So here it goes!  Our first official game together.  I'll be firing it up tonight and post impressions then.  Everyone should feel free to discuss/comment about anything in the game.  Again, if you're treading on spoiler territory, use the WHITE TEXT.  Have fun!

Tried this for the first time last night. It's probably a bad sign that I've died three times in the prologue.
Of course it doesn't help that both manual and in-game files only list controls for the Wiimote/Nunchuk while I'm trying to use the Classic Controller. Grumble, grumble...
I wouldn't mind knowing in general terms how stingy I need to be with ammo & herbs. I have a good amount but I don't want to be caught flatfooted if supply dries up.

Not anywhere near as stingy as previous Resident Evil games, but be a BIT conservative, I'd say.  Healing items are harder to come by than bullets, but both are relatively easy to come by.  In my most recent playthrough I had less inventory space than I had items.  I constantly had to decide things to drop in order to hang onto my piles and piles of ammo.

Edit: Oh, and here's a big tip for any of you guys: after clearing the village (when the bell rings and all the villagers shuffle away... the end of the original playable demo for the game), you'll be able to wander around there and the next area (near a barn).  If you're really worried about both healing items and inventory space, you can move back and forth between areas and search for chicken eggs (assuming you don't murder all the chickens).  White eggs don't heal very much, but the chickens sometimes lay brown eggs, which heal quite a bit more and gold eggs, which are a full heal (and they only take up ONE inventory spot).  If you're patient, you can hang out in this area and keep reloading the chickens and stocking up on gold eggs.  I got six of them that way last time I played and it was kind of handy to have six full heals only taking up six blocks of my inventory.

I tried the first ten minutes of the Wii version last night and had some trouble adapting to the controls. And for some reason, they make me feel *really* exposed. I suspect if a creepy villager jumped on me from behind, I'd need to be resuscitated in my own apartment.

I'll start playing the game for real tonight.

And so begins another delightful trip into the heartland of Spain.  Honestly, I should have frequent flyer miles because of this place by now. ;)

I started the game early this morning -- and by that, I mean 3AM.  Got through Chapter 1-1, and it's been a perfect stress-reliever for what was a hectic evening shift.   Some general observations:

As said, I'm playing the Wii version.  Initially, I poo-poo'ed on the Wii version, because of the new control scheme -- it took me some time to acclimate to the new controls, but once I did, the game soars.  The pinpoint sharpness of the new targeting reticule elevates the gameplay to a new level of fun, and it's just awesome picking out enemies from afar.  There is the occasional accidental knife swing to deal with if you shake the Wiimote too rigorously, and controlling the camera angle with the d-pad is nigh impossible, but they're minor quibbles when stacked up against the overall excellence of the gunplay.

The bigger issue I have with this port is that, while it looks absolutely terrific on a standard television, it's utter pants on HDTVs.  Capcom got lazy by giving us a faux 16:9 widescreen presentation; a zoomed in 4:3 ratio results in a highly pixelated, shitty look.  At the very least, they should have given an option to change the scaling options, but alas, that's not the case.  This forces me to hook the Wii back up to my old analog set, and the game is all the better for it.

Chapter 1-1
I love the very beginning of the game.  Arriving at the outskirts forest area of Pueblo Village, Capcom's designers just totally nailed the imagining of cold, rural Spain.  The initial build-up to your very first Ganado (who's definitely NOT a zombie) in the lone house, and then the trek up the lonely pathways.... well, it's one of those truly memorable moments in gaming.

I remember my very first playthrough of the village battle.  Damned near impossible, it seemed, and I suspect that most everyone has a devilish first time with it as well.  They pretty much throw you headfirst into learning how to survive, and it ain't easy.  I was thinking, "God, I'll never be able to do this sort of game."  The secret, of course, is the art of funneling; know how to perform crowd control by "leading" your enemies, and then backing yourself in a closed area, while still leaving enough room for an "out" if you need it.  For those new to the game, remember that this is pretty much the key fundamental rule throughout much of the adventure.  It keeps your back safe, and allows you to conserve your ammo to the fullest.

Spoken as a veteran, this battle always manages to be tough.  Being one of those "perfectionist" RE4 players types, I don't ever want to get hit, not even once -- and that resulted in four resets on my part.  I always enter the house that holds the Shotgun, which of course causes the arrival of a shit-ton more enemies..... and our good friend, the chainsaw-wielding maniac.  It's worth the fight, though; bring him down and you earn 10,000 pesetas, a very helpful boost to your monetary claims for this early part of the game.

