[Update#1]The Saboteur Beta Patch Is Out – Guide Included!

Finally! The beta patch for The Saboteur has at last been released. This patch is not the full batch, hence the term “beta”. The patch is 13.8mb in size and will address the severe freezing issues that occur on most ATI and Nvidia graphics cards, making us actually able to play the game. The full patch will fix the remaining issues – or, more appropriately, the ones that the beta patch do not. It’s been three, painful weeks, but I guess the worst is now over. Head over to PandemicStudios.com to download the patch. You can follow all of the patch progress on this thread: official EA forums Patch update.

Link to download beta batch: PandemicStudios

Update #1 (19 December 2009)

I’ve noticed that a number of people are having difficulty installing the patch, so I’ve decided to update this article to help you guys out. To install the patch, you must have The Saboteur already installed on your PC. All you have to do is download the beta patch, which comes in a ZIP/RAR file. Extract this file anywhere on your PC – you should get two files: a read-me (if you are using a Quad Core you should open the read-me and follow the instructions) and an exe called “Saboteur_Beta_Patch”. Simply double click and open this exe file (do not just copy it to the root of your Saboteur folder) in order to run the patch. It will take a few seconds and a message will come up informing you that the game was patched successfully.

Once it’s been patched, go to C/Program Files/Electronic Arts/The Saboteur and use the exe file called “Saboteur.exe” to launch the game.

*IMPORTANT*
If you used the workaround to play the game before the patch was released, make SURE you re-enable your cores. Remember that the workaround required you to disable one core? Well, now you have to enable them again, in order to play smoothly. Doing this, in my experience, will also take care of the frustrating black screen bug when opening the game and trying to get to the main menu.

To enable both your cores (in a Dual Core), simply go:
1. Start –> Run –> msconfig (in Windows 7/Vista you type “msconfig” in the search bar after pressing start)
2. Click the “boot” tab.
3. Click “Advanced Options”
4. You should see a small box, the first option, that reads “Number of Processors”. If the box is ticked, UNTICK it. If you used the workaround, you would see a “1″ in the drop down box. Make sure you untick the “Number of Processors” box so that it becomes grey’d out. You want to be using both your cores, not just the one. Click apply after doing this and “ok” until you’ve closed all of the boxes.
5. Restart your PC (it is vital that you restart after enabling your cores)
*Note: If you have a Quad Core, you will find the instructions in the beta patch’s read-me file, which you should follow after applying the patch.*
6. Enjoy! It should be smooth and freeze-free from there! I hope this helps you and it all works out, because this game is really fun so far.