Valve's latest title is, in a phrase, awesome to the max. The graphics are state of the art, the storyline is intricate and suspenseful, the acting is academy-award winning, and game play is smooth and never dull.
Valve proves, like Blizzard, that delays are what make a game good. The consistent beta testing, continuous detail revisions, and fine-tuning of every pixel are exactly what made this game so great.
Half Life 2 is a clear demonstration of what it takes to create a game of such transcendence.