I think that Half-Life 2 Episode One is the first game ever that I bought in advance without waiting for any kind of review. Half-Life and Half-Life 2 were that good. Judging by the reviews all around the world, almost everyone agrees.

In short, the game rocks. It’s just Half-Life the way we know it. Still, the pacing, the levels, the guns, the puzzles – they all fit together flawlessly. This time though Alyx has a much more prominent role and stays with you as your side-kick most of the time. The episode is short (5–7 hours) but it’s just the first part of the trilogy. The price is just right, about one third of what you’d pay for a full game.

I don’t want to spoil it for you by revealing something but I will give you a screenshot. This is a scene from City 17; in order to read a sign you’ll need to know how to read Cyrillic  Anyway, it reads “stacionar” which means “ambulance station” (very roughly translated). Judging by a few other signs with Cyrillic text and AFAICT all the text is in Russian. Now we finally know where City 17 is