In my opinion, this is the best Splinter Cell game. I played it so much on the PS2, and it seemed to get everything right. It was also my first time playing multiplayer online on a console, and it was a blast to play a 2 on 2 match (at least I think it was 2 on 2, maybe 4 on 4), crawling around the movie theater, either making stealthy kills as a spy or frantically turning every which way as a merc. If they bring that back in Conviction (doubt it because of their attempts to freshen up the franchise) it'll be an instant buy for me.

I hated that one. And I don't often say that. Usually I just dislike or am disinterested in a game. But I made a point of breaking the damn disc before I binned it.
But it's only fair to point out that was due to the fact that it decided to try and delete Windows as a part of its uninstallation process...
Conviction looks like Hitman with all the subtlety removed. In fact they've plainly stated that's exactly what they're going for. It might still be fun, but I like my stealth games.

Looking exclusively at the trailers of other Splinter Cell games, I'd say they're ALL about shooty shooty bang bang... or at least about making cool stealth-kills.
To be fair, you often CAN play any of the Splinter Cell games like that. In fact, taking the completely non-stealthy approach is often easier than being sneaky. The trick, I think, is to try to find ways to encourage a stealthy approach.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had a system in which you got graded for your performance after each mission. To get 100%, you had to finish every objective without killing anyone who you weren't expressly told to kill, setting off any alarms, hurting any civilians, or allowing any unconscious/dead bodies to be found. That's a simple way to encourage players not to act unnecessarily violent... do you think that Conviction will include such a system?
My impression from the trailer was not that the developers wanted to take the stealth out of Splinter Cell. Instead, I understood that they wanted to make sure accidentally breaking stealth didn't mean a game-over. Splinter Cell and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory sometimes seemed to work like that. If you were ever detected, every guard in the area would immediately run over to blow your head off with a machine gun and/or sound an alarm, and trying to win in a straight shoot-out was generally a losing battle unless you had plenty of cover.
This new change would certainly make the game easier, and less of a "hardcore" stealth game. I don't think that would necesarily mean a BAD game, however...

I loved the first, and CT looked good...Double Agent did little for me(Likely because I was playing it on Gamecube). but I am looking forward to Conviction..it could be a revolution for the "stealth" genre.
...Or another failed Ubisoft mess. Either way I win.

To each his own, I guess. Though that really sucks that it tried to delete Windows. Maybe playing it on a console made the experience better for me? I don't know. I also really liked the jungle envirornments in the game, but looking back at the story, it seems like they were just setting up the third game.

Hitman has the amazing "Silent Assassin" ranking, which I have gotten for all but one of the missions I finished in number 2, my favorite stealth game ever.

Yeah, without a doubt. You didn't wind up with half your files removed when you ejected the disc, for one thing. Although, even the horribly botch Windows port aside, I still found Chaos Theory to be infinitely better.

I will fight you to make you agree the first one was the best.

I liked both. It's hard to say which I prefer. Although I did like the lavish box the first one game in and I don't remember it having Starforce, like Chaos Theory did. Okay then, the first one was the best.

For myself, I think I prefer Chaos Theory. For one thing, the interface is more versatile and easier to use, so you don't have the problem of trying to communicate to Sam that you want to climb up onto a crate quite as often or that you would like to duck under an obstacle. For another thing, Stealthing is generally easier because you have a sound-meter to look at and because there are more shadows to hide in, in general. In the first Splinter Cell, it was often unclear to me whether I was supposed to go in quiet or go in guns blazing, and I'd often set off alarms no matter what approach I took. Not so with Chaos Theory.
Then again, Chaos theory doesn't have any levels in which you basically have license to run through and shoot anyone who gets in your way. That is arguably a minus.

In fact, I think it's possible to make it through Chaos Theory without killing anyone, aside from the targets. Which, when you think about it, is more true to the nature of the series.
The first game pretty much required you to shoot your way though it. In Pandora you were also required to murder at one point.
Another thing about the first one was that the aiming was still inaccurate with a mouse. Its console roots really showed there. Your accuracy in Chaos Theory was greatly improved.

Chaos Theory was my favorite since it wasn't as...shadow happy as the others. This is the only one in which I had to think.

The first one definitely was my favorite as well. It had the right balance between stealth and action.
My complaint with PT was that there were so many objectives where you couldn't be spotted/were severely punished for being spotted. Yeah, it is more realistic, but it just makes things tedious.
CT was fun as well, but it put the emphasis on the action-ish section, since you now had the choice of charging and knifing people (rather than having to, basically, do the blackjack dance with your elbow :p).
However, the one that I think tried to strike the best balance was actually Double Agent. Yeah, that game was pure garbage on the PC (I hear it was good on the PS2 though). But the reward system was the right idea. Encourage the player to play in certain ways. If you are stealthy, you get rewards to be stealthy. If you are violent, give them rewards to be violent. And, for once, I didn't spend the entire game straining my eyes with nightvision goggles (hell, the goggles really did nothing half the time :p).
Personally, I am looking forward to Conviction. Yeah, it isn't going to be Thief. But, from what I have seen, it seems to encourage a "Silent Predator" angle, similar to Arkham Asylum. And that isn't TOO far removed from the SC gameplay, assuming they still have some stealth portions.

Personally I've liked them all to varying degrees. I definitely liked Pandora Tomorrow, good story like the original and better controls than the original. Lots of good stuff in the later ones too, the PC/360 version of Double Agent was a bit of a non-event but the xbox version was better.
Looking forward to Conviction, I'm hoping it'll be good