Here's a bit of advice that makes that scene very easy, if you're interested: instead of fighting the dudes in the cage and trying to knife/shoot your way through the lock, equip a hand grenade (green) before getting the treasure. As soon as the cutscene starts where the Garrador drops in on you, toss the grenade at the locked door - and viola! - door opens and you can easily pick off the Garrador and other enemies from the perimeter of the room. That'll save you some bullets as well, since it should take out an extra Ganado or two.

Were you surprised to see her?  If so, I'm impressed that you had avoided that spoiler for four years.  Her return was spoiled even in the trailers preceding the original GameCube release.  And at the start of Chapter 1-3, if you walk back into the bedroom that you just passed, you'll see her.

I haven't updated my progress a while because of the preparations for the upcoming schoolyear, so I've been a bit busy. By the way, I don't bother with spoiler tags in my posts because the chapter number should be a warning anyway that there's potentially revealing information ahead.

2-2:

The cabin fight wasn't that difficult. At first I stayed on the ground floor, and later retreated to the stairs. Luis took care of the first floor so I just pumped lead into the Ganados who were trying to come upstairs. Sometimes they got too close, and I even had to use a few herbs, but I managed to survive it without much damage. I was, however, low on ammo.

Stats:

Hit ratio: 68%/70%
Enemies killed: 61/199
Number of times killed: 0/2

2-3

I decided to go for the path with El Gigante. I've seen the other path, and frankly, it doesn't seem very inviting with those chainsaw freaks. Besides, El Gigante is very easy, and the only troublesome detail is Ashley, who was smashed by the boulder I tried to unleash on El Gigante. But like before, two backslashes put the monster down.

Mendez' first form was easy, as his range was pretty bad. I stayed on the ground floor, but after the transformation I took strategic position on the upper level. I got smacked by him once, and he almost completely wiped floor with me, but fortunately I had enough shotgun shells to put him to early sleep. I do hate those quick-time events.

I was taken aback by the Ganados that appear after the car incident behind your back. They got Ashley twice, damn it! Seriously, most of the game overs are due to her.

Stats:

Hit ratio: 84%/73%
Enemies killed: 24/223
Number of times killed: 6/8

3-1

I like the castle part much more than the village levels. It injects somewhat gothic and medieval atmosphere to the game. And those monks are much scaries than the villagers! Catapults were the hardest enemies in my opinion.

Hit ratio: 77%/74%
Enemies killed: 74/297
Number of times killed: 1/9

Now it's just a big blurry mess for me, so I don't remember in which chapters those events concluded.

But, the stats first:

3-2

Hit ratio: 77%/74%
Enemies killed: 77/297
Number of times killed. 1/9

3-3

Hit ratio: 84%, 72%
Enemies killed: 23/367
Number of times killed: 0/9

3-4

Hit ratio: 95%/72%
Enemies killed: 12/379
Number of times killed: 4/13

Those invisible monsters were laughably easy. Yeah, they attack rather viciously, and when they do get a hit, they deplete most of the health bar, but they're very predictable. Shotgun did the job here, too.

I completed the first shooting gallery and won six bottle caps. Fortunately I did all of that in first try, so I got past it quickly. I wouldn't have liked sitting there too long.

The most enjoyable and suspenseful was the garden. The dogs' howling and hearing them growl made me advance carefully. Shotgun did the job, again.

The Ashley part reminded me of the horrible quick-time events. I died three times, all because of the stupid QTEs. Thank god I didn't have to solve the puzzle again, otherwise I would've been very mad. The puzzle itself was actually quite fun this time around, I remember solving it before and having immense problems with it. I've gotten more patient, I guess.

So far I think it doesn't come close to Resident Evil 1 and 2, but surpasses other RE games I've played (Survivor, Resident Evil 3). I preferred zombies, to be honest, but I think they made a wise decision by altering the previous formula with Resident Evil 4.

I should heed my own advice - I had absolutely nothing to do this afternoon after I got out of work and ended up a few subchapters ahead. Whoops! Man, this game is addicting.

I was getting dangerously behind schedule, and I didn't have a lot of time to play today, but as it turned out, it was more than enough, cos 3-3 and 3-4 are actually quite short.

