Resident Evil 4 (Biohazard 4)

[DomsBeard]

Day one Gamecube blockbuster rental for me and I played it through in one weekend. Absolute classic

I won't add too much as most things have been said however I will say it is the only game to have given me a proper nightmare!.

I was convinced a Regenerador was climbing in through my bedroom window as I could hear it breathing outside

I woke up screaming and threw open my curtains and my Mrs wondered what the hell was going on.

Just listened to it now and it still creeps me the hell out. Especially as initially you hear it off screen (after the first one you meet)



I have bought the HD version for PS4 and for some reason it made me feel very sick similar to what I have with VR. I played it up to the church bell and had to turn it off. I have not been back since. No idea if it is the closeness of the camera or the motion. Never had any other non VR game do this

[Stanshall]

Resident Evil 4 is the only game I've ever played three times in a row. I was living in China at the time and had picked up an imported Japanese Wii. Having exhausted almost everything released on the Wii at that point, I was flicking through the loose pile of GameCube discs at the 'computer city' market, to see what I'd missed out on back in the day. I got Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker and Resident Evil 4, none of which I'd ever played before. I ordered in some spicy food, picked up a crate of beers and settled in for a long night with Leon.

Although it was in Japanese, and possibly because it was in Japanese, that first playthrough was one of the most engrossing gaming experiences I've ever had. I didn't make full use of the items and upgrades or collectibles, but I compensated with an intense focus on the mechanics, enemy behaviours and use of the environments, all of which utterly gripped me. Of course, I wasn't aware of the adaptive difficulty and wonderful pacing at the time, but I was struck by how I seemed unable to put the game down. While weapon upgrades obviously had an impact, I was also very aware that I was becoming better and better at the game as I progressed. Even as the challenge ramped up, I started to see the gameplay as an exercise in efficiency and precision - how could I dispatch the hordes with a minimum of ammo wasted? At this point, my appreciation of the game moved onto a different level. And so, when the credits rolled, I started it again straight away.

Second time around, it really started to click. It wasn't just rolling over my upgraded gear, although that obviously helped, it was that I'd gone from tentatively treading through the village terrified of every cry of "alli esta!" to thoughtfully manipulating the environment and the AI to create bottlenecks and unleash the roundhouse. To paraphrase Rorschach, I was no longer stuck in there with the villagers, the villagers were stuck in there with me. It's often said that Dark Souls reaches a point where the rhythm of romping through the world becomes almost relaxing. That's how I felt on my second run of Resident Evil 4. It's one of the greatest power fantasies in gaming, to my mind.

The day after my second run, I went back to Computer City and by sheer absurd coincidence, the Wii version of the game had just appeared - and it was in English! I didn't follow any games media at the time, and had no inclination that it was even coming out. I was as excited as I ever have been to play any game, even after back-to-back completions. Inevitably, I burned through it that afternoon and evening and with the precision and speed of the Wiimote, and my accumulated experience of crowd control, I absolutely tore it up. I particularly remember using the narrow paths of the castle to corral little groups and taking them out with one shot. That's what you get for cooking a grenade in a corridor.

After that run, I got into Mercenaries which brought back the intense stress of the first playthrough and required all my accumulated knowledge and technique, and then much more. It made me realise how much higher the skill ceiling was, despite my sense of bending the game's systems to my will. And although I started a fourth run, I felt I had probably reached my saturation point with the game and I never really went back. No matter its arguable idiosyncrasies in 2018, it remains in my mind a wonderfully balanced, perfectly paced mechanical marvel and one of the greatest romps in the history of gaming.

[Alex79]

I set my Wii back up today, and whilst digging out the old games I found a bunch of Gamecube games, including Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2, Luigis Mansion (which I was convinced I'd sold), and Resident Evil 4! I was delighted with my find and may well bash through it tonight!

[Suits]

I set my Wii back up today, and whilst digging out the old games I found a bunch of Gamecube games, including Viewtiful Joe 1 and 2, Luigis Mansion (which I was convinced I'd sold), and Resident Evil 4! I was delighted with my find and may well bash through it tonight!

