Resident Evil 4 [GC]

Later, when Leon enters a dungeon area drowned in lava, a heat wave distorts the character's vision so that everything looks ever so slightly warped. Envision the lava world in Wind Waker, and now imagine that it looks several times better. A true showpiece. When Leon approaches a gargantuan sized castle, a group of monks use a catapult to hurl a projectile at him. It crashes into a nearby stone structure and explodes in real-time. We kid you not when we state that the explosion is so rich and believable that other developers would simply not have been able to do it in-engine.

And this perfectionist approach to visuals is carried over in the cut-sequences, which are simply filled to the bursting point with production values. In an obvious homage to movies like The Matrix, many of the cinematics spotlight action developments via a series of super-stylized bullet-time effects and an impressive display of acrobatics on Leon's part. When the character encounters a former colleague for the first time, the two trade blows while flipping about the environment. The choreography is top notch. A new Metal Gear Solid-inspired text interface spotlights Leon's face as he talks with a supporting agent, and these scenes use 3D models equipped with believable facial animation as opposed to a near-static image. The game even runs in progressive scan mode, a welcomed rarity for the franchise.

The downside to all of this is that Capcom has forced everything into a letterboxed perspective, presumably to keep the framerate afloat. Resident Evil 4 does not support a true 16x9 anamorphic widescreen mode, which is definitely disappointing since every other aspect of the title exceeds current technology. Rather, it's much more like Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil. If you happen to own a widescreen television with a zoom feature, you're still sitting pretty. We played Resident Evil 4 on a 50" plasma using the zoom function and we can verify that it looked phenomenal from beginning to end. However, we understand that some sets on the market automatically force progressive-scan pictures into 16x9, which will simply not work with Resident Evil 4, an unfortunate truth. Gamers with these sets will need to make a decision: forego progressive scan or play in ultra-stretched mode.

In what is sure to be something of a shock for survival horror fans, not only is the writing in Resident Evil occasionally funny -- you won't find any "master of unlocking" references -- but the quality of the acting, voice compression, music and sound effects is actually very well done, too. For once, the characters are believable because Capcom has hired competent actors to supply their voices. Leon in particular is very well produced. Meanwhile, the sound effects thump and boom, scream and screech, growl and yell, and all with pristine clarity in Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound. To top everything off, Resident Evil 4 feature a complementary soundtrack -- an ambient blend of subtle and pounding pieces that go well with the environments and the situation. Hats off to Capcom for taking the extra time to get it right this time.

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