- First off, thanks Zane, for the grenade-on-locked-cage tip! I never thought of doing that before, but it definitely makes that scene a LOT easier. I didn't lose any health whatsoever here, which is a first.

- As a tip for people who haven't reached 3-3 yet, make sure you have some space in your case, cos you're going to get a really nice weapon for free. It takes up a lot of space, but it's going to come in REAL handy when fighting Salazar cos it pretty much disposes of him in one hit, if I remember correctly.
If you have no space, just move to the next area, where you can buy an all new Attache Case (L) and go back to retrieve the weapon. You'll be glad you did.

- It's kinda ironic that pretty much all of Leon's death animations have been totally eliminated from the Japanese version, but apparently Luis's graphic death scene is no problem whatsoever, despite being rather more gruesome.
I guess decapitations are a no-no.

3-3 stats: Acc 89%, 22 kills, 0 deaths.

Not much to mention for 3-4. I guess the throwback to old RE controls when playing as Ashley is kinda funny. It does do a good job of showing how bad those controls were...
Also, slide puzzles can go to HELL.
That includes you too, Layton!

3-4 stats: 100% (yay!), 10 kills, 0 deaths.

Good news! I can resume playing today! The bad news? I'm at 2-3! Ouch!

I couldn't resist the temptation to upgrade from my GameCube version of RE4 to the Wii version.  The ease of aiming with the Wii Remote is striking.  With a GameCube controller, trying to shoot dynamite while it was in a Ganado's hand was purely a matter of luck for me.  Using the Wii Remote, shooting dynamite is simple.  And targeting enemies at very close range is much easier because I can aim anywhere on the screen instead of having to pivot Leon's whole body.

The whole pace of the game is faster because without the Wii Remote, so much time is spent lining up shots with the laser sight.  And with the Wii Remote, the shooting range is pointlessly easy.

That said, I've died more than a few times because I refuse to upgrade my weapons.  I'm being thrifty with an eye towards saving money for later playthroughs.  Since I haven't upgraded my weapons' firepower, I sometimes find myself low on ammo, shotgun rounds in particular.

I liked that, but then I do like slide puzzles.

Finished up Chapters 3-2 to 3-4 during an early Sunday morning run.  Seeing as I have little else to add that hasn't already been mentioned, I'm going to forgo my usual detailed account of these last few.

I would like to mention, though, that I've always liked the way they handled the initial reunion with Ada.  Terse, and thankfully not prolonged; tasteful as a result, since we get the distinct sense that Leon always knew that she was still alive.  (And more importantly, that we as the players knew.)  As a hardened vet of six years (and yes, as someone who was directly involved in the Raccoon City incidents had to have been briefed on Wesker), his reaction at seeing her again for the first time is reasonably sound.  I also thought it was great that they were able to get the original voice actress, Sally Cahill, back for the role.

The way he pulled off that knife maneuver was awesome, by the way.  The knife fight choreography in this game is terrific, especially later on.

Also, I'm surprised that the Castle is getting such a lukewarm reception from some of you guys.  The locales still manage to impress me, from the audience and observation halls, the water room, the bedroom where you confronted Ada, the dining hall, the servant quarters..... just beautifully realized, atmospheric stuff.

Maybe I'm sitting on a slightly more biased level of appreciation, though, since I've developed something of a keen interest in Victorian castle design.  I remember my first castle visit from years back was Craigdarroch Castle in British Columbia -- and I was blown away by its majesty and beauty.  More than the architecture, the interior designs were what really stuck with me.  I mean, just look at some of these:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/ … g-room.jpg
http://k53.pbase.com/g4/75/647075/2/622 … Nzz0PL.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/294 … 4f.jpg?v=0
http://www.hammondtours.com/images/stor … ACCOMM.JPG

Every so often, I'll visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in NYC just to visit the Victorian era exhibits.  They have some amazing replications.

That later on knife scene, by the way, is another thing that can go to hell.

I love that scene, especially the part that plays if you lose.  Listening to Leon burble while Krauser slowly buries his knife into Leon's chest makes it seem as though he's made of flesh and blood rather than an assemblage of polygons.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting headshots on two monks as they were carrying Ashley away in chapter 3-4.  Let's see how long I can keep this not-sniping-Ashley streak going.

For those of you who are starting chapter 4-1, don't forget to take Ashley back to the room that can only be accessed by having her piggyback on top of Leon.  There are several goodies in there, and you have a limited opportunity to backtrack to that room.

