While at one point I considered myself a dedicated gamer, a lack of time has pulled me from the medium. For the past five years I’ve probably completed one game a year, and to dedicate the remnants of my hobby, I’ll throw up a review with each game completion.

What was once predictably packaged and clichéd is now vibrant and constantly surprising. The Resident Evil franchise was born with the original Playstation, just when videogames were merging with cinema – and by merging with cinema I mean ripping off every predictable piece of horror movies: spooky mansions, zombies, evil corporations, crazy dogs, cute girls, etc. The games were enjoyable for their time because they kept the user in constant suspense, but after sequel after sequel the entertainment value decreased. Capcom changed everything about the series with Resident Evil 4, and gamers are left with easily the best game of the year.

The title plays as a third-person shooter, but it does so by combining perfect pacing with a constantly pleasing fighting engine that looks and sounds like few other titles.

It’s amazing how few game reviews use the term, “All killer, no filler.” In music, it’s practically a required cut and paste activity for every new trendy band. To please hard-core gamers and their demands of 30-50 hour experiences, most games are filled with tedious item collecting and back tracking. RE4, however, is 10-20 hours of intense, non-stop action, coupled with the scenic views of an area surrounding a small village in Spain. The pacing is like a good rock and roll song – after an intense battle with dozens of zombies, you’ll travel solo through a visually stunning cave, only to arrive outside and have to deal with new and deadlier threats.

The screenshots alone should depict the experience. Every piece of the game is as varied and immersive as the screenshots tell. RE4 is a step up from any title before it and any game designer will have a tough time creating a game so consistently entertaining and so unique for quite some time.

Resident Evil 4 is available on Nintendo GameCube, Playstation 2, and most recently, Wii. I played through the GameCube version but will give the Wii version a try in time.