Half-Life 2 love

[Nwabudike Morgan]

It was a game for adults that wasn't actually a game for children, like most "mature" games are. And since it was a game for adults it treated you like one and didn't insult your intelligence with melodramatic heroism, macho posturing and obnoxious, in-your-face bombast.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

The combine are suppose to be mysterious and all, but they don't even really talk about the basic things like when they came and why they didn't just destroy everything we had and rebuild it in alien fashion.
EDIT: This may be ignorant as I sound like I expect a game to tell me all about itself but no one really tells you anything throughout the entire game. I liked it, but I cant help but wonder if anyone HATES it. I don't think such a creature can exist. I'm harsh on every game I ever played and I still enjoyed myself.

OK I see where you're coming from but for me it was all there in the details...

DR Breen's speeches over the televisions and airwaves, the newspaper clippings in the science lab, Eli's little monologues, the citizens of city 17 and thier banter...

That's what I mean about the story, to understand it you gotta not rush through like a normal shooter but stop and explore, take eveything in.

I remember I listened to Breen for over an hour before the tv turned off.

Yeah, figured you'd bite. I know all about HL's story, and thus all about what it isn't. You can narrate the events of the games to me and say it's not vague, but I can ask hundreds of major plot related questions that couldn't be answered (at least not without out-of-game sources). For instance, do you even know why Gordon went to Xen to "rip shit up?"
There's definitely a story unraveling, but it's never at any point clearly expressed. Wait, I think there's a word for that. Oh yeah, vague. You have to put the pieces together, but it far from completes the puzzle.

OK then... I will concede that for you, the story was vague. I didn't find it so, but it's not the end of the world if we disagree.

 

[Nomanslander]

What's the deal with the degree of love directed towards half life 2? We can all agree that it was a good game, but I didn't find it exceptional. The engine was and still is fantastic, but I see it as the Crysis of it's time. It was extremely well crafted and looked beautiful but there was nothing else on show. The guns were pretty much the norm for a first person shooter. You have your fast firing tiny gun, your really strong big gun with a 1 hit kill secondary fire, rocket, sniping weapon, Tiny pistol, big pistol, and shotgun. The gravity gun, while completely awesome, wasn't that influential in the game and was one of the weakest weapons in a straight up fight with the combine. The plot is rather vague, and you can't see your feet. Tell me your reasons for liking the game, or a reason for me to be kinder to it.

What? the game has an endearing quality that you don't see in a lot of games today.

Kinda like the original Castlevania or Zelda has for a lot of nostalgic gamers.

It's not about the engine or graphics...games like MW2 are a big whoop for its time but in a year or so you might not see a lot of sentiment towards it as people forget about it and start hyping over the next best thing.

HL isn't one of those games....

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Tell me why I should waste my time removing the veil from your eyes, and we'll have a deal.

Seriously, you don't like it. Big fuckin' whoop. You're not special. If you didn't like the game, go play something you do like and stop clogging the forums.

I came here for some good ol' HL2 smexin', and I get nothing. Poo.

I liked the game, I just want to know why some of us say it's the best shooter ever.

Because that is their opinion of the game.
They play it and find it more fun and better to play then Halo, CoD and any other shooters out there for PC or console. I cannot comment on the game myself as I have never played it.
Oh, and remove the reason you can't see your feet as a reason you don't enjoy it as much as others. That just smacks of grasping at straws, personally.

The foot comment was a joke. There are an exceedingly small number of fist person games where you can see your feet, and I just think it's funny.

Well yeah, everyone knows you're just a floating camera with a gun in most games. Hell, in the mission "Cliffhanger" in MW2, if you look over as you climb up a certain cliff, you can see your disembodied hands' shadows.

OT: I didn't think HL2 was that great either.