Carolyn Lawrence, who's best known as Sandy Cheeks from SpongeBob:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_Lawrence

i tend to confuse her with Christina Puccelli, who voices Silvia from Viewtiful Joe, and Sunny from MGS4.

You'd be hard-pressed to find most who would disagree.  It's true, though - it is the longest section in the entire game.  But like I mentioned, it's absolutely jam-packed with terrific set pieces, locales, and memorable moments.

Look up, yo. There's a huge hole in the ceiling near the back of the room that those fuckers can pop down from! Not a glitch - just a really sneaky way to freak people out while they're watching the door. Unless you are on or near the switches, you won't see the enemies fall down.

Ah, that explains that.  Both Amazingu and I were so focused on the door, that we likely weren't even looking up at the ceiling.  Devious! 

Although now you've outlined that new exploit with the respawning enemies...... Interesting.

I'm down with that.   I suspect I might not be able to keep up the momentum as much as last week, and it's true, the castle areas are far beefier in length.  Perhaps we can have 4-1 set for mid to late next week?  (The week of 8/23?)

I've always dealt shooting range with sniping weapons, so much easier. Probably too easy for people with Wii. And I suggest people always check if there's a new ranges avaible, the prizes for collecting rows of bottlecaps will be better, moneywise.

Sounds fine to me, but knowing how I time to time get hooked playing, I just keep going and type stuff on notepad. Probably soon hitting 3-2 or 3-3, can't remember.

I wish it would be marathon-style but I play like half of chapter/chapter, take some time off and then continue, but then make one big wall of text post to annoy everyone.

Flash Grenades really did help me at that (Thanks Angela for the tip), even if did eat all of them. Funnily, after killing El Gigante, I almost crushed myself with boulder.

That's no worse than having the big lug fall on top of you as he dies.  I couldn't BELIEVE that happened to me once.  >_<;

Good idea. I have a good friend visiting this week and I doubt I'll have much time to play the game at all. I might have to do some marathon sessions early next week...

Hah, that's one classy way to die. Probably gotta try that someday.

Well, f--- me.
I never even noticed.
Clever bastards.

Got an explanation for the random running too?

Hm. Diarrhea?

I had some free time earlier this evening, so I decided to tackle chapter 3-2 even though I wasn't planning on it for another day or two. If I had to sum it up in one letter, it would be this one: F. Not only was this chapter very claustrophobic, but it was also a total (total, total) bitch to play through on Professional thanks to the closed quarters, tons of enemies and a weak Shotgun (the latter of those is completely my own choice, I realize). But, after a couple of hours I finally made it through, wiped my brow and happily saved at the end of the chapter. I'm going to shelf the game until Thursday or Friday at this point - I need to take a breather for a bit.

3-2: After getting unlucky here about seven times, I finally got very lucky and not only made it through the sewer section without taking a single hit (miracles + Rifle), but I also got two Blue Eye drops so I'll be able to finish the Butterfly lamps without having to hunt or take down that huge hive later in the chapter. Seriously, though - the Novistadors are tough mofos and while I could kill them in one shot with the rifle if they're not attacking, sometimes it would take four or five shots. Eek. Add to that their puking acid attack, the fact that they are f'n INVISIBLE and the fact that they can chop Leon's head off and, well, you have one huge pain in the ass section. But once I made it through I tossed a grenade down in the main hall and killed all of the monks except for one and made some sweet cash.

The gunner room wasn't too bad, but the next section, for lack of better words, was absolute shit. I couldn't come up with a good game plan other than run and shoot everything, so I basically just improvised and kept trying to make good runs where I didn't waste too much ammo or healing items. I got mauled by the crossbow Ganados, which I'm not too proud of. This room was the absolute worst part of the game so far difficulty-wise and made the cabin sequence look like a Dawson's Creek commercial. Don't get me wrong, first-timers - you will definitely have a blast with this room. The higher difficulty and damage makes it really challenging, though, and since there's not a lot of room to run I was kind of freaking out. My hands were literally sweating by the time I wrapped this part up.

In total contrast, the hedge maze section wasn't bad at all. I took one run to frivolously shoot everything, figure out enemy patterns/placement, waste healing items and plan my route to minimize fights, and then the second time through was a total breeze and took about two minutes to get through. A nice, relaxing stroll through the courtyard before another somewhat relaxing chapter compared to what I just went through.