I went back and played through this again a few months ago and had a great time, so I'd encourage you to get aquatinted with it again - mind, I hope you have a GameCube pad handy.

[Alex79]

I do! It's a game I've only ever played a couple of hours of so looking forward to getting in to it at some point.

[KSubzero1000]

On the recent Resident Evil Zero issue of the podcast, I think Leon implied that the adaptive difficulty system in RE4 had only been discovered by eagle-eyed community members a few years ago. In preparation for this here issue, I'd like to point out that the system has actually been known since the game's initial release, and is even mentioned in the FuturePress strategy guide from 2005.

[ratsoalbion]

Oh ok, my bad. Thanks for the heads-up!

I can’t remember if we discussed it in our original podcast.

[KSubzero1000]

No you didn't, and I think you even mentioned a few months ago that you first heard about it by way of Mark Brown's video. Which btw is very informative and well put together, so that should certainly come in handy this time around!

One thing he didn't mention, though, is that the DA (difficulty adjustment) is fixed in Mercenaries instead of fluid and responsive to player behavior like in the main game. According to RE4Central: "The DA starts at 5500 for Village and Castle. It starts at 4500 for Base and Waterworld (in the main game, on Normal difficulty, it starts at 3500 if you are playing on PAL/NTSC-J and 5500 if you are playing on NTSC) and does not evolve during the run no matter what we do".

Edit: Further notes. The DA will never rise above 6 (out of 10) when playing on easy, and will always be maxed out at 10 when playing on Professional (which means that the difficulty is not adaptive on Prof.). Furthermore, the DA apparently resets to its default value before most of the main boss fights.

[ratsoalbion]

Great stuff, thanks for the extra research.

[Marco]

My most played Gamecube game. In a time when I had far more disposable income and time, this was the game I dedicated more time to than any other. Having played and enjoyed the previous games, I welcomed the changes made for 4. The controls felt to me like a progression from the last game and weren’t a problem for me. Of course someone shouldn’t be able to run and shoot accurately. It’s just like real life. If I found myself in an obviously Spanish, anachronistic village, surrounded by parasitic xenophobes hurling abuse and disturbing small men who can transform into hideous monstrosities, I would probably take my time and aim properly too. Realism!
This game is obviously silly. Quite linear too. That’s fine with me; It provided me with a satisfying story experience in terms of variety of locations and situations. Each encounter felt to me like it’s own old-school level, a series of ridiculous set pieces, each with its own challenge. Done that one? Right, get into the house and defend it like in Night of the Living Dead. Finished? Which path will you take? Chainsaw ladies death trap or angry ogre death trap? At this point, I remember feeling like it was Resident Evil: Set Piece: The Movie: The Game’.
Playing again on PC in 2018, my opinion hasn't changed. I wish could say I went for completely different upgrades this time around but could not bear to part with the Red 9 and stock that I remember serving me so well long ago. Sticking with the bolt action rifle made some encounters more challenging but felt far more rewarding. The risk/reward of a more powerful shot against a painfully slow reload, in particular while trying to protect Ashley from afar, felt tense but satisfying. I don't remember if the mine launcher is any good; never felt the need to use it. The sheer amount of choice the variety in weapons and upgrades provides means that playthroughs can be different.

All well and good. I came for the ludicrous story and survival horror and despite the change in perspective, I felt I got what I was looking for. The score attack challenges of Mercenaries however, are what kept me coming back. It is a brilliant mode. Each character having a different loadout is a simple but superb idea. Forcing the player to use weapons they might have ignored for the most part (TMP for me) in the story makes each challenge feel fresh. Mercenaries is where players should go to hone their skills. Mine have clearly eroded over time but improvement came swiftly and it wasn't long before the self-deluding refrain of “Just one more go” echoed around the room.

I can still recommend Resident Evil 4 today. While I have to acknowledge it's fiddly at first, and some of the QTEs irritate, it offers a different experience to most modern day survival and third person action games. The story is fun rubbish, the written dialogue is on par with the hilarious acting and the Merchant is the kind of wonderful nonsense I wish there was more of in games. None of this sounds good but somehow, it is.

