Well I'm almost to the citadel, I think. I just got past that gate in the
courtyard, the one Alyx hacks open, then she gets kidnapped... or something.
*shrug* Everybody keeps getting kidnapped.

Anyway, it has been a fun game. Better than part one, and I say this because
I beat part one for the first time just before playing Half-Life 2. I can
see the differences... hm, let's see. Most of Half-Life 2 is outdoors, while
Half-Life 1 was mostly indoors (I like outdoors better). There were
drive-able vehicles. Nice physics, rag-doll effects. But the AI in Half-Life
1 was smarter, I think. Pain-in-the-a.s smart. The combine are dumb compared
to the marines in Half-Life, if you ask me. Also, the head-crabs seem to
have been re-vamped to appear more miserable. I can't tell if these
head-crabs instantly take over the human host, and speak an alien dialogue
through the host's mouth, or if the host is still conscience and in pain,
which is by far a worse thought, but who knows for sure? Nothing is ever
explained in either game, as far as I've seen. I still don't know why the
hands' skin falls off and the chest bursts open. In part one, the hole in
their chest appeared to be a big mouth, and they would use their long
fingers and scoop dead flesh into these holes (feeding?). But in part 2 it
doesn't look like a mouth, really. Looks like they swallowed a grenade
instead. I can still see the lungs. And I suppose the rib bones are supposed
to be teeth? This is one of the bigger mysteries for me, the whole head-crab
business.

Just what the hell IS going on in Half-Life 2? At the end of Half-Life 1,
g-man tells you that his government has control of the "border world", which
I assume was Xen. I don't know who G-Man is, what he is, why he's picking on
Gordon, etc. If he's so powerful, why does he need Gordon? And what are the
Combine? Where the hell did they come from? At first I thought it was the
Xen, but that would make no sense, as I just kicked their a.ses. So I assume
these... Combine were at war with the Xenites, or maybe they used the portal
to come to our world, which they apparently defeated in 7 hours, yet one man
and a rag-tag group of rebels can defeat the Combine... makes no sense to
me... maybe someone can elaborate?

Anyway, I'm beat. I still have several hours left, and I don't really know
what's going on for sure. I'd like some answers.