Stuck at Main Menu

[HowAboutNo]

Ok, I'm out of options now as nothing seems to work. Game loads fine, everything pops up right, I click new game and the introduction plays and then...it just takes me back to the main menu. No error message, nothing, and if I press it again it just does the same thing.

This is pretty infuriating at this point, as I just finished EP1 without a hitch, and every other game in the Orange Box works fine. The cache has been verified, my video drivers are up to date, as is DirectX, and the motherboard's software is fine too.

What the bloody hell is going on?

Intel D865GBF Motherboard
P4 2.8Ghz Processor (HT on)
Nvidia Geforce 7800 256MB
768MB DDR Ram (don't laugh, I lost a stick to a near meltdown, I normally have well over a gig and a half)
Windows XP Professional SP3

 

[Mong0!]

Have you tried re-installing it?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

The orange box games are a bit more demanding on your PC than HL2 and Episode 1. They are on the Source 2007 engine and you may need to drop your settings a little. How well does Portal / TF2 run? What settings do you use for them?

Try force setting the resolution of Ep2 using the launch parameters. Right click Ep2 in your 'my games' list, properties. Find the 'set launch options' and put this in there:

-width 800 –height 600

Hopefully you can get into the game and adjust them accordingly to your PC afterwards.