Time to wrap up Chapter 3's writeup. After the hellish time I had in 3-2, 3-3 and 3-4 were both welcome breaths of fresh air!

3-3: Easiest chapter ever. As noted earlier, I tossed a grenade to open the door when the cage drops down on and traps Leon and the Garrador, which made the banquet hall an easy area. It's easy to snipe invisible Novistadors if you know where you're looking, too. I knew there were some in the back room toward where you go to pick up the Broken Butterfly later on, and before walking into the room proper I observed that they drool brown stuff when they're invisible, which shows where their heads are. One rifle shot to the dome and they're finished, before they can even hop down and puke on you! Smooth, if I may say so.

I grabbed the XL case before getting the free rocket launcher, because I totally ran out of room. I had, like, fourteen full healing items, including G/G/G, G/R, G/R/Y herbs and first aid sprays. I sell all my first aid sprays now since I have so many other (cheaper) ways to heal if I get owned and want to continue on instead of restarting. Good way to make some cake, too!

3-4: After a super fun sniping sequence, playing as Ashley was... dare I say, fun? The first room is easy, since there's a little hole you can crawl through into the next room, (as soon as you see the Zealot, run to the right corner and crawl under the desk) and while opening the cage to move out I just tossed the lanterns at the second Zealot and mashed that A button until I could get through. I restarted a couple of times just to make it perfect. I somehow did the slide puzzle in less than two minutes, when it usually takes me at least five minutes of randomly fumbling around until I get it to the point where I can put the piece in.

Nothing special happened in 3-3 or 3-4, sans Luis' death, which is improperly dramatic. Leon met Luis when they were captured, had the shootout with him (before Luis bolted) and then saw him before making his way into the castle. Does that really justify Leon screaming out, "LUUUUIIISSSS!!!!!"? Kind of hilarious. Saddler's mutant deathcock is pretty vicious. It was merely an enjoyable intermission before my absolute favorite part of the castle. Aside from the cave segment in 4-2, all of chapter 4 is non-stop gaming gold. I'm still in awe of how badass that fire room looks!

Didn't remember that you can skip the maze part with TMP, the door which has the lock on the other side can be shot down with TMP stock equipped. Same works with Queen's Grail room's lock.

Don't know why, but I didn't encounter those at all on my playthrough on that part, neither alone on that room (before cage or after with Ashley), odd.

And do people really have problems with the gallery shooting? I don't know why but I always manage it with ease on my dual shock. Also, what's with the paint puzzle. :P

It's probably more fun with rocket launcher, you apparently can destroy the bars with it and not harm Ashley at all.

I still wonder why in the hell even that place is on the castle, central heating? But more I wonder about the mine cart part, HOW IN THE HELL THEY MOVE THOSE MINECARTS IN THERE. Maybe I'm starting to be too serious about the functionality and realism of the places.

Anyways, todays comments were sponsored by this speedrun, of course, people who haven't yet finished the game for the first time shouldn't even check that site. :P

And I've managed to hold out playing the game for whole weekend, go me. (which probably means that I'll soon make 7 hour marathon)

Are spoiler tags really necessary for this?

From the standpoint of realism, I'm less puzzled by the mine carts than I am by those (chapter 4-1 spoiler follows) fire-breathing mechanical dragons.  For one thing, it looks as though they're simply floating in the air, kept aloft by some unseen force.  For another, building giant gravity-defying dragon-shaped flame tanks doesn't seem like such a practical way to keep the occasional intruder from collecting one of your chimera pieces.

Edit: Marked a spoiler.  I forgot that the dragons are in chapter 4-1, not 3-4.  Sorry.

Are Novistadores the Predator bugs? Don't remember seeing them at all in 3-3.

All caught up now (Zane's tip helped, but I still got smacked around a bit clearing out the room), and yeah, these were pretty short. Not too much to say, actually.

As far as Leon's histrionics go, it's an RE staple. Claire cried over Steve, for pity's sake. Ashley segment had two deaths - one when I got cornered by a camping robe, and again when I realized too slowly I was in a QTE. Forgot the Yellow Herb the second time too. Damn it.

