One of the amazing things about Half-Life is all the modification games it is has spawned (Mod Datatbase lists some 292 complete mod games - both single and multiplayer- created from Half-Life). Counter-Strike, the most popular online shooter, and Day of Defeat (see Sidebar), together comprise around 80% of all FPS players online! Both were essentially created by teenagers using software development tools that Valve, the company that developed Half-Life, originally released with the game. Subsequently, Valve actually hired the young developers and released the popular mod games as Valve products.
Planet-Halflife's list of HL mods
I still find it fun to give Half-Life a run through, once a year or so. But its online in its multiplayer games where the real action is. Day of Defeat being my favourite. And, btw, DOD has one a few accolades itself. Even way back in the day when it was independent, before its team got employed at Valve. Those were exciting times to be a DOD player. There was a deep symbiotic relationship between "the team" and "the community" with many community members creating further mod material for DOD itself - such as custom maps and custom models. And everyone shared in the celebrations of DOD's successes. The online parties over mIRC were amazing when a new release was about to be launched.
btw, it appears the Half-Life 2's Black Box release has bite the dust. There's just going to be an Orange Box release. Here's an early review of Half-Life 2 - Episode 2 which is the main game that will be in the box, along with the an updated version of the massively popular, innovative, grand-daddy of online multiplayer games, Team Fortress 2
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