The problem with UT3 is not that it's worse than the other games because it's much better than them but the fact that it's tooo similar and hasn't changed hardly at all. Keeping the basic format is great like the fantastic weapons and gun play but the problem is there isn't enough changes to make new players interested in UT or old players want to upgrade. I had great fun with my time on UT3 and my fave gameplay modes for multiplayer were Duel and TDM and the problem I found is everyone is on the vehicle maps and I think what UT does best is just the gunplay and find that vehicles open up the map tooo much and it just doesn't work. I have no clue on how to build on UT for the future and I don't think it's style of gameplay is dead but they just need to change it up like how TFC went to TF2 or Resident Evil 3 to 4 becuase the old system was tired and people wern't interested anymore.
I found it really hard to find a good server with a good ping for the EU because most people playing the game are form America and there would only be like one EU server at a time to 5 or 6 American ones, if you want to play early in the morning on a EU server then forget it. I also found it hard to find good servers because alot of them were just crap and the duel servers for example were just horrible making you wait 15 mins........ I woulda prefered a Ricochet type of gameplay where theres several matches going on at one time on the same server so noone is waiting to duel.
The menu's are also horrible because they feel too console like and not good for PC at all. I have a feeling this is what most people who are PC users have a problem becuase the menus are slow and badly laid out. MY worst problem was the horrible server browser and how you have to choose gameplay type before you go to the search window..... I woulda just prefered them as filters instead of seperate menu's, just one of them annoying clumsy things. I also don't like how it doesn't display your ping in game and thought that was pretty clumsy of them seeing as ping is important for PC gamers.
The single player which was advertised as something much more started off well and I thought "woah they've added a Gears of War type of single player" and then I quickly found out theres just story cutscenes inbetween the missions. The missions were basically playing the multiplayer with bots and I found that to be like a con becuase I don't get how you can advertise that as single player at all.
UT3 is a solid multiplayer shooter which has fantastic gunplay and really polished and fun. The problem however is in lack of servers/players and the menus whichr eally let the game down. Also the game could have done with a better single player and just adding something new to the game to get people excited for UT again.
Infact I think in the future Epic need to make a new franchise like Gears of War but in first person and take over all the multiplayer gameplay mechanics to the new title. I feel that people love to play the multiplayer but just need a good single player and UT doesn't really suit a single player.... just form the name so just bring the stuff they've learnt from UT over to a new franchise.
Or
Put the tournament into the multiplayer and do a Quake Live type of thing but actually have a tournament gameplay mode where 16 people join a server and you do knocks out to see who wins and you rank up or something COD4 style.
Anyways Great gun mechanics but has just gotten stale.