I hear that. I'm just so acclimated to the 'Cube controllers' dimensions that it's become second nature to me. My normal first party controller bit the dust a while back, so I've been using this third party Gamestop controller, and it's decent, but it lacks all the idiosyncrasies that made Nintendo's brand so much more fun in my eyes. The buttons aren't as big, for one, the shoulder buttons don't 'click' with the same smile-inducing cadence (I know Zane'd have the same problem), and the whole device is lighter and lacks heft, making it feel cheap. I'm totally investing in a standard controller. This one will be relegated to second tier Smash Bros. usage for when I have guests.

So we can start discussing chapter 4 now, right?

4-1

The fire room is beautiful but, as Razakin noted, pretty inexplicable.  I had some luck luring the monks into the blasts of flame from the flamethrowers.  I'm still in awe of how much easier this game is with the Wii Remote.  Picking off the flamethrower operators with a pistol is a piece of cake.

Since I'm not tuning my weapons, the fight in the King's Grail room drained a lot of my shotgun rounds.  After I defeated the three knights, I breathed a sigh of relief, and then I realized that what I mistook for the sound of the gate opening was actually the sound of the revolving doors yielding another three knights.  I was feeling pretty beleaguered at that point.

One thing I find deeply satisfying is using the rifle to get a head shot through a monk's shield, so the long hallway in front of the grail receptacles was a treat.

Between the clock tower and the bridge, I took enough hits to require a green-red herb mixture and a green herb.  Most of the damage came as a result of not noticing that one of the monks on the bridge was armed with a rocket launcher until his rocket connected with Leon's face.

After falling into Salazar's pit, I eagerly replaced my original shotgun with the Stryker to open up six slots in my case.  The bottom of the pit is a prime example of RE4's extraordinary atmosphere.  I can feel how dank and foul the pit is.  If you look closely, you can even see the blood of the dead monks diffusing into the water.  I suppose that the motivations of minor characters don't merit much scrutiny, but I can't help but wonder why a merchant would set up shop ankle-deep in fetid water in a place where most visitors arrive by deadly fall.

4-2

I considered fighting both of the El Gigantes so that I could collect treasures from both, but I decided that it wouldn't be worth the cost.  Since I didn't have enough regular ammunition to spare to take down both, I figured that the cost of taking down the second El Gigante would be equal to the resale value of the rocket launcher that I picked up from the castle.  There was no point in using a rocket launcher with a resale value of 15,000 pesetas to bring down a beast that drops 15,000 pesetas.

Is it my imagination, or do the novistadors take more damage in the air than they do on the ground?  It seems as though a single shot from an untuned Stryker is sufficient to kill a novistador while it's in the air, whereas several shots are necessary if it's scurrying on the ground.

After I turned on the second light in the novistador cave, I ignored the new novistadors that appeared and made a bee line for the cave exit.  Behind me, the novistadors had clustered near the exit, which was a perfect opportunity to get multiple kills with a grenade.  Unfortunately, I ended up tossing a couple of grenades short, so I decided to continue from a reset point.  Sadly, resetting caused the novistadors to disappear.

4-3

After sniping a couple of Ganados at the campsite, the rest started running towards me in a neat line, and I managed to blow the heads off of three of them with a single rifle shot.  I'm leaving off here for now.  I mentioned earlier that I'm saving money for later playthroughs, and so far I've accumulated 839,100 pesetas.

Man, 4-1 sure is a hell of a lot longer and harder than the final stages of Chapter 3...

- The fire room, whether it makes sense or not, is awesome. Taking out the first two Dragon Heads was easy, but the third one is always a bit of a hassle for me. I tried to get some monks caught in the fire, but that didn't go quite as easily as I had planned, so I suffered a couple of beatings as a result. Still a great room though.

- Speaking of not making sense, what's with the carts!? And who's controlling them anyway!?

- I always love the Queen's Grail room segment. Again, totally non-sensical, but still awesome. Does the big drill machine remind anyone else of the movie Labyrinth?
Also, you gotta love video game logic. How is it that the gate in this room somehow magically opens when I take out the two drivers of the drill machine!?
Speaking of which, how is it that the Elevator at the end of the chapter takes frigging AGES to come up, UNLESS you kill the big Alien-esque monster thing at which point it will arrive INSTANTLY!? Why does stuff like that never happen in real life?

