I don't understand why people say this game is "bad," and needs be redone..
Its simple really, it's just not what alot of people wanted.
UT3 has a very uniformed look, gameplay and functionality, unlike past UT's that where alot more "open ended", with the old games there was pretty much something for everyone to enjoy, if you didn't like something it was easy to disable it or change it, they worked well both online and off, and the content was pretty varied, maps came in many sizes, there where lots of gametypes, different themes to both levels and player models, so really, just about anyone could play UT or 2K4 and find something they liked, and tweak the game to their preferences with the many options and mods, and thus, the UT community has allways been made up of alot of different gamers with different tastes, wants and needs.
UT3 does not have that universal appeal, there is just one theme and all the maps and players conform to it, there's not a lot of options you can srew around with to customize it to your liking, all the maps seem to favour only one style of play, offline support is very lacking of any features and is very poor compared to past UT games so its only worth playing online, but with a much worse server browser, and it has dropped a bunch of gametypes and features that many people liked, UT3 is just not very varied and customizable like UT games used to be, they went with just one theme and one style, and if you don't like that then the game is not going to be fun for you, as there is very little you can do to change it, aside from hoping that a mod team will release something for it you do like.
UT3 is a game that you have to like for what it is to enjoy it, but as you can tell from the lack of players online, it seems that the amount of people that like it is not all that many..
And no, its not just lack of adverticement, some sales figures have actually been released when the game was new, and whilst it was not a blockbuster, there where more than enough sales allready back then to populate servers! alot of people actually own a copy of the game, but they are not playing it, because they do not enjoy it, it is not what they wanted, and it doesen't do what they wanted, and it offers little to no choice for players in what it does offer.