I'm with Traveller in that HL2 was one of the better examples of recent games. I only found one bug in it and that was a pop-through-the-ground bug that resulted from trying to push the physics engine a bit too far (swampboat jammed in the entrance of a shipping container that had a couple of crates in the doorway, and me in the middle of it all). The game soon recognized that I had fallen through the world and it automatically restarted me back at the last save point. Steam is a good way to keep the game always updated (except for the one time where for about half an hour it was automatically delivering a broken patch).

Granted, your experiences have been different as you explained. I have not found fault yet with the scripted AI and have been totally immersed in the story.

HL2, in my mind, has been an exception to the rule because Valve is still an independent developer. Vivendi were just the distributor of the game, and therefore had very little say in what went into the game. EA bought DICE and therefore had a great deal of influence in what went in and what did not get in to the game.