Recent reviews by Gabe!!

this is a pretty okay videogame

half-life 2: update is a visual upgrade to half-life 2, offering as little interference to the base game as possible, while providing a variety of interesting eye-candy to provide a fresh(ish) experience...

while it falls under compairson to other mods, like the cinematic one, which offers generally more content, such as drastically changed maps, and more visuals, Update on the other hand is the alternative for those who are just looking for a chance to hop back into half-life, and not face the temptation of lewd alyx models, hans zimmer's music, and LENS FLARE AHOY

imo half life 2's graphcs have aged well, looking back at the improved tidbits like facial animation, sfx, all the while maintaining itself as 'just half-life', nothing is altered except for graphics, the changes are subtle, a bit too subtle, to the point where the the hideous parts of half-life, (ie, cramped corridors) got my attention more than the changes

it goes without saying however, that everything does look alot better and crisp, if you just want to play half-life 2, it's a straight-up visual upgrade from 2004, they may not be perfect changes, if nothing else, the included developer commentary, featuring familiar voices like ross scott, is well worth the listen, so go do it