I'm getting really bad performance in the game even at the lowest possible settings, with a system that far exceeds the requirements (see below). Framerates seem to vary dramatically between seemingly similar areas of the game (in the 40's in one area, in the 20's in another, etc.), and some areas that would not seem should be particularly taxing (small areas, not a lot of effects) perform badly.

Also, when moving around in the game (maybe because of the framerate issues?) Mr. Wang lurches and skips around, like the movement speed is suddenly changing. Is anyone else getting this, and/or found a solution? I've seen a number of similar threads around these and the steam forums, but not much in the way of suggestions. Is this just a poorly optimized game, or am i doing something wrong?

I've tried the following:
* lowering all settings to minimum (including, FXAA off, mirrors off, etc.)
* disabling v-sync
* adjusting nvidia profile settings
* updating to most current (331.82) nvidia drivers
* running with no open background applications
* disabling hyper-threading

And of course the cliche, my system runs a number of other demanding games without issues (just really to illustrate that i don't have SETI running and forgot or a dying gpu or something obvious).

My system components are:
CPU: Core i7 3820 3.6g (quad)
GPU: gtx 465
Memory: 4 gigs DDR3
OS: Vista

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately it really isn't the best optimized game. And it's mostly a level issue, since certain later levels run vastly faster than the early ones. There's not a great deal that you can do to make it better.