This doesn't seem to be a whole lot different, unlike TC:E which was a total overhaul. And the hud and gun image take up the whole bottom of the screen, which seems like it would be annoying.
But I guess if you like fighting in a rice hat, this is the mod for you.
If anybody has 5 dollars, get Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. It's not quite as good as the original (Escape from Butcher Bay), but the original is included with Dark Athena. So you get 2 excellent single player games for the price of one, plus a fairly decent MP.
That's kind of odd. You could check with one of the guys from F|A in charge of the server and see if they have some config or setup that's messing up when you connect.
Are there any error messages when your game closes or does it just go away?