Postal 2

Postal 2

Developers
	Running With Scissors
macOS (OS X)	Ryan C. Gordon
Linux	Ryan C. Gordon
Publishers
Retail	Whiptail Interactive
Apocalypse Weekend	Tri Synergy
Linux retail	Linux Game Publishing
Digital	Running With Scissors
Engines
	Unreal Engine 2
UnrealScript components	Unreal Engine 1
Release dates
Windows	April 13, 2003
macOS (OS X)	December 9, 2004
Linux	February 4, 2005
Reception
Metacritic	50
IGDB	59
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Comedy, North America
Series	Postal

Postal
Postal	1997
Postal²	2003
Postal III	2011
Postal Redux	2016
Postal 4: No Regerts	2022
Postal: Brain Damaged	2022
Poostall Royale	2023

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Key points

Still getting updated, allowing for running on modern systems very easily.

Has an active modding scene and community that has added a lot of content over many years.

Due to the age of the engine, having very high speed single-core CPU performance is recommended to reduce slowdown in high effects\physics situations.

After the 4000 update, the game started looking different.

Newer versions are more prone to crashing.

General information

Official manual

Postal Wiki

PostalSite.info - Fairly active community hub

Resurrection-Studios - Modding site for the game

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Some copies use SafeDisc 3 DRM, some use StarForce 3 DRM (primarily Russian copies), some use SecuROM 4 DRM, and others use simple disc checks.
Developer website		20th Anniversary Collectors Edition.
Developer website		Paradise Lost also available.
GOG.com		Paradise Lost also available.
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		Can be played without Steam if launched directly through Postal2.exe and ParadiseLost.exe (Paradise Lost expansion). Not available in Germany.
ZOOM Platform		Fudge Pack Plus.
ZOOM Platform		Your Mom's Box Set.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected versions).

Demos

• Singleplayer demo: Archive.org, ModDB
• Multiplayer demo: AusGamers, ModDB

Version differences

Share the Pain is an updated version of the game that includes various bugfixes, two new areas, multiplayer mode and POSTed (SDK/level editor).
Digital versions have the standalone multiplayer-only movie tie-in version, but they can be downgraded.

The Fudge Pack and Postal X: 10th Anniversary edition are compilation packs that include Postal Plus and Postal 2: Share the Pain along with the "Apocalypse Weekend" expansion and feature the mods A Week in Paradise, Eternal Damnation and A Very Postal Christmas with some slight version differences. The Polish release also had the mods translated.

Postal 2 Complete features huge amount of bug fixes, many additional options and extra content. Updated digital versions are renamed to simply as POSTAL 2. It should be noted that this version includes "A Week in Paradise" mod but some content altered/missing for unknown reasons, though it can be restored.

Postal 20th Anniversary Collectors Edition is a compilation pack that includes Postal Plus, Postal 2 Complete, Postal 2: Paradise Lost, Postal III and Postal Redux.

The Zoom Platform exclusive Your Mom's Box Set edition includes Postal Plus, Postal 2, Share the Pain (uncensored 2003 pre-release build and multiplayer-only movie tie-in version), Paradise Lost, Apocalypse Weekend, A Very Postal Christmas, Eternal Damnation, Corkscrew Rules and From Russia With Love, a Japanese version of Corkscrew Rules featuring an English dub by the original voice actors.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Apocalypse Weekend	Included in Postal 2 Complete.
Corkscrew Rules	Russian licensed add-on. Freeware, available here, steam conversion here
Paradise Lost	Available only for Postal 2 Complete.
Postal 2 Editor

Essential improvements

Patches

• Patch 1337
• Patch 1409 (Share the Pain)
• Patch 1409X A semi-official patch that adds additional multiplayer modes and fixes bugs. Note that it's only needed for server side play.
• Patch 1411 (Apocalypse Weekend)

Postal 2 Complete already includes these patches.

All patch notes (both retail and digital) can be found here

xPatch

An unofficial patch for Steam/GOG version of Postal 2 and Paradise Lost.

