Just enough to wet your whistle while you wait to see if you get the game as a present, there is now a demo of the single player mode of HL2 floating around the interenet.
You can find it here (769MB):
http://dlx.gamespot.com/pc/halflife2/mo ... 15388.html
Or check one of your fav demo file sites. What might be a problem is you need a Steam account, not sure how tough it is to get one of those if you still don't have one.
Quote:
This singleplayer demo for Half-Life 2 lets you play through some of the earlier parts of the game, as well as the zombie-infested area of Ravenholm. The Earth has been conquered by an over-powering alien force, and it's up to you to battle Combine soldiers, dodge hungry headcrabs, and wield the full power of the gravity gun as you fight for humanity's very survival. This large demo requires a Steam account to install.
Minumum System Configuration
* 1.2 GHz Processor
* 256MB RAM
* DirectX 7 capable graphics card
* Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
* Mouse
* Keyboard
* Internet Connection (broadband connection recommended)
Preferred System Configuration
* 2.4 GHz Processor
* 512MB RAM
* DirectX 9 capable graphics card
* Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
* Mouse
* Keyboard
* Internet Connection (broadband connection recommended)