- The King's Grail room got me killed because of being a bit too much. As a tip though: you might want to tell Ashley to wait outside. She won't actually automatically come into the room with you when the cutscene starts, so you can make this scene easier by having her wait outside in safety.

- I killed lots of Novistadors AND shot down their nasty hive, but at the end I had only ONE blue eye. Stop being so damn stingy!

- That tower is a pain in the ass. I always get killed at LEAST once here. It really helps to climb back up the ladder once you reach the bottom and the monks start appearing though. That dynamite thrower should be taken out immediately, and from your position at the top of the ladder it's quite easy to pick off anyone who tries to climb up.

- The bridge scene is a pain in the ass too. I just lobbed a grenade and ran for it.

- The next room isn't NOT a pain in the ass either. Having a souped-up rifle definitely helps though. Didn't stop me from being killed several times unfortunately.

- Everything is made okay though, because of Leon's Right Hand quip. God, I love that line. The fact that Leon has the balls to make SUCH a corny joke in such dire circumstances only serves to augment the effect of his taunt, making him the biggest Badass in video game history.
Let's hope he comes back for 6.

- I got killed by the Right Hand in question because I refuse to heal when my health is in the yellow zone. Has to be red first.
I'm kinda low on herbs/FA sprays anyway so I'm not gonna use them until I REALLY need them.
I got him on the second try though, but then, when running into the elevator room, I moved to grab the spray on the table, accidentally in my haste moved the cursor to 'use' instead of 'pick up', pressed A and used a perfectly good FA spray when my health was at 80% or something.

DOH!

So I turned the game off and will try again this evening.

I do like the way Leon's basic attitude through the whole game is mild annoyance.  I imagine him saying, "It's my first day on the job AGAIN, and I have to beat back ANOTHER infested populace?  I have had it up to HERE with your chainsaws and your booby traps.  Really, do you MIND if I just take the president's daughter and go home?"

Ah, Chapter 4. I f---ing love you. All of you. Even that boring cave part with all the flying Novistadors in 4-2.

4-1: OK. Honestly? This might be the best chapter in the entire game. First, the dragon room and all its rendered glory. Then the awesome Grail section. And THEN the clock tower segment! And then Verdugo! Dude. Seriously? So much win in such a small span.

I don't have much to report here as far as what made things different for me in Professional; it was a fairly standard romp through some of my favorite parts of the game. I redid the dragon room once because I got axed near the end and wanted to pull a flawless run, and the King's Grail section was a total bitch! I had to restart about 12-15 times to get a good run (i.e., only get hit once or twice). Once those Plagas bust out of the suits of armor that room gets mighty small, mighty fast.

I sniped the guards at the top of the tower, so I didn't get spotted and therefore did not get attacked by the catapult Zealots across the way. After activating the bridge, I didn't kill anyone on the way down. I just ran (and ran) and shot a few Shotgun shells to knock dudes down before making my exit. And then in the next section I bought the Striker (best Shotgun ever, really) and then took Verdugo down in about 10 seconds with my rocket launcher. And that, as they say, is that.

4-2: Somehow I kicked Dr. Salvador right off the cliff (I cleared the room and went to take him out with my Red9), which made this section a little less hectic than previous playthroughs. I beat the pants off those Gigantes in the next room (side note: what's up with that S&M Gigante? Where are the nipple clamps?) and then went back in after I loaded the next area to get my extra 15k for the one I dumped in the giant pool of lava. Oh, for further reference, if you drown a Gigante in the lava stay the f--- away from the open pit - his burning corpse will reach out and pull you in. I was unaware of that. The Novistador cave was uneventful. Ran through, shot a bunch of dudes out of the air, booked it, ended the chapter. God, I love this Striker - it makes this whole area a cinch.

I'm actually a few subchapters ahead at this point (midway through 5-2), but I'm pacing myself for discussion purposes from here on in. I won't touch it again until we all get to that point. That gaming session from last Friday really pushed me ahead!

So far I have my Red9 fully upgraded, my Rifle fully upgraded, my Striker on its way (just need some capacity, but I'm waiting until I run out of shells for that) and my Broken Butterfly is not too far behind. I have a shitload of herbs - 6 G/R/Y, 4 G/R and 1 G/G/G - and way too many bullets. Conservation really is the name of the game. I'm gonna sell some stuff so I can make room and finish upgrading my guns! Also, I have about 300k in the bank right now. Should be enough to polish off my upgrades.

