@thesoutherndandy: Yep. Games today stand on the shoulders of giants, and one of those giants is Half Life 2.

I was thinking this exact thing the other day. Half Life 2 is just about the only game where I felt like I was actually going somewhere and setting out on a journey. People moan about the vehicle sequences but I loved them. Just exploring the coast line and country with the buggy, occasionally getting out to check out a little house you stumble upon, was awesome and is something you don't find in games very often. That willingness on the developers part to just let you explore at your own will without pushing you hastily along or shoving big spectacular set pieces in your face. I would bet you could fairly quickly blow through highway 17 pretty damn quick if you wanted but if you're like me you can spend hours wondering the beaches and hanging out at the outposts. Was really pleased that Episode 2 was basically a continuation of this once you get past the caves.

Gameplay still holds up great in my opinion. Not many games offer the variety of Half Life 2 from the genuinely scary Ravenholm section to leading a squad (admittedly not with the best AI, even at the time) through a torn and destroyed city17 fighting multiple hulking striders to long vehicle sequences.

But none of those things are true. Except for the motion-sickness thing, which is completely on you. Kind of hard to fault the game for that.
The guns are hardly weak. The combine assault rifle, shotgun, and revolver are extremely powerful and satisfying to use. The crossbow is a one-hit kill that nails guys to walls. Ammo is not really that scarce, either.
The AI was fine. Not really amazing but there are many high-profile games coming out today with worse AI.
The health system is a silly complaint, This is how EVERY FPS worked before regenerating health became the norm, which wasn't until well after 2004. So no, it wasn't dated then.
The physics behave relatively realistically even now. I don't see how they're "wonky". And the platforming and puzzles are dreadfully easy to the point where they barely get in the way. Physics were not common in games back then, and for a game to do them as well as HL2 was even less common. The gravity gun was and still is pretty cool. The game gives you plenty of opportunities to get creative with it.

As for the vehicle sequences, this always seems to be everybody's first and biggest complaint. The worst part about them is that the vehicles handle like shit, but they're seriously not that long. Not to mention they're both broken up with multiple on-foot sections.

I've already said my (quite positive) piece on Half-Life 2 earlier in this thread, but for you guys who didn't like the game, let me give you a freebie: a legitimate fault of the game is that despite Valve having all that Half-Life 1 money and spending like 6 years on Half-Life 2, they couldn't be bothered to use more than a single voice actor for all the male resistance fighters you encounter. Dozens of dudes you encounter, sometimes only a few feet away from each other, all with the same voice actor doing the same voice. The main characters are voiced quite well, but the game desperately could've used a few more voice actors for all of the stock NPCs that exist throughout the game.

But its (so for) only consists of get from point A to point B without any REAL explanation on why you're going there ,,

it was explained fro mthe moment u started hl1 and also when it finished..have u even played hL1;;? ,,Hl3 i'm waiting for Hl2 was a good game slithly dissapointed but still good game;),,hl3 seems to be out of schedule,,a decade ago i played Hl2 though;p,,but its nice to see ppl still enjoy the gem hl2=)

Its around a decade old so I can understand why you may not see what the big deal is if you played it today.

That being said I still think it's a fantastic game (at the time I didn't think it was as good as the first... I am not sure, I probably still don't, still a great game).

I'll just say this, it was the first game with realistic physics- that I can recall. It definitely popularized it as (other then source games obviuously) everybody started doing it. That's why it gets all it's praise. That kind of happens when you "change the game" like that.

All this thread is doing is making me want to go back and play HL2. Thanks, guys!