I've played the GC version RE4 to death and loved it. But if your priorities are differenct, than the PS2 version is worht a look instead. To me the focus is key issue the main game, so I would take the GameCube version. If you want more extras and bonuses, the PS2 version provides them. In the end, if you want the best presentation of Resident Evil 4, the main game, it's found on the GameCube. The graphical differences are there but subtle in the first chapter, but after the first they become far more obvious. Given that the lighting in RE4 is extremely atmospheric and very well done, I'd say it's a substantial loss, and definitely takes precedence. Lightning effects are nearly nonexistant on the PS2 and are quite impressive on the Cube.

Once the game goes to night time (Chapter 2) Leon whips out a flashlight that's a dynamic lightsource in teh GameCube version, but does nothign in the PS2 one. Most damaging of all though is the PS2's near total lack of any sort of dynamic lighting. It's still one of hte best PS2 games out there, but it has less enemies on screen at once (which especially hurts some of the siege-type areas you run into), less complex geometry on the trees, a few missing landmarks (a lava room at one point is significantly truncated on effects throughout, and the PS2 couldn't handle the GameCube's ultra high poly cutscene models, so they're done as FMV instead of in-engine on the PS2 (this means that any appearance modifiers/costume changes are absent in cutscenes on the PS2). There was a recent thread on this that showed it pretty strongly. The PS2's graphics are good, but not as good as the GameCube's. The real long-term side quest is Mercenaries, which I'm not sure if the PS2 version has. The Ada campaign is nice, but it's definitely extra material and not the heart of the game. I say 'probably', because IMO the ada mission is not something that will rock your world either, so if you could find a cheaper version of the GC game, I would recommend that. I can't help you with load times, since I'm playing off of HDLoader, and therefore doesn't have any annoying load times.Ĭonsidering the price difference, I will probably say that you should go with the PS2 version. But it's still not 'major', and not something that will rock your world and make any difference to the enjoyment of the game IMO. It wasn't until I fired up the GC version, that I noticed, that yes, the difference IS there, and in some instances is quite noticeable. When I first started playing the PS2 version, and ran through the forest, I thought it looked almost exactly the same (although the image overall was not as 'sharp'. I wouldn't call them 'major differences'. I have read up on all the major differences (graphics, load times etc.)

Am about to purchase RE4 but am deciding between the GC or PS2 version.

Resident evil 4 ada