Yeah, the physics system still has a few bugs, but it works well enough to make for an enthralling and engaging experience. Although it causes a few pretty serious irritations in counter strike.

I know what you mean about how not including regular deathmatch is a big and surprising omission. Your sentiments are echoed in every review I've ever seen of the game.

They've been saying all along that "Counter Strike Source is the multiplayer component of half life 2", but I think that's sort of a cop-out. CS:S feels like a completely different and independent game to me.

The good part is: With the SDK released, I'm sure we'll see HL2 straight-deathmatch as a third-party mod almost immediately. So have no fear.