xtal said:

Spike, if you can consider yourself an "FPS trooper" I encourage you to play through Half-Life 2 on the hard difficulty. It makes an already intense game… intenser? Wow, the forums don't seem to think that's a typo. Huh!

Hahah, Spike, I encourage you not to play on hard because it makes the Combine even more irritating to kill. On normal, head shots mean practically nothing, on hard… well, it's like shooting at a bullet proof vest with a head wrapped inside it somewhere. I can handle the aliens and whatnot being tougher to kill but humans should be much more fallable with a well aimed shot or two. Don't get me wrong, I love my games tough and er, intenser: F-Zero GX, Motor Storm, Demon's Souls and at the moment Hydorah, but HL2's hard difficulty felt really artificial and it just didn't seem to gel with the pseudo realism and slick cinematic presentation. I wanted the experience to slide more.

Steerpike said:

I try to play through Half Life 2 and the episodes once a year or so, and I'm always amazed that it still feels fresh despite the great familiarity. Very few games manage that.

I've only played through HL2 once and tried to play it through a second time but just couldn't handle the repetition. I love the world Valve created, the characters, the script, the set pieces and the finer details but the amount of shooting… it is literally all you do from start to finish and by the 3/4 mark I just couldn't be bothered to shoot anymore. I much prefer the episodic format because the repetitive gameplay doesn't outstay its welcome and for me, Episode 2 is Valve's finest hour.

And...