Hooray, somebody agrees with me.

Like you, I played it long after launch (late 2010), and I found that:

• The weapons were bland and uninteresting
• There was little variety amongst enemies
• It turned into a corridor shooter towards the end
• The characters were wooden and I didn't care about them
• Gordon Freeman has no personality and I didn't care about him
• The design is clumsy and despite the linearity it is often unclear where you are supposed to go next.

I actually really liked the game at the start, and could barely tolerate it by the end, which seems to be the reverse of how most people feel.

See I don't understand the people saying that it was good during it's time and that you're playing the game in the wrong year... If a game is good then you should be able to play it any time and still get the butterfly's in your stomach even if you're not playing it when it was released.

This is why I don't buy the whole "You don't like it because you played it" argument with respect to Half Life 2.

Far Cry is the same age as HL2, and I think it's a considerably superior game.

Incorrect, at least for me. Times change. For example, Goldeneye. Absolutely loved that game back in the day, virtually unplayable now.

Here's what I wrote last year to describe Half-Life 2. Hopefully it'll give you some insight into why people hold it in such high regard:

Sequel to what is probably the most innovative FPS to ever grace the market, Half-Life 2 had a lot to live up to, but boy did it deliver. When released, the animations were some of the best ever seen, the graphics were superb even on a low spec PC, the physics implementation was revolutionary, the characters felt real, the battles were suitably epic in scale and it introduced the superb concept of the gravity based weapon.

Much like the original, HL2 retained the immersion by sticking to the first-person perspective. As the silent protagonist Gordon Freeman, you had the chance to let your imagination place your own persona into the image of Gordon Freeman. However, Valve took this concept and blew it out of the water with its dystopian setting and storytelling. Hidden extras in the world reveal tit-bits of info on the story and events leading up to HL2 and potential events in future games. You are always Gordon Freeman, so when/if you miss them, Gordon misses them. Control of Gordon's movements is always with the player, so when Gordon's physical abilities are impaired the feeling of being powerless is amplified. This is done well near the end of HL2 but utilised expertly throughout Episode 2. 

Another factor that I think is often overlooked is the acting and animations of the characters. In most games, the acting is terrible and the characters feel like they're just generic plot devices. In HL2, the characters actually engage in real life actions. The actions of Alyx are where this is most apparent. Yes she's with you (or Gordon) and talking to you through large segments with good animation, but also little details like when she's teleported to her father's lab and she smiles and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Easily missed, but little details like this help to breathe life into the characters.

I haven't even mentioned the superb game design Valve implement where early on they allow you to explore an area to get the lay of the land before entering a gun fight. Or the immense battles vs soldiers and gunships on dystopian rooftops closely followed by mass battles with striders. Or the well paced vehicle sections where just as they start to get boring, you move onto something else. Or the little puzzle sections that give you breathing room from all the action. Or the brilliant implementation of physics as a gameplay mechanic with the gravity gun. The sheer variety and depth in the game is epic in every sense of the word. No other pure FPS does what Half-Life 2 manages in a single package. 

Add to all this the fact that Valve are continually updating the Source engine and many little improvements are seemingly retrofitted into Half-Life 2 and Eps 1 & 2, and you get the greatest FPS single-player package on the planet.

Hehe, I actually quite enjoyed that FarCry's AI, I used to periodicly play it on hardest for years (remember how you couldn't hide in bushes on that setting, they were actively shooting at random near your last visible location to flush you out), and was quite dissapointed when Crysis on hardest turned out to be easier than Normal in FarCry. But, yeah, I agree, FEAR had really decent AI, not the best game, but still enjoyed it.

Well, for my taste, HL1 and FarCry1 are probably best FPS of all time, so I'm quite subjective on that matter. ;)

Well don't do that. I see people do it all the time whether they intend to suggest that person feels that way or not. It degrades conversation and is tied to offensive debate rather than discussion. If you would like to refer to how others have felt that way please make a note to identify that to avoid confusion.

I feel the same as Scoobes about HL2.
This is my text from last years top 50:

For me Half-life 2 has the perfect balance of Exploration, Experimentation and Extermination. The atmosphere is amazing right from the start. Arriving at the station with Dr Breens propaganda was brilliantly executed. The oppresive nature and the realistic setting immediately set the tone for the rest of the game.

Not long after you get to leave the station you get a chance to experiment with the physics. At the time the game released, realistic physics were still very new. I spend half an hour in the little playground right at the start. It was fun playing with bricks and putting stuff on the merry-go-round to watch it fly off realistically as you spin it up. Weight, friction, momentum all beautifully working as they should.

Valve are masters at story telling without using cut scenes and it really shows in HL2. Facial animation can still easily compete with todays titles and all the little body gestures are still done better then in todays titles which gives the characters a lifelike human nature.

Exploration is best catered for during the vehicle sections. I stopped everywhere during the boat and buggy sequences. Checking out all the beautifully lit locations. The structures and houses along the way felt real and offered plenty of opportunities to play with the physics. For example stacking up tires, or stuffing furniture down the fireplace and blow it all up with a grenade. I spend another hour playing with the crane later on in the game. After killing everyone by dropping or launching containers at them, I started stuffing things inside the container and watch it all fly out realistically while swinging the crane around.

The action side of the games is well catered for too. The epic fight under the suspension bridge for example, trying to defend your position in the prison and the whole end sequence of the game. Ravenholm is the chapter where all 3 elements come together the best. An awesome playground to explore and experiment with all different kinds of ways to kill. The gravity gun is at its best in this chapter.

The 2 follow up episodes are excellent as well. HL2 deathmatch was fun too although it suffered from lag. Shooting toilets and radiators at eachother provided a lot of good laughs.

HL2 has so many great moments, no wonder Valve feels intimidated by it. Topping this is going to be hard.