The surreal environments of Silent Hill and the nightmarish creatures that lurk in its shadows will make a next-gen return this fall in the pages of a gaming revue, as Konami’s fifth installment in the creepy franchise is preparing to take over your consoles.

As producer William Ortell confirmed at Konami’s E3 short press conference, Silent Hill 5 is currently in the works for "next-generation" platforms, mainly PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Silent Hill V follows war veteran Alex Shepherd on his way home from active duty, following the disappearance of his younger brother Joshua. At first, all clues point towards the mother-is-your-brother community of Shepherd's Glen, but soon Alex finds himself on the mist-shrouded streets of Silent Hill.

The creepy atmosphere that made Konami’s game so famous will benefit from the raw power of next-gen consoles and will certainly be enriched with particle effects impossible to render on PlayStation 1 or even PCs. Silent Hill’s surreal inhabitants are also at their posts ready to take the main character down, but the devs promised better control during the gameplay (a thing that made Silent Hill particularly obnoxious to many gamers was the odd camera and the stiffness and limitation of the character’s movements) and improved combat system (with an array of defensive and offensive techniques).

Speaking of developers, it’s surprising the fact that Silent Hill’s original creators, Team Silent, have been removed from the SH 5 equation (no explanation as to why that happened) and that it’s actually Team Collective, responsible for Marc Ecko, Buffy, and an upcoming Dirty Harry, that are drawing the blurry lines in the survival-horror franchise’s latest installment.

"With gritty graphics and sound combining to create a haunting atmosphere and all-new visceral gameplay elements, Silent Hill V shows the level to which next-generation hardware can enhance the player's overall gaming experience," said Brian Christian, product development chief at Konami.

The game, scheduled for a 2008 debut, will also sport an original soundtrack from series producer and sound director Akira Yamaoka.