A game collection that owns almost any other shooter out there.
Half-Life collection:
Pros: Good story, immersive storytelling, inventive weapons.
Cons: Otherwise generic shooting, WTF is wrong with the power bar
Opinion: Okay, I'm waiting to get yelled at for this. Half-life 2, 2.1 and 2.2 are all good games. But I'm going to nitpick. For example, the power bar for sprinting is also used for flashlight. How are you supposed to run from zombies in a dark cave without a flashlight and a seperate spring bar. Seriously, the web comic Concerned also moans about this, and that issue still makes me chuckle.
The gameplay is the same as almost everything else out there. Yeah, you're carrying more weapons than in halo and switching is a breeze, but did no-one think to include grenades?
None of these should put you off buying it - The good story (I frickin' HATE that cliffhanger) is enjoyable enough for me to want a film or novel of it, and the inventive weapons (Hehe, using a manhack as a chainsaw with the gravity gun never gets old) make sure the game's got one heck of a large amount of ways to kill things.
In the entire box, however, Half-life 2: Episode one is the weakest link. The power bar problem really shows up here, the frustrating difficulty right at the start and the fact that it's really, really short means that I find it the least fun in the entire game. I'd almost have preffered Portal:Still alive (if it had been released back then) instead of it. Episode Two's good though. The new enemy types add a decent amount of difficulty into the game, and although there are no new weapons, the new G-gun enable items like flares and the Strider Busters are really fun to use.
Portal:
Pros: The. Best. Puzzle. Game. Ever.
Cons: Uhhhm....
Opinion: I really can't describe this. I hate puzzle games, I hate platformers, and yet this is one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had. That alone should say something about it.
Team Fortress 2:
Pros: Good community, good gameplay
Cons: No battlefront-style single-player
Opinion: Yes, TF2 is a good multiplayer game. But I spend more time offline than on, so some Shadowrun/Battlefront single-player would have been a great addition. Oh, well.