Moving on to the Farm area, I never forget to grab the Pearl Pendant hanging over the waste - and like clockwork, I always forget to shoot the damned thing down to collect it BEFORE lifting the lid back up.  (Once the lid's back up, there's no way to close it back down again, which results in another reset.  Learn from my mistakes, friends.)  You'll also want to find the Beerstein treasure in this area, a first step toward another excellent re-sell later on.  Do start on finding those Blue Medallions as well; the prize you get later on as a reward, though I almost never keep, makes for yet another terrific re-sell. (I can't emphasize how important it is to start building up your cash flow.  You'll be doing some pricey but crucial upgrades soon enough.)

On that front, remember that the combination of Green/Red/Yellow herbs yields a re-sell of 10,000 pesetas.  However, as yellow herbs are the rarest in the game, it's probably best to save them to raise your maximum health instead -- at least on your initial playthrough. 

Moving on to the Homestead Ruins..... this has always been an infuriating area.  In addition to the dynamite-hurling Ganados covering the wide radius, you've also got to contend with well-disguised bear traps laying on the ground.  (It's in this instance where I believe the Wii version makes things a tad easier.  See, the targeting reticule actually changes from green to red whenever it detects any shootable objects -- so you can do a quick sweep of the area with your gun to see any bear traps on the floor, something you can't do with the laser sight on the GC and PS2 versions.)  In any case, take your time in this area, lest you want to enter a world of pain.  (IMPORTANT!!  Look out for the Red Catseye treasure in this area!  You're never coming back here after the cutscene, so this is the only time you can grab it to raise the value of the aforementioned Beerstein treasure.)

Man, this game's good times.  I can't wait to get more into it tonight.  And yes, the title of the thread has it so right: "Like RE5, except better!"  Like way, WAY better.

Forget the stupid Classic Controller, do yourself a favor and use a GameCube controller instead.

As for ammo and herbs, resident evil 4 is a bit different from the other games in that it's more like a Zelda game (you get items from defeating enemies).

So basically that means you can be a little less conservative with these things, because there will always be more of them regenerating.

If worse comes to worst, you can use the knife until you get more ammo from the Ganados.

Man, I REALLY SUCK at aiming... I take it jumping out of the top window in the house where you meet you're first enemy is a bad idea and I should take the side window.

Jumping out of the top does put you in a more precarious position, so yeah, definitely take the side.

Chapter 1-1

So, I popped this in (the Wii edition) for the first time today (and yes, this is my first time playing it) and couldn't stand the controls. Thank god for my Wavebird, which I decided to use.

So far, story seems pretty standard. I won't go into details, but it's obviously a rescue mission of sorts. Like Ashley, I jumped out the top window, but didn't have any issues with the enemies there. On a side note, PETA would hate me because I decided to shoot the crows in the beginning. Who knew that crows carried 400 peseta and a spinel!

So, once I completed that first section, I traveled down the path, came across a poor dog, was hesitant to free him, knowing what those damn things could possibly be..., but he just ran away. Made me feel better about killing those crows...but let's be honest, crows are annoying. CAW CAW!

Then I got to the village. Which was a BITCH. The first time I managed to get into a house without being seen (somewhere on the left side of the village) but when I left, this crazy lady with a pitchfork spotted me, so it called a whole bunch of villagers to the scene. Had a bit of difficulty with them, but eventually decided to run. Ran into a house, which triggered another cutscene...and there, my ultimate demise began to unfurl itself. Who's idea was it to include chainsaw wielding maniacs again? They should be decapitated via chainsaw, which is the bane of my existence.

So, to make a long story short:

Attempt 1: Got the Shotgun, didn't bother barricading the house, jumped out the window, kicked down the ladder on the other roof, turned around, and bam, chainsaw to the face. FAIL

Attempt 2: Got the shotgun, didn't bother barricading the house, jumped out the window, kicked down the ladder on the other roof, accidentally hit "Jump Down" so I ran to where I first entered the village, managed to take down the chainsaw maniac, but had no life left, and a random villager killed me. FAIL

Attempt 3: Got the shotgun, didn't bother barricading the house, jumped out the window, kicked down the ladder on the other roof, hit "Jump Down," ran to where I first entered the village, managed to take down the chainsaw maniac, didn't feel like taking on the villagers, ran to a tall tower, and ALMOST died by the damn molotov cocktails they threw, but I managed to survive until the bell chimed. Note: They have CRAZY good aim for me being a few stories in the air! SUCCESS!!!!!

