Saints Row 2 PC Setup Guide

The official Saints Row 2 blog have released a guide to setting up Saints Row 2 on your PC.

Step 1: Check your video card drivers. (FREE)

I can’t tell you how many people forget to do this, and then wonder why a specific game won’t run properly. Remember that you need to meet our requirements to play the game, or you’ll run into issues. You can find the minimum and recommended requirements HERE. There are many video cards out there, but the best way to update your card is to head to the official websites for each manufacturer. If you do not know what card you have, there are a few ways to find out.

The easiest way is begin by clicking on “Start” >> “Settings” >> “Control Panel”. Now, double click on the “System” icon, then select the “Hardware” tab at the top, followed by “Device Manager”. A new window will pop up, and you should open up the “Display adapters” section. Right there should be the manufacturer and model number of your video card.

NVIDIA owners, head HERE.
ATI owners, head HERE.

Follow the instructions on their website, and the proper selections will allow you to download the appropriate drivers for your system. You will have to restart your system for the changes to take effect.

Step 2: Download Steam and create an account. (FREE)

As has been stated within our forums, you will need to verify that you own a copy of Saints Row 2 PC through Steam. An internet connection is required for this initial verification, but after that you will have the option to “Play Offline”, unless you want to play Co-Op or Multiplayer.

You can download Steam by clicking HERE. Look for the green box on the left side which states “Get Steam Now - Free Download”.

Once installed, you will need to follow their instructions and create a unique username and password.

Step 3: (For Multiplayer/Co-Op) - Download GameSpy and create an account. (FREE)

If you never plan on playing Multiplayer, you will not need to have a GameSpy account. If you do plan on accessing multiplayer, just like with Steam above, you will need to download and install GameSpy so that you can grab the server browser software being used by SR2. GameSpy can be downloaded for free HERE.

Choose the “Ad Supported” selection for the free version. Just like with Steam, you will need to create a unique UserID and Password. I recommend using a different password than you did for Steam, for a little added security.

New Clothing & Accessories for GTA IV

Over the past week or so there have been a load of new player modifications, made by the community, for GTA IV. The majority of these modfications are new items of clothing to buy in the shops around Liberty City and many of them are of a very high standard, as can be seen below.

I feel that a special mention should go out to LaMuertex for his Shoei Helmet, which is of an exceptionally high standard.

GTA IV Dashboard Camera

Sometimes in the world of modding the most subtle tweaks are sometimes the most statisftying. Take Krazymond's new Dashboard Camera mod, for GTA IV. The mod basically offsets the in-vehicle camera letting you view the vehicle you are driving's dashboard.

To see the result feast your eyes on the below screens.

You can find the Dashboard mod in the downloads section.

File Hosting

If I didn't know better I'd say that the GTA IV modding scene was really starting to take off. We have a decent number of GTA IV mods in our downloads section but if you have a file that you want hosting then when not submit it using our downloads submission form! The hosting is free, naturally, and allows files of up to 10Mb to be submitted. The first file you submit must be checked before it will appear on the site but all future submissions will be published instantly!

If you want something larger than 10Mb submitting them drop us a line at submissions@codenamegta.net!

Saints Row 2 PC Requirements

Seems like there isn't alot of news for Saints Row 2 at the minute, especially with the PC version coming out January 5th 2009. That being said the PC requirements are now available.

Minimum Requirements

• Windows XP / Vista
• 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
• 1 GB Available System Memory
• 15 GB Available Hard Drive Space
• 128 MB 3D Video Card w/Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 7600 / ATI Radeon X1300)
• DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 640×480 16-bit Color Resolution
• DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
• Broadband Connection for Internet Multiplayer

Recommended Requirements

• Windows XP / Vista
• 3.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
• 2 GB Available System Memory
• 256 MB 3D Video Card with Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD3850)
• DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 1024×768 in 32-bit Color
• DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
• Broadband Connection for Internet Multiplayer
• Recommended System Requirements Required for 2-12 Player Multiplayer or Co-Op

Rockstar Video Editor Contest

Rockstar are hosting a video editor contest where you can win $300 to spend in the Rockstar Warehouse.

