Riona: Why does the Silent Hill 2 manual feel the need to tell me that the plank James wields is between 32 and 40 inches long? What am I expected to do with this information?
Rei: Craft a custom dildo.
Riona: I don't like this answer.

That seem impractically large.

It cracks me up that James's reaction, if you try to examine the stage with the pole on it at Heaven's Night, is '...Just a regular stage. There's nothing strange about it,' ellipsis and all. (There's also a great 'James desperately tries not to pay attention to how sexy Silent Hill is' moment if you examine the locker with a poster of a woman in a bikini on it: 'The locker won't open. ...This is no time to be looking at a stupid poster.')

NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR BEING HORNY! NOW IS THE TIME FOR BATTLING THE MONSTERS OF YOUR OWN GUILT! IF YOU TRY TO COMBINE THE TWO IT JUST GETS UPSETTINGLY WEIRD!

An unsettling detail I never noticed before: the prison morgue is not included on the prison map, suggesting this is not an entirely above-board affair. Although I should probably have guessed that from the fact that their corpse disposal system appears to be 'just shove the corpses in a big hole'.

Yeah, that's not a sign of a well-run and ethical prison.

I examined the piano in the hotel, and James's thoughts slightly broke my heart. 'There's a piano here. I remember how much Mary liked to play the piano. She wasn't very good... But I still loved to hear her play. That was so long ago, before we were even married. Why am I thinking of that now...'

Aw, James!

Another devastating bit of internal narration I don't remember ever seeing before: 'There's a book open on top of the desk. It looks like a medical book. I've already read enough medical books. None of them ever did any good.'

I'm really coming to understand why you like the character!

I actually missed examining the liquor bottles in Heaven's Night this time around, which I was sorry to realise, because it's the single piece of examination text I remember most vividly: 'Liquor bottles. I don't need that right now. It’s not that I don't drink. In fact, I drink a fair bit. To get away from the pain and the loneliness... But the drinking never changes anything... Anyway, I don't need it now. There's something I have to do.' It feels like a significant characterisation detail; I'm surprised that it's so easy to miss it entirely.

Wow, yeah, that does suggest a lot!