I can't wait to see how all the loose ends in the storyline will be tied up!

Despite? Playing and liking the past three MGS games is the only reason I care for the fourth.

*edit*

Oh, despite not. Disregard that, I suck clocks... 

"despite" playing the first three? Good topic title.

 If that's what you meant to ask, it's because I think because it's one of gaming's greatest series, even though MGS2's story lost something in the translation.

 If you mean "despite not playing" them, you miss something in the story, for sure. But the games are so popular because of the gameplay mechanics, so MGS4 will still be a blast even if the story is kind of weird and new to people. It's partly my favorite series because it gives the player so many substantive ways to customize how they play.

And it's true that many, many people played MGS1 and then MGS2 who didn't play the previous games. MG has always done a really good job of telling you what happened previously in the universe. You can understand everything through the characters' dialogue and reactions to things you, the player, maybe don't remember.

I haven't played a MGS game yet. I will be buying MGS4 though. I wasn't a hardcore gamer when the first 3 came out, so I didn't take much notice of them. But MGS4 looks amazing.

I've never played the Metal Gear Solid series at all, but the stuff I've seen, such as Metal Gear Awesome and The Last Days of Foxhound has gotten me honestly interested in the entire series. If I do get the PS3, I'll likely get MGS4 simply because it's going to be one of the "Big exclusives" for PS3. I'll likely use that as an excuse to get MGS3 at least, and possibly 2 as well.

I didn't start playing the MGS series until I saw trailers of MGS IV. Then, I went out and bought all 3 games individually (wished I would have known there was a bundle pack coming out).

I can't say this enough, if you have not played the first 3, you are not going to understand more than 2% of what is going on in MGS IV. At least read a plot synopsis of the first 3 online or something.

Never played any of them, nor even really heard of them besides knowing they sold really well on the PS2...

After seeing some footage of MGS4 on the PS3, I never was so interested in a game :D So count me in on a first time MGS player with MGS4

I can see a lot of people returning this game XD

Last solid game I played was the one on the NES I think that will be the last one

 there are going to be a lot of comments all over the internet who picked up this title for the graphics and they hype that look like this.  "The PS3 is not as good as the Xbox 360.  I bought one for MGS IV and its not a very good shooter.  The controlls are all weird and its not as action packed as Halo 3 or Gears of War, sometimes you have to just wait for a few minutes to avoid being seen.  How boring can you get.  The graphics are very good, but that doesn't matter when the controls aren't very good and the story is just awful and makes no sense at all.  I mean Halo is very straight forward.  Metal Gear Solid gets into all this gene crap that makes no sense and what the hell is some of this stuff like The Beauty and the Beasts and why is Ocelot somebody called Liquid Snake.  It makes no sense at all.  I reccomend people just stick to playing Halo, Bioshock, COD 4 and Gears of War.  I rented Resistance and that game is pretty good too."