About the weapons in EP1..

[99.vikram]

now I'm not saying it would fit with HL2 to have metrocops leaping through windows, but those semi-scripted moments combined with a certain character which the fear AI has makes firefights much more interesting, in my humblest of opinions

Now we're getting somewhere

actually I'm someone who thinks the marines in HL1 don't hold up very well, largely because their challenge relied heavily on high hitpoint values, but even they were often more fun to fight than the combine, just because they had a nice selection of tactics... including, say, falling back

Please tell me you're joking :|
IMO the Combine werent aggressive enough. They fired a couple of shots before running right back behind a wall; they also ran a little slowly.