Loyalty is a crock of you know what. That said:
I played tons of q2, about the only game i ever played, even though i tried Unreal and UT, they didn't grab me, nice games though, UT being much better than Q3A.
Q3A disappointed me immensely as far a game play. Bought Q3A, hated it, uninstalled it quickly. But like others have noted, as far as the engine, graphics, and netcode, this is a fast platform that can't be competed against, in those aspects.
In retrospect though i never liked the slowness of q2 dm either, i became addicted to the speed and intensity of lithium and instagib, completely different games/mods with thier own merits.
So, now, Q3A is installed on my PC, due to the ra3 mod, and it is now my game of choice, after being stricly a one game q2 player, this mod has totally blowm me away.
See it this way: ra3 has all the benefits of the Q3 engine, graphics, and netcode, with the playabiltiy of good q2 mods and UT. Can't be beat.