the-saboteur posts

This beta patch for The Saboteur addresses an issue that causes the game to freeze in Windows 7 and ATI video cards. Patches notes can be read after the jump.

Download The Saboteur Beta Patch (14 MB)
Check out all The Saboteur downloads

Looks like the PC release of The Saboteur is giving some folks problems. Specifically owners of ATI Radeon-based PC game rigs are reporting issues running the open world WWII action game from Pandemic and EA with Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

Pandemic's official message board states that the team is aware of the issue and "are working as fast as possible to find a solution." They do have a workaround that will allow people to play the game but at a huge cost; you will have to turn off all but one of your PC's CPU cores. The post offers up exactly how to do this for your PC if you are so inclined but this is obviously a pretty drastic measure to take.

This week is the last in 2009 where we will see major PC game titles ship to stores (although there will likely be a few downloadable titlesand expansions that will come out next week). This week's releases include the final game from a major dev studio and the final chapter in a adventure game revival.

The Saboteur - Pandemic Studios' office got shut down a few weeks ago by Electronic Arts. But the last game made at the offices goes out with a bang with this WWII open world action title centering on a lone rebel in Paris who tries to fight the Nazis.

Last month, Electronic Arts shocked many in the industry when it announced deep layoffs in the publisher. That also included the shut down of its developer Pandemic Studios in Santa Monica, California. EA had purchased Pandemic (along with BioWare) just two years ago for a ton of money. Why shut down the offices now? Kotaku reports that EA's CEO John Riccitiello said a big reason was money. According to him, "For good or for bad, we are taking down headcount in California because it is really expensive."

He states making games in California has turned into a costly proposition compared to other parts of the world and that it didn't make economic sense to have Pandemic located just 10 miles away from EA's large Los Angeles studio. Some of Pandemic's team members have since moved to EALA where they are working on games with the Pandemic brand like the just announced Mercs Inc.

Earlier today word got out that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of The Saboteur would be getting a "Day One" DLC update. The WWII action game from Pandemic and Electronic Arts will let folks who buy the game at retail stores download "The Midnight Show" which has some new locations in the game's city of Paris along with a new mini-game. It also unlocks an option to allow . . . nudity. Yes, nudity.

However, this time the PC owners of The Saboteur don't have to do anything to get the content that the console versions have to download. A "tweet" on the Pandemic Studios Twitter page states, "DLC comes on the PC disc already. No download needed." Yep, that means you can get your naked girls fix right from the start when the game ships to stores on December 8.

[Via Shacknews]

Gallery: The Saboteur

So you are looking for a PC game to give your favorite gamer. But maybe he or she doesn't care to deal with . . . what's the word we are looking for . . . oh yes, "people". They don't want a game that has any kind of component that allows them to actually interact online with others. They just want a game that they can play on their PC on their own without the need to deal with what they might call "noobs"

While the single player-only game is starting to become an endangered species on the PC, that doesn't mean they are not out there now. Big Download has a list of 10 terrific titles (plus one that will be out soon that we have high hopes for) for the PC gamer that thinks this whole "multiplayer" thingie is just a passing fad. From first person shooters to big scale RPGs to smaller downloadable indie titles, we think there's something out there for any person on your gaming list.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2009 PC Gamer Single Player Game Holiday Gift Guide.

We really do feel for the Pandemic Studios team members who lost their jobs last week thanks to EA's latest cost cutting move. It's not right that the studio that has made so many great games is basically no more. But geeze....what did that copier ever do to you?

Yeah, yeah . . . we know that the YouTube movie that we can see above this post is supposed to be a "homage" to Office Space, complete with the same gangsta rap music (which by the way is definitely NSFW). But the copier doesn't seem to be the thing to attack in this case. How about a nice EA logo bashing? Or maybe some other object directly linked to the studio shut down? Beating a copier to death just seems so . . . cliche. However the movie is still funny and we guess that, in the end, that's what matters.

[Via Kotaku]

Pandemic Studios' life as a separate game development studio came to a swift end earlier this week with the reveal that its owner Electronic Arts was shutting down their Santa Monica-based offices and laying off 200 of its workers. While EA has said the Pandemic brand name and its franchises will live on, the last game to come from their original offices will be the WWII action title The Saboteur.

Late on Friday, the dev studio's community manager posted on their message boards that " . . . . The Saboteur has officially gone "GOLD" on all 3 planned platforms (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & PC)." The game is still scheduled for a December 8 release date here in the US (Europeans get the game a few days earlier on December 4). As the community manager admits, "This has been a very difficult week for Pandemic Studios, but does not change the fact that a team of amazing people worked very hard to make The Saboteur a great game that fans will be able to enjoy this holiday season." We are hoping the last game from their studio is good as well even if EA seems intent on not giving it a big marketing push.

[Via Joystiq]

Electronic Arts' current restructuring, announced during their financial results last week, is going to cause the shutdown of Pandemic Studios. Gamasutra reports they have gotten a hold of an internal EA memo with the details. Under their plan, the founders of Pandemic (Josh Resnick, Andrew Goldman and Greg Borrud) will leave EA with 200 other Pandemic team members. The remainder of the Pandemic team will be moving to EA's Los Angeles studios. The Pandemic brand name will apparently continue and new games based on previous Pandemic franchises are in the works.

Pandemic, centered in Santa Monica, California, was formed in 1998 and started out as a PC only game developer, working on games like Dark Reign II and Battlezone II for Activision. In 2000 they opened an office in Australia. Over the years they created a ton of titles including Mercenaries and its sequel, Full Spectrum Warrior, the first two Star Wars Battlefront games and more. In 2005 Pandemic merged with BioWare to form one big independent game developer. In 2007 BioWare-Pandemic was bought by EA for over $600 million. Pandemic's last game as a separate studio will be The Saboteur due for release on December 8.

With rumors that Pandemic Studios might be one of the facilities shut down by Electronic Arts as part of their cost savings program, Pandemic's upcoming open world WWII game The Saboteur might turn out to be the final game from the developer that brought us Star Wars Battlefront 1 and II, Mercenaries 1 and II and more.. The PC version of The Saboteur is currently due for release on December 8 and now the game's official message board have revealed the minimal and recommended system specs for the game.

As you will see after the jump, the system specs, particularly for the recommended system. are a bit on the beefy side. We will soon seen if the game lived up to its promise in early December.