http://cube.ign.com/articles/582/582869p1.html

Resident Evil 4
Before the village, there was the mansion. Watch newly released footage of
the RE4 you never knew.
By Juan Castro
January 26, 2005 - The American release of Resident Evil 4 has come and
gone. And for some, so has the entire adventure. After some 20 hours
knee-deep in paranormal madness, gamers have emerged from the experience a
little older, a little wiser. And for some, perhaps one soiled pair of
boxers short of a full drawer. Still, has anyone stopped to wonder what the
experience of RE4 may have been like had Capcom stuck to one of its earlier
iterations of the game?

As some of you may know, Capcom went through several versions of their
latest horror epic before settling on the one currently sold in stores, each
of which boasted its own brand of terror. The most infamous of these is
undoubtedly the iteration that showed a wildly brave Leon S. Kennedy
stalking the halls of a mysterious mansion. The footage aired at the E3 2003
pre show and completely blew spectators away. Here was the same unique blend
of horror and action the RE series was know for, only in full 3D with the
scare factor magnified ten-fold.

Every aspect of the game reflected the utmost care and attention to detail.
Paintings and table settings looked crusty and old, and drapes eerily
billowed about. We could make out glimpses of what lay ahead through quick
shots of bloody dolls and broken mirrors, not to mention the renewed sense
of complete isolation afforded by the graphics engine. This game was going
to rock. And then, just like that, Capcom pulled a decisive U-Turn and took
RE4 into a bold new direction. However, this doesn't change the fact that
Capcom had an entirely different game on their hands.

Even today, weeks after the release of RE4, the footage taken from this
older build never fails to impress. Well, now there's a ton more of it. The
release of RE4 in Japan came packed with a special DVD containing "long
lost" footage of the RE4 that never made it past Capcom's labs. The last we
saw of this version, Leon seemed occupied simply creeping around the
mansion. This new footage shows Leon battling various adversaries, including
homicidal baby dolls and lethal specters. You can also see several elements
survived the transition into the current RE4, such as context-sensitive
action commands used to dodge attacks.

For example, when Leon struggles against a ghost-like foe that seeps out of
a painting, a player could try to overpower the ghoul by directing the
Cube's thumbstick either left or right. The ghoul would then attack you with
a giant hook, which you could dodge by pressing the appropriate shoulder
button, just like dodging attacks in the retail version of RE4. Leon also
needed to dodge the attacks from Knights who would slyly try to drop their
axes on his head. The rest of the action would look familiar to any RE4
veteran. The camera pulls behind Leon's shoulder to give players a better
view of the action when using weapons.

Since most of the game seemed to take place within a darkened mansion, Leon
made extensive use of his trusty flashlight. The effect, along with every
other lighting effect such as lightning, looked spectacular. In the same way
the flashlight/ paranoia trick worked to great effect in Doom 3, there's a
good chance this combination of fear would have scared the pants off anyone
in a Resident Evil game.

http://media.cube.ign.com/media/015/015821/vids_1.html
http://media.cube.ign.com/media/015/015821/vids_2.html

(THERE ARE 6 VIDEOS OF THE OLD RE4.  FIRST PAGE HAS 4.  SKIP THE 2 AT THE
BOTTEM OF FIRST PAGE. SECOND PAGE HAS THE REMAINING 2)