I’m jaded, I hate to think it and probably shouldn’t say it to open up a preview but what the hell, probably anyone who is writing a Half-Life 2 preview right now is in similar shoes and just wont admit it. After being at this for nearly 8 years I’ve seen a whole lot of games and a whole lot of silly half-hearted hype. It’s pathetically amusing I suppose but ultimately tiresome and basically always a let down. To be clear, the FPS genre needs another real kick in the a**. We’re wallowing in rehashes and clichés for the single player FPS experience.

In case you grew up under a rock but recently took reading classes so you could read this, game previews are generally sugar coated by writers. You focus on the nice stuff and leave it at that. The developers and publishers are encouraged and the writer gets a box of chocolates from the publisher on random occasions and invited back. I hate sugar coating, I’m too old, too jaded, and don’t really write enough previews for it to matter. Plus chocolate melts in the mail when you live in Texas. So the content of this preview is as much of a shock to me as it may be to anyone who has been around for a while. It's positive, all positive.. I just didnt have anything that stuck out as wrong or even really questionable.

Half-Life 2 is absolutely amazing looking. I haven’t been this eager to get my hands on the final version of a game since the original Quake. I’m not one to gush or make up goofy metaphors to get quoted in a press release but I want to give it to you guys straight. When I was being shown Half-Life 2, I was ready to drop a load in my pants. Yeah I said it, quote that. I hid it well from the Valve guys I think, but it was there, and I was dying to dive across the table and take the controls. I want to play this game and let it take over my life; I can’t believe how much I’m anticipating this game. It’s as if I’m not quite so jaded anymore, although briefly I’m sure if Half-Life 2 raises the quality expectations for PC games as much as I think it will.

So now that I’ve uncharacteristically gushed, what am I gushing about exactly already right?

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