Eh, I’d say 3 has the best gameplay honestly (the multiplayer was really fun, me:a personally has the best systems of them all let down by giant open worlds and lacklustre story), 2 is by far my least favourite of the trilogy though so maybe id’s just my own biases. At the time, coming from one was really jarring.

Purchased myself or redeemed a code for?

I was gifted the orange box for Christmas and that’s when I registered my account. First actual purchase through steam was audiosurf but had redeemed Left 4 Dead and CS:S before that.