Yes.

You know, they have this media called movies. There EVERYONE talks and it's basically an endless cutscene. In some movies the characters are so believeable and so amazing that they actually evoke some feeling out of you.

What youa re playing is video games, YOU PLAY, not watching. The reason MGS4 was a bad game was because it wasa 10 hours of a shitty movie and some decent gameplay intermissions.

Half-Life 2 is the way stories SHOULD be told in video games. Go watch the godfather or Indianna Jones for lovable chaaracters in cut-senes.

So stories in game should be told with absolutly sweet **** all protaginist development?

Games should have all the characters drivel out a monolgue to you like you're the next Jesus, and no matter what you may want to do, you always have to go along with them?

If all games were like that, the gaming industy would have died a long, long time ago. All that idea serves to do is make the player feel schizophrenic - given total freedom in an utterly linear game...

Other games have done the character development better, such as Shadow of the Collosus. You act as if to say cutscenes make a game worse because you are no longer in control. This may be true for some games, but in the ones where the devs actually work on the characters, you end up bonding with a character, which is far better than being a floating gun.

Plus, who on earth is a "loveable" character in the Godfather?

I'm pretty fond of Michael myself.....

Also yes, video games are an entiely different media than movies. I expect sotry telling to be different. Since you control the caracter from his point of view it should be left  to you to expereince the story.

Wow, Leo-j has finally seen the light when it comes to HL2, and he's not even playing it on the PC (the way it was intended) but on the PS3 instead.... damn, it really DOES do everything!

Replay it, it definately looks better than BIOSHOCK (whose textures are comparable to ps2 games when up close), COD4 (let not even talk about the textures, since its more of a huge pixel), and the best looking game of the 3 "R2" id say they are on par, but HL2 takes it for the fact it is so smooth.

It is not...

And I think you're missing the point.  You're not supposed to bond with Gordon Freeman, as if you're some 3rd party spectator, you're supposed to BE Gordon Freeman.  See the world through his eyes.

I diagree with that, actually. I think Bioshock has much better graphics than HL2. Especially on PC, and I think CoD4, in PC, or console, is on par or above Bioshock.

That said, it's really all opinion. HL2 has a very cool realistic outdoorsy feel, which I like.

I agree that HL2 doesnt look as good as games mentioned above but I dont think that says anything about the game itself and and makes it better or worse...

Is Castlevania SOTN worse than Shadow Complex cause it doesnt look as cool? No, infact its superior in every way.

Like Zen said, HL2 looks cool for when its made and what its trying to do...

It does depend how you judge it, for example, played on max settings, overall I still find HL2 superior to Bioshock, CoD4 and others as it overall is more cohesive, and doesn't limit you as obviously.  CoD4 has terrible physics for example, which i dislike visually as you throw a grenade in a room and apart from particle effects almost nothing moves, in HL2, with its far superior phyics, everything not nailed down goes flying.  Bioshock looks lovely, but pays for it in small levels, poor exterior views (apart from a view clearly given lots of effort) and relatively poor character models.  Again, physics in Bioshock are hobbled for resolution and fps.

The other big thing about Hl2 (or Source really) is how well optimized it is.  As an engine is just performs better, relative to what's on the screen and the physics being handled at the same time, vs more recent engines.

So while Bioshock, etc look better in a still image, in movement, in comabt, I still prefer HL2 due to the better balance of visual balance, physics and great indoors/outdoors support.

As I have said, you have no actual free will, so you aren't Gordon, you are just moving him around - which is no different from watching a character do something in a cutscene. I emptyied a clip into an NPC and they ignored it. You aren't Gordon, you are just his motor functions, 'he' is the one to make the realo descisions (where to go, who to kill), which makes the 'freedom' in cutscenes a moot point.