Resident Evil 4 will own EVERYTHING.

I'm posting this for all of you naysayers and player-haters. You can scream "Halo 2!" and "Metal Gear Solid 3!" all you like. RE4 will be the game of the year, and here's a detailed article explaining why. The article is divided into five parts, each one describing one of the five best aspects of the game.

Practice Makes Perfect The aiming revolution. If you've played any Resident Evil game, you know they have a few problems. And when you're surrounded by a horde of zombies, not being able to aim is a rather HUGE problem. Granted that you could choose between low, mid, and high targeting -- there wasn't any skill involved (or guarantee that you'd hit something). "Aiming" at a zombie's head often translated to shooting the ceiling. It was an awful system, especially when that missed shot ends with the cold, decomposing jaws of death clamping onto your jugular. Luckily, the training Leon received from a secret government agency working directly for the president included a daily visit to the firing range. With all this shooting practice, Leon has learned how to *gasp* aim. That's right. Thanks to the over the shoulder perspective of RE4, Leon is able to freely aim around his environment. Want to shoot out a pane of glass? Blow up explosive tripwires with bullets? Murder cows? You can. But this targeting system goes beyond the quasi-first person perspective. Aiming at various enemy body parts actually has different results. Hitting legs will make enemies limp. Shooting hands will likely make them drop their weapon. Shoot them in the head and you'll kill them. You'll even be able to shoot projectiles (such as axes thrown at your head) out of the air. It's an intuitive and gratifying system -- and you can no longer use the aiming mechanics as a scapegoat. All-American Action Hero Leon's got new moves. Does Resident Evil's lack of defensive measures make you ill with the T-virus? Tired of a "run away" battle cry? Resident Evil maneuverability has always been hindered by its stiff control system. But it wasn't simply the confusing contextual navigation that left you as zombie food. Unless you practiced the "avoidance is best" policy, there was nothing you could do if a zombie actually attacked you (especially if you were out of ammo). Resident Evil 3: Nemesis introduced a dodge feature that finally allowed you to avoid an enemy's lunge. But even with all these inclusions, there was always an instance where there was no way to escape -- praying that you had enough first aid spray to heal your wounds wasn't a very comforting way to play. Resident Evil 4 is an evolution. Regardless of the situation, Leon always has a combat option if he's out of ammo or taken by surprise. In such an event, the A button flashes on screen signifying a contextual action. When surrounded, you can command Leon to let loose a roundhouse kick, which knocks enemies to the ground and provides time for you to escape. How's it different? Sure you could dodge enemies, but due to Resident Evil's traditionally fixed camera it was hard to gauge when to initiate the dodge. Now you've got a more accurate sense of spatial relations thanks to the over-the-shoulder perspective and the on screen clues let you know that Leon can kick butt. However, Leon has acquired a few more tricks for his Resident Evil 4 outing. Now, thanks to the omnipresent contextual A button uses, Leon is able to maneuver like never before. Need to escape a building? Jump out the window. Or, climb into ground level windows. You can climb ladders... and kick them down so that your enemies can't follow you. The A button will also allow Leon to sprint, swim, or dodge attacks in certain instances. Resident Evil 4 gives you a wide array of ways to handle any given situation besides stand and fight or try to run away. Having to think is a wonderful thing. Leon Is So Fine Resident Evil 4 is one sweet looking game. Resident Evil 4 is a great looking game. In fact, it's one of the best looking games this generation, and the best looking game running on GameCube. Few believed that Resident Evil 4 was capable of running on the GCN. We all know that the Resident Evil Remake is a great looking game -- accomplished through pre-rendered backgrounds. Many figured that Resident Evil 4 was using a similar trick. But it's all full 3D. It looks so good that the IGN Xbox site even commented, "It couldn't look any better on Xbox." Character models and environments are incredibly detailed. Leon's hair bounces when he walks. You can see the stitching on his leather jacket. Each wooden structure gives the appearance of being constructed from different wood grains. Thousands of leaves cover the ground. The crosshatching on the "executioner" is incredibly frightening up close (especially when he's trying to cut your head off). The creepy visages awaiting around every corner, including bodies stapled to huts and dead erupting into piles of bubbling acid, coupled with lighting effects and an excellent art style create such an eerie world -- it's scary. All of this is covered with a gritty filter that makes the world feel real in a way never shown in a Resident Evil game. He Can Dance No more rigid controls or fixed camera angles. The worst element of any Resident Evil game has always been the stiff controls and fixed camera angles. While many loyal fans have been able to adapt to the rigid controls and counter-intuitive, contextual-to-the-camera angle directional movement, the controls barred most people from even attempting to play more than 10 minutes. These controls can easily be blamed for thousands of RE deaths -- especially when you're disoriented when moving between screens and have to dodge zombies. Of course, fixed camera angles led to their own array of deaths. There's nothing quite like entering a room and hearing that you're not alone. You know there's some sort of mean spirited monster vying to kill you, but because it's not on screen and you can't pan the camera, you have no real clue where it's situated. Running right into an unseen enemy puts a damper on any game play experience. Fortunately, all the associated cursing can now cease. Resident Evil has finally joined the wave of intuitively controlled software. Your perspective has been moved to a semi-first person view -- you're essentially looking over Leon's shoulder. This means you can see everything that he sees . While you can't physically control the camera (unless you're in free-look/binocular view), but this view means that you won't be given the third-person camera advantage (ability to look all around the character) nor will your enemies be able to sneak up on you from directly in font of Leon. The controls themselves haven't changed. They're exactly the same besides for the inclusion of an analog run. However, the new perspective makes these "dated" controls work exquisitely. Maneuvering Leon through environments is incredibly easy -- it's almost as though you're playing a first person shooter. Where Did All The Zombies Go? Intelligent enemy A.I. As easy as it is to love zombie slaying, we all know that with enough bullets no T-virus generated creature can possibly stand in our way. Attack patterns, driven by carnal lust, are incredibly predicable. In Resident Evil, confrontations are determined by whether or not you're willing to waste bullets on the creature in front of you -- especially when most can be avoided. In RE4, you better be prepared to use your bullets -- and to use them wisely. The main menace in RE4 isn't a horde of the undead. Your enemies are a different breed of blood thirsty humans entirely. While they exhibit many zombie-like traits -- ignorance of pain and inhuman strength -- they're smart. They can think, they can coordinate attacks, and they can run. Fleeing into the safety of a house won't save you, they'll surround the house. They'll break down the door, climb in through the windows, use ladders to climb up to the roof -- no where is safe. Say you climb up to an easily defendable lookout tower -- they won't come up after you, instead they'll start chucking Molotov cocktails to either incinerate you or drive you into their waiting pitchforks. While Capcom has given you all sorts of advantages -- good aim, favorable camera/control system, and a bevy of new moves, nothing can really save you when you're surrounded by enemies. Also, they won't just let you kill them. If your laser sight flickers across their face, they'll duck out of the way. It's an incredibly scary experience because the enemies react to be shot at and you can never predict how they're going to retaliate. Resident Evil 4 is Resident Evil reborn. Resident Evil reinvented. Any complaint you could have had with the series has been fixed. This is the way Resident Evil was meant to be played. While you haven't been able to experience it, trust us, these five aspects make a cohesive whole that is one of the most addictive gaming experiences to hit consoles this year. We can't wait to get our next fix -- why must winter be so far away?

