After playing every mode available and realizing only officially hosted servers dont lag online. I quickly realized that the game is awesome.

There are 5 advanced options for graphics settings, default for my computer was 2(medium - low) but I'm running it on 5 (high? na they dont have the HD textures in the demo) with forced Z buffer and physics. The graphics at that level look beautiful. Ammo flare to life and blood explodes in every direction (I really need a physx card to get full effect).

The gameplay is a great mix of of UT99 and UT2004. From what I can tell is that we cant fly around the arena without touching the ground anymore; This adds strategy but I still liked being about to dodge every shot from a nub.  We have double jump for UT03/04 too. The enforces are back which makes it so you have a useful starting weapon instead of that pos assault rifle that did barely any damage and you couldnt aim for crap. 

AI is what you expect from Epic. Average AI actually has half a brain and can react as unpredictably like a person while hard makes it so that your facing an above average clan player.  I actually lost a deathmatch vs the hard AI. I was only 1 kill off and one guy managed to kill another bot before my bullet hit one guys head. 

Is this FPS worth it completely? let me just say if I was to say no, my desktop would probably burst into flame. Which would totally suck.

I was completely disappointed by the graphics. If they were hoping to sell me with this they have only made me doubt my previous certain purchase. I don't know that I really care to hear the reason it looked bad though. At first I thought "oh well I guess if these aren't the textures they are gonna use then its ok..". But now I am thinking "The entire reason I wanted the demo was to see how it looked." This isn't a show-stopper for me but I have seriously questioned whether or not I am purchasing this at launch where as before it was a moral imperative.

I mean, you can't tell me it was a size issue, the demo was like 1 GB. Many people won't know that the textures are different and in general many will just assume that this is what the game looks like. The demo is in my mind where you want to wow people, so I really don't get this move.

As far as gameplay goes, its pretty much the same old same old, which is a good thing to a certain extent. I am hoping to see more innovations along the lines of the hoverboard as more info becomes available so in general I am undecided here right now.

The selling point for me was and still is the map editor. I am truly looking forward to getting into things and playing with stuff but if I am being honest I think I can tide myself over with the Portal/TF2 map editors and the Crysis editor once Crysis is released.

 the graphics I wouldnt worry about because they wanted to keep the demo under 2GB. They are missing a huge chunk of textures. Thing 5 is the mid-range graphics which are just a touuch under gears of war. 10 will be omfg beautiful. 

First of all let me say this that I look forward to your reviews and that they are quite good.
As a small complaint though, I find that whatever review I have read from you so far is a so over the top positive. Not many negative aspects in your review. I am starting to feel you are easily impressed (unless it is any Wii game). Please talk more on the ups and down of the games.
Keep up the good work!

Good to hear it's fun. I would buy it if I didn't despise Epic as a company and refuse to purchase their products due to their corrupt business practices and the fact that Mark Rein is a douchebag.

I like the gameplay from the earlier UT's more, imo they have taking the freedom away. You don't jump as high as you used to, it feels a lot slower im movement but i found that you lose your health faster. So it's more about the aiming now then about the movement, which imo is bad becouse ut 2004 was just perfect in movement and aiming. graphics are not as good as i would expect.

I didn't find it bad, not at all, it still rocks. these are the only negative things about it imo.

 Not trying to be rude but did you read what I wrote?  I mentioned the missing textures but I think that it was a mistake. The point of a demo is to showcase your product and with UT3 graphics are definitely something worth showcasing.  They needed to show off a bit, especially since there were only 3 maps and they were all very small.

Me and some friends tried it multiplayer last night (local, my internet can't do online play) and we all agreed although while fun, it wasn't nearly enough of a step up from the previous UT games (we all own) to justify $50. We'll probably start biting when it hits $30 or less.

hey now, I know mark personally. he is a great guy.

@sleep - you never did jump that high and they did reintroduce the super jump boots.

@Sqrl - demoes can also be all about the game play. Also is your graphics card as strong as my 8400GS and a Physx card? I dont have a Physx card but it would seem that it would improve things quite a bit.  

8800 GTS - I installed it and played it in both Vista and XP

I cranked everything up to max on 1680x1050 and was getting 60 FPS with V-Sync on to prevent tearing etc...Post-Processing was insane, textures as high as they could go, etc, etc...

Edit: To address your post a bit more, I do agree that a demo can be about gameplay but with UT3 the gameplay honestly hasn't changed a great deal like I said.  And I am fine with that, I think making tweaks to a great gameplay formula should take some time and they should be cautious in taking it to far...obviously not too cautious but you get my meaning.

The big upgrade that everyone is getting UT3 for is the superb graphics that epic is known for.  I really think that at minimum they should have offered a seperate download for those who wanted it to upgrade textures.  Because I really want to see what this game can do, and if they feel this level of detail explains their product then I think with all of the games this year I will probably wait and pick it up next year. 

Just to be clear I am a huge UT fan, I love the multiplayer, map editor, gameplay, etc.. So this is not coming from a mean spirited attack or anything.  This is simply a gamer prioritising his list based on what he has seen.  And UT3 isn't the only demo I was recently unimpressed with.  CoD4 was another big game on my list that I was really looking forward to but was simply not impressed with the demo for it. 

I guess I am trying to say that when I load a demo up I am looking for the developer to examplify the strong points in the game and summarize why their game should be at the top of my list.  With UT3 and CoD4 the message I got was "Well this is what we have so far...". 

Hell, even if the crysis demo doesn't wow me like the videos have (same with the UT3 videos btw) then I am gonna be vocal about it too.  And I think you know how much I am looking forward to Crysis =P