The UT and Q3A days were a classic time for competitive PC gaming! I loved them both but Q3 (specifically duelling) had an extra touch of class in my eyes.
TF2 is a weird one. I think it's undoubtedly a 10/10 game, but all the evolution since release has made the experience a bit "bloated", to use a normal software term. It's almost as if the game has had too much support for its own good.
I can see where you are coming from, but those extra stuff does add depth to the game once you learn all the new weapons. Granted, this is coming from somebody who plays a lot of TF2, but the "too many options" problem goes away certainly after 30 hours of playing, and often much less.
When I tried playing it, it was a very confusing experience. The built in tutorial was very simple, and the actual game didn't resemble it much at all. I gave up.
I think what has multiplied the confusion factor in the years since it was released (can you believe the game came out in 2007?) is the... culture that has sprung up around it, fueled by a unique feedback loop between fans and Valve. There's this whole strange world of hats, crafting, backstories, inside jokes, Australia, and hats that has coalesced, making it about as culturally daunting for a newcomer as an established Blizzard game.
This feedback loop has evolved what was once billed as a "class-based team action game" to, and I quote Valve's official PR, "America's favorite war-themed hat simulator." I'm not kidding.
At the same time, I can get on and play for 20 minutes with my friend in a different city, and we have a great time on public servers. If you want to get really into it, you can. I haven't spent any additional money on it since I bought it in 2007, and it's still a riot.
Sure, there's some cultural stuff that you'll have to get used to (and will become apparent) as you play more, but it's not nearly as much of a commitment as, say, WoW. A newbie (to the game, not to FPSes) can pick it up and play immediately at a fairly decent level. At the same time, there's a rich culture and stories and little things you can discover, if you care enough to spend the time finding them. If not, you can just blow some stuff up and go about your day.
I actually still play UT99 daily! There's still a fairly competitive community where we hold tournaments and stuff.
Plus, I'm developing something (long-awaited) for UT99 called NewNet (similar to Lotus's UT2004 UTComp mod) that eliminates all movement lag and simulates zero ping server-side. And at some point I'd love to create something similar to QuakeLive (Quake via the browser, with tons of stats tracking and stuff) for UT99.
For a 13 year old game, it's still more fun than most games out there if you ignore the trolls.
If anyone is interested in our little community, it's mostly on irc.globalgamers.net within the following channels: #tdmpickups, #iPug, #mlut, and #mlig. Basically you join pickup games (aka pugs) - 4v4, 5v5, etc. - using an IRC bot that keeps track of everything, captains choose teams, select a server, everyone enters, ready-up, and may the best fraggers win. And of course hilarity ensues on IRC afterwards. ;)
