In a previous blog post I'd complained that Valve forgot to make it [Halflife Episodes 1 and 2] awesome.

I hereby retract that statement.

They merely failed to make all but the previously mentioned setpiece in Ep1 and "Under The Radar" onwards in Ep2 awesome. Lets hope that by Ep3 they remember to make it ALL awesome.

That said, the final battles in Ep2 are really something else. I didn't see that coming. The entire premise of the final fight. The scope of it and the style. Well, I could ramble, but I won't.

I'll sum up this way. It took me ~a month to play through the first 2-3 hours of Episode 2 (the Antlion and Zombies + ooze BS). Meanwhile, once I got past that point I couldn't stop playing until it was over. MAKE THE WHOLE GAME THAT WAY IN THE FUTURE.