I never beat code veronica. It is the only RE that I played that I never have beaten.
My main issue with RE4 is that it never felt like RE to me. It was a fun game, but it was like the Alien Res of the RE series. It didn't have the same vibe. It was more like an action horror game. An Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, or chronicles of riddick.
It wasn't the fact that it became an action game that bothered me, it just didn't feel like the same universe. Like they took Leon and dropped him into DMC or something.