I had that discussion with my friend when picking up the PS3 for use because he has the Legacy collection and he's never played it before. My advice to him was to play through it in order of release. My logic behind it is that despite the chronology, the gameplay evolution and self awareness of the series pays off better in the order made.
Obviously this differs for seasoned veterans of the series, but that's how I'm proceeding with my playthrough, though I'm still unsure if I want to tackle Guns of the Patriots. I haven't even played through Peace Walker which introduces Paz, Chico and contains threads picked up by The Phantom Pain.
Replaying the first is so great, everything occurring with a sense of familiarity but still managing to catch me off guard, like a damn fiddle indeed. So in the bag for this series.
