The ground is shaking, and a gigantic metal tower creaks above you. Sparks and fires light the shadows to reveal a mauled corpse in every corner, and debris and more bodies fall from the sky.

Fan favorite Alyx is back, and her character is the game's biggest innovation: Valve has developed her into a deftly written co-star who watches your back throughout most of the game; Players who are as smitten with Alyx as Alyx is with the protagonist will beam every time she calls out "Nice shot!

The endless load times are back; too

Half-Life fans, the long wait is over. After almost 18 months of anticipation for another sequel, the Valve software team lashes out a uniquely titled game. Jumping onto the Episode wagon, this game is supposed to be the first half of the next three parts that is also the second half of the part two...

Half-Life 2: Episode One is the first in a new trilogy of episodes that are scheduled to be released over the course of the next year. The first episode fills in a lot of the story gaps that you may have found with Half-Life 2 and at the same time opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

I really wanted the headline of this review to read "Alyx Lives!" Half-Life 2 was one of my favorite games last year. I know there are those that say that Doom 3 was a better title, but for me, it really was Half-Life.

First Impressions My reaction is It's amazing how quickly time passes by. Just last year, I was playing the "The Game of the Year" Half-Life 2 and now I'm playing Episode 1 of same series.

I don't like this whole "episodic gaming" trend that's hitting PCs everywhere thanks to our good friends at Valve, the creators of Half-Life . While I understand their justifications for releasing segments of a single game in four-hour blocks over the span of a couple of years instead of one whole...

Half-Life 2 Aftermath is the first of a series of episodic expansions for the popular and acclaimed Half-Life series. This episode takes place right after the events in HL2, and you and Alyx will flee from City 17, fighting against creatures who were previous blocked from entertaining the city The...

Back in 1997 Stephen King wrote a book called "The Green Mile." He released this book as a series of six booklets, each about 90 pages long and each costing around $3. It was, IMHO, one of the best books he's ever written and harked back to the days of serialized novels, which were very common about...

is Valve's foray into "episodic games". The idea is to give a smaller amount of gameplay at a very reasonable price (usually $20 or less), yet to still have the production values of a full-quality game.

Traditionally the summer isn't a great time to release video games. The weather is nice, there's lots of sport on and 'blockbuster' films are lining up to compete for your well-earned pound.