Beyond the game itself (which rocks), Half-Life 2 had a big impact on PC gaming.

Half-Life 2 introduced many ground-breaking things at once—deep facial animations and expressions, an accessible physics engine, a compelling global-scale but family-minded story—while also being tremendously enjoyable game to play through. This has made it hard for anyone to suggest another game to go above it on any “All-time greatest games” list, especially those with a PC focus.

I’m having a hard time posting an article about HL:2 in “retro gaming” but it is 20 years old. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go take my Geritol and Metamucil.