Will be added as an official patch in the future.

Bugfixes for the lingering issues found in the latest official patch.

Gameplay improvements, including Rebalanced weapons and QOL features.

Improved animations and texture fixes.

Allows GOG users to install workshop mods, for more info see this guide.

A Week in Paradise

Combines Postal 2 and Apocalypse Weekend into one game.

Allows for getting back the weapons found in the base game in Apocalypse weekend, as well as adding some new ones to the game.

A Week In Paradise: Classic

An up to date port of A Week In Paradise for digital versions.

Bugfixes for issues found in the AWP.

Manual installation only. Requires xPatch.

Currently in beta.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\System\
macOS (OS X)	~/Library/Application Support/Postal 2/System
Linux	~/.lgp/postal2/System

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Save\
macOS (OS X)	~/Library/Application Support/Postal 2/Save
Linux	~/.lgp/postal2/Save

This game does not follow the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Saves are cross platform, but for intra-platform Steam sync to occur, files must be manually moved between operating systems. Inter-platform Steam sync is not available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy		200 MB available.
Steam Cloud		Approx. 477 MB available.

Video

In-game video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

In-game general video settings (Share the Pain).

In-game advanced video settings (Share the Pain).

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 1412 update. May require fix for other versions, see Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		80-110°. Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 1412 update. For other versions, see Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		Select in-game or toggle with Alt+↵ Enter
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 1417 update.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x. Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 1412 update. For other versions, see Anisotropic filtering (AF).
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Can be forced through graphics card control panel, but makes the frame rate rather unstable.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Widescreen resolution

(Share The Pain) use the Widescreen Fix
Download the widescreen fix. Extract the folder system to <path-to-game>. Makes the HUD display properly in widescreen. Adds widescreen resolutions to the menu. Adjust the weapon viewmodels correctly according to the resolution. Works with mods, just replace the files in the mods' directories. To make the game Hor+ set the field of view (FOV) according to the given values.

Field of view (FOV)

Open the console (~) and use FOV followed by your desired value

Modify User.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open the User.ini file with Notepad or other text editor. Change the values of DesiredFOV and DefaultFOV to your desired value. Save the changes.

Hor+ field of view (FOV) values

Aspect ratio or resolution	Field of view (FOV) value
16:9	101.4
16:10	95.43
2560x1080	116.91
1366x768	101.43
1360x768	101.18

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Modify Postal2.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open the Postal2.ini file with Notepad or other text editor. Change the value of LevelOfAnisotropy to: 2, 4, 8 or 16 to enable anisotropic filtering (AF) 1 to disable anisotropic filtering (AF) Save the changes.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Modify Postal2.ini

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open the Postal2.ini file with Notepad or other text editor. Change the value of UseVSync to: False to disable vertical sync (Vsync) True to enable vertical sync (Vsync) And/Or Change the value of OverrideDesktopRefreshRate to: False to disable overriding Refresh Rate True to enable overriding Refresh Rate Save the changes. For Paradise Lost open ParadiseLost.ini

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Some keys are not displayed in the menu: B (text chat), V (team chat), L (toggles hints), F9 (takes screenshots); H, Y and J (various gestures in multiplayer).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		For 360 style controllers, try the following layout
Full controller support		Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 1417 update.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers

Audio

In-game audio settings.

In-game audio settings (Share the Pain).

In-game audio settings (Paradise Lost).

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music volume, sound volume
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software or OpenAL.
Subtitles		Native support in Postal 2 Complete. Added in 5022 update.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 3.0.
Royalty free audio

DefOpenAL32.dll works as DirectSound3D driver which can be used with DSOAL to restore EAX.

Using Creative ALchemy or DSOAL will cause some voices to play at a much higher pitch.

