and it was amazing. It wasn't revolutionary, but it was about as close to perfect as a game can be. It made up for every flaw the original had (slow pace, no story, not enough action) and then embellished those points to make for a game that had a perfect pace, an appreciable plot (still in Valve's usual lack-of-details style), a bit of originality for an FPS, and just plain brilliant, challenging action. On to the details:Graphics: Great. The graphic setting auto-detection worked perfectly, and I ended up with a game that looked good on my P4 2.8 / Radeon 9800 and had a very playable framerate. The Source Engine is gaming greatness, as evidenced by both this game and the newest iteration of Counter-Strike. The Doom3 engine may technically do some things better (lighting, especially), but I'd honestly rather play a game on Source, given the choice. Cheers to Valve on a job well done on this one.Sound: Equally great. The game was a little light on soundtrack, as was the first, but here the MP3 soundtrack makes a few more appearances. The music choices are always appropriate and very quickly set the mood. When the music was fast-paced, techno-driven sounding, you knew it was supposed to be an action sequence in game, and I then got psyched up and went on a Combine-killing frenzy, and every time it was a blast. Sound effects don't disappoint, although audiophiles with high-power systems might find them a little underpowered.Gameplay: HL2 is the shooter of the year, no doubt about it. The weapon choices were good, if expected, and the gravity gun has taken its place in gaming history as the FPS cliche of 2005. Just you wait - every game you see come out this year will have one. Weapons aside, the environments are incredibly diverse yet immersive. Exploratory kinds of levels are expansive and beautiful to look at, while action sequences are tight and controlled and easy to navigate. The vehicle sequences about 1/3rd of the way through the game are some of the most fun I've had in ages in a FPS game. At that point, I even had friends coming down just to watch me play through those parts. Soldier AI is phenomenal and I appreciated every challenge it threw at me. Most of the time I was forced to use the environment around me, which is a great thing. I was constantly taking cover to avoid fire, using holes in walls to place sniper shots across buildings, and using the gravity gun to take out structures or just throw flammable barrels. Enemies were diverse, and there were guys I loved to fight (Combine troops) and others I hated to fight (the new venomous, furry headcrabs), which is a good sign. They never became repetitive (like Doom3's did after about 3 levels). Multiplayer: Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 Deathmatch are the games you want to play this year, end of story.Production Value: Top-notch, as a 5-year game should be. Every texture was perfectly in place, every level flowed flawlessly, and the story of Dr. Freeman and his cohorts was immersive, with enjoyable characters (all of whom had really good voice acting). Valve's "Digital Actors" system of voice, lip syncing and character animations is phenomenal and deserves some kind of award. Every character's facial expression was convincing, and even the change from one expression to the other looked perfectly natural. I was even happy to be reunited with Dog, Alyx's giant robot pet. By the way, the game has one of the best endings I've ever seen. I loved it. So there we have it. It wasn't revolutionary, *in a G-man voice* but it did exactly what it was supposed to. Cheers, Valve.