The result was extremely surprising but very pleasing. I am a huge fan of the Half Life series, as Half Life 2 was my first real introduction into the expensive pastime of PC gaming. After seeing water hazard on my friends new pc in 2004 I was completely blown away. The graphics and physics were far beyond what I had previously seen, and within a month or so I had bought a new 8600gt card and Pentium D processor to realize the games full glory. But the game does seem very old fashioned now. The players experience of Gordon Freeman was a man who could hold every gun like object known to man, shoot a pistol with dead accuracy while climbing a ladder at around 50kmh and drive and pick up objects without using his hands (Come to think of it he did not even need a lower body to achieve all of this). What makes his choice as greatest game hero even stranger is that while he could do all these amazing things he could not talk. For this reason alone I thought characters such as Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series would be a shoe in because they contain so much more depth. But I think the real reason is because Half Life 2 was one of 'those' games, the special ones that have that certain x factor which means they will develop a massive cult following. The Half Life series has probably been the most modded out all pc franchises, with fan developed material becoming full retail releases, such as CS, Team Fortress and Portal. Don't believe me? Then why does Stalker and Crysis have huge user content base, while Far Cry 2 was left out in the cold? Because Far Cry 2 is not a bad game, it just isn't special.