Never had any problems with any of valve games (with one exception where i put the graphics settings far beyond recommended settings on a ****ty laptop, and then, the worst that happened is the game wouldnt render the menu bg or load a level)
It might not be the highest end game that you need a $3000 comp to play, but it will have a good story, legions of faithful followers, and wont break your immersion with a spontaneous crash when the game ****s itself because the developers didnt feel like making sure their product would run on an ATI video card, or when it burns out your videocard
/rant