I'm hearing some good things about Splinter Cell 2: Pandora Tomorrow, also for a cheap game you might wanna check out Beyond Good And Evil, the prices just dropped to $20 (US) and it just came out a while ago, also I hear its got a Zelda/Mario type feel to it.
As for MGS3, dunno...I thought that MGS2 was kind of a dissapointment, they had WAY too man long boring cutscenes and the story just wasn't really doing it fo me either.
Cant wait for Ninja Gaiden either, looks sweet as hell and should be a great hack&slash game.