I feel as though the very intelligence I have is being sucked out of me right through the internet by this thread.

You is what mean do?

You can't be serious? If so:

I'm sorry, and forgive me, but you're just an idiot - a plain old simple-minded idiot. *shrugs*

My RE4 experience was fun ^_^ I love the dog and always expect him to help later within game rather him just helping me with El Gigante/ Overall I liked RE4. I really liked Ashley's little adventure :3 that was fun to be her for a while. I also loved the Side game with Ada (Separate ways) I had fun playing the game and I wouldn't mind playing it again if a friend ask to play with him/her :)

I really loved Resident Evil 4.

I remember seeing Ada again in the castle room I believe? It was the part right after the maze with the plaga dogs. I really loved the game, and each boss I fought impressed me more and more. My parents and my little brother were at a wedding when I was playing, and I was terrified upon returning to the village in the dark.

The good ol' days...

This is the first RE game I heard of and played...so I'll always love it. I remember my first time playing.
I was really bad at first and the movement made me sick. My brother had to beat the first El Gigante for me! I beat the game in a week but I knew some parts of the game already. I still love the game and have played it way too many times. Hehe

When RE4 first came out I thought it was an exceptional game to play, but as an RE title it disappointed me simply because of the sudden shift in plot. Now that several years down the line that plot has been revisited and resolved, (yes I am in the minority that enjoyed RE5 and liked the plot,) I find going back to RE4 even more rewarding with each playthrough.
I think the level design is particularly good as it does a great job of turning essentially linear levels into a more diverse experience with plenty of exploration. This was something RE5 lacked very much. It even seems to be more horror orientated than I remember. The sequences in the castle with Ashley and the Amudaras in the dark with the flash light and no weapons are particularly effective, as are the sewer scenes with the invisible Novistadors.
The storyline is also much more relevant now then it was when first released, and the back story in the Incubate book documenting how the peaceful villagers were manipulated and infected by Lord Saddler is amongst the best writing in the series in my opinion.

Suffice to say, RE4 has jumped up my list in recent years. Still Code: Veronica at the bottom for me in terms of core titles with of course Remake way out in front.

I completely agree with pretty much everything you said about RE4. While you did enjoy RE5, I did not (at least in comparison to the rest of the series), so going back to RE4 (which when first released I was not a huge fan) felt very refreshing. It was more horror-based than RE5, by far - the creepy castle sequences, the eerie atmosphere of the village, the regenerators on the island. There's also something about RE4's corny, B-movie script that was entertaining and fresh when compared to RE5's rather dull characters (give me Leon and his semi-witty one-liners any day over cardboard cut-out action hero Chris). Don't get me wrong - RE5's plot was better (and more relevant to the series mythology) than RE4's - but to me RE4 was more fun. Also, gameplay factors such as grid inventory and no forced co-op tip the scales in RE4's favor for me.

Gotta disagree with you about Code Veronica, though, which has probably my favorite story in the series. Dark, twisted, and evil...

I think my main gripe with Code Veronica is that the environments are dull and uninteresting. Exploring the locations in each game is one of my favourite aspects yet each setting in Code Veronica seemed empty and devoid of any imagination compared to other entries.

I often think this, almost like the environments in the game are too "clean"?

Where as games like the first two Resident Evils lived and performed well within their graphical limitations, Code Veronica didn't do enough to utilise the power it had available to it in the right ways. Certainly not in the manner that REmake and Zero did at least.

Does that make sense?