Got game? Forget the winter slump - a glut of top-shelf titles is giving gamers a reason to live for another fiscal quarter BY MITCH KRPATA

THIS IS TRADITIONALLY the time of the year when video gamers, having exhausted their holiday gifts, start scouring the shelves of their local Electronics Boutique in search of a new fix. Usually, they find nothing worthwhile.

After all, deadest winter is the dumping ground for the entertainment industry’s most indefensible garbage. Oscar eligibility ends at the stroke of midnight on December 31, so since the New Year, Hollywood has punished us with hopeless films like Alone in the Dark and Hide and Seek. Record companies, busy gearing up for the Grammys, can’t fritter away their time with such frivolities as releasing good music (it can’t be coincidence that Papa Roach is showing up on Fuse’s Top Ten Rock Countdown, can it?).

Video games are as susceptible as any medium to the winter doldrums. Burned out by holiday-spending blitzes, most consumers can’t strain their credit cards with $50 software purchases. Most publishers wait until May’s epic Electronic Entertainment Expo to make major announcements or rush high-profile titles to market. In wintertime, they offer, essentially, their factory seconds — if they ship anything at all.

The year 2005 is different. Never before have we seen a glut of top-shelf titles so soon after Christmas. First, Capcom provided the best reason yet to own a Nintendo GameCube with the January 11 release of Resident Evil 4, a revolutionary, tough-as-nails entry in the survival-horror genre that’s already a lock for best game of the year. That same day, LucasArts shipped Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, an ambitious if flawed take on the war genre that offers open-ended game play rivaling that of the Grand Theft Auto series. Finally, just in time for the All-Star Game, EA Sports dropped NBA Street V3, an energetic sequel that dribbles circles around its predecessors.

These games could have held their own, and even thrived, during the holiday-buying season. Instead, they give gamers who have burned out on Halo 2 or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas a reason to live for another fiscal quarter.

Permanent Resident

Resident Evil 4 is an instant classic

Since the 1996 release of the blockbuster Resident Evil for the Sony PlayStation, survival horror has been a staple of console gaming. But by the time Resident Evil Zero was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002, it was clear the series was out of gas, and had been for about five years.

That’s all changed. Resident Evil 4, the first true sequel in the series since 1999’s Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, is not only the best survival-horror game ever made, but it completely reinvents the form. Nothing is in second place.

The protagonist is Leon Kennedy, whom you should remember from Resident Evil 2. Now working for an unnamed government crime-fighting agency, Leon is sent to a remote European village to rescue the president’s kidnapped daughter. Right away, things seem not-so-subtly amiss — such as when Leon’s provincial-police escorts are brutally murdered, and when crazed locals attack him with pitchforks, axes, torches, and an insatiable appetite for his brain.

In many respects, Capcom has gone back to the drawing board with RE4. It’s ditched the static "cinematic" camera angles of past games and implemented a third-person, over-the-shoulder view that allows Leon a greater range of motion. Character movement is so intuitive and dynamic in this game (as opposed to in previous installments of Resident Evil) that fans of the series will feel as if they’re taking flight. You still can’t run and gun — as before, Leon must be stationary to fire his weapons — but the combat system has been overhauled.

In RE games past, there were three options when aiming at enemies: straight ahead, down, and up. And though it was great fun to pulverize zombie skulls with a flurry of buckshot, in Resident Evil 4 Capcom has opted for a nuanced hit-zone aiming system à la light-gun games such as Time Crisis. Though Leon is rooted to the spot when firing, every weapon is equipped with a laser sight that takes the guesswork out of aiming. There’s no shortage of possible battle tactics. You can kneecap your foes, temporarily incapacitating them, or blast their heads off at close range with your shotgun. You can even shoot the hats off their heads and the weapons out of their hands.

The action experience of the game is carefully calibrated to kick maximum ass. You may recall playing previous Resident Evil games and treating each bullet almost as a museum piece, knowing that one spent shell now is one fewer round when you need it the most. Running from enemies often was the prudent choice; not so in RE4. Ammo is everywhere: in crates and barrels, on shelves, and even on the bodies of your slain foes. You are, in fact, supposed to rain fiery justice onto the head of every fiend you see.

The result is one showstopping action set piece after another. During the course of Resident Evil 4, you will find yourself barricaded inside a farmhouse, Night of the Living Dead–style, while under siege from dozens upon dozens of possessed villagers; battling a gargantuan lake monster from the safety of a dinky motorboat; engaging in arena combat with a 15-foot-tall ogre (or two); covering an ally from long range through the cold, clear lens of your rifle scope; dodging flaming balls of death catapulted from a castle’s outer walls; and so much more.

The epic and discrete nature of each enemy encounter makes the game feel more akin to Metal Gear Solid than to classic Resident Evil games, yet RE4 is still scary as hell. Although the evil villagers lurch around like zombies (and do appear intent on devouring your sweet brain), they’re not undead. They move quickly, dodge your fire, and work in teams. Then there are the demonic priests, man-size insects, and regenerating mutants that will plague you later in the game.

The visuals are letterboxed to maximize the GameCube’s graphical capabilities, but the smooth frame rate, ominous art direction, and superior fire effects are well worth the tradeoff. One enemy is a large, Rasputin-looking bastard, and his gaze is pure evil. I don’t know how you render evil using ones and zeroes, but Capcom has done it.

Capcom also has added some role-playing-game (RPG) elements that make you feel as though you’re progressing upward as well as forward through the game. Leon’s life meter can be extended by the use of yellow herbs, and the inclusion of a weapons merchant is another inspired move. You can upgrade your firearms’ potency, or just buy new ones altogether. Currency is found in houses and on corpses, and you can also find treasures to pawn. By the end of the game, Leon is much more powerful than at the beginning, and you really feel as if you’ve earned it.

Capcom has redefined a genre and created a game with the depth of an RPG; the high-intensity action of a shooter; graphics and sound that match up with the best on any console; and the chills we’ve come to associate with Resident Evil. The result is life-altering.

Is it too early to declare Resident Evil 4 the best game of 2005?

Score: 10.0 (out of 10)