Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 for the PC, is a port. Not the best around, but needless to say, it was decent. I had no patience to learn the tricks for using a Gamecube pad to play the game. I picked up the PC box assuming that mouse support was included and guess what? It's not. Yes, I loaded up the game and watched the opening scenes only to find that the mouse was totally unresponsive. However, you can find 3rd party mouse-aim mods on the Internet; but you'll have to do a good deal of searching as most of them are for the PAL version. I went into the in game pause menu, only to find the only options in the 'Controls' section of the menu to be invert aim and knife usage type, other options included 'Load' and 'Retry'. Ubisoft really wanted to make this easy for us PC gamers. So, closing the game, I found the control mappings in a little menu that pops up every time you try to run the game and changed them to a more comfortable setup. I also found that Ubisoft expects us to use a gamepad, the in game 'action commands' will say to mash buttons 1+3, or 5+6. Those aren't the number keys. Getting used to the controls and memorizing things like F = 1 make this game tough on keyboarders. The graphics were crisp enough during the time you're playing, it was at least an improvement over the GC release. The inventory screen was blurry and blocky, however. The weapons were blurred and were just plain painful to look at. Herbs and First-Aid sprays resembled trees and a white-green brick, respectively. The cut scenes were awful things, crying for anti-aliasing. Models were blurred and colors were faded; and if you unlock the alternate costumes, it won't display them, it still uses the default costumes. The Environments were right on, they looked great. Also, the frame rate kept consistent, that's a plus. Most Resident Evils' enjoy good stories, this is the exception. RE4's story is predictable, drawn-out, and plain. It has nothing to do with the previous titles, except some of the returning characters. The characters themselves are clich� ridden and simply not convincing. Leon has lines straight out of 80's action movies. The villains were hardly menacing and let the player go many times. A 7-foot tall Spaniard in a trench coat, a 20 year old toddler who looks like Napoleon (not Dynamite), and an old guy with an eye in his mouth. I'm shaking in my boots. The enemies are repetitive, and I don't care what you say about them, each new area is just the same goons except a different appearance. Also new to this series is the addition of a treasure-collecting system and a guy named 'The Merchant'. You can buy weapons and the occasional first aid spray; You can't buy ammo, but theres no need, you can find 20 rounds for the handgun and shotgun in nearly every room. The extra content is nice, and there's enough of it to keep you playing. There's also a nice addition called 'The Mercenaries' which is similar to the battle mode of past RE titles, which is entertaining and very challenging; using a keyboard is slow to aim however, and there is a time limit in the minigame, which is a pain. The PC also includes Assignment Ada, a separate campaign. Overall the game is fun if you can get used to the keyboard, and its worth a few playthroughs. I enjoyed the game overall, just don't play it when Xfire is running, it causes crashes most of the time after the boss fights. Pick this one up if you can't get the Wii version, but think twice if you own the GC or PS2 editions.