1998. HALF-LIFE sends a shock through the game industry with its combination of pounding action and continuous, immersive storytelling. Valve's debut title wins more than 50 game-of-the-year awards on its way to being named "Best PC Game Ever" by PC Gamer, and launches a franchise with more than eight million retail units sold worldwide.

NOW. By taking the suspense, challenge and visceral charge of the original, and adding startling new realism and responsiveness, Half-Life 2 opens the door to a world where the player's presence affects everything around him, from the physical environment to the behaviors even the emotions of both friends and enemies just like real life.

The player again picks up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth being picked to the bone, its resources depleted, its populace dwindling. Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed back at Black Mesa. And a lot of people people he cares about are counting on him.

Here are some key features of "Half Life 2":

· Characters: Advanced facial animation system delivers the most sophisticated in-game characters ever seen. With 40 distinct facial "muscles", human characters convey the full array of human emotion, and respond to the player with fluidity and intelligence.
· Physics: From pebbles to water to 2-ton trucks respond as expected, as they obey the laws of mass, friction, gravity, and buoyancy.
· Graphics: Source's shader-based renderer, like the one used at Pixar to create movies such as Toy Story® and Monster's, Inc, creates the most beautiful and realistic environments ever seen in a video game.
· AI: Neither friends nor enemies charge blindly into the fray. They can assess threats, navigate tricky terrain, and fashion weapons from whatever is at hand.


Note: You are Gordon Freeman (AKA: the "Free-man"), you were placed in the city over powered by the combine force to help the resistance. After the revolt started you hear some startling news: The combine have a new weapon in place. That place being outer space. The combine have launched a satellite that will reign down hell on the rebels if you don't do something fast! Luckily the satellite isn't in full operation yet, so there is still time to deactivate it. Now you must fight your way through the city and escape so that you may some how deactivate the satellite.