Many forums and blogs are reporting some major issues with running the Saboteur with ATI graphics cards. Apparently the game freezes early on for some, and some can't even play the game at all (it freezes in the intro menus). Others report unreasonably choppy gameplay, even on the lowest graphics settings with very high end machines. Surely some of these people have illegal copies, and we could say it serves them right, but others apparently have legitimate copies (it has been released already in some places). More details on a possible fix here.  
 Anyway, as I was looking into some info on this topic I ran across this contest in which you can win one of two ATI custom rigs for the Saboteur. Ironic isn't it? That's all.  

Indeed. I have a Radeon card and the Sabetour freezes on it occasionally.  Seems like it's a recent trend with ATI cards as I'm having issues with freezing in Borderlands as well.

" Indeed. I have a Radeon card and the Sabetour freezes on it occasionally.  Seems like it's a recent trend with ATI cards as I'm having issues with freezing in Borderlands as well. "

Ah, PC gaming.

Gotta love PC games. When I bought Borderlands for the PC it wouldn't work with my Nvidia card, yet the the game supposedly was designed with Nvidia cards in mind. Shit like this makes me want to stick with console gaming.

" Ah, PC gaming. "

Borderlands doesn't represent all pc games.

It happens, and it is precisely the sort of stuff that drives me away from buying the PC versions of games the most.  At this point I'll only get the PC version of a multiplatform title if it really is a PC game.  Left 4 Dead 2 (even though it tries to be a console game a bit too much at some levels), Serious Sam HD, Dragon Age Origins (whenever the price gets low enough).  It's frankly too much of a risk otherwise, I want to enjoy games, and not work to enjoy them.

" Gotta love PC games. When I bought Borderlands for the PC it wouldn't work with my Nvidia card, yet the the game supposedly was designed with Nvidia cards in mind. Shit like this makes me want to stick with console gaming. "

This 'issues' are seemingly just symptoms of the same issues that Pandemics last games suffered, the PC version feels like an extremely slapped together pc port. I don't run with an ATi card and I still have performance issues, the game is either running at a silky smooth 60fps (seems locked at 60max, I guess v-sync is on default) and jumps instantly down to 5fps for the first seconds of any new scene or after any load, or if any explosion happens. It's kinda weird and feels like a few weeks of polish would have helped this a bit, or something a patch can easily help solve over time. Other then the fps issues, which is pretty massive I guess, there's really nothing else wrong with the game performance wise as it's not crashing or anything like that at all (thus far).
 
I don't care that the game's graphics options include 'gamma adjustments' and that's it, as long as they can get it to run smoothly I don't really care if all I'm getting is the console version graphics wise, with no settings for increasing textures or AA. 
 
...so here's to a quick 1.01 patch? 
 
EDIT: Hrm even back in December pandemic said they were working on something to help fix the game, doesn't look like it so far :( 
EDIT2: Nevermind, the video settings are available via the 'VideoSetup.exe' in the install folder, I won't make jokes about how ghetto that is.

lol
i probably wouldn't wanna play that game on PC anyways...even if i had an awesome pc...
:(

" Ah, PC gaming. "

" It happens, and it is precisely the sort of stuff that drives me away from buying the PC versions of games the most.  At this point I'll only get the PC version of a multiplatform title if it really is a PC game.  Left 4 Dead 2 (even though it tries to be a console game a bit too much at some levels), Serious Sam HD, Dragon Age Origins (whenever the price gets low enough).  It's frankly too much of a risk otherwise, I want to enjoy games, and not work to enjoy them. "

Games that really benefit from console access and even guilty pleasures like trainers are the ones I tend to grab for my pc. I enjoyed my time with mass Effect on my 360 but as soon as I could use armor that wasn't even available without entering specific console commands on the PC I was decidedly way more happy with the game on PC. 
 
I still don't understand why consoles can't just use a keyboard setup, both the ps3 and 360 support usb devices/keyboards so it seems more a willingness from sony/microsoft and the individual devs to or not to actually go that far and just use a keyboard/mouse for RTS and other classically PC style games. I was something thinking that Blizzard could easily port WoW to the 360 as soon as I realised that hooking my wireless keyboard to it was as easy as plugin' it in (the dongle :S ). Alas it seems developers would rather spent the time and work to develop an 'almost there' control scheme for these specific games. 
 
