If you're not into computer games then go back to the topic index now ... you have been warned!
Having played the first installment of Half-Life, then all the expansion packs, I was pretty keen to get my hands on Half-Life 2 when it first came out.
One purchase for 29.99 later at PC World and I got home and installed it....
It ran fine on my old PIII 933MHz system with 512Mb of Ram and a Radeon 9000 card, which amazed me as this is less than their minimum spec machine! It was totally playable without any problems at all, whereas I couldn't even run Doom3!
But I decided to upgrade anyway and one Shuttle SB75G2 XPC with a P4 3.2GHz, 1Gb RAM, 160Gb Seagate SATA and a Radeon 9800 Pro and it absolutely rocks at 1280x1024 in 32bit colour with everything on maximum detail!
Anyway, the game itself is awesome. If you liked the first one you'll *love* this as it's more of the same but so, so much better. The maps are huge and the physics engine is amazing and so lifelike.
With the addition of vehicles, a whole new load of weapons and aliens to contend with (along with some familiar old ones like those b*stard head crabs!) it'll make you jump all over again.
Go out and buy it right now!
/geek