Help, Cannot launch game
 

I just purchased from Steam
The game will not launch at all, it just freezes on a half sky/half black screen

My specs:
Vista 64-bit
i7 2.66 ghz
8gb RAM
ATI HD4850 512mb, I am weak in this regard but figured I would at least be able to run it with reduced settings. Does CoD require a 1gb card to even launch?

No it doesn't mate. I know someone with a 4650 and a dual core who can start the game. It doesn't run well, but it starts up fine.
He's on W7 though.

I played it without problems with my HD4770 512mb (of course with poor framerates) before I upgraded to the HD6950, are you sure steam updated to the latest patch? Are the video drivers updated? DotNet updated? Visual C 2010 libraries updated?

No need 1GB, but recommended. At first, i tried the game with old card (9800GT 512MB), is was slow, but the game started.

Agreed..

The game should start with that setup, wont look very nice but would launch.. I can only suggest trying whats already been said

Check your config.ini to see what version of Direct X is running.

I have the latest ATI driver 11.6
and assume Steam gives you the latest patch automatically

Check out threads in technical section on launch issues for more advice like integrity check, reinstalling all software from the redist folder, changing DX version in conf.ini, using drivercleaner, etc.

not always, to me the first time I installed the game steam downloaded the patch, and without a reboot I tried to start the game and had the infamous launcher.exe error... I rebooted, started steam again, another patch was downloaded and then the game ran ok... so with steam you really can't assume anything :-D

How do I check that?