After that, explored the village some, found some goodies, like a yellow herb!, and went on my merry way.

Cutscene with Boulder:

Attempt 1: Missed the action cue. DEAD. FAILURE.
Attempt 2: Success!

After that, the farm area was easy, grabbed a few eggs, mostly white and brown, managed to find all 7 medallions, explored and got some much needed items.

Went to the next area, dealt with the dynamite throwing Ganado (no issues here. It's fun shooting it before they light it. KABOOM!). Found the house with the lock, not before setting off a beartrap..., kicked it in, and found a mysterious man of Spanish origin trapped in a closet (kinda like R. Kelly). I free him and then this huge Russian looking fellow utterly destroys when I try to kick him. I have a feeling he is going to be a nasty mo-fo to take down.

So, there ends Chapter 1-1 and here were my stats.

Hit Ratio: 73%
Enemies Killed: 34
Deaths: 3

Not too shabby for a first time, I say...

Tell me about it, this is A LOT harder than anyone else I've seen playing it makes it look. Bad thing (which was a good thing) was during my last attempt the power went out, which saved me from getting my head chopped off yet again - I mean the power went out the second right before chainsaw made contact. I think God took pity on me.

Dammit, I was all ready to pop this sucker in, turns out my damn Wiimote wasn't charged (>_<)
So with what little juice I had left, I made it past the prologue/demo portion and Yes, it's much better than 5, already. It just FEELS right, and it's a big BIG plus that you're on your own, instead of having an item-hogging character to babysit.
I know I'll have to do that eventually, but I never found it to be as aggrivating in RE4 as it was in 5.

Anyhow, Wii controls are awesome, no discussion.
Because my battery was low I considered briefly to use a GC controller but: A) I have no idea where I left it and B) the box didn't actually state it could be used, which it normally does.
In any case, the Wiimote is the most accurate by far, and seriously, "accidental knife-swings"!?
You might want to try shaking your wrist instead of flailing your whole arm, Angie...

Here's some key points of interest:

- Rescuing the President's daughter!? God, RE stories aren't getting any better are they?

- KILL THE CROWS. Easy money! PTA be damned, these crows are EVIL.

- Rescued poor doggy. Laughed at how dumb dogs are to run into an open trap like that. Proceeded to an area with two dynamite traps strung between two pairs of trees, went YOINK through the middle, stepped into an open trap.
POETIC JUSTICE!

- That village scene is a real bitch, no matter how many times you play it. I managed to get through without dying, but I definitely got a beating to remember. Chainsaw guy wasn't much trouble though.

- Having characters say lines like "I'm sending you a playing manual" kinda ruin the atmos.

- "Where's everybody going? Bingo?" however, is one of my favorite one-liners in the game. I love Leon's dry wit. It's a great conclusion to a brilliant prologue too. I love how the RE4 logo fades in here.

Hahaha, yeah, it does. Just like Metal Gear Solid always telling me to "push the action button" to f---ing use an elevator or climb a ladder or some shit.

And, lord. Leon gets pretty funny, even if the dialogue doesn't get any better in the game.

..I still want to know why they took that one Ganado villager sound-clip that was in the Trial Edition, out of the final version.

Only Shinji knows for sure....

Loved the R. Kelly reference, by the way. It's been so long since i've listened to that!

It looks like I'll be going through this game one segment a day, starting with 1-1! The first ten minutes were spent getting acquainted with the Wii controls. On one hand, I appreciate how precise aiming is... but it's taking me some time to get used to all the buttons... and turning around quickly isn't as easy as it used to be.

I remember being able to save ammo fairly easily by shooting the enemies, running up to them and doing a kick. For some reason, that's not as reliable this time around. Sometimes, I'll run up to the enemy, the kick prompt won't come up and CHOMP! If I'm quick, I'll compensate by doing a quick knife stab but the knife isn't known for being a reliable weapon. Fortunately, ammo seems to be plentiful, at least for now.

