hexogen

If Jeff reviews it, I'm going to guess 5. He's really been into the Modern Warfare games, moreso than WaW or Blops. He was blown away by the fact that you could shoot down UAVs in MW2, so I suspect he'll find something in MW3 that blows his mind. He did say in the Blops review that the formula is starting to wear thin, so a 4 is certainly possible. But I'm still leaning towards 5. I pre-ordered the hardened edition already, so it doesn't really matter what he gives it, but it's fun to guess.

Forums dedicated to a certain thing exist solely for fans to amass and complain about every minute detail of said thing. True story.

Who?

I actually played ad finished AC1 a few months ago, which was the first time I had touched it since quitting halfway through when I played it first back in '08. I actually appreciated it more the second time around, even if only as a reminder how great the other games are compared to it. It's not terrible, it's not great. I think it's worth at least trying it since it's free. Besides, if you just want to catch up on the fiction you can motor through the game pretty quickly.

The streamlining of mechanics. I know that's really broad but it is what I'm looking forward to the most. Some of the stuff in Oblivion felt complicated just for the sake of being complicated. They seem to be trimming some of the fat while still maintaining what I liked about Oblivion, so I can get behind that.

"We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, we prefer not to promote our competitors and their competing offerings and services in our stores. Unfortunately, the coupon was packed without our prior knowledge."

I haven't bought anything from GameStop in years, and stories like this ensure that this practice will continue.

It's different for every game. For example, I'm getting Assassin's Creed: Revelations day one, because I love the previous games (except AC1, which I simply like) in terms of gameplay, setting, story, etc. More specifically though, I'm really invested in the story at this point, and even if I was tired of the gameplay, I'd still have to play it ASAP to find out what happens next. The cliffhanger endings don't help. And I really liked Brotherhood's multiplayer, but the last time I played it it was really hard to find matches, due to either not enough people playing it or shitty matchmaking--probably a combination of the two. So even if I didn't give a shit about single player, I'd have to jump on the chance to play Revelations' multiplayer while it's still fresh. 
 
I got L.A. Noire relatively soon after launch (for $40 I think--so not full price) due to its originality and the positive buzz surrounding it rather than the previous games, since they don't exist and all. In retrospect, I probably could have waited for the price to drop more, but now I know I don't need another "Noire" game until it's cheap.  There are a ton of other reasons, including getting a specific game to play multiplayer with my friends, even if I'm not that interested in it otherwise. But you get the point.

It's hard, but I'd have to give it to Gran Turismo as a whole. GT1 through 4 were terrific, even if 4 got a little ridiculous for my taste (haven't played 5). Burnout is a close second. Takedown might be my favorite racing game of all time, and Revenge and Paradise are great too, especially Revenge's crash mode. But I've probably dumped more time into any one of the first four GT games than in Revenge/Paradise combined, which is telling about how much I loved GT back in the day. So for best franchise, I'd have to give it to Gran Turismo.

I assume no extra charge for HBO subscribers? If so, then I'm pretty excited.