With Revelations coming to nearly every console on the planet in just three short weeks (May 21), I’ve been thinking — what are the best Resident Evil games? I wanted to rank the entire series, but then I remembered there are significantly more games in Capcom’s legendary horror franchise then there are in Silent Hill. I’ll also freely admit I haven’t played every game released to-date, nor do I have the time (or the will) to go through the few I missed to see where they place.

So, out of sheer laziness, I decided to choose the five best games and rank them from “worst” to best. Check out my list after the break, and feel free to disagree and offer your own in the comments!

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X is a fantastic game. It features one of my personal favorite characters, the undead ass-kicking Claire Redfield, who unlike her brother, doesn’t actually require comically large muscles to get the job done. All she needs is a few slick moves like the one she pulls at the beginning of Veronica — you know the scene I’m talking about, where she drops the gun, falls, picks it up before it hits the ground and fires it at the explosives behind the goons. That scene was so ridiculously cool it was eventually reenacted by Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

However, I’m not a fan of Steve, so this makes #5. That guy was so annoying.

Having to live up to the astronomically high expectations set by its two predecessors must have made developing Nemesis moderately stressful, but I think it’s safe to say Capcom lived up to them. I wouldn’t say the Resident Evil games have ever excelled in the area of storytelling, but I’d say this game came the closest to bringing the most intriguing premise so far. The way everything happens in a slow, methodical way really ratchets up the tension, which becomes even more intense once you realize you’re being hunted by Umbrella’s newest toy, the Nemesis.