[pac-man]

I read the whole thing, and I disagree completely. G-Dub and darkvare and scores of RE fans hold this one in high regard for one very simple reason: it is the best in the series. Horror, art, suspense, game play, replay, weapons, villains, bosses, etc. It outclasses it's predecessors. It's Ali vs. Jack Johnson. It's the '95-'96 Bulls vs. the '71-'72 Lakers. It's Franklin Roosevelt vs. Teddy Roosevelt. Both are great, both made things better, both are highly regarded, but one is obviously more influential and better than the other.

If being able to play through the others with only a knife makes them stand above 4, then I can't reason with you. I can't tell you how to play a game or what makes the game fun for you. Some people like Virtua Fighter's depth, some like Tekken's accessibility. So if the knife run is your determining factor (and I'll be honest, I never succeeded in one) then yeah, you're gonna hold that against RE4.

Everything else about Resident Evil 4 is so far and away better than it's forefathers it isn't even funny. Navigating your character like he/she is a tank is not fun; a dearth of fresh challenges, puzzles, backgrounds, or situations is not fun; re-hashing the same old same from one sequel to another brings down the series as a whole; I could go on. I personally don't think the series went anywhere productive (especially in a game play since) past number 1 until number 4. Were RE2 or RE3 or Code Veronica awesome? Sure, but let's not pretend they weren't cut-and-paste in many respects. All had different levels of challenge from the get-go. Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) was both praised and lambasted for it's challenge, so NG2 (from what I hear/read) lightens up. Some people want to play games, some want to master them. Neither group is wrong, but all should enjoy. RE4, to me, is easily the most enjoyable game of the series thus far for all parties.