That room in 4-1 with the red drapes blowing impressed the heck out of me back in the day and I still find it to be one of the coolest graphical effects in a game full of cool graphical effects.  Yeah, Chapter 4 overall is pretty darn awesome.

There's a Flash Grenade on one of the chairs at the start of the area leading to the Grail pedestals, you know?

The length of these subchapters is really all over the place. 4-2 was really short again. So much so that I felt myself wondering if they couldn't have moved a bit of 4-1 into it.

Anyway, it was nice to see some rural Ganados again after all these Zealots, even if I got a couple of cleavers to the brain.
Chainsaw Guy decided it would be too unsportive to actually try and attack me, so, after making his appearance in a cutscene, he just stood there and did nothing, whilst I shook off a bunch of Ganados at the other side of the cave. After that, I picked him off with my Sniper Rifle.
Yay for AI!

The fight with the trolls was pretty uneventful.
Christ can the S&M guy take a load of bullets though.

I bloody HATE that Novistador cave, because I bloody HATE Novistadors, but I have to admit, having Leon kick them in the face is AWESOME.
I finally got my second (!) Blue Eye too, hurrah!
I decided to turn around after running into the narrow hallway you have to open, to see, as I expected, that the Novistadors wouldn't go through the opening. Out of spite, I shot a bunch of them from my cosy safe spot. Bastards.

Briefly checked into 4-3, just to spend a shitload of money on upgrading my weapons. I'm not gonna use this playthrough for a New Game anyway, so to hell with all that money.

Spend spend spend!

Is there some trick to this? They never seem to drop them with any degree of consistency. Is it completely randomized?

Completely randomized. I read somewhere that the color of their eyes when you kill them dictates what color gem you get, but I'll be damned if I have ever been able to utilize that trick - it's nearly impossible. I had two Blue Eyes by the time I left the first Novistador area, so I was incredibly fortunate.

Oh yeah, man. I had Flash Grenades, but I was conserving and wanted to get a smooth run. I would use the Black Butterfly and my Shotgun to get all three Plagas out and then use one Flash Grenade to finish off all three in one shot. Tough as nails, but man, what an accomplishment it was to take both trios down with one 'nade!

Yeah, feels good, dunnit

I had only one grenade left, and I missed the opportunity to use it on the first trio, but the second trio was flocking together nicely so I quickly gave them some shotgun rounds to the helmet, and then, BAM, Flash Grenade and bye bye buggies!

I had the impression the second trio is easier though. The plagas came out after only one shot each, whereas I had to pummel the first trio a bit before anything happened.

I sure hope not, used Broken Butterfly to the second trio. And I'll probably update my 'log' after finishing the game, which is at this week. Though, depends if we continue still for one week?

I was also woefully behind but caught up last night.  I'm mid-way through 4-1 and will probably put in some more time tonight. 

For the longest time, I couldn't figure out how to rescue Ashley!! :-(  Finally I just tried shooting those damned shackles and freed her.  The following voyage to Leon was one of the creepiest parts of the game, especially that bit with her and the flashlight!  I did manage to get the treasure and family crest.  HOLY CRAP when those suits of armor came at me, I flipped!  Not being able to see your enemy is WAY creepy!

I think at this time we shouldn't have to worry about waiting for everyone else.  We can all go until the end. 

Also, Carolyn Lawrence is hot.

Answer me truthfully, did you even think about shooting her with rifle?

Maybe I should do one trip so that I will get Ashley killed so many different times. Would be fun.

TOTALLY.  It was after the 5th or 6th "Help!" that I was ready to put her to sleeep.

Man, the more I progress the more I am painfully reminded of how hard this game can be.
5 was definitely a walk in the park compared to this.

Lots of chainsaw guys in 4-3. Once you enter the tomb there's one that you can easily snipe from afar, but I forgot there was another one in that area which was a nasty surprise. Gave him the miss though.

And then, comes the MINECART SECTION.
God how many times I died...
Well, 4, but it seemed like 12!

Programming on the Chainsaw guys is really odd though. The one that you can snipe just stands there and does nothing (probably programmed not to climb ladders or open any doors), and then, during the minecart section, the first time the cart comes to a standstill there's supposed to jump one in, but this one time, he just wasn't there for some random reason.
Weird...

