When Half-Life 2 comes out, I think people are going to be dissapointed.
Regardless of it's quality, the unbelievable delays with little to no justification are preposterous. It is my belief that people should never set dates on what is uncertain.
A game being delayed for years would make you expect that it would be fantastic, would you not? But, most likely, it's not going to be fantastic.
Valve's never created an engine before. They didn't design the Half-Life engine, it's one of ID's engines, remade. So why would you expect greatness from Half-Life 2, which is Valve's first attempt at making an engine?
Either one--It'll come out, and people will see that it's just another game, and wasn't worth the years of anticipation,
two, it'll come out, and nobody's computers will be able to run it well. Maybe this'll cause a boost to the computer industry by forcing people to buy better video cards,
or three--It'll come out, and be absolutely fantastic and change the gaming industry forever.
Which do you think is really more likely?