, while other members of the class would get to weigh in on what the player should do next by using English phrases.
The blog noted that alarmingly loud ringing telephone from P.T. startled the fifth-year students, who are roughly the same age as high school sophomores. But this is one of the most novel ways to learn another language. It’s impressive they have the game at all considering that the only easy way to play it is with PlayStation 4 consoles that downloaded it before P.T. was taken down.
Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, director Guillermo del Toro, and actor Norman Reedus were lined up to collaborate on Silent Hills before Konami pulled the plug on the project. Kojima subsequently left the company and released Death Stranding, which featured Reedus in a leading role and del Toro in a cameo appearance. The sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, was released earlier this year.
Kojima is currently working on OD, an upcoming horror game with director Jordan Peele. One of the first trailers for OD appeared to feature a Silent Hills callback. A more recent OD teaser trailer was also very reminiscent of P.T., and Kojima subsequently stated that he had to make sure that he hadn’t captured a real ghost while he was visiting locations for the game. OD doesn’t currently have a release date, but it’s being produced by Xbox Game Studio in conjunction with Kojima Productions. Actors Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier are lending their likenesses and voices to the game.