[Nupraptor]

It's a close tie for me between Resi 2, 4 and 7 for my favourite game in the series. Resi 4 was where the Resi series best hit their signature balance in tone between camp dialogue and genuine horror. The combat was dramatically improved over previous entries whilst still retaining at least a degree of the sense of vulnerability and claustrophobia.
Others have already discussed eloquently and in detail about the game's strengths, but I just want to say this: the Resi 4 merchant is the greatest shop character in all of video gaming. With his eccentric appearance and endlessly quotable dialogue, he is the true hero of Resi 4. His presence adds context and another element of fun to treasure hunting and upgrading weapons. He has such a lot of good things on sale, but his idiosyncratic presence begs so many questions.
Why has this cockney arms-dealer decided to ply his trade in an environment swarming with homicidal ganados, insect monsters and dogs with snakes coming out of their backs? Surely he wasn't making much profit before Leon arrived? Troll rejects from Lord of the Rings can't really carry many pesetas around with them after all. How did he persuade the Los Illuminados cult to let him install fairground shooting galleries in their properties? Given that he is supposedly a merchant, why is he so inept at haggling? "You'll buy it at a high price? Really? Cool your jets, dude!"
The whole of game is better for his presence but since Resi 4 he has sadly been a stranger. I don't want him to be tarnished by overuse, but if Capcom decide to reintroduce him to the series in small quantities, then it would be very.....WELCOME!

[TheEmailer]

I think I can say it's hard to replay, whilst also having really enjoyed it at the time and knowing how massively influential it has been. I can absolutely empathise with why you love this game!
Within whats its trying to do it is very very well executed, I can absolutely appreciate the craft. But I can't help get annoyed by some things when I play it. I have limited time to play games and there are games that don't have the mechanical restrictions whilst also having engaging stories, so my enthusiasm wanes.

Yes, that's perfectly fair. Homogeneous control schemes and design trends are certainly making it easier for players to drop in and out of games, especially those who don't have lots of free time to waste on re-learning specific controls and techniques. I really don't blame you or anyone else for having trouble re-adjusting to this game when playing it in 2018.

But my issue is when the game itself is retroactively being held accountable for not following today's design trends. Consumer habits should not overlap with analytical critique, in my opinion. And this has never been more true than with this game. It just isn't fair to judge it according to anything other than its own merit. The fact that players who have become accustomed to standardized control schemes and mechanics are finding it difficult to revisit RE4 as a result has nothing to do with the quality of the game itself. We don't dismiss Beethoven for not having sick bass drops or Casablanca for not being in color. Part of establishing video games as a respectable medium should be moving away from this notion that they're merely ephemeral consumable products that should be tailor-suited to our every whim and declared obsolete five years after release.

It's obviously a tricky subject considering that these modern design trends are very much made to respond to the consumers' demands and the "games as a service"-philosophy. Personally, I think that it is often more beneficial for a game to carve its own niche and to expect a certain amount of patience and dedication from the player. Hence why I take issue with, say, TLoU being presented as a "natural evolution" of the RE4 formula without any drawbacks. In my ideal world, there would be enough room and respect for both.


All I'm saying is that there should be a difference between an analysis and a review.

Great post Ksub!

Thanks!

This is a very measured response Ksub and I completely get what you are saying. I agree the quality here is obvious (Ashley escort aside, I hated that at the time). I'm not saying its obsolete, infact if anyone hasn't played it I'd recommend they do. I'm not sure I'd recommend replaying it again now from my recent(ish) experience of replaying it.

I think there is a difference between the Beethoven analogy you used and videogames. An active medium ages differently than a passive one like music, seeing Beethoven in a concert hall is essentially the same audio experience as when he wrote it, listening hasn't moved on (especially in a medium where live performances don't use mics/amplification). But games aren't passive, they require input and the way that input evolves changes the experience quite a bit.

[TheEmailer]

One other snippet to add.

