Resident Evil 4

The walking dead have incoherently moaned, clumsily shuffled their feet, and affectionately given us crater-sized hickeys in every Resident Evil game to date. The animated corpses that put this series on the map and redefined video game horror as a whole are now buried six feet under the soil at Capcom's Production Studio 4. It may be difficult to envision a Resident Evil game without flesh-eating zombies, but Capcom is showing us that there are far more terrifying things that go bump in the night. Nothing can truly prepare you for the unspeakable horrors that will hunt you until your last breath is given. It's been a long time coming, but Resident Evil is back, and it is better and bloodier than ever before. This game is such a departure from the series' heritage that the only familiarity gamers will have with it is through protagonist Leon S. Kennedy, who was first introduced as a greenhorn police officer that spent his first day on the job handling the outbreak in Resident Evil 2. Attracted to madness like teenage girls are to Camp Crystal Lake, Kennedy once again finds himself knee-deep in unspeakable horror. Rather than having maggot-infested zombies gnawing at his neck, crazed villagers are the order of the day. Unlike the slow-witted, slow-moving dead, these adversaries are very intelligent, extremely agile, and not afraid to use weapons. They also like to attack in packs. Picture if you will a group of six murderous souls with beady red eyes glowing under the moonlight running at you with lit dynamite, ducking out of the way of your shots, and calling out for others nearby to lend a hand in your death. This is a new kind of scare that far surpasses the suspense and jump-out-of-your-seat shock moments that fueled the previous chapters in the series. As you'll soon learn, there are few things scarier than a middle-aged housewife that sprints at you with a blood-soaked axe raised into the air, belting out a bloodcurdling scream. To counteract the intelligence and sheer brutality of these new foes, Capcom has completely reworked the combat system. In the past, we blindly fired into areas we couldn't see and ran past enemies to preserve ammo. This time around, everything that so much as raises a finger at you must die

• Utilizes the Nintendo GameCube's technological powers to the fullest, creating breathtaking 3D graphics and effects
• Behind the camera view - Camera follows Leon from behind, allowing for intuitive movement
• New, never before seen enemies - You'll be wishing for the usual Resident Evil zombies! Bosses that make Nemesis seem like a kittenl
• Advanced AI - Enemies are now smarter than ever and use their cunning abilities to attack