The road to the village was fairly uneventful, although thanks to the above kicking problem, I ended up doing a reload when my life bar got dangerously slow. Like Angela, I don't like getting hit. Discovered that the crows actually give you items if you shoot them, although I'm not entirely sure if the rewards are always worth the ammo. Got a grenade from one of them. Too bad I've never been great with thrown explosives. Or explosives in general.

I forgot how nervewracking the game can be. I think it's the music, grinding and unrelenting.

My favorite exchange:

Hunnigan: Hey Leon. How are you holding up?
Leon: Bad question, Hunnigan.
Hunnigan: Sorry to hear that (in a dismissive tone). Here's a playing manual!

THE VILLAGE:

The village has always been a pain in the ass. My first attempt, firing into the main crowd and letting them come to me was a smashing failure. It's a big waste of bullets (which they don't drop enough to replenish) and they quickly overwhelmed me.

The second time, I snuck into a nearby house which had some ammo. I attracted attention, hid in the house, they busted it open and I was overwhelmed. I tried to run... but I ran into chainsaw guy and the rest pretty much speaks for itself.

I used the third attempt to scope out the southern part of the map. I found a house with shotgun shells... but I unfortunately attracted the attention of the villagers.

I didn't embarrass myself during the fourth attempt. I actually fended off the villagers inside that same house with the shells, barracading the door and shooting as many as them as I could while they were distracted. After finding the shotgun, I decided to save in the next area and go back for a fifth attempt, to see if I can take out the chainsaw guy.

Fifth attempt got me inside the house... but that created all sorts of new problems. I didn't last long.

The sixth attempt made me wonder how many shotgun blasts the chainsaw guy can absorb. Around this time, I started to realize that I really suck at this game.

The good news is that the seventh (WTF?) attempt was the charm. I took out chainsaw guy and a whole bunch of villagers. The bad news is that it had a price. I had to use two green herbs and a whole bunch of bullets to do it.

AFTER THE VILLAGE:

I spent quite a bit of time in the farm... but just because I wanted to be very thorough about collecting treasures and the medallions. Nothing else memorable about the area.

In the next area, I got blown up a few times. Irritating... but carefully moving through the area did the trick. And that's it for me!

Hit Ratio: 87%
Enemies Killed: 38
Deaths: 4 (This is the second save game. If it included the first, it would be like 12 deaths. )

According to the Play History, I played the game for 2 hours and 19 minutes this evening. Nice! I'm really glad I'm doing this. I haven't played a game in months... but I'm already addicted.

On to 1-2 tomorrow!

You're definitely right, it had me absolutely sold on this game back in January '05.

..To RE5's credit though, the background designers nailed the sunny, almost tropical-like setting of Africa, too.
(Not that I've ever been or anything, but Kijuju looks just like 'The Gods Must Be Crazy!')

Then again, ALL of the RE games have always had fantastic and authentic-looking backgrounds, which is part of their magic.

I wonder how many of the graphics artists (if any) for RE5 have been onboard since 1996...

Or did they leave in the same way the SF2 team defected to SNK...?

If you want to see a whole gaggle of Raccoon City-Fried Crows on the ground all at once, be sure to keep an Incendiary Grenade (red) with you.

You'll know the opportunity when you see it.

I been on such a huge anime fix, I completely forgot about Shinji Mikami and thought you somehow were referring to Evangelion. @_@

Or various types of grenades and ammo, for that matter -- these are some heavy-duty crows. :)  Also, keep an eye out for bird's nests -- they carry some damned good key treasures at times.

Let's just say no good deed goes unrewarded.  You'll be thankful for it later.

In regards to the village battle, I've found the very best place to hold up is the house directly across from the one where you get the Shotgun.  Jump out of the top window, and enter the house that's now directly in front of you.  Kick down or shoot off the lock on the metallic door, and hole yourself up in the back room.  It's a very small space, but it'll allow both chainsaw and villagers to funnel through, and you'll be able to use the Shotgun at ease.

No arm flailing here, but even a mild wrist shake is enough to set off the knife.  I think the problem invariably comes when, in the heat of battle, I accidentally forget to hold the B button to do an active reload.  That's usually when it happens.

It doesn't get any dryer than, "Your right hand comes off?"  And no game character has more effectively uttered the words, "Shit" or "Oh... no...." better than Mr. Kennedy.

It seems to me you're not hitting them in the exact vital area.  It absolutely has to be a head-shot so that they stagger back in pain - or a well-placed shot in the knees so that they bend down.  Only then will the "Kick" (and later the awesome "Suplex") prompt will show up.   

