w0w, another person that hl2 has a good story
for some reason everyone thinks hl2 has no storyline :/
but your right, hl2 has an amazing story, and its good that you dont get the whole thing - thats the beauty of it. in real life, if you spawned from nowhere, and all the ppl are like, omg its like you! they wouldnt say like, lets all sit down and talk about whats happened in the past ten years, just in case you spawned from nowhere and dont have a clue whats going on.
as far as horrible storylines go, you forgot FEAR, but i spose its a briefing game.
as for doom 3, it has very little story development, and it is all told in PDA entries :/
the doomtek engine isnt very good for story development, thats why quake 4 suited it so well. its a war game. no story needed. tasty. thats also why enemy territory: quake wars is going to suit it as well. ever heard of a multiplayer game with a story?
now that i think about it, there is one part of doom 3 that was really nice, the part where you sand the glowing specimen tube down the corridoor and follow it for light while ou kill the bad guys
really took advantage of the real-time lighting.