Now you're just being ignorant... Lots of people experience feelings of attraction when just meeting someone, have you seriously never heard of a crush or "love at first sight"? Ofcourse that isn't immediatly deep bonding but it's very possible that Alyx feels attracted to Gordon either physically or to something she attributes to him. This happens all the time in real life so I'm not really sure why you have such a hard time with this other than for the sake of arguing.

Riiiiiiiight I'm being ignorant because I think a woman isn't going to fall for a mute in 10 minutes....We are talking about adults here, not 12 year old kids. A crush and "love at first sight" is what hormone fuelled teenagers have, not mature adults. 

No, falling for someone who has said jack shit does not happen all the time in real life. In fact it may never of happened at all. I cannot believe that you actually think women could fall for a guy who has said a total of fuck all in a handful of minutes. Women don't work like that. The world doesn't work like that. 

I can't believe you are trying to argue physical attraction or a crush has never occured between adults. All this tells me is that it never happened with you but I've seen it and I know for a fact many people have. Adults do have crushes sometimes and it's really not up for debate. And falling for a mute? Well, I wouldn't, but it shouldn't be impossible. People fall for way stranger things.

However, you seem too hung up about the fact Gordon doesn't speak and you're taking it much too literally. It's a style choice and not so much a character trait of Gordon in my opinion. I don't think Valve made Gordon a mute because he is deaf or is unable to speak, but because the player is Gordon and they didn't want to give Gordon a character of his own that could stand in the way of that. You can't translate a game directly to real life, the same thing goes for Mass Effect or Halo or any kind of game or even movie. If we apply your criticism to all games then every game is beyond ridiculous. I think to be able to immerse yourself in a game or movie you have to go with its logic and rules. I mean, health doesn't regenerate in real life but it'd be ridiculous to fault a game for that.

Long story short: Gordon not talking in the game shouldn't be such a big deal storywise, and if it is to you, then Half-Life 2 (but also Zelda, BioShock, even Halo 3 and many, many other games) just aren't for you.

I can't believe you are trying to argue physical attraction or a crush has never occured between adults. All this tells me is that it never happened with you but I've seen it and I know for a fact many people have. Adults do have crushes sometimes and it's really not up for debate. And falling for a mute? Well, I wouldn't, but it shouldn't be impossible. People fall for way stranger things.

However, you seem too hung up about the fact Gordon doesn't speak and you're taking it much too literally. It's a style choice and not so much a character trait of Gordon in my opinion. I don't think Valve made Gordon a mute because he is deaf or is unable to speak, but because the player is Gordon and they didn't want to give Gordon a character of his own that could stand in the way of that. You can't translate a game directly to real life, the same thing goes for Mass Effect or Halo or any kind of game or even movie. If we apply your criticism to all games then every game is beyond ridiculous. I think to be able to immerse yourself in a game or movie you have to go with its logic and rules. I mean, health doesn't regenerate in real life but it'd be ridiculous to fault a game for that.

Long story short: Gordon not talking in the game shouldn't be such a big deal storywise, and if it is to you, then Half-Life 2 (but also Zelda, BioShock, even Halo 3 and many, many other games) just aren't for you.

Riiiiiiiight I'm being ignorant because I think a woman isn't going to fall for a mute in 10 minutes....We are talking about adults here, not 12 year old kids. A crush and "love at first sight" is what hormone fuelled teenagers have, not mature adults. 

No, falling for someone who has said jack shit does not happen all the time in real life. In fact it may never of happened at all. I cannot believe that you actually think women could fall for a guy who has said a total of fuck all in a handful of minutes. Women don't work like that. The world doesn't work like that. 

If you think a woman will fall for a mute guy after 10 minutes, you are kidding yourself. I know about people being attracted to others obviously, but what happens in HL2 is just rediculous. Sorry, but if you think it isn't, then your idea of socail normailty and mine are completely different. 
Adults don't have crushes; kids have crushes. Working in an office I can tell you that other then "oh he looks nice", that is as far as a "crush" will go. 

Oh bs am I taking it to literally. With that in mind then I could say that everyone who says "oh but a speech circle doesn't appear in real life" about Mass Effect, which then makes ME's way of telling a story far better as you are interacting with the game's characters.

So you are saying I can't criticise HL2's choice in narrating because it's "just rediculous"? That's just a failure to actually find a hole in my criticism which you can actually explain. 
"It's logic and it's rules"?? So then we ignore cliches, bad voice acting etc? Obviously we don't. I'm not criticising the gameplay, I'm criticising the story. 

Long story short, if Gordon doesn't speak, then the world should act like that otherwise it breaks immersion as the character's reactions don't make sense. Falling for a mute guy is just absurd and playing on the "gamers are sex starved virgins" stereotype.

Actually, me and my girlfriend pretty much fell for each other when we met... it happens. Not sure how to explain it, but we're still together 10 years later and planning to get married.

Either you work in some really boring places, or you're oblivious to the fact that some of your co-workers are "at it". I know of at least 5 different office romances that have started in my last 2 workplaces.

As you have never answered this and seem to skirt around it, can you answer just the following:
1) Would a woman fall for a mute rambo scientist in the space of 10 minutes?
2) How can HL2 have such a vast story when 70% of the game is devoid of story?

Please just answer those directly, as in "A woman would/would not fall for a mute blah blah BECAUSE...". Good? Good. 

If I've been told the storyline, I can see that the final is filled with plot holes, cliches and plenty of poop. 

Let me guess - you guys actually spoke to one another?
You met when you were 17....Hormones...I'm never going to just "fall" for someone because I wouldn't know nearly enough about who they are. Other then finding someone attractive, it takes time to know someone which cannot be done in just one meeting.