No ifs, ands or buts about it: Professional mode is f'n hard! But it's also f'n awesome!

I'm in for 3-2 tonight, but there's no doubt: the Novistadors are horrible, nasty things.  I dread going into the sewer area, and bid the best of luck to anyone who doesn't A) Have a rifle of sorts, or B) A decently powered up shotgun.

Their acid-spewing fatality is just about the grossest death that Leon can take.  Again, I can't believe how graphic this game can be at times. o_O

How long does the entire chapter 3 take?  Should we all agree to be at chapter 4 by Monday?  Or is that too easy? 

I haven't started the castle yet.  A couple of friends are leaving for college this week and I needed to hang out with them before they left.  I'll start it soon, I promise.

On normal mode I don't remember them taking more than two shots with the shotgun.  In fact, despite the invisibility (and you CAN actually see them as if they were Predators), I always considered them some of the easiest and least ammo-sucky enemies in the game.  Definitely freaked me out a bit the first time through, though.

I think that would be manageable.  Though given everybody's erratic scheduling this week, maybe Zane had the right idea with allowing extra time - a "chance to relax and enjoy the game instead of feeling like they need to play through quickly just to keep up."

True, but that's if you've been upgrading the thing at all.  I recall from my last playthrough, where I didn't do a single upgrade, and those bad boys took four to five blasts to bring down.

I'd just like to take this time and get everyone's opinion on the game thus far.  How are you liking it?  For the first time players, is it what you expected?  I probably would have never played the title without the support of everyone here; it's nice experiencing it as a group. 

To be quite honest, I'm a little nervous about starting the castle.  I just got comfortable with the whole village/outdoor theme where I never felt claustrophobic or closed in.  If I'm in a castle, there's likely going to be a whole bunch of ambushing, which I'm not a big fan of.  It feels like a cheap way to scare the player. 

So, this is supposed to be the pinnacle of the Resident Evil games, yes?  The scarcity of your ammo and recovery items certainly does add an element of suspense, as does the atmosphere.  Overall I'm pleased.  I can appreciate what the game has accomplished so far, while anticipating the supposedly brilliant castle.  Capcom did well on this one.

*edit*  I'm really quite pleased at how well this is going for our first game.  It seems like everyone's having a great time and all the enthusiasm we've shown even brought Zane on board!  Again, thanks everyone for being a part of this and making it as successful as I wanted it to be.  GROUP HUG!!

So far, I am not really digging the story. Hopefully it gets better as it progresses. Not looking forward to starting the castle either, although at least with the castle, the prospect of having rooms will at least make it easier to back yourself into an area where you know nothing is going to get you (save for the experiences described earlier by Angie, etc.) from behind.

Also, do not like Ashley. Not one bit. I think the game would be much better off without her, personally. She only adds to my disdain for this element of protection. The rest of the gameplay is pretty solid though and I enjoy the multitude of death animations.

The atmosphere was definitely nice when the village area was dark. During the day, it wasn't really that great. Kinda suspenseful, but still daylight... I wonder what the castle atmosphere is going to be like...

When this all finishes up, I'd be most curious to hear the opinions of the few who started off with RE5, but then regressed back to RE4; other than Herrkotowski, is there anyone else who falls into this class?  Most everyone who played RE4 who then moved on to RE5 pretty much unanimously agrees that RE4 is the better game.  I wonder if it'd be any different for those who played RE5 first?

You shouldn't need to worry.  The village is pretty much your trial-by-fire; if you've become comfortable with how the game works at this point, then you should be well off for the rest.  As for the castle, it's much, much bigger than you would initially believe.  Indoor areas can be vast, so there's still plenty of maneuverability -- and there's quite a few outdoor areas as well.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the diversity of this section.

Finished 3-2 last night, which was a breeze compared to the previous chapter.
Granted, those nasty fly things are a pain in the ass, but once you learn how to deal with them it's no so bad.
I keep my Riot Gun well upgraded so they take only 3 hits, so it was mostly: Shotgun to face - Shotgun while downed - Shotgun to the ceiling.
They get up real quickly after shooting them when down, and they tend to jump to the ceiling immediately, which resulted in some rather severe health loss on my side, but once I learned to quickly respond to this I had no problems.
I am starting to get rather low on health items though.
However, I am a MAN, so no weaksauce resetting here

- Does ANYONE EVER get hit by those giant swinging axes? I mean, seriously? They seem really pointless to me.

