This is the last game I liked playing on my PC.
Unreal Tournament 2004 is basically the game you want to go back to if you have never played this franchise before. It has a decent (easy) single player game and the multiplayer opens up new portals of FPS gaming and fragging. Although I played very little of the multiplayer due to account setups I think it was good. There was a big emphasis on skinning (which personally I didn't enjoy) but did this get in the way of playing? I think it did a lot. Because there were many Atari boards full of skins and competitions and its seemed less effort was going in to getting people online and creating mayhem in the arena. Thats what its all about !
Unreal Tournament is a great game. There are better games, mainly out for the Xbox 360. But if you see this in the bargain bin and your confident your internet connection is working then play online. Its the best thing in the Unreal Tournament Franchise.
There are a lot of games out which kind of release the same endorphines in your body as UT:2004 so don't get stuck on feeling you have to play this game because its got rated high. You just pick what game you want to play.