Not the next step.
User Rating: 3.5 | Unreal Tournament III PC
UT2004 was the greatest thing since sliced bread. UT3 is **** Gameplay style hasn't changed but the weapons were not properly balanced in UT3, the AI is the worst I've ever seen. Easy should be considered hard. The updates keep pouring in with major overhaul changes that should have been integrated during initial development - not after release. Patches are welcome, but the changes that they're making to the game indicate that the initial release of the game is more like a beta release. There's nobody playing the damn game - most servers have a population of zero and if you find one you'll probably have a lot of lag - close to 200br. Listen, if you live in Southern California and you can't find any servers close to you with any population you know something's wrong. Absolute absence of an auto team balancing option during gameplay resulting in a complete swing. Nothing has been done to cure bunny hopping and there are no mid range weapons - just long and short. I guess they thought that vehicles would be the mid range weapons.
It seems as though the designers were marketing this game as a huge step toward including a single player campaign that strays from the tournament gametype - and it is included, but it's far from what they promised. Every single mission is a tournament mission with a superthin plotline strung along. It's really more of a training mission set for multiplayer. Real let down. And even on easy, your team AI is pathetic - they'll take key vehicles and sit at your base when you need the vehicle at the enemy base to take down their core. You won't be able to get in it and replace the AI teammate. However, the opposing team is on time and cunningly powerful against you and yours. It's a totally unbalanced game. Period.
On the upside the graphics are pretty and it seems as though they tried to make the game feel the same. But it's not. And that's just not fun in Unreal. It's not balanced. Don't buy it. At least until they release another 9 patches to fix what they f-d up. Well, you can buy my copy from me if you like. I'll sell it cheap, I promise. 
