Bypassing every other game I've ever played in the Survival-Horror genre, Resident Evil 4 makes it's place in gaming history. Capcom thankfully went back to the drawing board with the series, since the Resident Evils were starting to get a little old.

The thing that annoyed me the most with previous Resident Evil games was the controlling, RE4 is now in a funky perspective - over the shoulder. At first this sounded a little odd, since if it's over your shoulder... your big fat head will be blocking your peripheral vision. It's not so bad though, for some reason or another it works. The only other thing I could possibly imagine to complain about in the controlling is that there's no sidestepping. While I understand why they did it (so you can't peek around corners and ruin the surprise) there are times where it'd be incredibly handy. Pressing the 'R' button on your Gamecube controller will put you into a precision mode for firing your equipted weapon. Once in this mode you cannot avoid enemies or move about, only aim. Once you stun the enemy or get them on their knees (shoot them in the legs) you have the option to do a roundhouse kick by pressing 'A' - this is an incredibly effective attack and often kills the enemy.

Occasionally a zombie will latch onto you - in which case you are instructed to jiggle the analog stick to shake it off. If successful you'll do one of those friggin cool kicks I mentioned before, if you fail to shake him off fast enough not then they'll throw you - dealing a large amount of damage.
The environments are fairly interactive, you can jump into windows from outside buildings to evade enemies, then shove bookshelves in front of them to prevent them from chasing you through the same route. You can climb ladders then shove them down, and dive from windows of second story windows. So every fight is pretty open ended, you have the ability to use your surroundings to your benefit.

You'll come to love the laser sight on your weapons, it definately comes in handy when placing a shot between the eyes of that oncoming hoard of not-zombie .. things. There are merchants strategically placed throughout the levels. They'll sell you new weapons, or weapon upgrades. You have the ability to increase the firing rate, bullet capacity, and firepower of your weapon (maybe other upgrades as well?).

The graphics are simply beautiful, whether it be Leon's hair and jacket, the drool coming from the cow's mouth, or the maggot infested meal sitting on the dinner table.
While the story may seem a little bland and unoriginal at first, it definately has many twists and turns that makes it interesting and keeps your attention. There's more action than story throughout the game, so you wont have time to get bored anyway.

I can definately promote this as the best Survival-Horror game of all time. If you have any interest whatsoever in the Resident Evil or Silent Hill series, play this. If you dont, play this. It's an experience in itself. Oh.. and get a sound system with Pro Logic II to complete the experience :)