Same here. It stayed on that wallpaper screen for a long time until that wallpaper became animated with the combine dude started walking around and that camera thingy. Then she was ready to roll:)
Runs fairly smoothly on this machine with everything set to high @ 1024x768. Some of the load screens take a few seconds but nothing hugely long.
Biggest gripe I've got so far is when you're in the apartments and the combine arrive outside. You have that woman and guy looking out the window? I picked up the concrete brick and dropped it on the tv... sorta expected it to break or explode. Just knocks the tv down. So then I grabbed the same brick and dropped it on the woman's head;P No complaint, no get outta my house... no bloody pulped skull falling to the floor.... If this remains the worst negative I can come up with, that will have been an amazing feat;P