- Like Zane, I always tremendously enjoy lobbing a grenade in the midst of those praying Illuminados. DEATH FROM ABOVE!

- I liked the nod at the original Resident Evil with the jewel in the Moose's eye.

- If you haven't reached 3-2 yet, here's a tip: the guy in the red robe, wearing the skull mask carries a key, but DON'T be tempted to try and take him out when he runs away. He's supposed to, and you won't be able to kill him until he's where he wants to be. I actually managed to corner him once, and wasted pretty much all my shotgun ammo on him until it dawned on me that perhaps he wasn't supposed to die yet.

- The garden maze was much easier than I remembered. I used the rifle to snipe the wolves in their cages and those that I met along the way went down pretty quickly with some Red9 action. Only one of them "transformed" and got a quick swipe at me, but I had expected worse.

- I died only once when I was low on health and an approaching Illuminados started what I thought was a swiping motion with a scythe, but turned out to be a THROWING motion with a scythe, which neatly buried itself in my chest. OUCH.

So I finished Chapter 3-1 today...Let's see here...

I decided to replace the rifle to the semi-automatic rifle and I'm so glad I did. It helped out in a bunch of situations. Aside from that, I just upgraded my regular shotgun and my Red9. The castle so far is interesting in the sense that it looks rather ho-hum. Hopefully it gets a little better, but there were some interesting sections (mainly near the end with the upside down statues). The grand entrance of the forgotten munchkin (who I swear has the creepiest laugh ever) was also quite ornate. The water room was quite interesting as well and seemed quite nicely designed. Aside from these few rooms, I failed to be impressed. Perhaps I was expecting too much the way people were describing it.

I only died three times this chapter (all me so no Ashley screwups).

Death 1: Shot with arrow in the forehead (stuck right in!) after defeating the prisoner.

Death 2: Thought there would be a checkpoint AFTER defeating the prisoner, but nope...had to fight again. Tried to shoot the bell, and missed. Claw impaled Leon's forehead.

Death 3: Water Room - random mace

I'm quite looking forward to Chapter 3-2 if only for the fact that Ashley isn't in tow, or at least not for a while as I'm sure it will take a bit to find her

Chapter 3-1 Stats

Hit Ratio: 85%
Enemies Killed: 77
Deaths: 3

Cumulative Stats

Hit Ratio: 76%
Enemies Killed: 356
Deaths: 19

Totally NOT true.  It is entirely possible to take him out before he reaches the center -- but you have to be hasty about it.  Make a beeline for him, ignoring the rest of the guys by stunning them with a shot to the face or knees.  Hurl a flash grenade at the group he's initially standing with before you leap down.  He'll make it through the door as a brief in-game cutscene, so if you can, shoot at his legs as he's running around the corridor's corner to knock him down.  Then lay waste to him like crazy.  Yes, he does have an absurd amount of health, but he WILL die.  This way, you can avoid the.... gatling gun confrontation all together.

Yep, exactly. I took him out with four rifle shots: one as soon as I opened the door (head) while he was pointing at me, one right before he ran into the door near his initial position (body), and two more as he was across the room directly opposite of his initial position (1x head, 1x body). Saves you a ton of trouble! Then again, if he makes it to where he's supposed to be, you can always exit the room and re-enter for an amusing little glitch.

Really!?
Hmm....seems I lacked the patience then. Or my shotgun wasn't strong enough...

I'm not aware of any such glitch.
What happens?

Taken from GameFAQs:

In the castle, there is a glitch where you can make the Gatling Gun appear without allowing the red monk to operate it.

First, progress normally and let the red monk escape. Once you return to the turret room, he will be operating the gatling gun. Immediate leave the room and return to the main hall with the merchant and save.

Load the game and re-enter the turret room. You need to chase the red monk again until he returns to the turret room. When you return to the turret room, the turret will be raised, but the red monk will be standing outside of the turret ring! Without the turret on his side, finish him with ease!

You don't need to save and reload; you can simply exit the room and re-enter the room (or restart from a continue point once you leave the room) to do this.

Still liking this. But then, RE-games usually are good except totally horrible Code Veronica.