This is clearly not a thread for the crows. o_O  Actually, you're probably better off using a Flash Grenade instead of an Incendiary or Hand Grenade here -- its flash bang is guaranteed to hit every single one of them.

Chapter 1-2
Time to put those pesetas to use.  If you can afford it, spring for the medium-sized (*)attaché case upgrade.  You're going to need a bigger case if you plan on picking up the Rifle, since the thing is a monster in size.  Truthfully though, the weapon is only significant for this next portion of the game; once you clear the Valley, you don't have very many opportunities to use it again until well near the end of chapter 2 -- and by then, you'll be able to purchase the far superior Semi-Auto Rifle.  If you think space is going to be a problem, you can actually opt to sell it off immediately after the battle.  Myself, I was feeling ballsy enough this time to do without it.  I was never big on the TMP machine gun, either. Ammo is plentiful enough, but the gun is much too weak until you've done the proper upgrades, so I've always done without it.  Dunno, your mileage may vary. 

So now we've got the big Valley battle, again a tough one to scrape through for a perfect run.  The area is wide, so there's plenty of opportunities for enemies to get the drop on you.  One well-placed dynamite stick from above is enough to ruin you.  Don't be ashamed at shooting your foes off the bridge; the name of the game here is survival.  Oh, and here's a pro-tip: it's fairly obvious, but you'll know there's enemies in the immediate area by the use of tense music.  So long as the tense music is playing, there's at least one foe left loitering around.  This can prove to be a helpful tracking tool for wide-open areas like the valley, where enemy placement may not be so obvious.

If you're hurting after this fight, but think you have the strength to hold out for a few more minor skirmishes, there's a bit of a freebie in terms of health regeneration coming up.  After you leave the valley, you'll arrive at the Stronghold.  There's a watery room you can jump down in, where you'll be able to catch some black bass fish.  They're just as good at filling up your life as green herbs and chicken eggs, and they're quite plentiful.  You can also grab a few for the go, but unlike eggs, they take up a lot more space in the case.

Breaching the house of the Big Cheese..... the path that leads to the house (that one that's littered with the occasional bear trap and trip wire), until today, I had no idea about the Brass Pocket Watch treasure hanging over the waste well!  That's another easy 10,000 pesetas.  Oh, and remember, enter the room again after the end-of-chapter cutscene to trigger another cutscene.  (Optional, but quite beneficial to the plot.)

(*) God, the attaché case!  One of the single biggest improvements to the Resident Evil formula, and one of the most enjoyable item inventory systems ever implemented in a video game.

EDIT: Ah, I didn't know we were keeping track of our end-of-chapter stats.  I'll be sure to list them for future chapters, but my first two scores hovered around a 98% hit ratio, and zero deaths. (Zero, simply because I kept resetting the game for that perfect run.)

Finished up 1-1 last night, and here's my impressions:

First and foremost, the graphics.  YEESH.  I'm not expecting them to live up to the PS3's, but it was like I could count the pixels.  Way too much brown.

The controls can suck it.  I ended up dying 5 times mostly because I hadn't a clue what I was doing.  Why on earth would they give you a manual on how to reload only after your first gunfight?!  The only reason I survived was complete and blind luck.  If you push the "1" button, a map pops up and gives you a destination.  Cool.  BUT WHEN I GET TO THE DOOR IT WON'T BUDGE.  By that time, I've got a horde of villagers wanting at me, and only 30 bullets left.  WTF? 

I also thought head-shots were an instant kill.  It seems very inconsistent because sometimes they are, and other times I'm blasting some dude in the face 4 or 5 shots.  This would be alright except for the fact that ammo is very scarce.  The knife is also next-to-useless.  I'm standing by a box and it says "check".  Okay, I've learned that I need to break the box to see what's inside.  So I hold "c" and waggle my remote.  It misses the damned box.    Unless I'm standing right next to it it misses.  Really? 

Story-wise, it's a little cliche... but it's Resident Evil, so that's to be expected.  The first part was alright.  I ended up using all my ammo and my first-aid spray on the first 3 guys outside of that cabin.  UGH.  Finally made my way into town and I immediately get bum-rushed by everyone there.  I can't tell you how frustrating that was.  Needless to say I died and restarted.  To my surprise, there was a side-entrance to the village.  "Hmmm," I said.  You probably have to use a little stealth, eh?  That's all fine and dandy except I had no idea you had to enter some random house to move on. 

