Expanding the storyline with modifications

[Kedjane]

Half-Life 2 has barely any story other than the basic premise and the constant telling Doctor Freeman of where to go. The characters are flat and do nothing other than remark on your abilities.

Half Life 2 has a whole lot of story, though there is noone there telling it to you. You are experiencing the whole story through the Freeman's own eyes so how well you catch the plot simply depends on how well you are able to percieve what's happening around you, rather than having a storyteller explaining to you what's going on through lengthy dialouge.
Half Life 2 is a rather long game, so the story progresses slowly compared to the Episodes (which have increasing focus on the plot, as afterall the very next game will end the series), but the story is there and simply by looking at the details of everything you see in Half Life 2 (excluding the Episodes) you can find out a whole lot about the universe.
The "cutscene" parts are also quite well-made and what made Half Life 2 groundbreaking is the way characters can show their thoughts through facial expressions and body laungage. It's a whole lot different than the first game, where the characters pretty much opened their mouths wide open (not a single other part of their face changing) and started running around in circles to show they were "afraid". The character Alyx won some sort of price for "most believeable videogame character" or something alike.

I assume BioShock, F.E.A.R., and Crysis also have good stories, aren't linear at all, and are innovative too, instead of walking around corridors shooting people with abysmal A.I. and using gimmicky superpowers that barely make a difference to the way the game is played. No matter how much reviewers are bribed, some games are just shit.

Can't really tell what you're trying to say where, but are you saying Bioshock, FEAR and Crysis have bad stories, are linear, uninnovative and that you walk around corridors shooting people with abysmal AI using gimmicky superpowers that barely make a difference to the way the game is played?

On-topic: Too bad we haven't heard anything about when Unknown will be released yet. Waiting for that editor and modding with it will probably be smarter than attempting to expand the story right now.