OK I will take your word for it that you've thought this through and have got lots of evidence, but I have to take issue with "everything fits" - everything fits apart for there being any reason for the style of architecture in that place.
Uh, ok. So in that case perhaps it could be in the Sahara, or maybe on the Moon, but with the architecture and "style" of Eastern Europe? Why would there be a city on the Asian coast of Russia explicity in the specific style of cities thousands of miles away? Give me a break...
Two points:
City 17 is meant to be Eastern Europe. That place mentioned above is Eastern Asia. Slight difference.
Re Freeman's nationality, I rather assumed that he was American, and that he only studied or worked at the university in Austria. I don't know many Austrians, but I don't think...
I'm gonna be paying up to £250 to upgrade my pc, and £35 for the game itself. There is no way I am doing ANYTHING to spoil my enjoyment of HL2, including seeing parts of the game that Valve don't intend us to see before the game is released - I trust them that they know exactly what they're...