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I'm hoping they don't bring back the companion cube
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What I mostly admire about Half Life is the way the mechanics fade into the background. The appeal of the game is that it's convincing escapist fantasy -- it's designed to let me forget that I'm playing a videogame. Of course, if you're willing to go out of your way, it's still easy to run into things that take you out of the experience... But if you're willing to play along with the game's unobtrusive requirements for immersion, it's awesome.

So I might play God Hand and try and tear apart the game's finely tuned rules, because that's what they're there for.

To draw a loose analogy, people like listening to a variety of different types of music. One song might consist of a series of intricate and difficult to perform parts which create a spectacle when played proficiently; so you might enjoy hearing the technical ability of the performers. Another song might be based on simple patterns and parts that do not do much on their own, but when arranged correctly produce a certain pleasurable mood or emotion; so you might just enjoy that song because of how it moves you internally.

When it comes to the "legitimacy" of videogames, there is a tendency to only value the former approach... Games which use the latter idea are often rightly considered to be shallow and designed for disposable, mainstream consumption. But Valve's games exhibit unusual talent in arranging basic elements to create a larger feeling, and I think they achieve something special compared to say, your average God of War or Tomb Raider. It's for this reason that I'd broadly classify Half Life 2 with survival horror games like Silent Hill or even Resident Evil instead of other action-oriented first person shooters like Quake or Halo... These are games in which the mechanics are hardly the point and only exist to contribute to mood. The problem with Half Life 2 is it uses a format that is associated with a highly specific genre... First person shooters are almost universally in the "technical" camp, even including things like Deus Ex or System Shock. And yet it embraces aspects of that format that are largely ignored by most first person games.

Of course there are games like Bioshock or Resident Evil 5 that try to both without really knowing how to do either.

I guess I'm kind of just collapsing"pongism" onto a simple spectrum.
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Those are all genre conventions for a reason. And in Half Life 2's case, allowing more interactivity with the environment or NPC's would inevitably introduce design problems that would hamper the sensation they're going for...

All games involve playing roles. The difference is that in Half Life, your role is more defined.

I'd say Gordon Freeman is more of a Mario than a JC Denton.
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The point about Half Life 2 is that it creates an appealing and effective illusion. I feel like most criticisms of the game boil down to pointing out the many (often obvious) ways in which it's an illusion. You go into the experience knowing it's an illusion. That's what's fun about it.
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About him not talking... what would he say, really? Is there any point in the game where he'd actually have any meaningful input? The only thing I'd imagine him saying is "hell no, I'm not doing this anymore". But if he ever really had cause to say that, there'd be no point in playing. So of course -- it's assumed that he's earnestly trying to help these people out. His motivations don't matter... That's why people are always talking about what an infamous hero he is... to set up the fact This Is Just What He Does. For the kind of story that Half Life 2 is, the protagonist is almost irrelevant.
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I don't like music that's all like "HEY CHECK THIS GUITAR SOLO OUT DUDE"
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the game basically screaming at you would entail, I don't know, alyx communicating to (constantly) via a radio in your suit saying "WELL, LOOKS LIKE THAT PHD IN PHYSICS MIGHT GET YOU OUT OF THIS ONE GORDON" every time you came across one, which is how most videogames would've handled it... can we at least give valve credit for not being obsequiously patronizing?

they were a little garish but they were mostly grounded in the story of the game (ie, they seem to be intentionally designed checkpoints in a shackled-together underground railroad that could quickly be broken down at notice)...
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the ramp raises up... it's already at its lowest point when you get there, hence no budging from additional weight on top.

and putting debris in the elevator will make it dip, just not enough to raise the second ramp... you're supposed to see a bunch of items that you can try throwing in there, realize that it's not enough weight, and then, after poking around, realize there's a washing machine (which was left there on scaffolding built by rebels as part of the railroad) which is more than heavy enough to make it work...

if you're willing to pay enough attention, the physics puzzles are in fact well integrated into the gameworld... I agree that the modes of interaction are clumsy, but given where game development was in 2004 when this game came out, any more sophisticated solution they could have tried probably would have backfired and been even more counterimmersive... I haven't really seen game design come up with an elegant solution to that problem since, to be honest.
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because half life 2 isn't a puzzle game... the puzzles are just there to pace things and build the game world. they're obstacles hastily assembled from garbage and junk by a resourceful group of resistance fighters... so it makes sense that they'd just have one solution, since they're designed to let people who know that solution pass.
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I am always happy to replay half life...
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