With an equal balance of action and storyline, you play Dr Gordon Freeman, a professor starting a new job at a black ops research facility. However, soon after you arrive, things go horribly wrong with some of the experiments. Left to your own devices in a locked down facility, you basically have to get out alive. The game is based across one seamless level--the facility.

Half-Life broke the rules of the level-to-level games before it. Here you get immersed into the Half-Life world, yet it isn't just the maps that are different from what you have come to expect from this genre. Where Half-Life excels is the multiplayer options; as a standalone package this game will keep you busy but with three add on packs you'll have hours of FPS action.

Opposing Force expands the original Half-Life experience allowing you to play as a soldier sent in to eliminate Freeman. You'll play through some totally new levels using new weapons and commanding small teams of miltiary specialists.

In Blueshift you play Barney, the security guard who you originally met entering the top secret Black Mesa facility as Gordon Freeman, who also decides to go after the invaders from Xen. Fans will be relieved to see more of the same first-person exhilaration experienced in the first two games, viewed from a new angle.

The same choreographed set pieces that form the narrative are still evident, including a brilliant scene where the player is trapped in a broken lift when the aliens first arrive at the facility.

Half-Life: Counter-Strike contains all the elements of the popular online multiplayer game originally built as an add-on for Half-Life. The team-based gameplay divides players into terrorist or antiterrorist squads. Each team has access to different real-world ammunition and equipment, and all players have unique attributes plus the ability to upgrade their gear after completing missions. Missions have different goals, such as defusing a bomb or rescuing hostages.--Jason Hamilton