I must say that HL2 was superb.  HL2 Episode 1 is an absurd waste of time.  A huge chunk of the game takes place in pitch black and you have a flashlight that lasts a few seconds and when it works all you can see is a flicker here or there.  Just when you finish one area in pitch black, you're thrust off to another area that's, you guesses it, pitch black.  Area after area of that is just no fun at all.. it become extremely tedious  and extremely boring.  No, Quake 4 was MUCH better in that it wasn't PITCH BLACK.  The other issue is that these games work well on only a few select configurations.  I have plenty or ram and HD space and a 64MB graphics card but apparently that's nowhere near enough.  I won't even mention the STEAM aspect of this - that's nothing but brutal torture.
All in all... HL2 is superb.  The rest is not worth it.
I must say that HL2 was superb. HL2 Episode 1 is an absurd waste of time. A huge chunk of the game takes place in pitch black and you have a flashlight that lasts a few seconds and when it works all you can see is a flicker here or there. Just when you finish one area in pitch black, you're thrust off to another area that's, you guesses it, pitch black. Area after area of that is just no fun at all.. it become extremely tedious  and extremely boring. No, Quake 4 was MUCH better in that it wasn't PITCH BLACK. The other issue is that these games work well on only a few select configurations. I have plenty or ram and HD space and a 64MB graphics card but apparently that's nowhere near enough. I won't even mention the STEAM aspect of this - that's nothing but brutal torture. All in all... HL2 is superb. The rest is not worth it.