Never have playing the PC version, i can honestly say this is one of the best FPS on the Xbox.
The story of Half Life 2 revolves around Gordon Freeman, the original hero with a crowbar from the first half life. THis one starts Gordon of in City 17, one of hte many cities that have been taken undercontroll by combine forces. So he meets up with some familar faces, like Barney Calhoun, Eli Vance, Isaac Kleiner, the Vortigaunts, and of course the infamous G man. Its Morgans job to lead the human rebellion against the combine and free humans from their opression.
The graphics on the character modles look extremely well done, they look almost realistic. The only area where the graphics falter would be the backgrounds, walls, and things here and there. Most of the backgrounds look good from far but if you zoom in on them you quickly see where they screw up.
There are also some framerate issues but its not the worst there is, the only times you really experience slowdons is when there are more than five bad guys on screen, theres huge explosions, and after loading screens. Which are the real problem here, every time you go through a checkpoint or are going through a tunnel to get to the next section up pops a loading screen that takes away from the action, its kinda hard to really feel the tension from being chased by a helicopter with huge guns when theres loading screens everywhere.
The controlls are pretty solid except for the fact htat there is a high ammount of auto aim, and to my knowledge there is no way to turn it off. But besides that everythign else works like a charm.
The games packs about 12 different weapons, ranging from the standard pistol, the stealthy Scoped bow gun, to the magnum. But it isnt like most FPS where you find the biggest most powerfull gun and start blasting away, you probably use every single weapon you get through out the game at some point, either to, its accuracy, or because its the best weapon to use on a certin enemy.
One of the highlighted weapons in your arsenal would be the gravity gun, a gun that allows you to move just about anything in the environment which is where the source engine really shines. Everything that you pick up, throw, or falls naturally will look and feel real. It really is a marvel that Valve could create such techonology that really helps draw you into the realism of the game.
The game consists of fourteen chapters, it will take you about an average of 10-12 hours to finish the game, but you will enjoy every moment of it. IF you havent played Half Life 2 yet, or if you are looking for a great FPS this is it.