Resident Evil 4 due on PS2 in Europe on November 4th

Capcom's hugely successful GameCube survival horror title, Resident Evil 4, is coming to the PS2 somewhat sooner than initially anticipated, with both the US and European releases now confirmed for a pre-Christmas release.

The U.S. has been granted a street date of October 25th, with the European release set to follow just over a week later on November 4th.

The game's absence from Capcom's E3 line-up seemed to suggest the game was some way off completion, with many expecting the PAL launch to slip into early next year.

But Capcom Eurosoft reps told our sister site Eurogamer.net recently that print magazines have already been given a taster of the PS2 version of the game, and will be publishing their preview spreads on the game in the last week of August.

Although there was talk that Capcom had had difficulty matching the graphical quality of the Cube version on the PS2, sources close to the firm suggest that the game is "surprisingly close to the GameCube original".

Apparently a few minor compromises have been made to squeeze the game onto the PS2, with slightly less rich texturing and less facial detail, but that in all other respects the game will be identical to the GameCube classic.