Well...this thread kinda saddens me, but I do accept that the popular opinion is that people don't like the later games. Although I do love some good survival horror, I don't like the direction the genre has gone either. That is, survival horror games nowadays (or the good ones at least), are just run-away-from-the-scary-thing simulators. Which is not bad, I just miss the way RE 1, 2 and 3 did it.
Having said that, I do love RE4, 5 and 6. Like, a lot. I don't call them horror at all, they're just action games now obviously, but for some reason they had a lot more replayability for me. Mercenaries mode is actually damn fun, and with a much tighter learning curve, such that when you become really adept at it, and go back into the main game, it feels a lot easier.
Special mention goes to the Revelations games, which I love too. I don't care about the episodic bullshit, I waited till they were all out anyway. Rev 1 was awesome setting, Rev 2 had a pretty decent story, despite being paced rather bad. Raid mode has me and my RE fan buddy coming back for more up to this day.
Yea, I have good memories of getting freaked the fuck out by RE 1-3, those were excellent games and wandering around the mansion or police station trying to figure out what the hell to do next left quite a mark on me. Leon is still probably my favorite video game character ever.