By the third load I finally ended up making it to that stupid house (by complete accident) and moved on.  The rest of 1-1 was fairly straight forward.  Explore area, kill villagers, move on.  I did get my leg caught in a bear trap.  That was great.   Ran into Antonio Banderas, watched him run away in his cowardice and decided to call it for the night. 

This game is going to have to grow on me.  Exponentially.

Is that really necessary? Jesus.

I know a lot of people are partial to the Wii controls, but my .02 is just what Dustin said. For someone that is playing RE4 for the first time, I can't recommend anything other than the GCN controller for optimal enjoyment. You'll have full, traditional control over Leon without worrying about "waggling" or unnaturally positioning your hands so you can press the C button and shake the remote to swing your knife (easily done by pressing L and A on the GCN controller). Like I said, I know some people dig the Wii controls, and that's cool, but I'm just offering my opinion to Dustin and am not looking to start a debate on the subject. I'd hate to see someone miss out on a game like RE4 because he doesn't like the controls - I know if I used the Wii controls I wouldn't be so hyped about the game either.

If you play a second time on the Wii, then at least you're already comfortable with the game, and then the Wii controls might be your thing - but I'd assume that the first time through the Wii controls can ruin the game, which is a damn shame. D, if you can, start over and use the GCN controller to see how you feel. You can check the button assignments on a FAQ like this one. I am a real picky gamer, and I think RE4 is one of the best action games I've played with spot-on controls... give the GCN control a shot if you can!

As said, likely a by-product of the faux 16:9 presentation.  Personally, I think the game still looks terrific on a CRT set.  Wait till you see some of the castle environments later on. 

They're not.  At least, not until you do the necessary weapon upgrades to increase your chance percentage of a Critical Head Shot.  You kind of have to look at it the other way; head shots are better relied upon as a set-up to a follow-up attack.  If an instant kill happens, you consider that a bonus by chance.

Using the knife for standard melee combat is suicide.  Save it only for smashing crates and barrels.  Once you're proficient at the game, you can also use it to finish off an enemy you've already got on the floor.  Slashing at the head area results in a quicker kill.

Also, there's clearly no monopoly on having to use the Wii controls.  As Zane says, give the Gamecube or Classic Controller a try; he makes a good point about a traditional set-up being more novice-friendly.

Yeah. The Playing Manual clarifies and says that they have to be "bent over" but when you're surrounded by cranky pests, sometimes it's better just to ignore the kicking and go for the head shot.

I'm already dreading 1-2. I've died so many times in the valley area...

I agree with the people who say that the Gamecube controller is the way to go on this game.  It truly is.  When playing the Wii version I played with that except in sequences when I wanted to be super accurate with aiming (some minigames you guys will get to later) and any action sequence where it was much less annoying to waggle than to try to push a button faster than Takahashi Meijin in a QTE (seriously... whichever game designer invented "let's have the player push the A button so fast it hurts their hand" needs to be smacked).

Chapter 1-2

Fairly straightforward chapter and a nice breather after the insanity of the village in 1-1. As the chapter starts, I found the injection of the purple stuff to be a bit "cliche." Gotta love how the hero is somehow infected with virus. Luis is also a pansy. Running away at first sight. He says he's a ladies man, but I highly doubt it considering that, from what I gather, he's only been tied up by men as of late. At the end of the chapter, the big burly fellow issues a warning. I guess Leon didn't realize he was injected? I mean, if I had a shot in the neck, don't you think I'd feel the pain?

As for the gameplay part of this write up, it was quite simple in comparison to 1-1. I upgraded a few of my weapons, bought the attache case, and the rifle. The valley area that proceeded it wasn't too bad. Tons of enemies though, and I learned that slicing metal barrels causes explosions! I didn't die, but I'm just going to attribute that to the sparks caused by the friction between the metal blade and the barrel.

After that, enter this building. WHAT IS WITH THE BEAR TRAPS! I haven't seen a single bear yet! Just those damn crows, which I blew up with a C4 line near the end of the chapter. As I proceeded through the building, I picked up some treasure, became the lazy fisherman (fishing with dynamite, or rather a hand grenade), but fortunately did not swim with the fishes, as I threw it from above, like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. I even counted to three!

