10 Genius Ways Video Games Fixed Their Own Mistakes

10. Thick Fog Was Used To Conceal Poor Draw Distance - Silent Hill

Apart from Pyramid Head, what's the most iconic visual element of the Silent Hill franchise? Fog, of course, which has been used throughout the series to layer the titular town in a literal air of mystique as you venture through it.

But for Konami, this wasn't so much an artistic concern as it was a technical one, as the limited nature of the PS1's hardware meant that it couldn't continually render the entirety of Silent Hill while the player moved around it.

The fog was conceived as a mask, then, to conceal the fact that the game was only rendering the environment in the player's close vicinity, a fact that would be painfully obvious without said fog.

Ultimately it was praised by critics and fans as an atmospheric device, steeping the player in the unknown and forcing them to tread carefully as they explored the town, even if it started out as nothing more than a technical necessity.

Though later games in the series didn't need the fog, it became so iconic with fans that Konami sensibly kept including it.