I hated doing that also, almost every game now has that. The reason is is because almost all characters in all video games have hit boxes. Most of them assume that if a real human gets shot in the foot 10 times, he will fall down. Now, in real life, a human would most likely fall down screaming in pain. I have not played a game that does that yet, instead they are all to lazy and just implement the death animation. I hope Half-Life 2 doesnt do this.