I was at Blockbuster today and couldn't decide between these two games.  It was a hard decision, but I went with NG2 (rental), because I loved the first game and because I wanna finish the first 3 MGS games (or at least one and two, since they're more directly involved with Snake).

So far, as a fan of the original, NG2 has yet to disappoint--blisteringly-fast-paced action with nary a frame-rate hitch so far.  I'm also trying to work my way through the MGS games this summer so my time with 4 doesn't have to compete with school... 

Good Choice! You should finish the first three MGS before the fourth. It makes it a lot more emotional.

Play MGS3 aswell it has alot of important factors regarding story background.

yea thats what i did befor mgs and it made the game so much better i finished the day of midnight release so it was perfect.

I must be lazy as shit, I can never get myself to buy and play through old games for the betterment of playing new games. 's why I'm currently trying to find ways to know the story of ToS2 other than playing the original. I did the same with MGS series having only played the third one, but luckily that was made easy by all of the story recaps that are out there.

You could probably look at GameFaqs or something for a synopsis of the games. Wouldn't be as good as actually playing through the games though.

Just play MGS 4 there is no need to play the previous MGS games. I played MGS 4 and it was a great game and I never played the earlier MGS games. A game is a game.

Agreed.  You need to play all to get a good grasp of the story, and you especially need to play the original to get the full impact of MGS1.

I see this has turned into a MGS4 discussion... Anybody have anything to say about NG2?