So thus, ends Chapter 1-2. Rather short.

Chapter 1-2 Stats

Hit Ratio: 71%
Enemies Killed: 50
Deaths: 0

Cumulative Stats

Hit Ratio: 72%
Enemies Killed: 84
Deaths: 3

Onto the next chapter!

For those of you who enjoy headshots, you should probably (weapon spoilers ahead) fully upgrade the default handgun at some point - that unlocks its exclusive, which is a 5x chance that you will get some skull-busting shots! I just fired up my last save, which has that gun fully upgraded, and the ratio of headshot deaths to non-headshot deaths in chapters 1-1 to 1-3 was ridiculously high. I'd estimate it as 4 or 3 to 1. Once I got to the first real tense scene in the village I was exploding domes left and right with ease. It was almost funny how many headshots I got! So, it's something to think about, especially if you're a handgun kind of guy (or gal) like me.

And I still think the headshot has one of the best SFX I've heard in a game to date. It even trumps RE5's, both visually and aurally.

And you have to mash it even faster if you're playing Veteran Mode.

They can be shot, actually.  Quite beneficial if you can get a clustering of enemies near it.  Instant kill.

Finally, FINALLY cleared 1-1. I'll make no bones about it, I'm terrible at this game so far, even though my end-of-chapter stats seem to tell it differently (90% hit ratio, 27 down, and 1 continue) - there were a lot of angry resets that fell on the cutting room floor.
I echo a lot of allyourbaseare's criticisms, but I don't feel my interest hanging by a thread; I WANT to see it through, it's just a beast of a climb so far.
I finally beat the clock at the village by burning time with ladder games. Climb ladder onto roof, kick ladder down with villagers on it, let them reset it, jump off when they get close, run. And Mr. Voorhees proved no match for some shotgunning and a well-placed grenade. I took all of your suggestions in, and as a result I'm loaded for bear (but with 2 hours on the file, damned stingy chickens). Of course that didn't help with the QTE (the aforementioned continue), but what can you do?

Favorite point so far is when I tricked one guy to trip a bombwire. Had a good evil cackle over that.

What I really wanted to do this evening (it's 12:40 AM as I start writing this) was go to sleep... but falling behind leads to madness. MADNESS!!!! And as I'm trying to avoid getting (more) mad, I present 1-2!

(Random thought: I just read a thread that mentioned the 10th anniversary of the Matrix. Oh god, I feel old...)

After the cutscene, I started things out by selling everything I could offload. Now it was time to spend some money. I bought the Attache Case M and briefly debated buying the rifle before deciding against it. Too expensive and I don't recall it being terribly useful. I bought some upgrades for the handgun instead. I have 22,900 PTAS left over, which I'm going to save for a rainy day. I'm a little concerned about the amount of ammo I have. Just 36 rounds for the 9mm and 19 for the shotgun... but I'll find a way to make it through the next area. I hope.

The Valley took out a lot of my ammo... and a fair amount of health items, as well. I finished up with 20 9mm rounds and 17 shotgun rounds. The enemies never seem to drop enough ammo. Oddly, I never ended up using the explosive barrels... and while I shot some enemies off the bridge, I wanted the items they *might* have dropped if I had taken them out the old fashioned way. I've also gotten good at shooting enemies in the head, kicking them while they're flailing around and then chopping them into pieces with the knife while they lie on the ground.

I hate bear traps. And I hate villagers with grenades. More ammo lost... and I used one of my handy green, yellow and red herb mixtures to restore all my life (and add some to the maximum). I have several grenades that I haven't used yet... and I'm considering giving one a toss, just to see how effective they are. Fleeing this area, I chopped up some fishies in the watery pool and climbed the ladder up...

I haven't decided what's creepier. The grinding, endless music in 1-1 or the percussive, screechy music in 1-2. It's probably a toss-up.

I like the house that ends the chapter. It's a change of pace from the dark browns.

Hit Ratio: 87% (87% Total)
Enemies Killed: 51 (89 Total)
Deaths: 0 (4 Total)

Playtime this session: 1 hour, 2 minutes. And now I'm going to bed.

The first chapter proved to be quite difficult. I still haven't understood what is the objective in the starting village? Do you have to dick around and survive for a certain period of time? Anyways, I resorted to my usual tactics: shoot the bastards in the head, get close, give a nice kick and watch how they all fall down, then continue to rape them with my trusty knife. It's not failproof, obviously, as I've had too many moments where the kick option doesn't appear, and get bitten by Ganados. Still, helps to save bullets.

