Not here–The Steam forum is overflowing with people complaining.
I wonder if half of you would consider me an upset Doom fan if Doom wasn’t in my sig. All I know as far as that comparison goes, is Doom ran like butter on high on this machine, and it still does. Updating my video drivers to the 4.12’s has made the game a lot more enjoyable but regardless of the fact that I got the game to work well, I still think that Valve are morons when it comes to developing software. Steam is a prime example of that, if anyone needs one. Here’s another prime example: their initial loading screen, A STILL PICTURE, ****s up on EACH AND EVERY PC I have seen Half Life 2 run on. I looked into it–it’s refresh rate tearing, and know why it does that? Because Valve apparently in the 6 years since making HL1 could not figure out how to make their initial engine render in any resolution other than default, and my card’s forcing the refresh rate on a 640x480 menu setup…just like HL1 (it’d change resolutions when you joined a game, remember?). Their patch to fix the audio made it worse to the point where it was unplayable for me and for plenty of other people. I mean, come on…a pathetically underestimated 16 megabyte cache for sound files…a texture system that loads on the fly as you play…shaders that shine brighter in pitch black then in daylight…the thing defaults to only a 64 meg heapsize, for crying out loud.
You know, I don’t get it, man. You tell me the steam forum is full of people whining that their game’s broke in one thread and then in the next you tell me it works great for everyone on earth but me. In the audio stuttering thread on Steam’s forum–now up to like 400 pages of replies and like 3 bajillion trillion zillion views–there are dozens if not hundreds of people who’ve posted their specs and have had the same or worse problems that I have, many with better specs than mine and some off of fresh reformats and defrags.
And in all my time on this forum have I ever had a problem running a game? Am I not the “config tweak guy” ? I mean sure anyone can do it but since when have I ever had an issue getting something to work? I’ve been here for a long while now and never really needed to beg for any type of computer assistance. And again, I reiterate–I’m probably the only person on the board who’s machine has no downloaded or pirated content whatsoever.
If there was something wrong with my PC, then EVERYTHING would be screwed, not just Half Life 2 and other Source apps. And if my game is defective…well that would mean my statements about Valve sucking in general would be fairly accurate, then, wouldn’t it?
Just because the relative handful of people around here aren’t having the problems I’ve had doesn’t mean none of the millions of people who probably bought the game aren’t.
That all being said, I’ve pretty much fixed my problems, no thanks to Clown Shoes and his crack team of physics-borrowing retards. The one thing they did–add that stupid texture cvar–made things worse, and turning it back off was part of the solution to most of my problems.
While I don’t deny in any way that it is an excellent game, I’d be lying through my teeth if I said that I thought these people did an exemplary job under the hood. Just my two cents. I got the ****pile working hopefully once and for all, so you all won’t hear any more complaints about my game being broke–just about what a bunch of jerkoffs its makers are.