I feel the need to post here. I have an extensive history with socom. I picked up this legendary game on the day it first hit shelves. For the longest time I did believe Socom1 was better than Socom2, but then it hit me.
Benefits of S2 over S1

New maps, revised older maps, more gameplay options

New weapons, fixed older weapons, more weapon options

Easier to find friends with new friends list

Better setup for the online lobby

Fewer mic and connection failures, and less times being booted
Now you may all say Socom1 doesn't lag, but if you played Socom1 back when before S2 Beta came out and a lot of people got off you would know S1 lagged worse than S2 does at any given time. S1 was worse with the lag because of so many glitches and cheats going around as well. The only reason you don't see lag on S1 now is because no one is ever online anymore. Once Socom3 hits shelves S2 will be the same way.
On to Socom3. It has new technology you may or may not be aware of. This is called streaming technology. What this means is each level is split into grids. You only need to load your immediate and surrounding grids. This means that if someone is firing a full clip from an automatic rifle you will not need to load each bullet and read where it goes, when it hits, how much damage it does, ect. This new feature alone will reduce lag drastically.
Being a Beta tester of S3 I can tell you many of our most hated features from S2 have been fixed. All of you guys who moved back to S1 to get away from the lag can now play on S3 with no lag and all the awsome new features to boot. I can tell you that those who feel vehicles and 32 players is bad, well I have news for you also. You can adjust every map to fit most of the game modes (Demo, Breach, Escort, ect.) in addition to adjusting each one for 8, 16, and 32 player sizes. You have the option to ban certain weapons and vehicles while maxing the room as well.