As HL2 showed, you need power for physics. From what I have read, the console versions of HL2 are lacking, to a very large degree, the physics that the PC gamers get.
That's got nothing to do with physics. That's because they took the center of the game out in order to port it. If they took the zombies out of Resident Evil it would be crap, but that doesn't mean zombies are an integeral part of gaming.
Uh huh. I bet there were people who claimed that the joystick/analogue stick was a gimmick, too. ;)