The scene where Mace was at odds with Palpatine and Anakin had to decide to whom he'd give his allegiance broke my heart. I mean, that was the crucial moment where, if Anakin had decided differently, everything would have gone differently. Watching everything go down the drain in that one instance was almost unbearable, and Palpatine's deception of Anakin--with that "I'm so weak" garbage, plus all his Force lightning and gummy cackling--instantly made him the most dastardly villain of all time in my book.
I totally agree with Kishi here. That's why I made a parody scene to StarCraft where Anakin doesn't kill Mace Windu at that point, but Palpatine gets beaten up there.

About Anakin fading: According to Lucas, he did fade, and Luke just burned his armor. I don't know where Anakin learned to fade, but he sure faded or he couldn't have appeared as the Jedi Spirit/Ghost in the end. I watched Return of the Jedi yesterday, and I think it goes this way:

DARTH VADER: "You were right about me... Tell your sister... you were right..."
(Anakin loses his consciousness.)
LUKE: "Father... I will not leave without you!"
(Anakin's dying.)
(The camera shows Luke's face, and he's crying. I think this is when Anakin faded because the camera doesn't show his face after that moment until the ending scene.)

Since I didn't grow up with either OT or PT, I feel kind of like an outsider since I loved Episode II as well. Most of the Star Wars movies have loads of great moments though none of them is perfect as a stand-alone. Story-wise, Episode VI would have the best features, such as the Emperor being shown again, some more of Obi-Wan and Yoda, Luke and Leia revealed to be twins, the Rebel Alliance having probably the most amount of characters ever (Han Solo, Lando, Admiral Ackbar, Mon Mothma, Chewie, Wedge and loads of other people), Jabba and Boba making a final comeback and whatnot. However, as a movie, I prefer Episodes like IV and V.