So, there you have it. Game of the year. I have no doubt in my mind.

darn man that is nice hey raziel do u know what consol will that will be i hope is ps2
i hope is ps2

Well this article kind of grabbed my attention but I'm not sure if it will be Game of the year because there are many could be good games coming out this year.

Sweet Jesus, I think I need to change my pants after reading that. I believe it's coming out on GC.

Gamecube exclusive. All-riiiight.

Well, that settles it. After my last talk with Raziel about this, and now seeing this I'm pretty sure another gamecube will have a nice home. Oh, and just thought I'd add I tried Halo out the other day and wasn't that impressed. I don't really see what all the hype is about.

The multiplayer in Halo is fun, but the single player didn't strike me as being anything more than a really pretty FPS.

Glad to hear you're interested in a Gamecube! Hell, if I was you, I'd wait until August when Nintendo does their Metroid Prime bundle. It'll be $99, the actual casing will have an MP theme (the circular plate on top will probably have Samus on it or something), and it will come with Metroid Prime and a playable demo of Metroid Prime 2. If I didn't already own a GC, I'd be salivating at the thought of picking one of those badboys up.

I actually played multiplayer Halo, didn't really strike me as something deserving of the attention it gets. Thanks for that little tip Raz, around August I'll get one. That's if I can ever find employment in this shithole of a town.

I'd definitely recommend it. MP is easily the best game on the console so far, and there are a frightening number of others close behind it. On top of that, a playble demo of MP2 seriously makes me giddy. The console is so cheap that I was actually considering picking up the bundle just for the demo and then giving the console and game to someone as a birthday present or something.

RE4 sounds great. The 2 features I like the most about that article is the damage modeling (shooting in leg, hands, head, etc) and the AI the enemies will have. Those 2 features alone mean I need to try this game out.

I think a lot of upcoming games will be good this year including this one.

Some new screenies from the game:

Those look pretty good from what I can see, they're a bit too small though. Are they ingame ?

Looks that way to me.

Yes, that's all in-game. Head to IGN and check out the bigger screenshots. Best graphics engine I've ever seen.

After spending atleast 3 hours tweaking Doom 3's graphics to imminent perfection on my computer, I'm actually glad it is GameCube exclusive. Those graphics are substantially excellent.