All in all, pretty short chapter though, if you don't think HOURS to get past that damn minecart bit.

Acc 84%, 63 kills (595), 4 deaths (26)

That section was pretty easy for me.  I died once, only because I didn't watch my health and one Ganado with Las Plagas jumped in.  The jump was certainly surprising!!

Here's my wrap-up for Chapter 4. I had little to no issues with 4-3 and 4-4!

4-3: I love, love, love the entire ruins area. At this point I used all of the bullets in all of my guns to shoot everyone around the campfire, and then upgraded the capacity of my Red9, Striker and Rifle to get free bullets with the upgrade. Thanks, Merch!

The ruins themselves weren't very tough, and I'll outline what I did and what I recommend doing in this room if you have any trouble. The most important tip for first-timers I could give is this: do not go through the cave door on the ground level, and do not go down the stairs from the top level to the bottom level. This area is on the left when you enter the room. Here's what I would recommend doing:

1.) As soon as you get into the ruins area, pick off all the dudes in the room with your handgun or rifle, one by one. This will make it so you don't have to run around killing (and avoiding) Ganados in the maze, and it also lets you have an area to stand on, thereby saving you the headaches of trying to avoid a fight and stumbling right into a bear trap.

2.) Go to the right of the room and snipe the Dr. Salvador. Don't go up the ladder until that chainsaw is off.

3.) Go up the ladder, grab the key, and then either shoot or knife the Ganados that come up the ladder to get you. This requires some patience, but by knifing them as they get close to the top you will save some ammo and will keep you out of harm's way.

4.) Go to the ground level of the cave you were just in by jumping out the window where the ladder was, and by going over to the door. I repeat, do not go down the stairs! Open the door by pressing the "Open" button once and only once - this will keep your entrance quiet. As you open the door, do not enter the room - you will see ANOTHER Dr. Salvador in there, just standing there, facing the stairs, waiting for you to come down. See what I mean about not going down those stairs? Use your rifle or shotgun to knock him down before entering the room. Once he's down time your shotgun blasts so he gets knocked down as he's trying to stand up again. If you do it this way, he should be dead in less than ten shells and won't even have a chance to start up his chainsaw! Now go loot the rest of the area, but watch out for the stray Plaga-infested Ganado in the underground chamber that is underneath where you entered the room. There's a good chance he came out during your first firefight, but you never know.

Unlinke Amazingu, I had an... uh, amazingly simple time on the minecart ride. Basically, I stayed near the front of the cart and used the spray from my Striker shots to knock all the Ganados off the platforms before they could even jump in the car! I also was able to shoot the gate switch with the Striker from afar, which kept the minecart moving fairly quickly. The only semi-issue I had was when Salvador jumped in my car, but I took him out before he even started up the chainsaw. Piece of cake, yo. I've always had issues with this section, but using the Striker to knock dudes (and dudettes) down before they can infiltrate your space is key! I'm going to see if I can do this during the bulldozer sequence as well.

4-4: Nothing much to report here, other than the fact that this part of the game is an absolute ball. I died once in the Tower of Death segment because I was standing directly under where the barrels drop when I pulled the lever. Oops! A subtle little homage to Donkey Kong, I'd say. I basically shot the shit out of anything that moved with my Striker on the elevator segment, and when I could I'd snipe or Red9 any dudes on the outskirts of the room to keep them from using their crossbows on me.

Salazar was the easiest boss in the game for me thus far. I stood directly in the front of the room and used the (indespensible, at this point) Striker on Left Hand's eye to get it to open up, followed by a few mangum shots to Salazar. I repeated this several times, dodging the attacks when QTEs would pop up. I was able to quell the instant death attack with two well-placed Striker shots to the giant eye, which forced it to interrupt the attack animation and drop and expose Salazar for some more magnum shots. When I ran out of magnum shells I used the Rifle, which had a firepower value of 12.0 at this time, in comparison to the 15.0 I had with the Butterfly (side note: I'm going to fully upgrade that sucker so I can get 50.0 FP for future boss fights, like U3 and, of course, the final boss). I literally did not move an inch from the beginning of the fight until I took that gross monstrosity down. I used to be terrified of him - he does almost take up the entire room - but with a good attack plan (or a rocket launcher), he goes down quick.

