I really liked the Half Life series, and play the off-shoot, Counter Strike:Source (started out back in the "good ol days of just Counter Strike, with no "Source") on a regular basis. I think what is so good is the physics engine used in the game, and that it is fairly realistic in movements. I've played many 1st person shooters, but most are super fast, and don't allow as many interactions with the environment. I know that some developer is working on a game engine that allows for interaction with the ENTIRE world inside the game. No more "I'll be safe if I hide in this building." as you can shoot out the walls, floor, roof, any object can be moved or interacted with, etc, but Half Life is still the one I like.
Maybe it is because I am pretty good at it, and at Counter Strike...
As for your posting problem, can't help you there. It hate it when you post a long message, and then hit submit just to get a next page with an error, hit back, and the message is gone. It doesn't happen on every forum (the inability to go back and still have your message there), so I don't know why all forum programs can't keep the text in the cache somewhere.