As with many horror games, I find the games' tension tails off as the player becomes more powerful and better equipped. No amount of strong, OTT, powerful end games foes can promote the same tension and panic as the basic early enemies with basic weapons, little ammo and some inexperience with the game. The first three hours of this game are the best imo

[EvilNinjaPhil]

I never finished Resident Evil 4 but I still have very fond memories of it; I remember playing it through on my Gamecube with my newborn son sleeping on my chest. I had always liked the idea of the Resi series but was never able to get into them; missed Resi 1 as didn't have a PS1 when that released, picked up Resi 2 when I did have a PS1 but barely got an hour or so into it, never even bothered with Code Veronica on my beloved Dreamcast. Why? Not really sure, probably a combination of the tense atmosphere and not clicking with the controls straight away.

Resi 4 though, was a different matter. New storyline, new over the shoulder perspective. The fact that it was also this huge exclusive release for the Gamecube, struggling in the wake of the PS2, meant I had to support it.

A quick aside, remember that hype for the Capcom Five? Halcyon days.

I fired up the game and, amazingly, I was in. Wandering around that village, getting into the castle, managing the inventory. This time it all clicked. Although, the main sticking point for me was that I always felt Leon shouldn't have bothered with all the shooting and sneaking in. His best option clearly was to get a job working for The Merchant, as his apparent supernatural ability to access any area in the game would have been a great help in rescuing the President's daughter.

Still, never finished it. Life, as it does, got in the way. It's a game I always wanted to go back to in order to finish but have never quite been able to make the time for. I still regard it as a high point in a series I've bounced off several times and one I would heartily recommend.

[ReprobateGamer]

Resident Evil 4 marks an obvious point where the atmosphere of survival horror firmly moves over to survival action. It's a game I like but not a game I love - the switch in style didn't bother me but there were a few niggles that irked me even then. The controls were fine at the time, though i suspect would irk me if I came back to it now but my issue with Leon's inability to strife was the disconnect between his obvious physical prowess in the the QTE and supposed military training against not being able to even sidestep whilst aiming. I don't recall any dodge action either so that also felt like something missing ( this was possible in RE3)
This was something that had bugged me in other 3rd person action games, especially with military based protagonists and when you recall that the civilians in Outbreak COULD move and aim, it actually felt like a step back. I get the reasons for it but it essentially broke my suspension of disbelief in the character and the situation he found himself in (and considering some of the wacky situations that occur, that is saying something)
Ashley too I found immensely irritating throughout the game. From a technical viewpoint, I actually feel she was pretty well coded but I rather looked forward to the points I could stuff her in a dumper and leave her to actually play an area without her shrieks. I too this day don't believe for a second she would be capable of driving a truck at a steady pace as in one set piece later in the game.
The story is pure hokum and narratively makes no sense - serving only to move Leon from one ridiculous scene to the next but I always got the impression it was aiming for a B-movie feel; like after the more sombre air of the previous games, this was an opportunity for the dev team to have a bit of fun with the characters (the Merchant, triggering the Del Lago insta-death scene, or the giant statue chase just reinforcing this view) and knowing this kinda made most of it fine - though I don't think there was any excuse for the lava death trap room in the castle.
I did actually play through the game two or three times and overall enjoyed it but there were a few points that seemed a little unfair - any time the cultists had access to cannons or mini-guns mostly.
I do wish the Verdugo's had been explored in more depth but most of the other enemies seemed to have enough 'screen time' as it were. That head-shotting later enemies was as likely to bring forth a bio-mutant as kill an enemy made for an interesting but ultimately frustating dynamic. The maim and melee routine would become more established later in the series but we were still getting used to the concept here (at least I was ...)

I also enjoyed Ada's segments - Operation Ada appealing to the same idea of a mini-game as Leech Hunter or RE3 mercenaries did. I'm also a sucker for alternative views to a scene so I liked seeing where Ada was during the main game and any stiffness in her controls was no different to that I experienced with Leon.
it certainly set the tone for what Leon would be throughout the series from this point forward (in all media) and built on the mystique of Ada.

My most abiding memory of this game was my Mum's reaction to it
She first caught part of it on a 1st or 2nd playthrough, tried her best to ignore the gore and complained bitterly about Ashley anytime she was onscreen.

