the quesy factor never bothered me, but then im not a wuss....heh
if you can eat sushi and stand on small boats in an ocean (or even do both together) without feeling sick then you can play HL2..lol
I thought the graphics in HL2 were pretty good, but the physics were what i enjoyed more...heh
storywise, well, its the middle chapter, its there to add a few bits of history and take you to the final chapter, its not meant to explain the entire story, this is a part mystery genre type thing......
I still prefer HL tho, the original, even today i'd rather play it than most other FPS...it just has something thats not definable to make it great...ok the graphics are outdated and the physics relatively rudimentary in comparison to HL2....but damn it keeps you playing ;-)