3. Is Your Regenerator Running?

You've likely had this beaten into your head by every gaming publication, but it's one piece of conventional wisdom that I fully support: you must play Resident Evil 4. It's just sooo good. Though I snarfed up the GameCube edition like it was a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, the Wii edition is a perfectly acceptable port. And at the measly cost of 20 bucks, there's no excuse not to own this game.

The Resident Evil franchise is one of the most popular and successful series of all-time and is a highlight in Capcom's star-studded catalog. Although 4 is inarguably the best in the franchise (and said by some to be the best game ever), it definitely tones down the "scare-factor" that popularized previous iterations. Whereas the former games looked and played like horror movies, 4 had more of an action influence, similar to modern zombie films (minus the endless deluge of torture-porn).

So perhaps the only valid complaint that can be applied to Resident Evil 4 is the fact that it's not quite as scary as its predecessors. But that's not to say that the game consists of dispersing lollipops to schoolchildren. There are numerous instances of hair-tingling, heart-stopping situations in which your on-screen avatar is proceeding with as much caution as you would if your real life was on the line. Perhaps the scariest moment of the game comes in the second half. As you make your way through the labs in which apparent experimentation involving the Las Plagas virus was conducted, you come across the oh-so pleasant Regenerators. Everything about these creatures just screams creepy: their bubble eyes, their slow lurching walk, and especially the heavy breathing they emit. In fact, in the tight corridors you must navigate in order to escape the labs, your only cue to an approaching Regenerator is that awful noise. Blargh!