I played it in like 2002 from a demo on Fileplanet or so. I played the demo for like two weeks. Multiplayer one that is.
AVP2 was one of my favorite multiplayer experiences ever, even if 90% of servers disabled the Smartgun & Lock on Plasma. Mechs were fun though. Life-Cycle, what a treat.
I tried AVP1 a little after that and did not like it as much, probably because no one played online, but the graphics were almost the same, so it's not that. It just felt like less love & care was put into the first, and with the second, they got it right.
If the new AVP3 and build upon the second and incorporate some of the cool elements from the first one, AVP3 will be one we play for many years. Hell, AVP2 survived on like 40-50 people for 8 years. It was enough.
What worries me most about the new one is the whole multi-console thing, but oh well. Anyone else remember when AVP2 was still new and it's Multiplayer was different from pretty much all games out? That's what set it apart, it had three different play-styles in one game, a thing still un-common today.