I played through the first Turok game and this one, the sequel. The games that followed seemed to not live up to their potential and made me personally wish they copied more of the formula found in Turok 2. So who else thought this was the best one in the series to ever come out?

I personally prefer the first one.  I liked the atmosphere better.  Both were great fun though, and you're right, the third one was terrible.  I haven't played the most recent one for the 360 yet.  I hope it is good.

Turok 2 and Perfect Dark still have the best weapons of any game to date.

Not to mention Turok 2 was incredibly atmospheric. One of my favorite N64 games.

Turok 2 was the best. It actually had a story, a plot (you can't have an atmosphere without that), you were told what's going on, what's happen, where to go, and what to do. The soundtrack was very much improved, the Lost Lands was given a history and the enemies were a lot tougher as well, like the last boss... something Turok 1 was missing. So don't say that the first one had an atmosphere when your not even going to list the reasons on why that is.

sadly I only ever played the censored version (didn't have the brain gun thingy) and no other Turok game but I really liked Turok 2 back in the day.

can't imagine ever going back to that though ... antiquated controls meh :/