Ganados do put up a fiercer fight than zombies, for example, the tower part. I though I was safe in there, but no, they started throwing explosives (molotov cocktails) at me. The chainsaw-wielding lunatic succeeded in throwing me into panic, as when he appeared I concentrated only on him. I was damn lucky, he had just started to unleash the chainsaw on me when I shot him.

I know the PC version sucks, but I thought the lack of graphical effects in the PC port was helpful, as it was much easier to distinguish foes from the backgrounds. It emanates a creepy atmosphere, sure, but I think there's too much brown.

Did anyone find Leon's comment on the first Ganados funny? "It's not a zombie". Like, isn't it obvious, dude? The dialogue is classic RE, that is cheesy as hell.

Chapter 1-1:

Hit ratio: 71%
Enemies killed: 27
Number of times killed: 1
Time: 1:15

The second chapter upped the difficulty. I ran out of pistol ammo, so had to make use of the shotgun. Bought myself a rifle and upgraded the pistol (I don't remember exactly, maybe fire power and reloading speed).

Those bear traps started to get on my nerves, honestly. I didn't have any trouble avoiding them when I wanted to, but when you're busy with trying to stay alive in midst of crazy villagers, you tend to forgot that those nasty things.

The valley was bad. I still don't understand if the Ganados respawn and you have to just go forward until they stop, or you can snipe them from somewhere safe and be done with it? I took the "safer" route and started camping, but it didn't go as planned. So in the end I had to keep moving at all times.

Is it me or Saddler has a striking similarity with Mobius from Legacy of Kain games? For some reason they have quite a resemblance.

Chapter 1-2 stats:

Hit ratio: 71%
Enemies killed: 46
Number of times killed: 0
Time: 0:42

The bear traps are the worse.  To me, not even the scariest monster in the game is more off-putting than accidentally stepping on one of 'em. >_< 

The Hand Grenades are far more effective than the Incendiary ones, but a little trickier to use, since they don't explode on impact.  The Flash Grenades aren't particularly useful regular Ganados, but they're fantastic against their "second" iteration (which you'll meet up toward the beginning of Chapter 2-1.)  They're also great to use against a certain recurring boss in the game, of which I won't name here, but you'll also first encounter in Chapter 2-1.
     

You need to put down a maximum of fourteen enemies before the bell tolls.  Not a number you're likely to keep track of in the heat of battle, but that's it.

A little wink and a nod from Capcom -- a reaffirmation that, for the very first time in this series, these guys are not what they are.

Let me start my follow-up by giving my stats for 1-1: Accuracy 90%, 38 kills and 2 deaths.

It's insane, I've played this game God knows how many times, I've even finished it on Professional, yet it can still kick my ass on Normal when it wants to. That part outside the house where Luis is being held?
TOO MANY DAMN EXPLOSIVES.
Damn dynamite throwing bastards got me TWICE.

So, on to 1-2 then.
I'll keep this short and to the point again:

- Shortly before reaching the house at the end of the chapter you go through some underground tunnel kind of thing and there's a little pool with lots of fish in it. I love jumping in and just shooting everything in sight! Black Bass fishing was never as much fun! I decided to make space to carry a Big-ass Black Bass with me, just because I can. I tend to do this, as it always reminds me of this enjoyable post by Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/1/14/

- The puzzle at the door to the house is stupid simple. WHY BOTHER?

- If Leon "carries the same blood" as the Ganados, then why are they all out to get him?

Stats for 1-2: Accuracy: 92%, 50 kills, 0 deaths.

Preliminary comments for 1-3:

- I love sneaking up on the guy in the toilet and blowing his head off!

- What's the deal with all these crow's nests? I mean, I can understand crows picking up spinels (where on earth do they get them from though?) cos they're all shiny and stuff, but a box of machine gun ammo!? Seriously!?

If you are out of ammo and are near a merchant, I recommend upgrading your capacity - not only do you get more space for bullets in whatever gun you upgrade, but your bullets get completely refilled as well. It's the closest you can get to actually buying ammo in the game, but it has saved me in a tight spot or two (even more so in RE5).

All this talk makes me want to play the game again! I may fire up a Pro round - it's the only thing in the game that I have not completed yet.