Halo 2 vs Half-life 2

For some reason, a lot of people were very disapointed with Halo 2.  (I think they thought it would be Halo 1.5 and overhyped their expectations.)  It seems most of the people who go around saying Halo 2 sucked say Half-life 2 is by far superior.  Even though I mark up all such comments as mastabatory self-praisal by PC fanboys, I'm still wondering.  Why should it be better than Halo 2?  Halo 2 is damn near perfect, if you ask me.  Some of the multiplayer issues need work, but that's more of a gamer issue (quitters, cheaters, whiners) than a gameplay issue.  All I ever hear from the Half-Life proponents is that it totally kicks Halo 2 in the ass.  Yet they can never come up with a reason why.  Anybody want to share?

I myself haven't played Half-life, nor do I have any desire to.  Halo 2 fully satisfies all my FPS interests.  Not that I don't think it's a good game.  It looked okay, and probably is fun to play.  But I have yet to hear anything good about it.  What does it have?  Better graphics?  That I can answer myself: NO, unless you have the absolute brand new top-of-the-line PC.  But what else?  Innovative play?  Balanced weapons?  Greater freedom of movement?  Better controls?  Adam West? 

Tell me soon, or I'll think everybody who likes Half-Life 2 is just a fanboy who just sucks at Halo 2.

For the most part >>10 agreed.

HL2 was a good looking game, mostly for the use of DX9 effects and high res textures. The shadowing and lack of dynamic lighting and half assed old engine kinda sucks, but it made the game playable on more machines than otherwise would have while still looking good. The single player story line is good, the multiplayer isn't too bad but nothing ground breaking.

The problem with Halo 2 is it's a console FPS and it's made to play for a console. The gameplay sucks horribly because of that, the movement speed in both halo's suck. Halo 2 amplified the problem by having faster weapons while still maintaining insanely slow movement. It looks only marginally better than the first one, which didn't look too hot anyhow due to crappy textures.


HL2 was more a generic shooter with a only slightly better than average story and a modified engine to make it look above average. It's immeriveness was great as mentioned. It's multiplayer is average except for modability which is great.

Halo 2 is a below average shooter, with an average story, a more or less than average engine. But it was made for a console and that makes all those work for consolers.
If they even bother to port Halo 2 to PC it still won't be worth it since the gameplay is too slow and unbalanced to be worth anything, and still uses a crappy engine.