Here's why it's good (IMHO)
The rocket. They finally fixed the frickin thing. I'm a Q3 player and Q3 is the Formula One of 3D Shooters. The raw skill involved in having a simple duel with rockets in Q3 is something that other FPS's havn't even touched.
UT was great looking, the added gameplay modes and little features were awesome. I couldn't continue to play it though because of that frickin rocket. I had two choices: Have instant response/firing from the rocket (Q3 style) **OR** be able to fire a bunch of them at once. You couldn't have both options. I think this really detracted from the gameplay in UT.
I'm quite happy with the solution they've come up with in UT2k3. They removed the grenade from the secondary fire altogether (6 grenades at once is skill-less SPAM no matter how you put it). Trying to get the timing down to release 3 rockets together requires some skill without going overboard into 6 rockets (starting to be spam again).
As a Q3 player I still have a bit of trouble with the dodging feature though. Q3 has some deliberate 'slop' in the feel of the controls. When you let off the movement key your player slows to a stop in about 1/4 of a second. In UT it stops instantly. I find myself expecting that additional 12" of player movement and when it doesn't happen I hit the move key once more. This oftentimes causes me to inadvertently 'dodge'. Dodging is nifty and easy to do, I'm just used to having to pull of a circle-strafejump from a standstill to accomplish the same thing
The graphics are nothing more than what I expected: Beautiful.
The gameplay is shaping up to be more than I had hoped for.
