I just picked up Farcry 2 because I played Farcry 3's to death, including Blood Dragon (which is a wonderful piece of thought provoking satire of the 80's satire). I heard in Farcry 2 you can ambush convoys of vehicles.
I would not judge how well you would like a Far Cry game based on how much you like another.
Far Cry 1 was a linear island game where you gained super mutant powers.
Far Cry 2 was a open world island game where the entire world is against you. Your guns will jam and because you contract malaria in the beginning of the game you occasionally have to stop whatever you're doing and go get more malaria medication. Your very disempowered compared to Far Cry 3, your gun jams, clearing out a enemy base won't permanently make enemies stop spawning there, etc.
Far Cry 3 is actually alot like Far Cry 2 except without malaria, capturable bases and the disempowering feeling.
My favorite game in the series is still Far Cry 2, it can just be a little bit frustrating.
Thanks, this makes me even more eager to try FC2. I enjoyed the early feeling of vulnerability in FC3, and while running around with voodoo tattoo powers was fun, I liked to pretend I still had to be careful and resourceful. I think I'm going to enjoy FC2, even/especially if it gets frustrating.
I watched my brother play some FC1 and yeah, it just looked like a typical, rather unfair FPS with an annoying guy on the radio. I thought FC3 was the same until I saw a bit of Nerd^3's ironman LP, which mainly consisted of hiding, profanities, and running... It looked like an actual survival game, and I wasn't disappointed. Now I'm ready for something a bit more hardcore, and it sounds like FC2 is it!
Edit: I also liked the story/interactive cutscenes in FC3. There's a lot of stuff that didn't make any sense, and I don't just mean the trippy drug sequences, but I was still impressed by the characters. (Except for the other survivors, who felt fake and uninteresting compared to the villains and allies). Vaas's story would have made a good movie, and it works in this interactive medium just as well.