I love video games. Like many gamers, I play to escape reality. I play to leave my high-stress job, my wandering children, and all my other problems behind me. I loved Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker, and when I finished it in the spring, I immediately picked up Animal Crossing. Although we originally got it for the kids, my wife and I got completely sucked into it. Now that we have accomplished enough within the game that it doesn’t occupy every waking moment of our lives, I realized something very, very important: I miss killing things.

I’m still playing through Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, which is a pretty creepy game in it’s own right, and really clever in some ways, but the gameplay often leaves me frustrated. I still want to finish it, but I want to play something that’s going to knock my socks off right now.

You see, it’s been a rough week so far, and it’s only Tuesday. Even though I had been planning on getting it later, I decided to go ahead and reward myself tonight: I picked up a copy of Resident Evil 4. I did so with some mixed feelings. I’m not a huge zombie/horror fan, and the screencaps and clips I’ve seen make it very clear that this is going to be a scary game. That’s a drawback. I’m a bit of a weenie. I used to jump out of my skin playing Doom (the original one, with sucky 2-D sprites). But I am looking for an immersive gaming experience, that all-important escape from reality. I’m hoping I get it with RE 4. Not to kick the GameCube, but I have yet to play anything on it that is as completely, adrenaline-soaked and immersive as Halo 2 was on the XBox.

But RE 4 comes highly recommended. Besides garnering accolades across the breadth of the gaming community, it was given a solid thumbs-up from clu at Game Under. Who could ask for a stronger endorsement?

So, hand me my shotgun. I’m gunning for zombies.