Half-Life 2 Makes Next-gen Look About as Inspired as a Can of Fruit Cocktail

[Originally posted on 1Up.com]

Damn! I can't believe how incredibly excellent Half-Life 2 really is! I know, it's been a year (almost exactly) since HL2 came out, but I got stuck about 4/5 through the game (couldn't find the way out of the plaza with all the striders). However, now I've picked it up again, and also played through the Lost Coast tech-demo. It's amazing how, after a year nothing even comes close to it's excellence. It's just done with such a great sense of place that you instantly become immersed and even though the settings are often not too far off from many other FPS:s, the layout of the levels and the use of the Havok physics, along with the excellent graphical style, the characters and dialog make it just so much better then anything I've ever experienced. I guess this is one of the reasons that the things I've seen coming out for the Xbox 360 seem so disappointing, they're suppose to be next-gen, but they can't even compete with a year old PC title...