No idea if this is the pinnacle of the series but RE 2 still is the best in the series for me.

Anyways, time to update my status on this (again some boring text), from the chapter 2-3, before boss fight to chapter 4-1 midway. Also I want to reminder that I didn't marathon again, but these are stuff from last few days.

Mendez did go down with some ease, few hits, but did manage to make the first form stuck so Red9 helped a lot. But the second form did eat all my shells which wasn't so nice.

Ganado truck did cause some problems after crashing down, two  Ganado's which didn't die thanks to Grenade decided to kill me almost. But I managed to get to the castle in one piece.

Hit Ratio 82% (Total 74%)
Enemies Killed 29 (Total 240)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 0)

9th save and playtime is 4:21:59

And that ended the village part which still is pretty fun to play, even if I don't much like ganados running me on open spaces. Now to the castle of fun.

Chapter 3-1

Ah, lovely merchant, selling a bigger case and treasure map. Also bought the semi-automatic rifle with scope, also tuned it and Red9 + shotgun as much as I could. Almost running out of pesetas also.

Castle sieging proved to be difficult thanks to Ashley getting mauled twice by the catapults. Didn't remember to wait them to shoot first and then run. Saved after meeting the midget, to be ready for the upcoming problems. (10th save, playtime 5:04:19)

Prison part went without a hitch, Garrador went down with three shots, but the next part is annoying, trying to let Ashley do her job and guarding her sametime. Died again once, but next time went without any problems, god bless semi-automatic rifles.

Just before ending the chapter, managed to again upgrade Red9 and Semi-automatic Rifle as much as that merchant let me. Also finished the first row of target practice and got 15000 pesetas, which will be useful. Anyways, onto next chapter.

Hit Ratio 80% (Total 76%)
Enemies Killed 79 (Total 319)
Number of times killed 3 (Total 3)

11th save and playtime is 5:37:42.

This was probably the most annoying chapter on the game, atleast for now. Really hate protecting Ashley, why I didn't just cave-in and choose to play with my old save and with bonus outfits.

Chapter 3-2

Went throu sewers nicely, two bugs did cause some problems, but those do it always. And for the first time, managed to get the Pendant from the group of Ganado's doing what they do on that spot. Saved so I won't have to deal the sewers and Ganada group again, (12th save).

Room with machinegunner went nicely, neither did have any troubles with the bazooka room, except getting almost shot to to death thanks to forgetting the last bunch of bazooka users.

The maze did cause few suprises, thanks to dogs attacking and I missing the shots so often, especially one dog suprised me by breaking the cage :D. Anyways, short chapter, thankfully.

Hit Ratio 66% (Total 74%)
Enemies killed 50 (Total 369)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 3)

13th save and playtime around 6:37:10.

Chapter 3-3

Caged Carrador went to total shit, 3 times to deep red means almost out of healing items.

Also, those facehugger wannabe monsters are annoying, really annoying. Before end of the chapter, bought the biggest case, to be able to carry something after my weapons + bazooka. Also thankfully Luis-death scene wasn't stupidy overdramatic or not even massively dramatic like RE-death scenes usually are. And this chapter was really short.

Hit Ratio 63% (Total 73%)
Enemies killed 23 (Total 392)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 3)

14th save and playtime around 7:05:32. Onto the next one.

Chapter 3-4

Freed Ashley with my Red9 markmanship, really, didn't even hit her once, even if I wanted to shoot her dead few times, but then, Ganado-part went bit badly, stupid crossbowmen.

Ashley-part went nice, managed to kill both Ganados even. And again another chapter done, these are so short nowadays. :P

Hit Ratio 86% (Total 74%)
Enemies killed 13 (Total 405)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 3)

15th save and playtime around 7:26:19. To next one, with pleasure, knowing what I'm gonna get pretty soon.

Chapter 4-1

On my way getting free Broken Butterfly, few scythe-Ganados decided to suprise me, didn't remember those at all. But BB did get a nice massive upgrade at the next Merchant, still so much treasures to sell, got enough money from Spines and Velvet Blues.

The hot part went nicely, even noticed something new; that you can shoot down those flame dragons completely and you don't have to try to snipe the users..

Thou I wonder who the hell was the architect for this place. But after a small scenery trips with Ashley, it was time to visit yet another merchant and upgrade rifle some more. Also, saved to take some more breaks, not feeling so good thanks to small flu. 16th save and playtime is 8:02:45.

