Devil May Cry is the best game in the DMC series, it was launched around about the same time the ps2 was released, and is the best of the series imo
Devil May Cry 2 is a god awful terrible game, with 2 playable characters, dante and a female character, on seperate discs, the game is far to easy
Devil May Cry 3, features a brother vs brother rivallry, and is more a prequal to the first game, the graphics and everything are far superior to the 2nd, it also is one of the best in the series after the first game
in chronologically order i believe the timeline is DMC 3,1,2
i have a review for the Devil May Cry 3 Japanese version if your intrested in knowing more about the game
for the price you cant do much better, this would make a great xmas present for anyone, these games, besides the 2nd are brilliant.