 Where I sit now I believe PC gaming is really only here for me personally for replay value and if I happen to have the PC to run a game exceedingly well then it aids in that re-playability cause I can play older games and have them look better then they did originally. Obviously it comes at a high cost, where the consoles are a mear 200 bones these days and you are guaranteed to be able to play 95% of games released, at 90-100% of their intended capacity

" @Diamond said:

" It happens, and it is precisely the sort of stuff that drives me away from buying the PC versions of games the most.  At this point I'll only get the PC version of a multiplatform title if it really is a PC game.  Left 4 Dead 2 (even though it tries to be a console game a bit too much at some levels), Serious Sam HD, Dragon Age Origins (whenever the price gets low enough).  It's frankly too much of a risk otherwise, I want to enjoy games, and not work to enjoy them. "

Exactly why I got a PS3, my 'gaming' PC is 6 years old and good enough to play PC games a year or two old without problem. But as the requirements of PC games increase and the quality of optimisation / porting in PC gaming decreases it has become a horrible disappointment to find upon release day you spend hours googling quick fixes to major game breaking bugs. Instead of actually getting to play the game for hours :( "

so that explains why my roomates pirated version ran like absolute shit.

" @Meowayne said:

" Ah, PC gaming. "

This, was a big reason I got back into consoles.  For all the talk of cutting edge graphics, free dlc, you have to deal with BS of updating drivers, uninstalling reinstalling DirectX  etc., and trouble shooting when things just won't run.  "

We are very much looking into this issue & appreciate everyone who has been posting the requested specs. Please keep them coming & we will keep you updated as we have new information about the situation.

Update 3:

We are currently digging into the issue at hand & are working as fast as possible to find a solution.

In some of our tests we have found one workaround that seems to allow users to run the game. Some have posted adjusting the affinity process via “Task Manager” but our fix truly puts the system in a 1 core mode and will allow you to run the game. Overall this is not a final fix, nor a perfectly stable fix, but it will allow you to run the game.

This work around is entirely base upon CPU processing power & will possibly only work for certain systems.

Steps to turn off cores: (For Windows 7)

1.) Open MSCONFIG (You can open it by entering MSCONFIG in the search bar)
2.) Select the “Boot” tab
3.) Click on “Advanced Options”
4.) Check “Number of Processors”
5.) Select “1” from dropdown menu
6.) Click “Apply”
7.) Restart machine


Steps to turn off cores: (For Windows Vista)

1.) Open MSCONFIG – Start> Run > Type MSCONFIG
2.) Select the “BOOT.INI” tab
3.) Click on “Advanced Options…”
4.) Select the check box for /NUMPROC= set it to 1 & click “OK”
5.) Click “Apply”
6.) Restart machine


Update 2:

We are very much looking into this issue & appreciate everyone who has been posting the requested specs. Please keep them coming & we will keep you updated as we have new information about the situation.

Please keep your posts on topic as PC specs are the best item we need listed as of now. I only removed posts from this thread so users can quickly skim through and post their specs for us.

Update 1:

If you are having issues with your ATI card please post the following information:

Graphics Card:
Operating System:
Graphic Driver Version:

Example:

Graphics Card: Radeon 4850
Operating System: Windows Vista 64bit
Graphic Driver Version: Catalyst Driver x.xx    

They're not missing much.

" They're not missing much. "

Surely Pandemic must have been aware of this when they finished development.

I get the feeling that these dudes just don't know their technical stuff very well when it comes to programming for the PC.

Then maybe its PC gaming's curse that we are able to try and fix all these bugs, where as on console, if theres a bug, you just have to deal.

Just more proof that nVidia is still superior.

" Just more proof that nVidia is still superior. "

There's a patch to fix it now.   http://www.pandemicstudios.com/thesaboteur/patch 
 
The biggest reason I play PC games is because I've got many more friends who have a PC and skype than I have dudes on Xbox. Got one guy who plays 360 24/7, and 2 dudes who play like once a month. It just gets tiresome playing by yourself with nearly complete silence.  
 
Now that I have an iPhone with the skype app I can prolly go back to console gaming though :>

This is especially funny, considering the Xbox 360 *uses* an ATI card. Then again, it's now a much older card. Just goes to show how much developers care about PC gaming, to forego testing on the most popular cards in use these days.