At a later date, again visiting she again found herself in the living room whilst I was playing though and again complained about Ashley, this time questioning why she was so noisy.
Having completed it a couple of times at this point, Ashley was in the suit of armour so i made sure to save, told Mum to ' watch this' and then proceeded to entertain her by shooting Ashley - who by wearing the suit of armour could not be killed by gunfire. Mum, who had been disappointed to find last time that killing Ashley was an instant game over, was very entertained watching bullets reflect or whilst grenades knocked her satisfyingly to the ground, ultimately agreeing that whilst the clanking of the armour was annoying, it was better than her voice and being able to make cultists collapsing when attempting to walk off with her was almost worth the noise.

When Resident Evil moved into co-op play, and my wife could join in, I largely gave up on Resident Evil 4. I still have an untouched copy on my PS3, though all my old PS2 progress has been lost at this point. It's easily been more than a decade since I last actually played it and I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have the muscle memory to swop back to it's control scheme. The lack of a co-op is also these days a negative, though Revelations 2 showed that co-op has to be handled carefully.

At this point, I think if I had the urge to play it, I may ultimately prefer watching a Long Play video rather than actually holding the controller

Three word review:
Headshots mean less

[KSubzero1000]

That head-shotting later enemies was as likely to bring forth a bio-mutant as kill an enemy made for an interesting but ultimately frustating dynamic.

Three word review:
Headshots mean less

I'm not trying to be rude to ReprobateGamer, but in the interest of avoiding inaccuracies during the recording, I'd like to point out that the above is a common misconception. Some plagas are fixed while most are RNG-based, but the player can only prevent them from spawning by using certain techniques (mostly grenades and other explosives). As far as I know, there is no player-induced behavior that heightens the probability of their appearance above said pre-determined RNG. The obvious visual correlation between a headshot and a plaga should not be interpreted as a mechanical causation.

TL;DR: I don't have any hard data to back it up, but to the best of my knowledge, normal headshots don't influence plagas one way or another.


(PS: And the critical headshots following the exclusive upgrade of the standard handgun even seem to slightly reduce their appearance rate.)

[ReprobateGamer]

That head-shotting later enemies was as likely to bring forth a bio-mutant as kill an enemy made for an interesting but ultimately frustating dynamic.

Three word review:
Headshots mean less

I'm not trying to be rude to ReprobateGamer, but in the interest of avoiding inaccuracies during the recording, I'd like to point out that the above is a common misconception. Some plagas are fixed while most are RNG-based, but the player can only prevent them from spawning by using certain techniques (mostly grenades and other explosives). As far as I know, there is no player-induced behavior that heightens the probability of their appearance above said pre-determined RNG. The obvious visual correlation between a headshot and a plaga should not be interpreted as a mechanical causation.

TL;DR: I don't have any hard data to back it up, but to the best of my knowledge, normal headshots don't influence plagas one way or another.


(PS: And the critical headshots following the exclusive upgrade of the standard handgun even seem to slightly reduce their appearance rate.)

Wow, okay.
The few times I played (all on PS2) very much gave me the impression that after the first triggered appearance of Las Plagus (on the way to the waterfall) that you were more likely to get some form of transformation rather than a dead enemy.

Maybe RNGesus just kept smiling on me in my playthroughs

I'll retract my three word review also ...

[FemalePheromones]

This is my first time posting on the forum so let's see how it goes. One of my mates put me onto the podcast a few months ago with the Resident Evil podcasts and I listened to 1, 2, 3 and Remake back to back. and have since gone back through a lot of the other episodes too.

A quick summary of my history with Resident Evil:

I was 7 in 1996 when the original released and a friend who was a year older got it upon release and I sat and watched him play the whole thing but I was always too scared to play for myself so I was always just a spectator but I loved the style of the game as well as the settings and characters. A couple of years later he got RE2 and once again I watched him play the whole game and loved it just as much. Eventually being a year older than me he moved off to secondary school and I didn't so we completely drifted apart but before that I definitely remember watching him play Dino Crisis and possibly the sequel.