Enter our inaugural Video Editor Contest at Rockstar Social Club TV for the chance to win a Grand Theft Auto IV prize pack and a $300 shopping spree at our Rockstar Warehouse (www.rockstargames.com/warehouse) online store - where you can purchase of Rockstar games, clothing, and limited-edition merchandise. Just what Aunt Sadie wants for Christmas! To enter, create a video using the Grand Theft Auto IV PC in-game Video Editor suite of tools and upload your clip any time between December 12th through the 14th using the tag 'best-in-class-contest'. Rockstar will then pick the winning clip, looking at editing skills, user ratings, and overall creativity. Keep checking back throughout and following the weekend to see how other Social Club members think your clip fares against the rest and stay tuned for the winner announcement.

If you are intrested then head on over to Rockstar Social Club TV.

GTA IV PC Patch - Bug Fixes

Earlier we reported that Rockstar had released a patch to fix some problems within GTA IV PC. Now it turns out that there are some bugs in the patch. Rockstar has created a possible solution to the problem, which can be seen below;

With the latest Title Update, some users are experiencing a Look/Spin/Stuck Key issue that interferes with user input. The temporary fix, described below, will restore Keyboard/Mouse and XInput (360) controller functionality. Support for DirectInput devices is currently limited. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

To fix the issue:

A1) Unplug any DirectInput controllers (gamepads, joysticks etc..)
A2) Reboot your computer
A3) Launch GTA IV

If the issue persists, the following instructions are provided as a guide to assist you in deleting the conflicting DirectInput drivers:

B1) Exit game
B2) Go to Start->Control Panel->System->Hardware Tab->Device Manager->Human Interface Devices
B3) Locate drivers for devices
B4) Delete drivers for devices
B5) Launch GTA IV

**Some users are able to reinstall the drivers for their DirectInput devices, with the device attached, and have found that it will work in game. If you do attempt to reinstall your device and the problem resurfaces, please follow steps B1-B5 again.

Let us know if the above fix works or if you have had better / different results using another method.

GTA IV Patch 1.0.1.0 Released

Rockstar have finally released the long-awaited GTA IV patch. The patch corrects several issues, however, I'm sure that another patch will be released in the near future.

A list of changes can be seen below.

• A fix to the crash after legal screen that some German customers were reporting.
• Numerous improvements to the video editor: Smarter naming of videos, improved rendering quality, better FX during replays
• Fix to bowling while using certain sensitive mice
• Fix for ATI 1900 shadows
• Overall savings to memory
• Graphic improvements to particle systems and mirrors
• Multiplayer character settings are preserved
• Support for DirectInput controllers. Note: The current hack way of supporting these controllers may not work with the improved functionality. So we recommend you remove the hack before upgrading to the patch.

Issues with power management software have also been fixed (slow speed, double speed issues). Even after the patch comes out setting power management software to maximum performance is recommended. We’ve seen cases where power management software does not detect the game is running and puts the CPU in green mode.

Besides the patch we’ve also improved the way the Social Club handles data this should have greatly reduced or eliminated the MMA10 error. If you are still receiving this error after logging in and out of Social Club we would like to know as much info as you can about it.

Nvidia release GeForce 180.84 Beta Revision 3

Following todays post about ATI's new Catalyst drivers Nvidia have released another set of beta drivers, 180.84 Revision 3. These drivers should counter some of the visual issues with GTA IV PC but as they are beta drivers lease be careful when installing them.

The latest drivers can be found on guru3d.com.

New San Andreas and GTA IV mods

Over the last weeks a few GTA IV mods have surfaced, however since the game has only just been released modding is still in it's infancy but two mods that I think deserve a mention are the ExplosionFX and Real car names mods by bobbster_uk.

The ExplosionFX mod (Screenshot shown below) makes GTA IV's explosions even more glorious and the Real car names mod, as you can guess, replaces the car names with those of their real-life counterparts.

San Andreas still has a strong following online and there are a welath of mods available for it. A recent favorite of mine is the Design your own Mission mod, which gives you the opportunity to create your own complex missions using the mods intuitive interface.

And the final mod that I want to mention is the Real Weather mod by NTAuthority. The Real Weather mod downloads the weather for your current location every 2 minutes and changes the in-game weather to reflect it!