Postal Game Pc

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Mertie Oldow

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:42:21 PM8/3/24

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Postal is a 1997 isometric top-down shooter video game developed by Running with Scissors and published by Ripcord Games. Players assume the role of the Postal Dude, a man who goes on a killing spree throughout the fictional town of Paradise, Arizona to cure what he believes to be a "hate plague" released by the United States Air Force.

A March 2001 re-release of the game, called Postal Plus, included a "Special Delivery" add-on. A sequel to the game, Postal 2, was released in 2003. Two additional sequels, Postal III and Postal 4: No Regerts, were released in 2011 and 2022, respectively. German film director Uwe Boll bought the movie rights for the series and produced a film of the same name. A remake of the game, Postal Redux, was released for Microsoft Windows on May 20, 2016, and was later released for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch digital stores. At the end of 2016, the game's source code was released under the GNU GPL-2.0-only.[5] At the end of 2019, Running With Scissors released the game as freeware.[6]

A man referred to simply as the "Postal Dude" has been evicted from his home. He believes the United States Air Force is releasing an airborne agent upon his town of Paradise and that he is the only individual unaffected by the ensuing "hate plague". He fights his way from his house to an Air Force Base through various locations, including a ghetto, train station, trailer park, truck stop, and an ostrich farm. During the course of the gameplay, a voice in the protagonist's head (voiced by Rick Hunter) can be heard taunting his victims through cryptic absurdity, often through consecutive kills or when switching through the player's arsenal.

After raiding the Air Force Base, he is shown attempting to massacre an elementary school. Despite his best efforts, his weapons have no effect on the children. Suffering a mental breakdown amidst innocent laughter, he finds himself restrained in a mental asylum as hellish images cover the screen: A body bound to chains in a corridor, the protagonist in a straitjacket curled in the fetal position; a close-up of his face, covered in bindings; and the door to his cell numbered 593.

A disembodied voice, possibly a psychologist, gives a report on the protagonist's mental state. He suggests that the stress of urban life may have been the root cause of his rampage, prompting him to "go postal". The lack of any mentions of military interference with the civilian population implies that the Postal Dude's murders were the result of his own paranoid delusions. Amid distorted audio, the psychologist gives a final remark: "We may never know exactly what set him off, but rest assured we will have plenty of time to study him". Upon completion of the credits, manic cackling can be heard as the screen fades to black.

Due to the controversy surrounding the game's release, along with numerous American school shootings in the years following, the ending was changed in Postal Redux. The developers stated that they changed the ending because school shootings had lost the shock value they had when the original Postal released. Replacing the elementary school vision is the player witnessing the burial of an unknown person in a decaying field, widely believed to be his own funeral. Completion of the game on the hardest difficulty features the inclusion of an unknown male and female mourning over the grave as it descends. Both outcomes prompt a similar mental breakdown and an identical asylum cutscene, though consisting of animated shots over the original release's still image artwork.

Development of Postal began in March 1996.[7] The developers at Riedel Software Productions, tired of developing child-friendly games, established the Running With Scissors brand label to develop games for adults, its first project being Postal. The Last Nail and The Postman Always Shoots Twice were titles considered for the game, with the latter being shortened to the final Postal title.[8] The game uses RSPiX, a cross-platform game engine developed internally at RSP.[9]

Postal: Special Delivery, an expansion to the original Postal, was released on August 28, 1998[10] and featured four new levels and various new characters and voices. One level, in particular, was set in a parody of Wal-Mart and began with the Dude's demon chastising the store for not selling Postal, which foreshadows the off-kilter humor seen in Postal 2.

Postal Plus was released on the digital distributor GOG.com in 2009 and a few years later on Steam. In 2013, it was updated with support for widescreen resolutions and modern hardware. The multiplayer component and level editor were removed, however. In 2015, it was updated with full Xbox 360 controller support. The "Tokyo" and "Osaka" levels, originally exclusive to Super Postal, were also added to both versions.

In 2015, the developers announced that they will release the source code of the game "if someone promises to port it to the Dreamcast".[11] In June 2016 the developers gave the source code to a community developer who ported the game to Linux for the OpenPandora handheld.[12][13] On December 28, 2016, the source code was released on Bitbucket under the GNU GPL-2.0-only.[5][14]

Next Generation reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Overall, Postal is a title that breaks absolutely no new ground, but its tongue-in-cheek shooting action comes together to form a well-above-average shooter that adds to the genre."[19]

Postal received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a Metacritic score of 56/100.[16] GameSpot's Mark East gave the game a 6.6/10 score and commented: "The lack of longevity in the single-player mode and the simplistic multiplayer options make Postal a moderately fun ride, at best."[18] On regards to The Postal Dude's aggressive personality East comments on the Postal Dude's phrases from his diary, which indicate "something's not quite right in Postal Dude's noggin".[24]

In a retrospective, GamingOnLinux reviewer Hamish Paul Wilson gave the game 7/10, commenting that "there is no denying that Postal has some faults even when compared to some of the other games that were released around the same time as it, and time has definitely not been very kind to the title itself. But the concepts that the game explores, the ideas being expressed, and much of their actual implementations are just so interesting and compelling that one can still actually look past many of these faults and see the hidden gem that lies underneath."[25]

The reviewer from Pyramid #30 (March/April 1998) stated that "Many people have thought the premise for the game is sick. Well, it is. But, that's what makes it fun. There's no quest for secret, lost treasure. There's no time-clock ticking away as you try desperately to save the world. There's no alien spaceships or fantastical powers. There's just good old fashioned, psychotic violence - something that our mass media entertainment powers have been bringing us on prime time for years."[26]

Running with Scissors developed a remake of Postal, titled Postal Redux, using Unreal Engine 4. The project was announced as Postal: Redux in November 2014, then targeting a 2015 release for Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.[27][28] In addition to these platforms, Running with Scissors announced Postal Redux as coming to PlayStation 4 in February 2016.[29] The Microsoft Windows version was released on May 20, 2016, while Linux, macOS, and PlayStation 4 versions were scheduled for a later release.[30] The PlayStation 4 version was canceled by June 2017, with Jaret Schachter of Running with Scissors blaming a lack of sales of the PC version.[31] MD Games ported Postal Redux to the Nintendo Switch, releasing it via the Nintendo eShop on October 16, 2020.[32] The PlayStation 4 version was later uncancelled and released on March 5, 2021.[33]

The Commission is an independent agency that has exercised regulatory oversight over the Postal Service since its creation by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, with expanded responsibilities under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. The Commission is composed of five Commissioners, each of whom is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of six years. A Commissioner may continue to serve after the expiration of his or her term until a successor is confirmed, except that a Commissioner may not continue to serve for more than 1 year after the date on which his or her term would have otherwise expired. Not more than 3 of the Commissioners may be adherents of the same political party.

The Office of Accountability & Compliance is responsible for technical analysis and formulation of policy recommendations for the Commission in both domestic and international matters. It provides the analytic support for Commission review of rate changes, negotiated service agreements, classifications of new products, post office closings, amendments to international postal treaties and conventions, as well as other issues.

The Office of General Counsel provides legal assistance on matters involving the Commission's responsibilities, defends Commission decisions before the courts, and manages the formal complaint process.

The Office of Public Affairs & Government Relations facilitates prompt and responsive communications for the Commission with the public, Congress and federal agencies, the Postal Service, and information media.

The Office of Secretary & Administration records the official actions of the Commission; preserves Commission documents; maintains personnel records; and provides other support services including managing the Commission's library, docket room, and computers.