I passed over UT3 when it came out and don't really regret it. COD4,TF2 and especially Quake Wars on the PC really hit the online FPS spot for me, and the parts of UT3 I did play felt really dated in comparison.
Epic has sort of refused to move beyond, in a lot of ways, their successes in the late 1990s with Unreal and UT99. This is fine for the US/European console folk-they love feasting on what PC gamers played years ago-but I vastly prefer something with more sophistication that what it is offering.