Postal 2 has poor hardware-accelerated audio support and will often crash on real Sound Blaster hardware. DSOAL seems to work fine.^{[citation needed]}

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Hungarian				Retail only, Apocalypse Weekend wasn't localized. Dub for digital release here.
Hungarian				Fan translation for the base game here and for Apocalypse Weekend here.
Japanese				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Polish				Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Polish				Fan translation for Paradise Lost, download.
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian				Official localization by «Akella».
Russian				Fan translation for Paradise Lost by CatBug TV, download.
Spanish
Turkish

Network

In-game network settings.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		16	Versus
Online play		16	Versus Native support in Postal 2 Complete. For other versions, see Online play.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP	7777-7779

This game does not support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

Online play

Modify Postal2.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open the Postal2.ini file with Notepad or other text editor. Replace all instances of master.gamespy.com with master.333networks.com Save the changes.

Co-op

Though not officially supported, two methods for playing the game in co-op exist.

This requires the Share the Pain expansion.

Method 1: Copy and rename files
Copy singleplayer maps from <path-to-game>Maps to <path-to-game>\ShareThePain\Maps Rename them to contain the prefix MPDGT-. Host a multiplayer server with the selected maps. Not all maps function correctly without editing.

Method 2: Use Nicks Coop mod (Windows only)

Issues fixed

Black-red screen in fullscreen mode

Set Brightness, Contrast and Gamma to 10 and then back to your desired values

Low performance on modern PC

Modify Postal2.ini
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open the Postal2.ini file with Notepad or other text editor. Change the value of ReduceMouseLag to False Save the changes.

Change the number of prerendered frames
Go to the Nvidia Control Panel. Set the maximum number of prerendered frames to 1.

Game won't use laptop's GPU

Switch to OpenGL renderer
Switch to OpenGL renderer in options menu.

Use dgVoodoo2
Place dgVoodoo.conf, dgVoodooCpl.exe and the DLLs found in MS\x86 folder except D3D9.dll in game folder. Try running the game using dGPU (don't try integrated, it won't launch). Tweak dgVoodoo settings, removing watermark and enabling scaler/AA if necessary. Compatible with fullscreen D3D rendering, will utilize Nvidia/AMD GPU.

General protection fault (STP)

Change performance settings
Turn off limb and head fix (Dismemberment Physics). Reduce Corpse population to 0 or reduce Ragdolls to 5 or below.

Postal 2 and Paradise Lost crashes randomly

Switch to OpenGL renderer
Switch to OpenGL renderer in options menu.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8.1
OpenGL	1.2

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)				This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.
Linux

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL

Console commands

Open the console (~) and use one of the following commands.

Command	Description
FOV	Sets the field of view (number).
BEHINDVIEW	Switches between first and third-person perspective (0-1).

Mods

AWP Mod

An addon for the A Week in Paradise mod.

Restores content from AW7, an older version of the mod.

Adds new game mode, cheats, option window, weapons and various bug fixes.

xMod

A steam equivalent to AWP Mod.

A modifier version of this mod which includes less content can be found here.

Eternal Damnation

In order to use the mod, you have to downgrade the game to version version 1409 (GOG.com/Steam). Alternatively, you can also install the free Share the Pain mod or get the steam port.

It's recommended that you install the patch before starting a new game.

The 1409 version are prone to crashing, see general protection error.

A Very Postal Christmas

A map for the original version is available here.

The steam conversion has a map, errands and fast travel, but it cut a lot of things, like the new weapons, and has more bugs.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98/2000/ME	XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 733 MHz AMD Athlon 733 MHz	1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	384 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 series AMD Radeon Video Card 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible	Nvidia GeForce 3 series ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.6
Processor (CPU)	700 MHz	1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	384 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 series ATI Radeon 32 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce 3 series ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM

Processor specs are strangely wrong for Mac as Steam is only supported on Intel Macs and POSTAL 2 Complete's Steam executable itself has no PPC code upon inspection with the file -b command.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 12, SteamOS
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 1.13 GHz AMD Athlon 733 MHz	1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	384 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 series AMD Radeon Video Card 32 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce 3 series ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM