I do not typically write about upcoming games. I do not buy a large quantity of video games, despite loving to play and having been a video gamer since the Atari 800. It might strike you as odd, then, that Unreal Tournament III is by far the only game I am sweating over, more than Mario Kart or Metroid for the Wii, more than Starcraft II (blasphemy!), and more than Crysis. Unreal Tournament III blows me away like no other. Why?
Unreal is nothing new. When Doom and Quake pretended to have a storyline that the player cared about, Unreal Tournament appeared and said, "Go kill people. Die less often than your opponent."
The developers payed particular attention to multiplayer, being extremely diligent to balance the level design to prevent people from creeping, ghosting, sniping, and camping (though all are still possible on occasion). The weaponry is impressive, visceral, and satisfying to use. The graphics have evolved to become more impressive with every release. The sound is always immersive.
The greatest games of all-time are not always revolutionary. Pong did nothing to impress via technological prowess, it was simply fun to play. The same went for Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tetris, NES Super Tecmo Bowl, and even Starcraft (it wasn't the first real-time strategy game, and it was not 3D, either). If every game needed to be revolutionary, Gran Turismo would never have had a sequel.
Everything about the technology is evolutionary, and the best available at the time of its release. Further, the programmers are very diligent about optimizing the game for legacy systems. I still play UT2004 on a computer nearly a decade old, and it looks okay. 
I love the way Unreal takes its subject matter and executes flawlessly, I love its amazing graphics, I love the rush, and I can't wait for more.
And just for U1, a comparison between some of the cast from the movie The Fifth Element and one upcoming female costume from UT3:
