Half-Life 2 has been getting my full attention ever since the game was unlocked at 12:07 am (Valve time) on the 16th. I played the game from the time I got off of work (around 7 am) until about 4:00 pm. I only took 6 screen shots and the only ones of note to show are these shots of Barney and Alyx:

A couple of things about this game. First off the graphics are amazing. I think it’s even more than just the graphics, it’s the environments and the way the story unfolds around you. You may have heard about this games physics in a preview or two. And it’s something that has to be seen, I can’t do it justice writing about it. More or less if you played and liked the first Half-Life this game will be a must have.

Multiplayer is handled by the Counter-Strike: Source, the juiced up version of CS. Personally I don’t like CS so it’s not an issue to me and I’m not big on the multiplayer part of the game. But some people would like to have just a plain old Half-Life 2 Death Match mode. And from what I hear it’s coming thanks to the mod community.