Well. I mean multiplayer wise. and are all the whines regarding UT3 true? because it kinda looks good. can I have some solid information about whats so wrong about the game?..
UT3 was released as a stillborn and proved to be an Epic Failure. Here's the boilerplate that I send to people as PM's on the Epic forums when someone asks about player counts or what happened to the game.
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Here's what you should know if you're new to Unreal Tournament. The original Unreal Tournament game (UT99 or UT-GOTY--game of the year edition) was fantastic and had a huge and very dedicated, fanatical fan base. Over ten thousand custom maps and mods were released for it.
Epic then released UT 2003 which proved to be a failure but fixed it up and improved it some and released a new version as UT 2004, which has proven to be a decent game though the movement and overall game play pales in comparison to the Original UT99. UT 2004's saving grace was its Onslaught (Warfare) game and Invasion-RPG games.
Sadly, Epic became infected with the consolitus virus and consolized UT3. The basic UT3 game play is decent, but everything that surrounds it is just god-awful.
The game was consolized, having a horrific user interface and server browser. Going from UT99 or UT 2004 to UT3 is like going from a Lexus to a Kia. Who wants to do that? The UT3 game play is pretty decent and UT99 clanners liked the gameplay of the Demo and were somewhat excited about it--it's just everything else that surrounds it--the (at release, the barely functional and pathetically featureless) server browser, the (consolized, clunky and slow) user interface, the lack of customization options, the awful map vote menu, the game's clumsy handling of custom content auto-downloading, etc., that's messed up and ended up killing the game.
UT3 was released as a stillborn. If you're brand new to the UT series, I suggest you buy UT 2004. Lots of folks still play that. To get a sense of what got the series going in the first place, I suggest getting the Original Unreal Tournament (UT99 or UT-GOTY). UT99 had the best game play of all three versions.
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Here's what happened with UT3... Basically, the PC version of the game ended up feeling consolized and the game was released as a buggy beta when it needed much more polishing.
When the beta demo was released last year in October a number of hardcore UT99 fans who'd rejected the UT 2004 floaty-dodgy hitscan style liked the UT3 game play and were enthusiastic about it. However, when they found out that the retail release of UT3 = buggy beta demo they lost interest.
When UT3 was released the server browser barely worked and you couldn't even add Favorites! Basically, the game had been consolized--the user interface was clunky and slow and you have to wait to load the main menu. (Why the **** should anyone have to wait to load the main menu? It should pop up instantaneously when summoned.)
The list of what's wrong with UT3 is very long, but to sum it up--the game was consolized. The user interface was horrific and the server browser was featureless and non-fuctional and the game offered few customization options. Going from UT 2004 or UT99 to UT3 is like going from a loaded Lexus to a stripped down Kia. Also, the way content is organized in the folders is an abomination.
The UT3 game play itself isn't too bad and the player movement feels very good, which is why it's such a shame that the consolization of everything that surrounds the game play resulted in the game's being a stillborn. For people who want to play UT I recommend playing UT99 CTF pug matches, which are still going strong or just playing UT 2004 Onslaught. I guess UT3 Warfare might be viable and I can always seem to find at least one populated server online and of course they'll always be a few populated servers for DM, but overall I have more fun playing UT 2004's Onslaught game.
Hopefully Epic will take the avalanche of criticism it received for UT3 to heart and release a real, bona fide UT99-2 designed for the PC and made to feel like a polished PC game. It would be great if UT3 could get the UT 2003 ----> UT 2004 treatment.