Look, I realise this is your opinion but you are wrong.  You are more wrong than anyone has been wrong before.  It is actually impossible to be  more wrong that you are with these statements.  Wrong.  WRONG.  WRONG.

How can you even make staments about RE4 sticking to RE roots when it is about rescuing the presidents daughter from a insane cult who happen to be ancient parasites?  Sorry but where was this in the old RE games?  Oh right, nowhere.  It was survival horror either, not with the amount of ammo, health and pile of crap puzzle (no 's's on the end of that..there was only one).  Pretty much everything that makes a game survival horror is absent from RE4.  It has monsters but monsters alone do nothing.

I also ask what exactly RE5 did to the storyline to ruin it?  It went back to a large pharmaceutical company as an enemy, it re-introduced some classic enemies such Lickers and Reapers (these are basically drain deimos from RE3, only nastier), you know, actual B.O.Ws.  It even turned the plagas into B.O.Ws instead of just parasites.

I suppose you are a Wesker lover or something.  Newsflash:  RE's greatest games mostly did not feature Wesker or he wasn't important to the story.  He died in the first game and then for the next 3 games the series was amazing without him, then they decided to revive him, which was a good story twist, unfortunatly they then decided to whore him out into every nook and cranny they could.  About time he died.

RE5 may not be survival horror, but nor was RE4.  At least RE5 gets the story back on track and it actually balances ammo, health and item storage space well for a game that is meant to be based around survival.  RE4 was pretty much playing as an infinite health walking arsenal with infinite ammo with the amount of each they gave you.  Maybe that is why people liked it, its takes no effort at all to accomplish anything in the game.

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Away from that,

I think everyone knows I am am a massive RE fan.  I hated RE4.  Not, hate is the wrong word.  I loathe and detest everything about RE4 more than is imaginable.  I own a copy of every RE game for every platformt hat has ever recieved a port of one.  Except for RE4.  I refuse to even acknowledge it as a RE game, I will never buy the Wii version, I don't even store my other copies on the same shelf as my other RE games.  It is an abomination.

I however love RE5.  I bought it for the 360 even though I have no intention of buying a 360 console.  The game is everything RE4 should have been.  So to answer the topic title, no.  They lost their minds some years ago, but they have returned to form, with a few new styles. (Umbrella Chronicles new story elements are great, DSC looks to be the same).

What exactly was horror about RE4?  There was no horror atmosphere to it.  In games like REmake you would walk down a corridor and hear something...only quite often nothing would ever happen.  That is horror, when you feel nervous even when nothing happens.  Then when something jumps through a window or that body you walked past 4 times suddenly gets up and lunges at you the fifth time...it is an actual shock.

RE4 had one moment when something jumps out unexpected..and it was just after killing a few enemies so you would probably be on edge and ready for it anyway.  Every other area as soon as you enter it you know if you'll need fight or not because all the enemies make noises and you hear before you see them and if your hear them...you will be fighting them.  Walking about with overpowered weapons and more ammo dropping than you need doesn't exactly breed a horror atmosphere either either, more a sense of "Gonna blow away some bad guys".

But do you know whats wrong about what you said Ail.

DMC5 and RE6 won't sell as much as the previous installments which is what the OP is trying to say.

NO.. my point is that RE5 should have been scarier.