What can I say about Resident Evil 4 that hasn't been said already? Well, there's this: I first played this game as a seven-year-old in 2006. My mother came home with a white shopping bag and said, "I've just bought your favourite game," and pulled out the PlayStation 2 version of Resident Evil 4. Why she declared it to be my favourite game when I'd never played it in my entire life up till then, I don't know. But 17 years later, she was right. Love you, Mom.

Resident Evil 4 is the definitive third-person shooter. It's as influential and revolutionary as Doom and Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy VII and Grand Theft Auto III, in that it changed video games forever. Even today, every single third-person shooter has some of this game's DNA inside it.

And it's still as close to perfection as a video game can ever get. Despite having played through it more times than I can hope to count, I've never a dull moment with Resident Evil 4, and I'm always up for replaying it.

Over the years, I've encountered some whippersnappers who think RE4 isn't all it's cracked up to be, or that the controls are clunky, or that it wasn't 'true cvlt survival horror' and precipitated the downfall of the series. If I'm friends with these neo-zoomers, I just say, "Son, you had to be there..." I wish I could explain to them the magic of playing this game in 2006, a magic that still hasn't faded for me.

Of course, if I have no reason to be civil to such people, then I can say what I really want: Shut the ♥♥♥♥ up. RE4 rules.