Fortunately for me a different friend ended up getting RE3 so I felt pretty lucky to be able to actually watch someone play that as to me at this point the Resident Evil games were more like TV series in that I would just sit back and watch them bit by bit each day and couldn't wait to see what would happen next between sessions. Unfortunately we ended up drifting apart as well but I then realised that another friend that I had known for a long time at this point was also crazy into the RE games and had played them all by himself along the same sort of timeline that I had been watching others play them so we were on pretty much the same level in terms of knowing the games and the story. Not long after that Code Veronica released for the PS2 and we decided to rent it one night. I came from the background of always sitting and watching these games so when he passed the controller to me after about 20 minutes of playing I was admittedly really nervous but he convinced me to give it a go. It took me a while to get my head around the controls but I actually realised that I had been missing a lot of the horror in the past by not actually being in control of the characters myself. Unfortunately for us we didn't get very far in that first night (Everyone knows how notoriously difficult the beginning section of that game is) and had to return the game the next day and we just never reconvened to play it again so it soon ended up being forgotten about.

Now on to Resident Evil 4...

When it released in 2005 I was now 15 and felt like I could handle anything so I rented it on PS2 with the intention to completely play it by myself. I still remember actually being nervous upon first loading up the game because my actual experience as a Resident Evil player was still very minimal even though I was a massive fan of the games. At this point I'll say that I know the gameplay of RE4 was a massive change for the series and some of the more hardcore fans say that it is where the series started to go downhill but I really believe that including the new and improved attache case item organisation is the only reason I actually managed to play the game by myself was because of the new style of gameplay and the control scheme which was much more user friendly and straight away actually made me think "I've got this".

Pretty quickly I could tell that this was a different type of game. I remember in previous RE games right from the start there would be rooms that you couldn't access yet or items than you had no idea how to use which were obviously to be left for when you come back to this area later in the game but in RE4 it always seemed like each area was set up for you just to move through on your way to the next area. I thought the setting was good in that even though different from the settings from previous games it was still dark and grey and dreary and the fact that it was set in Spain really made it feel like you were stuck alone there with no one around to help. Unfortunately, as usual with Resident Evil games they can't stick to one great setting and have to mix it up. The castle wasn't bad but no as good as the village and I don't really care for the island setting a the end of the game at all.

As for the story, after not finishing Code Veronica I assumed Wesker had died at the end so it was a pleasant surprised to see him show up again and it was nice to know that he was still out there doing his thing in the shadows and the fact that Ada was working for him made you realise that he had been doing it all along and even after his apparent death in the original game he was still working behind the scenes by sending Ada into Raccoon City to retrieve a sample of the G-virus and has been up to it ever since. As for Leon being a government agent it actually made sense from one of the endings of RE3 where it was a screen shot of Leon and someone from the government offering him a job and as in the RE universe quite a few years had passed isnce the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3 it made sense that Leon could have climbed the ranks to end up working directly for the President and even though it seems unlikely he would have sent only 1 man to rescue his daughter it does make sense why Leon would be the one he would send. I found the dynamic with Ada really interesting but found the rest of the characters either boring and forgettable. The one who stood out was Krauser who, while a pretty terrible villain, did a good job of exposing a bit of Leon's back story while working with the government and also had some of those classic RE cheesy lines "You and I both know where we come from" and of course the classic "well, if it isn't the bitch in the red dress" but I am still glad he died to never return (not counting Darkside Chronicles). I also liked the ending being a throwback to the end of RE2 where Ada drops a rocket launcher down for Leon to finish off the final boss with a single hit although it probably should have been the last time the rocket launcher was used in a RE game as I really feel it has now been done to death.

As far as the enemies go I felt like they were a big let down compared to previous games. At first I like the Ganados because of how when you first entered an area they were just going about every day tasks until they spotted you and tried to swarm you but this soon stopped after the first few areas. Dr Salvador was a genius addition, it's still surprising that a chainsaw hadn't appeared in any of the previous games and I still wonder if there was more than one or if it was the same one that kept appearing throughout the game. The only other enemy that I actually liked were the Regenerators. The first time I played the game I used all of my ammo and grenades trying to kill the one that you had to kill for a key after avoiding the previous ones when I realised they were what seemed impossible to kill. I completely missed the thermal scope in the freezer room. Just went in scanned the card and left without checking the other small corner of the room. I can't remember exactly what happened but I got so frustrated that I actually stopped playing the game for what was probably a number of days to weeks until I got into a conversation with a friend who had already played it and told me about the thermal scope. I felt like such an idiot. Even after having the scope I remember the sense of dread that went straight through me whenever I heard that weird breathing sound they made. As for all the other enemies I found them all the designs pretty dull and boring. None compared to the T-virus type enemies from previous games and all just seemed a bit too try hard without actually trying very hard.

