I just finished Half-Life 2 and I wanted to say a few words on this ground breaking game. Dispite the 2 day nightmare to get this game activated over Steam, random crashes, and stuttering sound it is one of the best games I have ever played.

The graphics and characters are far more realistic than anything I have ever seen and the physics leave me speechless. I bought an Nvidia GeForce 5900XT just for this game and it was worth every penny. You NEED a DirectX 9 video card to really appreciate it (even though it runs fine on an old GeForce 3). Everything that moves in the game does so in a realistic manner never seen before.

The story leaves much to be desired and even after finishing it you don't really know what is going on. I enjoyed the original Half-Life story much better, but I suppose Valve will tie it all together in future expansion packs. The game was also a bit shorter then I had hoped, having finished it in about 20 hours without rushing through. I hear Valve is aware of the technical issues and has just announced a fix coming in the next day or two. If you haven't bought it yet, you should, but I would recommend waiting a few days.