I belong to the generation that played Resident Evil back when the first game came out in 1996. The series lost its appeal after RE4 because it went from survival horror to something resembling shooters and action games. This being said, RE4 is the most "recent" games in the series I have played, which was back in 2005 after it got released for the PS2. It was a fun game but it was no longer Resident Evil to me. My favorites are the original RE2, Code: Veronica and the remake of the first game from 2002. I said RE4 is the most recent I have played but I also played the remake of RE2. But to me, that's not really a new game but a remake of an already existing game. Certainly a well-made remake and I beat it several times, probably because it's relatively short. But it cannot compete with the original in terms of atmosphere, music, puzzles, locations. The original came with two different scenarios for each character (Leon and Claire), so Mr.X was avoidable in Leon's A scenario. I hated Mr.X in the remake. He's neither scary nor a difficult enemy. He's just plain annoying and a waste of time because of the amount of backtracking he forces you to do. Is that supposed to make us feel like the game was longer than it actually was? And I'm glad they didn't put that stupid hat on his head in the original. It looks so infantile and pointless.
I rarely play these days. The most recent game I beat was the original Deus Ex. A couple of months ago I played two Hideo Kojima classics, Snatcher and Policenauts. The next game I'll be playing is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The first two Max Payne games are also personal favorites, so I'm sure I'm gonna go back to them soon.