Every in a while, a game comes along that changes everything, and the name Half-Life has become synonymous with this kind of revolution. When the game first came out, the visuals were beautiful and strange, with a cartoonish vibrancy that looked so unlike the moody browns of other games. There was a story - not just on the grand scale, but in the minute-to-minute level - that was scary, charming, adventuresome and funny. And there was this geeky sci-fi Aliens vs Scientists vibe that permeated everything - you could just tell that the developers were having a blast.
While Half-Life wasn’t the game that made me want to make games (that was Doom), it WAS the game that told me that I should expect better from the industry... and that I should always push myself as an artist, a creator, and a storyteller.