personlly i think the best metal gear is mgs3 because of its detail and story line. the detail of game play and the stealth involed in the game and the amount of hidden stuff with in the game is amazing. im loking forward to mgs4 and i think online is very good for what i have play on beta (my chacter is Blindsight). also the story line on 1 and 2 is very good and maybe better than 3 but the game play evoles with the games so you tell me whats the best mgs.........

I couldn't agree more, and when Snake (aka Big boss) is tortured :S omg, almost cried and plus when he gets really hurt and he just fix himself up all the birds flying wow... Just plain amazing and the last fight is totally epic...
Metal gear on Playstation 1, really started hyping this game up but Metal gear 3 Snake eater for me.

Mgs 2 (well who likes raiden ??)

Snake

MGS3

The best story ever, bosses you almost don't want to kill (especially the end. He's so awesome. I didn't bother saying The Boss, because its obvious). It also was very well made with the "go get sum food" system and wounds system, upped the realism a big notch. Very good

About Raiden... well, mgs2 had a kinda realistic story (except a bullet dodger, a vampire, a fat guy on rollerblades and such) but raiden blew it...


MGS4

I have it, and have completed it.

*WARNING; SPOILERS AT THE END OF THIS POST aftetr the big empty space*

Well, it sure has insane graphics. And the story with an old snake is very, very well made. The system have changed very much, and uses the system you might remember from MGO beta. The octocamo is quite awesome, so are the "Beauty and the beast" unit (like cobra unit from MGS3).
But it's strongest card are the almost over-epic ending and the nostalgia (more info in spoilers)

ATM i like MGS4 best, but i think its kinda a tie between MGS3 and MGS4











IM SERIOUS IT WILL BE BIG SPOILERS





















*SPOILERS*

The so called over epic ending is divided into two.

First, you encounter a LONG corridor which is influenced with microwawes. You start walking it, pressing triangle wildly, then drop to your knees, before crawling on your belly. You can FEEL snakes pain.

The other is a fistfight with Liquid Ocelot, with a fighting system almost awesome. You do a CQC grab, and throw him, BUT you presss triagnle and mount him and smack him, or smack him into the wall and such.

And Vamp, Raiden, Big Boss (! ending cinematic) anr more returns...

I like the original one... It's really good also affected my personality cuz I played it when I was 3 or 4 years old... I learned english because of MGS... xD