Unreal Tournament 3 shows us you can't go wrong with old school.
If you are a newer member of the PC gaming community and have never picked up these kinds of games I will admit that you will initially be put off. For one, Unreal Tournament III has NO NOTABLE single player. You will spend most of your time on multiplayer, and if you are like a lot of newbies you will gravitate towards War (or the former Onslaught). If there is one thing I hate about UT3, it is Onslaught/War. Big mistake.
First of all, vehicles. Vehicles are the stupidest gimmicks ever made. Now I have to admit, they aren't as overpowered as 2k4, but they are still very overpowered. Any idiot in a Goliath can abuse the splash damage of its huge cannon that will kill you in one hit. Many times, you will be happily walking on your way towards a node of your choice, only to completely die. Your only explanation is that you were fragged by someone with a Goliath. There is NO warning and you just fall down dead. You always can tell which team is winning, just by counting the number of Goliaths employed by a team. However, it should be noted that Epic did a very nice job with the other vehicles and they aren't as abusable as before since their health have all been severely nerfed.
Second of all, you have to spend a long time walking to each node of your choice before you get some action. It gets boring, walking for two minutes just to get thirty seconds of action. If you want to get some action right away, don't play War. They did include the hoverboard, which can reduce the time between encounters, but you probably won't be using it much as a newer player and probably would only use it slightly more as a seasoned player.
Topping off why you shouldn't play War is the community. That's right, you get the blame for why War sucks. You will never, ever, get into a game where it is not overly one sided. Vehicles play a huge role in this, as most of the time the losing side is constantly getting barraged by Raptors or Mantras who manage to get a few hits off. To win a game without abusing vehicles, good teamwork is a must. However, as any pubscrub would tell you, the chat function is only for calling each other expletives when they legitimately kill you. Occasionally, they will threaten to play each other in a fair one on one duel, but no one ever keeps up there end of that deal. Now granted, there will always be a couple of games where it isn't overly one sided and that there is actually good competition, but it will take you a long time to find such games.
It isn't impossible to have fun in War. Granted, you have to be extremely fast at grabbing a vehicle, then go on one or two road rages before getting gunned down. As stupid as that sounds, it is actually pretty satisfying chasing down a jumping player devoid of any defense until you finally hit him. Granted, you will eventually start to feel like a jerk for ruining the game for your victim, but at least your having fun right?
After reading that, you might be kind of put off with a game, and you should be, War is a failboat, sinking into the seas of FPS obscurity. However, you might have then just checked the score I gave it, and realized I it a 8.5. Why? Because of death match. While I am sick of the gimmicks Epic throws at us every sequel, I am very glad that they have done nothing to dilute the old school game types. Included with the game is death match, team deathmatch, and capture the flag. Newer players might initially be put off after getting completely destroyed, but after a while you grow use to getting destroyed. Then, you start to get kills, and then you start to win. Unreal and its cousins have always been the ultimate test of FPS skill. If you want to win, your reaction time better be lightning fast, and your tracing better be spot on.
But it isn't all the same. The graphics have seen a huge overhaul. Back then, Unreal had the most realistic graphics of its time. Now, it is no Crysis but it still manages to keep on par. The graphics are pretty scalable, but you still do need a decent video card. It has support for nVidia PhysX, which you might want to look into.
And don't forget single player. While I did say it had no NOTABLE single-player, it is worth noting that campaign has been revamped and actually engaging (to be liberal) for a couple of hours. While it still is just bot matches, the story definitely is better than the other Tournaments, but is no Unreal or Unreal 2. You do unlock characters as you progress and the different paths dictate which characters you unlock so you might want to give single player a try. Despite the story and different paths however, it still cannot mask the fact that they are just bot-matches. Newer players might want to check them out to get into the game but the bots eventually become predictable. Playing against real players is nothing like playing against bots.
So is it a good game? Barely playable single-player and added gimmicks? If you enjoy a adrenaline filled ride, then pick it up. You will never go wrong with deathmatch or CTF in its pure, unadulterated form.