http://www.gametrailers.com/news-post/73887/epic-teasing-unreal-tournament-comeback-news-next-week \o/
It affected the visual style and personality of the game. UT3 was just an assault of brown on brown. At least a few of the older games had some interesting variety and personality.
UT3 was more of a tech demo for the engine than a real UT game. Bet this will be the case with UE4 rolling out as well.
There were other bits of silly/stupid in UT3. For one, the "Link" gun couldn't actually link to other players except in proximity, with little to no indication of such. Epic's excuse was something along the lines of people didn't link up much in 2k4. In TDM, probably, but in ONS/AS, you saw linking all the time. Hell, there was one custom Assault map that had an Ion Turret. It is something amazing to see up to 15 random people linking up to keep that one Ion turret healed. Then there's the Enforcer. Great that they brought it back, but bleh that it was the derp bastard cousin of the original Supposedly UEd would complain if you put the sniper rifle and/or avril into lockers. Avril ammo was scarce on default maps. I remember one vid they showed you could jump into the Bender with an Orb, but that was removed so you had to link to said Bender while on a hoverboard Shock combo igniting behind the shock ball instead of where it was etc etc
