Ox's review:
http://clankiller.com/articles/index.php?articleid=21

Nice. Its true, the part where alyx moans likes a zombie was extremely immersive. One of those moments where I went "Wow, this is a good game"

well, the average FPS costs $40-50 and lasts what, 7-16 hours (dependong on the game). And for the ones that last 16 hours, they're usually really repetitive. So the cash per hour is about the same.

On the other hand, with a $50 game, you have a complete story. If you happen to get involved in the storyline, it may be well worth it. The episodes may have a minor storyline (get away from the city) and teh overarcing story isn't completed.

I'm still not sure I like episodic gaming. In fact, I know I don't. There's way too much chance of someone starting out strong and ending weakly. Or cheaping out for $$$ as the episodes go on.

Good point about the overall storyline potentially crashing and burning in the end. In HL2 + Episode I they've been doing a great job building up the tension and the mystery surrounding the Combine, the G-man and Freeman. Ever since the original Half-life really. But we still don't know much at all about how everything fits together. Good chance that Episode 3 turns out to be a shaky attempt to tie everything together (but let's pray it won't).

It's kinda like Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy): 70% of the game is a monumental build-up of a mystery and is amazingly well done, but in the last 30% the story goes all crack-addict on your ass with every possible deus ex machina you can imagine.

Still a great game, but it's a little disappointing how the story spazzes out towards the end, you know.

WAAAAA!!! (too much coke)

Thanks Derfmeister.

@ Satis: yup, that's the general reaction of gamers and critics alike: awesome, but way short. I think the shortness could be an inherent effect of the episodic gaming formula (not just for HL2, for most episodic expansions) but I fear that -obviously- not many games will attain this quality. So...let's hope it won't be as much of an issue as I (and you) think it will be.

Remind me though, how long was Sin: Episodes?

And were you talking about the blast from the citadel as you and Alyx are riding the train? Cos I don't think he died there, just gets majorly shook up. I'm not usually a fan of (both literally and figuratively speaking) 'on rails' moments in shooters but that one was really well done. The escape pods, the explosion of the citadel, the red vortex above it...then the blast and the last thing you hear is Alyx whispering 'Gordon...?' Good stuff.

Oh, and the Zombines are hard fuckers. I hated it when they pulled out a nade. Not to mention they're hard to frag...and fast. I'll try to get on GW more...I wanted to do so for a while now but with two new games to play and too much booze it moved to the background.

heh....yea, zombines are a bitch...but they're not horrible bad, imo. There were much more horrible things in HL2. SiN was probably about the same length...I didn't actually beat it because it got so stupid toward the end. I can only replay a section so many times before I call it retarded and never go back. Which the last mission in hl2 ep1 almost did, btw. I think the scripting was broken or something...it took a long time for the stupid walker to blast me a way to go.

You have to check out the new Episode 2 trailer on steam...very interesting. It starts out with the Gman inspecting an unconscious/dead (?) Alyx, then moves on to scenes of the battles between the resistance, antlions, zombies and combine. At the very end we see the resistance working on something that looks like a rocketship...maybe we'll be taking a trip to space in Episode 3?

Wouldn't surprise me since you already went to Xen in HL1. We'll see. The entire trailer looks very cinematic, and dog still is cool. Recently read an interview about episode 2 with information about the new enemy type btw, the 'hunter'. Very fast symbiont creatures (like striders and gunships) that hunt in packs of three and will try to circle and flank you. They typically accompany a strider as a sort of recon force, because the big fuckers can't get a good view in the woods with all the leaves and shit.

I wish I was playing episode 2 already.

Hunter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Episode2-hunters.jpg

hmmm...looks cool. That's in game? The foliage looks really nice for the Source engine. I'll check out the video in a sec.