from a pessimistic gamer's point of view:
you can only have 2
-actual open world sandbox gameplay
-storyline that best fills plot holes from 1 and 2
-not repetitive, copy/paste from other games (like cod), or boring (like visor from crysis 2 telling you where to go)

it seems crytek is always biting off more than they can chew and so they'll probably get one of these a lil bit off; which 2 would you pick for crysis 3 and why?

First and third, why? Because do I really GAF about the story? ;p

I'd probably choose 1 and 3, no specific reason why, I'd just prefer 1+3 over 2 if I'm only allowed to have two

2 and 3 for me. I don't see them doing a sandbox right with the console's limitations, so I'd rather have the same world setup as C2 but with the story being wrapped up and good gameplay. Repetitive gameplay in a sandbox is worse than varied gameplay in a smaller space.

I really, really hope the story explains all the loose ends or allows for a 4th game to wrap everything up.

1 & 3 as limited to two options
I agree the visor telling you what tactical options are available, even on the hardest skill level (this really should have been disabled on the higher / highest skill level)

Just like the sights disabled / Korean speaking enemies in Crysis 1 (good idea)
I.e make it more of a challenge with each increase in difficulty

Having said that filling in the blanks from part 1 & 2 would be nice

I don't see why not, I mean they managed to get Crysis 1 working on consoles.
And other open world games like Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Oblivion, etc are also on consoles

i heard crysis 1 on consoles had major framerate issues lol. but yeah skyrim, what you said, and gta V (console original) were also on consoles.
i was just wondering what i would define the more "hardcore" crysis players would think about crysis 3. imo i would pick 2 and 3 though because the horrid storyline from crysis 2 really killed the magic of the franchise for me. after beating the game the aliens really didn't seem as mysterious or anything, the part of crysis 1 where you go through the core was one of the coolest things ever because i had no idea what to expect in the alien vessel and it kept me on the edge of my seat. crysis 2 only accomplished that in very minor sections of certain levels and that was kind of a moodkill for me.

tl;dr 2&3 i value the crysis storyline more than most from what i've read here; crysis 2 storyline was very dissappointing