What am I missing here? Is it nostalgia for most who have a liking for the first two games? I prefer the third one to all others. Not to say that the predecessors are worse, they're loads of fun.
I don't know... Maybe I'm biased, I love the gangster favela setting and the juxtoposition of a white yankee being placed in Brazil like a fish out of water. Peak Rockstar writing, cinematography, soundtrack, gameplay, location... It just sellls it well to me.
My ranking would be as follows: MP3>MP2>MP1.