Because I can’t help myself from countering:

HL2 has better, more realistic and detailed and believable mouth and facial animations than many current AAA games, they just have higher res textures and fancier lighting.

That’s not to say no game has exceeded it, thats not what I mean, some clearly have.

But… the other side of this is that a lot of modern AAA games, with 20 years of improved/new tech… still can’t figure it out.

AAA games that market themselves as being very graphically detailed/realistic/immersive.

I’m not trying to say waaagh how can you not personally have thought HL2 was amazing!

I’m trying to say that the technical advancements its made which you do not find compelling, well, a good deal of game devs still haven’t even reached that level from 20+ years ago, when they say they are trying to.