Ashley. I remember on my first playthrough I had united with Ashley after only an hour or so of gameplay and was surprised that I h ad already completed the main task of the game and wasn't expecting to find her until the very end. A lot of people complain about Ashley as being annoying but yes she is. After all, she is a teenage girl. The good thing about Ashley is that you don't ever seen to stay with her for very long. Upon the original playthrough it actually felt like a reprieve when you got separated from her again so you didn't have to worry about keeping her safe but upon multiple playthrough you realise how ridiculous it really is just how many times she manages to get captured.

To conclude, The Remake of the original Resident Evil is still my favourite game of the entire series having, at the moment, played all of the main games apart from Zero. However, I have definitely played 4 more many more times than any of the others and I think the reason is that it was so accessible to any type of gamer. Even now there are a lot of gamers who seem to have come into the series on RE4 and actually see it as the roots of the series (I'm not going to go on about how wrong they all are but we all know it). I think one of the reasons that this game is so replayable is because of the linearity of it which is something that originally put me off the game. With previous RE titles I always feel like if I have to put the controller down I am doing it right in the middle of something and I just want to do a little bit more and a little bit more which when thinking about loading up any of the games for a fresh playthrough actually puts me off. They kind of feel like being lost in the woods and thinking you are going in a straight line until you realise you have been going in circles and ending up back where you started but with RE4 it feels like there is a very definite path straight through the middle of the woods. I love Resident Evil 4 and it is the game I would recommend to someone who has never experienced to the series, quickly followed by the Remake and then the rest of the games in order.

As a closing thought I'll just say that even though a lot of the more hardcore fans think RE4 was the beginning of the downfall of the series, just think where the series would have gone if RE4 has carried on the same formula as the previous 5 games. How many more games could Capcom have got around with making using that same formula before they ran out of ideas and we were all fed up with it and the series either died or they made a big jump turning it into something completely different and we never ended up with anything like Resident Evil 4.

I intended for this to be quite quick as you're recording tomorrow but I think it's turned out longer than expected. Let's see how the RE5 one turns out when I've got more time.

[Suits]

Total coincidence that this has sort of fallen on the back of the re-make rumours, but over the last week and this whole meme where you have six options, pick three, lose three rubbish, there was a RE4 example.

It showed all the RE4 versions and people had to pick three and lose three.



I was surprised by the number of people that said that they preferred the Wii version with its unique controls.

I played 4 back in the day when it came out on PS2 and not been back to it, since. Very much enjoyed it I must say and can see where all the admiration comes from.

Anyway, I decided to boot up the Wii grab a copy and see for myself, whilst also going through this game again - it's only been about 20 years .

It still looks cool and the controls with the Wii mote motion are fun, albeit, much much easier to land headshots. Kind of feels like a mouse and keyboard set up.

BIG PROBLEM.

The Wii version is fixed in a 16:9 widescreen perspective.

So, if you have an old CRT and want to play the game in that mode (4:3), you're stuck with a super, duper, cropped screen.

Kind of a deal breaker for me this is, sure it's completely playable but it does make it feel a bit hamstrung for me.

Gutted I was.

Maybe I'll just wait for this re-make then, which I for one would like to see happen.

[KSubzero1000]

The Wii motion controls factually devalue and trivialize a lot of the carefully balanced mechanical nuances of the original game. I get that they're super comfortable to use, but it's always disappointing to hear so many people refusing to look past that and at the design of the game itself.


Btw, I'm not sure that even is cropping. The original version has black bars at the top and bottom of the picture to simulate widescreen, I don't think you're actually losing out on any intended part of the picture in the above example. Even the GameCube version doesn't have a full 4:3 display mode.