I really believe the people who are reacting like "Read a book" are 13 year old kids.
For years the great story of HL was praised and rewarded in many ways, specially the way it was told. Now you get dropped in a game where for an hour there is allmost no story and only gunandrun action.
I...
The thing I mostly hated about easy/hard was that hard was a bit too hard for me, but easy made the enemys look f*cking stupid.
The point was that the ai AND the damage was screwed up, and that was just one step too much. But now I'll play hard, anyway. :)