linear games arent NECCESSARY because i see my friend playing console games all the time and talking about the different endings and stuff and i think thats cool, i love the different ways you can play a game to have a different ending but the problem is i cant stand not knowing what could happen, so hl2 is linear, i know i did everything i could have and i know the ending, if hl2 is not linear then id ALWAYS wonder what i could have done differently and want to see all the different ways to play it...now you can say thats good for a game becuase its getting more playtime, but when it takes as long as it did to finish hl, i think linear is best