I had a load of spare time today so I fired in the Orange Box (X360); only bought it for Portal so I thought I'd see how HL2 measured up to today's standards -- I hadn't played it since release on the PC, back in the days where Steam was rather absurd and new.

I'm torn, really. I managed to get to Anticitizen One and it was only at this point that I didn't feel like the game was a burden. The lengthy vehicular sections seem to take longer than I remember. But dear got the satisfaction of controlling the antlions... jesus.

I dunno.. I know fine well it is in these closing acts that the game that it shines but I  just want to know this -- do the Episodes 1 and 2 hold up the momentum after this? Or does it grind to a halt again?

Haha. Just because I don't have fun with the lengthy vehicle sections doesn't mean there's something wrong with me.

I'm completely aware that from Anticitizen One onwards the game escalates into absolute awesomeness, but the acts preceding it just irritated me.

the only thing i didn't like were all the buggy/Puzzle sections but some of my favourite was the air boat/puzzle sections. That thing drive as well as it looks.
My most satifiying part as catching a grenade with the gravity gun and pwing a guy in the face.

I'm still going through my first playthrough of the game ( bought it for PC about 2 months ago for 10 bucks).

I think it is an excellent game for its time, but it runs kind of bad on my computer seeing as the gameplay moves very slowly in certain environments. But it's a lot of fun.