the 'city 17' is from the world wars where russia wanted total secrecy, so they gave thier cities numbers and even stopped people entering cities and took some cities off the maps...
I am not saying that he is not appart of the story etc
but his appereances in game aside from the start and end are tottally useless
its just a gimick which fails to give an image of a mysterious man...
Yes it did, it closed to an extent the story, hl2's ending was "to short" in a sense that after I finished it, I was left feeling..... but how does it end? that isnt worth playing for
I am not the kind of person to skip cut scenes, the ending was unacceptable to the development to hl3 it leaves it open to anything and doesnt create a strong storyline