Probably should post bit often. :P

What's wrong with Code Veronica?

From the start it felt just bit bad, maybe from the starting FMV to the horrible dub, and from Steve! to too much backtracking to Wesker being something else than human. Also, Steve f---ing sucked.

Also, it might be that I had just finished again RE 1-3 and whole movement from prerendered backgrounds to 3D bugged a bit. It's hard to say in the end, but I just don't like that game at all. Can't even remember single tune from the game.

There's already enough walls of text in this topic, we don't need another.

Actually, the soundtrack was probably the only thing I actually really liked, so much so it's one of my most favorites in the series.

I really suck at the water room.

Getting caught in the blast of my own grenade?  Check.

Getting maced to hell because I didn't realize that the door behind my sniping position had closed and I had no room to back away?  Check.

Sniping Ashley?  Check.

Edit: Well, I finally made it past the water room, but not without sniping Ashley a second time (she had it coming, anyway).  It seems that the balconies behind the doors aren't the best place to try to defend Ashley while she operates the cranks.  It's much easier from the platform at the water's edge.

Ha!  I did something like this, but instead of sniping Ashley, I knifed her to death. WHY WOULDN'T SHE MOVE?

Made it through 3-2 last night and MAN was 3-1 hard.  I ended up dying like 10 times.  I had no rifle so I was forced to take out all the catapult guys by the exploding barrels next to them.  That worked for all but one guy ( the one that constantly is chucking stuff at you when you're trying to raise the cannon) and coincidentally about 7 - 9 of my deaths were from that section alone.  I finally ended up just shooting a shit-ton of bullets towards him and he died down. 

So, creepy chanting monks are infinitely scarier than the Ganados!  I do like the little sidestep they do to try and avoid your bullets.  It's like they're from "Thriller" or something.  

3-1 was definitely the longest section so far, but thanks to killing pretty much everyone, I've been able to upgrade my pistol alot.  There's like two more upgrades to do before it's fully awesome.  Also pumped some cash into the shotgun, as it's gotten me out of a bunch of sticky situations (guys with spikey shields, Las Plagas). 

Oh, I think it was in 3-2 where there's a bunch of those creepy monk worshipping some item and you come in on the room above them. GRENADE!  I took out like 8 of them and ended up with some cool treasure to sell. 

Another difficult part was when you have to guard Ashley while she's turning some cranks.  I was dreadfully low on ammo and had about 3 shotgun shells left by the time she was finished. 

I did try to take Zane's advice when one of the "higher-up" guys starts running out of the room you're in.  I got him a couple of times in the head with my pistol, and then just ran up to him and emptied my shotgun.  Took him down, and probably avoided that machine-gun part.  Yay me!

I hate when that happens, all those missed bullets.

Anyways, again continued a bit from yesterday:

Chapter 4-1 continued

Decided to skip shooting range, the prize money isn't now so important to me.

Queen's Grail room's trap was fun, shot the four targets before entering to the room, and with King's Grail, had to use magnum to deal with the last 3 'knights' to emerge their parasites. Again didn't remember that the place deals 6 'knights'.

Then the best thing happened ASHLEY GOT KIDNAPPED AGAIN, NO MORE BABYSITTING FOR SOME TIME!!!, but then same room screwed me over: Hive did only drop one Blue Eye and I haven't gotten anymore more from the mobs, which means I probably won't be able to finish second Butterfly Lamp right?. Anyways, after that it was time to upgrade, lucky had shot Red9 to empty so got free bullets, same with Magnum, sweeet. Thou, had to sell some treasures to be able to upgrade BB.

The last shootout before Double Garrador room went pretty badly so decided to skip most of it by chickening out to the Garradors, where I again failed to  kill both of them with Rocket Launcher. The room went pretty badly anyways. God damn.

Oh well, things time to time drop to shit, but thanks to that, got myself a Striker, now my arsenal is done, just some upgrading left to do. Also bought a Rocket Launcher for the upcoming battle against Right Hand, will be purchasing second also soon, to make things bit easier

Anyways, saved (17th). And decided to battle Right Hand, without using Rocket Launcher which went pretty ok, missed few times with Broken Butterfly though. Anyways, yet another chapter done.

