Half-Life 2 is the gold standard for living up to the hype. There were videos of the physics and physics based puzzled that kicked the most anticipated game into an impossibly high bar of expectations but it still delivered on all its promises. People forget that it launched steam and made valve into a multi-billion dollar company.

I thought Half-Life 2 was a good 15 hour game that could have been a great 10-hour game. It just dragged on a little too long, like a lot of games do.

Then along came Episode 1 and Episode 2, cut down and polished to perfection like a pair of gemstones.