The lack of in-your-face-plot is why you rely on other people to analyze it and put together a guide to explain it. It makes sense when you take note of those things in game.

Halo was definitely pretty at the time, but people freaked way out about it. The majority of people calling it the best game of all time were from the camp that never picked up anything other than sports games and had nothing to compare it to. I hated it at the time because no one would shut up. I can play it now and look at its strong points (of which it admittedly does have quite a few) but I really can't say it comes out on top.

HL1 is an old game. It was built on an even older engine (a heavily modified Quake 1 engine). I wish I could've played it when it came out, because its graphics definitely haven't held up for providing proper immersion. After visiting Half-life 2, though, it's an interesting thing to look back on.

To touch on FFX: I generally get in a mood to play an FF game every now and again. I beat FFX about two years ago and have had no desire to pick it up ever since I beat that last boss. It's definitely not the height of the series in terms of gameplay, characters, or overall story. It's not bad, but it definitely didn't do anything particularly outstanding other than looking pretty.