I'm going to copy and paste an essay I wrote about UT3 which I send as a private message to newcomers on the Epic Games forum who don't understand why UT3 has so few people playing it online.
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A Newcomer's Guide to understanding why UT3 is not very popular online and a brief history of Unreal Tournament
Here's what you should know if you're new to the Unreal Tournament series. Epic first released a single player adventure FPS game called Unreal which challenged Quake II and became a big hit. Then Epic released the first Unreal Tournament for online multiplayer.
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 and hundreds of clans competed in leagues and on ladders. When I purchased the game in 2001, two years after its release, there were hundreds of populated servers and thousands of people could be found playing Capture-the-Flag online 24/7, and that was just for CTF, which was UT99's primary game type. In fact, many people still play UT99 CTF greedily to this day on public servers. People also still play 5v5 CTF competitively on private servers in spontaneously-organized games called PUG matches, which feel like clan matches where players have assigned positions and use teamwork and voice comm.
In late 2002 Epic released UT 2003 which proved to be a failure and was rejected by a great many UT99 fans. UT 2003 had been influenced by consolization and had a floaty-dodgy feel. However, Epic added some new game types and released an improved version as UT 2004, which has proven to be a decent game though its movement and overall gameplay pales in comparison to the Original UT99. Consequently, because of a floaty-dodgy feel that increased the importance of hitscan skills--sniper rifle/lightening gun and shock rifle primary--UT 2004 didn't do well for on-foot games such as CTF and was never nearly as popular as UT99. UT 2004's saving grace was its Onslaught (Warfare in UT3) and Invasion-RPG games, which is what most UT 2004 players are playing today.
UT3--A Consolized Stillborn--Why Few People Play UT3
Perhaps because of the success of Gears of War on the consoles, Epic became infected with the consolitus virus, which is too bad because the basic UT3 gameplay and feel is decent but everything that surrounds it is just god-awful.
The PC version of UT3 was released in retail form as a buggy, consolized game that felt like a beta and needed much more polishing. So, one reason why few people play UT3 is that players were turned off from the very beginning. When the Beta Demo (as it was called) was released in October of 2007, a number of hardcore UT99 fans who had rejected UT 2004 liked the UT3 game play and were enthusiastic about it. They despised the user interface and server browser of the Demo but everyone assumed that Epic would bring it up to UT99 and UT 2004 standards for the finished game. However, when they learned that the retail release of UT3 = buggy beta demo they lost interest in UT3 completely.
Upon release the Server Browser barely functioned and you could not even make a list of server Favorites! The User Interface felt clunky and slow and offered far fewer adjustment options than UT99 and UT2004. Unlike the earlier games where you could summon the User Interface menus instantaneously, in UT3 you had to wait while the Main Menu loaded every time you wanted to access the User Interface and you could not summon the UI while on a server. In contrast, in UT99 and UT2004 the UI could be summoned almost instantaneously anywhere at anytime. If I remember correctly, UT3 also handled custom content poorly and server admins had difficulty hosting servers (you couldn’t host a Linux-based server). UT3 also had an awful, confusing file structure, making the production and management of custom content unnecessarily difficult. In short, going from UT99 or UT2004 to UT3 felt like downgrading from a loaded Lexus to a stripped-down Kia or Yugo. Additionally, UT3 has always suffered from relying heavily on Gamespy and sometimes people cannot “log in” to the game because Gamespy is down, which was never a problem in UT99 or UT 2004. Consequently, a great many UT fans rejected UT3 and play UT99 and UT2004 to this day.
Thus, the main reason why UT3 has low player counts is because it was heavily consolized. It was also released at a strategically bad time, right when three other heavily-advertised big-name titles were coming onto the market: The Orange Box (Team Fortress 2), Crysis, and Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. UT3 just had an awful release. It not only needed a few more months worth of polishing and development, but it also had several formidable competitors.
It’s a shame because UT3 did manage to get a few thing right. The UT3 gameplay is not bad and the feel of the movement is pretty decent. However, it is still not nearly as good as that of UT99. UT3’s Warfare game, which is probably the most popular game in UT3, is pretty decent but the vehicles have been consolized (no first person view, even for flying vehicles) and are inferior to those of UT 2004’s Onslaught. Also, UT3 did not include the Invasion game type. So, another reason why UT3 has low player counts is that many people who purchased UT3 just prefer UT99 and UT 2004.
Today after a couple patches, UT3 is in much better condition. The server browser is much better but the user interface still feels consolized, clunky, and slow, and the gameplay is about the same as it was before. The current MapVote also pales in comparison to the polished MapVote in UT 2004 and the MapVote in UT99.
Perhaps if UT3 had been released as it is now in its current state more people would play it online. However, it was released as a stillborn and was pretty much doomed from the start. It was just never able to attract the high player counts needed to sustain a decent player count and thus had little enthusiasm surrounding it, which would help bring new players to the game and retain their interest. Relatively few custom maps and mods were produced for UT3 and it never had an appreciable clan community.
If you want to play Unreal Tournament, then I strongly suggest that you purchase the original UT99 and UT 2004. You can find active Capture-the-Flag servers and communities for UT99 (especially if you are willing to play Instagib, Sniper-only, and the Strangelove mod) and you can find active Onslaught and Invasion Monster Mash RPG servers for UT 2004. You will not only be able to play the greatest online multiplayer FPS game of all time (UT99), but you'll also be making a statement that you want and support high quality online multiplayer games intended and designed for the PC.
Hopefully Epic will take the avalanche of criticism it received for UT3 to heart and release a real, bona fide UT99-2 with an option to enable UT 2004 movement designed exclusively or at least primarily for the PC and made to feel like a polished PC game upon its release. Sadly, it is possible that the consolitus virus has infected Epic so badly that it may have lost all interest in producing high-quality PC games.
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