For some reason HL2 hates me.
I've tried every single thing I could remember but it won't run well. Not in terms of performance (I'm quite pleased with the smoothness of it), but in terms of what appears to be a bug. Every time I get to a map's loading point, it crashes, freezes, or hard locks. When I restart and play again, it will uneventfully allow me to pass, only to do the same on the next stage.
It's gotten to the point where it did the same thing when I tried to load a game, and now does the same when I try to start it. This means, no HL2 for me until I figure this mess out.
Good grief.