Because I said I would, I'll comment on HL2 Episode One, if anyone still cares.

It's cheap and short, but utterly dense with satisfying gameplay. I'd almost refer to it not as a first-person shooter but a first-person experience, simply because Valve has now officially put that perspective to better use engrossing the player than any other developer I've seen.

Little moments like Alyx hugging you or Dog hurling you across the chasm while you ride in the husk of an old car go a long long way toward making you feel like you're actually in your surroundings. They just kept bringing a smile to my face over and over with their great ideas.

You could have those neat little design elements in any shooter, though. What's really so striking about Episode One is that I played through it in maybe three sittings but was more satisfied at the end than I've been with all but the finest "full-length" games. They had a relatively short length of game to fill, so what they filled it with was of the finest quality through and through. Best of all, in six months we get (presumably) another dose of the same, which will satisfy my itch to see the story continued and provide another five or six hours of equally brilliant gameplay, all without making me wait forever and a day. Quality over quantity, woo.

Yeah, I'm way into this episodic content thing when companies like Valve exploit it to such effect. But hey Ritual, Emergence was pretty fun, too. Bring back Blade's one-liners (I better hear at least one "Can it, JC!" in the next one), give us at least three new weapons, and do some interesting stuff with that setting you're implying for the next one, and I'll be all over it.