By:
Valve

Just like the mailman who fears the bite of a dog, the local FedEx man has come to loathe the act of delivering review products at the Sharky Extreme offices. Not that we're jaded mind you, it's just that we tend to get a little tired of seeing clone after clone arrive at our doorstep. Be they video cards or games, mediocrity and affinity in products we review have left us wanting.

And so our frustrations, coupled with early morning edginess, are usually taken out on said FedEx man. However last week something extraordinary happened. Instead of a snarl, the FedEx man was greeted with a smile. Instead of muttered disdain, he was treated with a hug. We even gave him a $5 tip for his trouble and offered a goodbye kiss to see him on his way... which he not so politely refused. Why the sudden change of heart you ask? On that morning, we were on the receiving end of a package from Seattle based Sierra Studios, and inside that package was a game which each and every one of the Sharky Extreme staff has been eagerly anticipating for almost two years: Valve Software's Half-Life.

Ordinarily, games that have been as hyped as Half-Life has been tend to fall short of the public's inflated expectations. After the release of Epic's Unreal and Ritual's SiN and the heart-crushing realization that they didn't live up to their hyped standards, we started fearing that the same fate would befall Half-Life. Earlier last month however, we were given the opportunity to play through Half-Life: Day One, an OEM demo which is bundled with Diamond's MX300 sound card, Guillemot's MaxiGamer Phoenix Banshee card and a few other pieces of hardware. The game didn't live up to the hype generated by two years of print and online coverage… it completely surpassed it. Does the full game continue the excellence provided by the demo? We'll say it right here: Hell yes, and then some. Read on to find out why Half-Life gets our coveted Game of the Year Award, and as Highlander's Duncan MacLeod so eloquently put it, "there can be only one".