10 Video Games That Only Get Better With Age

5. Half Life 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKA7JkV51Jw While some may say it's a bit too early to say that Half Life 2 is getting better with age, one thing is certain. The plethora of first person shooters that have released since the dawn of the seventh generation of consoles have only reinforced what an amazing game Half Life 2 is. Half Life 2 wasn't necessarily an innovative game. The credit for innovation has to go to its predecessor, 1998's Half Life, which changed the landscape of not only first person shooters, but of all video games. What Half Life 2 did do was take Half Life's formula, and refined and improved it in every way possible, resulting in the most thoughtful, meticulously-constructed first person shooter that had ever been made. What is truly surprising, and astonishing, is that nearly 10 years after its release, it arguably still holds this title. There has been no first person shooter released this generation who's level design has touched Half Life 2's. Think about how it felt waking up in City 17, and seeing the alien occupation going on around you, with people cowering in burnt out buildings while those towering Striders patrolled the streets. Entering the Ravenholm area suddenly turned Half Life 2 into a horror game, with some of the most tense action sequences ever seen in a video game. Other stages, like the massive bridge that tested your platforming skills as well as the strength of your stomach, and the beaches infested with antlions that you were soon able to harness and use against the Combine, only further serve to reinforce the brilliance of this game's design. The climax in the Citadel is a peerless work of sci-fi brilliance. From beginning to end, there is never a doubt that Half Life 2 was a labor of unadulterated love. The same went for the excellent storytelling, the memorable characters, the arsenal of gadgets (gravity gun - best weapon ever??), the clever puzzle segments, and the rock-solid gameplay. Being a 3D game that is nearly a decade old, don't expect Half Life 2's shooting and vehicle section controls to perform as well as shooters that have released in the last couple of years. With that said, Half Life 2's controls have somehow managed to hold up quite well today, and by no means should this game be missed by fans of first person shooters. Half Life 2's most enduring quality is it's extraordinary craft. It should be a textbook study for video game designers in creating tone, variety, and pacing in video games. A few first person shooters this generation have approached Half Life 2's brilliance - Bioshock with it's amazing environments and literary tinge, Far Cry 3 with it's all-enveloping open word and epic scope, and Call of Duty 4 with its epic cinematics all come to mind. Yet while these games may approach the summit of Mount Half Life 2, the majority of this generation's first person shooters are merely sitting in the shadow. Half Life 2 was, and still is, one of gaming's greatest moments.