[citation][nom]s3anister[/nom]Your statement doesn't even begin to make sense. There are many games that have been scored the same or higher than Half Life 2. Hell, I can think of a dozen right now off the top of my head, some you've probably heard of before like Oblivion/Skyrim, Metro 2033, Starcraft II, Torchlight II, Halo (series), Far Cry (series), Crysis, and so on.. seriously I could go on you obviously have no idea[/citation]
Half-Life 2 looked like it was from a CGI movie compared to games released the year earlier (Vice city, splinter cell, rainbow 6 raven, battlefield 1942, enter the matrix). The graphics, A.I., physics, animations, movie like story telling were unseen in the PC gaming industry until then. Many of my friends were blown away when they saw the level of detail on Gman's skin in the opening HL2 introduction. It was surreal being in the game with the AI interaction and physics. The engine alone was so versatile that it was used for Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Counterstrike Source and countless other mods.The same cannot be said about any of the other games you listed - no, not even Crysis which was really just a HD version of FarCry Instincts. Why you would even bring in Torchlight II (which was really just a well polished Diablo 3 clone with a few extras, let's not kid ourselves) baffles me and reduces your argument to zilch.