To me, graphics don't mean much, but I figure it would be a bad marketing move to fall behind on technology. Both Half-Life and Half-Life 2 were real achievements graphics-wise and now they're starting to fall behind. If they do it more, they will be leaving themselves open for criticism which I assume is unacceptable for Valve seeing the standard they have on their products.
I wouldn't call Ep 1 a wate of time, but I was a little disappointed for sure. It was very much a way of bridging the gap .. nowhere close to the quality of Ep 2
Anyone have all the Episode 2 achievements? I only miss one, shooting all the glow worms. There's one I couldn't find somewhere.