Half-Life 2 PC, X360, PS3, XBOX game

Gordon Freeman is back! Half-Life 2 picks up some time after the original Half-Life left off, with Gordon Freeman working for the G-Man. Along with scientist Eli Vance and his daughter Alyx, your mission is to... well, that would be telling.

• Barney is back, and all the voice actors from the original Half-Life are reprising their roles. Also returning is Half-Life's original writer, Marc Laidlaw.


• While the new engine has all sorts of fancy features, it's still designed to scale and work on lower-end machines. A 700mHz processor and a video card capable of running DX6 is enough, although a 2gHz with the latest video card is recommended to free up resources for those memory-hogging textures.


• Alyx is not a playable character. You're still Gordon Freeman, and Gordon doesn't talk. Want him to? Make a mod!


• Scripted sequences are much further apart than in Half-Life, with new levels of interactivity.


• New Havok-based physics apply to every object in the game.


• A complete SDK - including a new version of Hammer, face poser tools and more - is available through Steam free of charge.