Hit Ratio 81% (Total 75%)
Enemies Killed 69 (Total 474)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 3)

18th save and playtime is 8:59:08. Onto the next one.

Chapter 4-2

Bloody double Gigante room and the second Gigante eating bullets.

Thankfully did get one Blue Eye more and after a small part of dogding objects, again a chapter was gone flying by. After a long castle ganados, seeing regular ones + Dr Salvador was a refreshing breeze.

Hit Ratio 68% (Total 74%)
Enemies killed 43 (Total 517)
Number of times killed 0 (Total 3)

19th save and playtime is 9:25:39

Chapter 4-3

Immediately sold stuff for over 200 pesetas to be able to upgrade Red9, Broken Butterfly, Striker and Semi-automatic rifle. Though, no capacity upgrades for Red9 or Broken Butterfly makes me a sad player.

Anyways, knowing that I'm bit ahead from you guys, gonna stop for a while, so save number 20 is now. Though, I'm not sure that's gonna happen, weekend coming and so, probably will finish this on weekend.

Not to damper your progress, but were we not in agreement to begin discussion from Chapter 4-1 onward next week?

Or maybe this is my way of stating that I'm procrastinating myself.  Haven't even begun 3-2 yet.

Totally. We should at least refrain from discussing until next week, even if some of us have made it that far.

Damn, didn't notice that, sorry for that. But in my defense, I have to say that chapter 3 just flew past me when I was playing. And of course, not having much stuff to do daily probably didn't help also a much. :D

Yes, we should all be at 4-1 by Monday, and it'd be best to refrain from moving on until then.  The last thing I want is for us to have to speed through the game just to keep up with everyone and miss out on a wonderful gaming experience.

So let me tell you about the time when I, without thinking, brought the president's daughter down into a room with a blind, surly Wolverine-guy. Aw, you can probably already guess the ending.

3-1 was difficult, as advertised, and depleted most of my ammo stores. I wound up having to work the bit where Ashley has to turn the two cranks while I fend off robe-guys with only about 40 bullets total between my three arms of choice (Punisher, TMP, God's Own Shotgun). And then, when I complete the task and move to escape, idiot-girl lags behind and gets beset upon by robe-guys at ground-level while I'm already across the bridge. Managed to get out of there safely, but damn it Ash. Other lowlights included her getting fragged because I, too, didn't notice the last catapult until it was too late, exploding the barrel near the entrance to where you get the Castle Key...near where I'd told her to WAIT, and three accidental snipings during the aforementioned crank bit. No wonder she told me to piss off at chapter's end.

3-2 did something unique - it made me jump multiple times. First with the Freaky Predator Bugs, then with the Rocket-Launcher-Jerks-Out-of-Friggin'-Nowhere, and then with the Tentacle-Dogs-That-Just-Randomly-Appear-Behind-Me-Every-Time. But I made it through OK, no worse for the wear, and didn't die at all. I also managed to keep Red-Robe from escaping by tickling him from afar with the TMP every time he touched the doorknob. Before skimming comments here, I didn't even know there WAS another part. I also tried lobbing an incendiary grenade on them from above but it caught on the chandelier or something and all but one of them ran like rabbits. Aw.

Reached Chapter's end, met Ada, which I guess makes Leon A/Claire B the canonical RE2 take then, as she died in his arms in Leon B. But regarding Leon's accusation, not only what-makes-him-suspect-she's-working-with-Wesker, but also how-in-hell-does-he-know-who-Wesker-is? Did they meet in some part of Code Veronica I didn't see or something?

Played a little bit of 3-3, went item-collecting and panicked when I saw a robe and shot my merchant. Reset. (I've become an anti-Robite, I guess) Worked out the food puzzle (slightly tricky since I don't have a scoped weapon of any kind. Yes, I'm abusing the living HELL out of that Wii-targeter, but doable), went after a treasure, got caged, arrowed, and Wolverined, and decided to call it there.

P.S. This post looks weird.

Yeah, I was kinda surprised to see her alive as well the first time.
I kinda hate it when games/movies/comics whatever bring back characters that were supposed to be dead, but hey, that's Capcom for ya.

As for that last question, it wouldn't be too hard to assume that Leon got filled in on Whesker's role in Umbrella after (or perhaps even before) the events in RE2 transpired.

LOL, yeah I came close to doing that several times too.