The changes in this release are directed at reducing the problem some users are experiencing with sound stuttering. The sound stuttering is not indicative of a sound problem, sound stuttering is only a symptom of texture thrashing on your video card or AGP memory. For information on how to reduce texture thrashing visit this link on our support site:
http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=280
This update will fix sound stuttering that users were experiencing that would last for longer than a few seconds during normal gameplay. This update will also eliminate this same behavior following a quicksave or autosave. There will still be a short pause while the autosave happens, but not the more drawn out stuttering behavior.
We are still investigating another performance problem on some hardware, which will manifest where the game is getting into a state where performance drops to less than 5 fps and does not recover or crashes.
Next week we will be releasing the Source SDK, along with a surprise for the community.
They offered a good for sale. You bought the good. The transaction took place.Actually you are wrong. Personal computer software including games is licensed not sold to consumers. When you bought Half-Life 2 you actually only bought a license to use the software per Valve's license agreements.
They cannot change the terms of the transaction afterwards. You purchased HL2, they cannot charge you to use it.If you read the license agreement for Half-Life 2 and Steam, you will see that Valve can indeed change the terms by which you, the licensee, can use Half-Life 2 and Steam or even revoke the license. The EULA for Steam already specifies that Valve can begin charging a fee for the use of the service at any time following notification.