So when does everyone want to start talking about 5-1? I'd be down for whenever, but it might be nice to do what we did similar to last week - give everyone a chance to casually enjoy the game without any pressure to hurry and finish up. I was thinking Monday for chapter 5. What does everyone think?

Yeah, that...uh...pretty much sums up my experience as well, with the only difference being I didn't actually die from getting hit by the barrel.
I did compensate for that by getting hit by it TWICE though, cos I'm smart like that.
And yes, I was thinking of Donkey Kong the whole time too.
That must've been intentional.

I love the segment with the Salazar statue! It went real smooth, and I always thought it was kinda funny to have a huge statue of such a small man. That's some impressive technology to have it run like that though!

Salazar's retort "Isn't that a popular word these days?" to Leon's "That's terrorism!" is dangerously close to being social commentary (by videogame standards. ESPECIALLY for an RE game), and I LIKE it
Also, that knife looked rather painful.

The Salazar battle was easy as pie for me too.
But then, I had been saving the Rocket Launcher for this occasion. so all it took was two shots to the eye (didn't miss once! yay!) and one well-placed rocket in the torso, and Salazar was a goner. No trouble at all.
I remember this is where you have to change disks in the GC version, and I recall being really impressed by how much they managed to squeeze onto one CD, especially with graphics like these. Well done, Capcom.

And now, the Island!

BTW, I agree with Zane, I think we should just do one whole chapter per week. I have just about enough time to finish one subchapter per day, and I'd like to be able to play some of my newer games too (haven't even touched Arkham Asylum yet) so I'd prefer keeping up a leisurely pace.

Since we might have a hurricane stop by Massachusetts this weekend (and I might have to work in it), I decided to pull a most-of-the-nighter and went through Chapter 4 in one sitting. My left hand hates me right now. Bite-sized thoughts in spoiler vision GO!

Fire room reminded me of Twilight Princess' Goron Mines, though I suppose for most people that should be the other way around.

Yeah, Amazingu, I thought of Labyrinth at that point myself. Stupid knight room took me three tries because I kept getting cornered.

The bug hive room was amusing because I had told Ashley to wait outside but when the cutscene started she was right next to me. Also, I've only just noticed how similar these bugs are to Agnus' second form in DMC4. Again, reverse that for most people.

Getting in the tower was a bigger pain than getting through it. Dynamite guy managed to blow himself up thanks to my position and some sort of AI quirk. I almost escaped unscathed but then practically walked on top of a ground-level archer I hadn't seen. The bridge could've gone better; I died once because I chose the wrong side to hold them off against, and got swarmed when they started coming from the openings.

The 'right hand' line is amusing, but my favorite bit from that scene is when he shoots Salazar's speaker.

The Right Hand fight, though? Holy crap, best part of the game so far. After a few failed attempts (including one BS moment where he attacked me while I was kicking open a door) I finally took him down T-2000 Style with my last shotgun blast after tipping over the last available canister. Awesome.

Resources were running DAMNED low during the Gigante rematch (I dunked the other one). I think I had all of 26 bullets by the time I finally got past it. A lot of baiting him toward the pulley deck went a long way to stretching things out.

Not too much to say about the mines or ruins, aside from the fact that Chainsaw Guys have completely lost their menace. I got to grenade most of the bonfire people though, that was fun.

Cart ride was a hoot, and I almost made it through without getting hurt, but I smacked my head once when I didn't duck in time.

Statue chase bit is one of those wonderful things only videogames can pull off. I died the first time though, because when I reached the end of the first room, I'd assumed that, like some other games, I could watch him stumble and fall from the safety of the other side. Then he stepped on me.

I did the exact same thing Zane did with the barrel switch and felt like a doofus. I'm glad he admitted it first.

Cheers to Amazingu and his rocket-launch-on-Salazar suggestion. Putting a one-hit kill on a room-filling boss like that was incredible. If the game and camera would have allowed it, I'd have totally done that walking-coolly-away-with-my-back-to-the-explosion thing from the movies.

Used my sheckels to get the Exclusive upgrades for my three weapons (Punisher, TMP, Shotgun), and now I'm ready to go Rambo on that island. Assuming I have electricity on Monday, of course.