I "bought" it. It's not that good. It's pretty much the same as all the other Unreal games, bar the first one.
When it was in development the team boasted massive player customizability, an engaging single player, and an exciting new multiplayer experience. None of which surfaced at the final release. You can customize your character, in multiplayer only, by picking from various pieces of armor/parts depending on what faction you pick. The single player is just a series of tournament matches with various gimmicks, and a poorly threaded storyline to tie them together, and there are no new real weapons to at least make multiplayer more enjoyable.
The Warfare mode, and Vehicle CTF, are very fun, actually. The vehicles themselves are not all that powerful, but make for fun targets with the Redeemer.
It would make a good LAN game, just like all the Unreal games were, but if everyone has UT2k4 there is no reason to pick up UT3.