The game that finally shut console "fanboys" up for good. It's still one of the best looking games today, and with graphical mods, it's quite possibly STILL the best looking game today. Many people said it was a shallow game, but they fail to see the significance in technical excercises such as these.

Paul; play the damn game already. Building a new PC and not installing the first Crysis to see how it runs is like... some really clever analogy I don't feel like coming up with. Seriously, it's prepostrous.

Don't be a cheap bastard. Buy this game. It's a really ambitious project, and a fantastic concept. The artwork is great and the game itself is genuinely unique. It's a great game, even when comparing it to huge AAA funded titles. Another great thing about it, is that if you want, you can play the entire game with just your mouse, and it's not a chore to do so. So it's a great game for just sitting back or laying down and taking it easy. At the very least, it's worth a download from the bay to try it out before you buy. It's a very bright gem.

I'll never forget playing this game on a gloomy, cloudy, warm Thanksgiving day. Never before had a game blown me away like Half Life 2 did. Sincerely, it made an ENORMOUS impression on me. It was unlike anything that came before it. It was truly amazing. If you've never played this game, then you need to do yourself a favor, and round up a few "top" games from 2003 and 2004, and play them for a little bit just to get yourself into that mindset of what games were around back then - and then - play Half Life 2.

There is a good reason Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made". It's because, at the time, it WAS the best game ever made! It's without a doubt one of the most dramatic watershed moments in PC gaming history, and you would be doing yourself a mind blowing, testicle smashing disservice by skipping over it.