huh? Did we play the same game when we played COD4?

To me that game has a major flaw when it comes to AI, game design, and gameplay when it comes to a campaign.

1. The game just keeps spawning enemies till you cross a certain line, and thats just stupid. On harder difficulty it becomes just a grenade spam-fest

2. There is always 1 way to take on an enemy and only 1 way to take it down. Game has no replayability to me. Grab a sniper to fight this guy, grab a rocket launcher to take on this tank...like go screw yourself MW, i want to figure this out myself. Its scripted to the point that I really get annoyed.

3. And lastly, AI is quite bad. Everyone just runs out and tries to shoot you in the face without any regard for their own safety...not everyone in middle east and Russia is a suicide attacker you know. Game is close to an on rails twitch shooter as fps games get.

You are right that story is good (if you like your House, 24...etc kind of story telling...I dont and preffer the more subtle story of HL2) And COD4 has some nice "holy shit"  set pieces, but the strength of that game is MP.

Unlike COD4, Halflife 2 and every Halo game I've played makes you feel like you are part of the universe, rather than just playing a mission in a videogame. For example, the boat sequence and the car sequence in HL2 can be played for hours if you want to explore...I guess it loses a sense of urgency but it gives it amazing replay value and better overall experience when all is said and done. Also, there are always multiple ways to take on a scenario, usually depending which weapon you have.

Halflife 2 isn't perfect though...Game like FEAR beat it in gunplay and both FEAR and Halo have much better AI on harder difficluty. Visuals obviously are somewhat out of date now...

There are games that do single things better than HL2...but there still isn't an FPS on the market that does everything as a whole as good as HL2 when it comes to single player.

The problem I have with CoD, and has had since the first game, is that it lacks pacing. It's always full action, explosions and huge waves of enemies, or it is absolutely dead. And there are simply too many enemies. That's why it quickly feels like I'm playing a point and click game. I point at the enemy down the barrel of my gun. I click. Repeat 25 times. Advance. Repeat.

Its best moments are greatly diminished by this. The sniper mission, for example, was great. Until it too degenerated into the same hordes of enemies.

And this is the point where Half-Life 2 really shines. The first hour or so, you don't get to shoot anybody. So there is IMMENSE satisfaction when you finally get to bash in some heads with the crowbar and pick up a gun for the first time. Every major battle comes after a relative lull in the fighting, so your trigger finger is itchy every time.

For all you wondering if you need to play HL1 in order to understand HL2, do not worry.

I only played half life 1 way back when I was 8 and didn't get very far at all and still understood HL2 perfectly. It's like an independent game from half life 1, but they are tied together with some fan service.

What I'm saying is that even if Half-life 1 didn't exist, you could still understand the storyline. It's revealed in the world, the characters, and the actions.

This pretty much summed up a lot of the good stuff in Half-Life 2. Yes, this is essentially a "this" reply, but I felt like expressing my agreement with this post.

There's also the fact that rather than build the strategy element on lack of ammo, it's built upon positioning.  It's like that in a lot of games, but this is one of the special traits that make HL2 so brilliant.

Oh, and the gravity gun. The game is actually nearly as fun to play with just the crowbar + gravity gun.

Half-life 2 (not referring to the later episodes) has a bit of crappy graphics engine if you ask me.

Like:
All shadows go in the same direction depending on what area you are in. Often you see all the shadows change direction in front of your eyes when you walk through a doorway. Also, shadows overlap and only seem to be cast on static objects.

Environmental shadowing is static (considering Doom 3 and Riddick were out at the time, that is poo).

Also, it seems to use a rubbishy environment map system for specularity, where again, walking from area to area shows all specular lighting changing completely in an instant.

The character faces are awesome, but the bodies are very ropy.

Water is very nice though.

That said, the game's design is awesome. Some fantastic colour and texture in areas. Plus the music is the business.

Half Life in all its iterations is my favourite FPS (hence my avatar). I even bought Orange Box for my PS3, and its not as glitchy as people make it out to be, but like a lot of FPS's, you really need to play it on PC to get the full experience. Games like HL are more than the sum of their parts, its how balanced and well thought out the game design is that makes it so good.

You can pick it apart and go 'well game X had better lighting at the time', or 'game Y is less linear', but as a whole game, its still one of the best FPS ever made. Sad that many console only gamers will never really experience this game as it was meant to be experienced.

Lastly, you don't need to have played the other HL games to enjoy HL2, but it sure doesn't hurt in order to gain more info on the overall story and universe, which makes playing HL2 more involving.

Omg, finally that someone agrees with me that COD4 campaign, is not god's gift to gaming. You forgot it's also short, and annoying, they just made up couple explosions, to mask average campaign. It's just my opinion, nothing to get upset over. Multiplayer, is godly though.

Half-Life 2 is an experience that cannot be missed. Highly recommended to all you virgins.

good good good !!!!!!!!!!

I just have bought the Orange Byyox ;)))

(but right now, I m beating Stalker Shadow of tchernobyl (mod priboi story))

I agree that Half-Life 2 is a hell of a game, cause it is, but I'd argue that the original Half-Life was more technically impressive (for it's time) and contributed more to the development of the FPS series then many, many other games combined.

To me at least, Half-Life really is that good.