the innovative use of full-face animation) and gameplay (e.g. Although it sticks pretty closely to the formula laid down by its predecessor, the sheer weight of technical advancements made in the last six years have opened up new vistas of storytelling (e.g. Now, six years later, Half-Life 2 is upon us, and it's unbelievably and almost unbearably good. No one can seriously counter the claim that Half-Life was a watershed moment in gaming history, and indeed, its popularity is part of that legacy, as it spawned the most fertile mod community in the modern FPS community. Many of us probably recall sleepless nights shortly before our Thanksgiving break of that year, as we struggled to get through just one more encounter with ruthless government troops or horrific alien entities before finally getting to bed. Anyone who played FPS games in 1998 will have fond memories of their first play-through of Half-Life.
