I personally though that the gameplay was greatly improved over previous installments and the length of the game was no shorter than the brief MGS1. I personally enjoyed the story once I reached the third act but I didn't appreciate Kojima's attempts at humor (Akiba) and I thought Drebin's monkey was just weird. The surprise ending was unusual but it did tie up everything nicely so I accepted that aspect of the story. I must agree with you about the bosses though, I found that the B&B core were pretty uninteresting compared to previous bosses in the series. Overall MGS4 didn't quite live up to my expectations but I was expecting the second coming.

PS. On a technical side-note, I noticed mild frame rate issues and low resolution textures.

It was a crazy convulted story, but what gameplay there was was fooking immense

It is kind of hard to be interested in the B&B core when Vamp and Pyscho Mantis are way more interesting.

I have to agree on some parts. The story is complicated (the whole AI stuff got confusing), I hope I understand it better after my second playthrough (playing MGS 2 for a second time was way less complicated for me).
I also didn't like the fact that everybody lives at the (except Liquid :P). It looks like everyone will die, but just in time Snake saves the day. But overall, MGS 4 was a very good game.

You must be having a laugh, MGS4 is by far the best mgs game to be made including mgs1, this game had everything, the controls in mgs4 are the best of the series, theres several haters of mgs4 who posted comments here, including the idiot that made this thread.

Don't forget the brilliant dialog!

"Snake. If you wont be a prisoner to fate, then go fulfill your destiny."

I was a little let down by MGS4 because the main draw is the story. Had I played MGS4 first, I may have been totally blown away. Unfortunately, Konami released "teaser" trailers that showed EVERYTHING.

Olga as Sunny's mom? Check.
Eva's reappearance? Check.
Raiden vs. Vamp fight? Check.

There was little in the way of surprises, and like the OP said -some of them did disappoint. This was the story Kojima wanted to tell, but after MGS3 (greatest game of all time), I was a little let down.

Here's your one warning: there is no need for insults.  Next time you'll be banned.

In my opinion MGS4 was the best in gameplay compared to the rest. (My opinion :) )

The story since i havent even completed MGS2-3 i cant tell ( Ive played the game so iknow the gameplay and i own them im currently on 2nd still XD but i sneak tryed the controlls XD ). So really cant judge that but one thing i do know is when i played it it was so god damn awesome, it lives up to the name EPIC as i have NEVER Played a game as good as this game in my entire life. Once again.. i went to Ebay right after it got MGS1-2-3 becuse the game was to damn brilliant! I cried like a puppy EVEN without any other MGS games. Sure it might be a dissapointment to fans perhaps, maby they wanted more or .. something else. But for bringing in new people id say they did a HELL of a job. I dont remmeber since i last time talked about Starwars and im a freaking FREAK of star wars but ive.. forgetton it and now im just talkin about MGS 24 / 7. Thx for bringing me in the MGS world MGS4 XD. I luved you and i still do and im on my 12th gameplay threw MGS4 :D. As epic as ALWAYS!

'This is good, Isn't it'?

The thing is, they lack personality. You don't know anything about them except that they're hot chicks. You knew the special powers and abilities each Foxhound member had in MGS1. You knew part of the lifestory of Fatman and maybe Vamp and Fortune before you fought them. I can't recall the bosses on MGS3. Don't remember it. The B&B corp really weren't interesting compared to the bosses in MGS1 - 2.