[Ebrey]

The only problem with RE 4 is that the village is so awesome is makes the castle disappointing. If the castle had been before the village the game would probably have been perfect.

The jump from classic RE to RE 4 is one of the biggest and best in a franchise, though. I'd like to see the GTA series get the Resident Evil 4 treatment - you know, great controls and great gameplay without taking away any of what made the previous games awesome.

[Ebrey]

I find it interesting that Half-Life 2, MGS 3, and RE 4 came out in relatively close proximity to each other. All three are inspired by a lot of the same American movies - blockbusters and cult classics, as opposed to arthouse stuff. All three are especially great installments of series that were already respected. All of them have FPS elements but are about more than just shooting things.

I personally love the types of movies that Kojima and Mikami and Valve are inspired by, and I like that these games evoke them in ways only a videogame could. On the other hand, there is the danger that action, sci fi and zombie flicks have been mimicked so well that people will think that's what video games do best, in the same way that for a long time people thought superheroes were what comics did best.

[Ebrey]

The GTA 2-> 3 jump was in immersion, not in controls. The RE series was always immersive but clunky, so the PS2 GTAs are in a similiar place right now.