[Intentionally Wrong]

I think what the troops is getting at is that even though you retain control, your interactions with the major players in Half-Life 2 are clearly cutscenes. Your progression forward is halted, people talk at you and around you, some events happen, maybe you're commanded to fiddle with something, and then everybody leaves and the doors open. Alyx is noteworthy just because she's the only one who's really around outside of these plot-progression seminars. Your interaction with the civilians is far more fluid; since they don't need to provide exposition, you never find yourself in such a forced scenario.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Intentionally Wrong]

Shnozlak, have you listened to the developer commentary in HL2 Episode 1? That pretty much indicates to me that the people who are most likely to top Half-Life 2 are Valve themselves.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Intentionally Wrong]

Research indicates that we rarely like things for the reasons we think they like them. We're also statistically terrible at predicting whether we'll be happy in a particular situation. Once you understand this, you should realize how absurd it is to think you'll be able to persuade Szczepaniak or Aaron or whoever to enjoy Half-Life 2 just by arguing about it: enjoyment is not a result of intellectual consideration; rather, our intellects are drawn to consider those aspects of a thing which support our enjoyment (or lack thereof).
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.

[Intentionally Wrong]

[Intentionally Wrong]

Antitype, I understand. I mean, I do the same thing all the time--when someone claims to hate something I loved, I have a hard time not challenging their claims. I just think it's important for everybody to remember that while it's very possible to mistakenly believe you're feeling one thing when you're actually feeling something else, it's mostly impossible to convince someone to feel pleasure about an experience that they've concluded is unpleasurable.
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JSNLV is frequently and intentionally wrong.