Postal III

Postal III

Developers
	Trashmasters
Publishers
	Akella
Retail (Japan)	CYBERFRONT Corporation
Engines
	Source
Release dates
Windows	November 23, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	24
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-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

Postal III is a singleplayer third-person action, FPS and shooter game in the Postal series.

The game is known for its instability and poor optimization, to the point of being officially disavowed by series creator, Running With Scissors. On September 26, 2023, 11 years after the last update, the ZOOM Platform version received the Fart Gun DLC and a set of fixes for multiple long-standing issues, including crashes when throwing items or grabbing a human shield.

Versions outside of the original Russian retail release and the DRM-free ZOOM Platform release require a workaround to bypass the ActControl DRM; see Use the updated Starforce domain for ActControl DRM activation.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		StarForce 5 DRM Orignal Russian release.
Retail		ActControl DRM All other releases.
ZOOM Platform		Includes bug fixes and the Fart Gun DLC.
GamersGate (unavailable)		ActControl DRM
Steam (unavailable)		ActControl DRM Not available in Germany.
Developer website (unavailable)		ActControl DRM Sold by series creator, Running with Scissors. Choice of a key, physical base game copy, Collector's Edition in pink box, or the XX 20th Anniversary Pack.

Use Postal 3 NoDRM to remove the DRM.

Retail disc copies released outside of Russia no longer install on Steam via the CD/DVD installer feature, requiring you to download it through Steam itself, or extract it manually.

As of October 9th, 2023, you can no longer get your CD key from the Steam version due to the feature of viewing it getting removed. The only way to activate the game would be to use your CD key if you backed it up or use another key entirely.

Version differences

Russia received 3 different special edition versions. The Deluxe Edition includes the base game, a soundtrack CD, a "making of" DVD, a map of Catharsis, and a magnetic Krotchy. The Collector's Edition, in either a big black or pink box, includes the same as the Deluxe Edition but now has an added copy of the Postal movie, an artbook, and a Krotchy plush doll. The Gama-Gama exclusive Гама-edition has the soundtrack, "making of" movie, map of Catharsis, and artbook now in digital form, but also includes other bonuses like a cardboard pattern, the Fart Gun DLC, early access to playing the game, and +1622 bonuses added to your Gama-Gama account.

Japan received a Special edition which includes the game alongside a pink Krotchy mousepad.

The game received 3 more updates under Akella's control. Official patch notes (alongside a translated version) here.

Latest Steam version is slightly different compared to v1.12, most notably being compiled at a later date (January 24 2012) and the cat upgrade icons for certain weapons not showing up.

The ZOOM Platform 1.2 version includes multiple bug fixes, most notably fixing the main issues caused by the No DRM patch, throwing items and taking human shields crashing the game.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Fart Gun / Гамамет	An exclusive bonus weapon that was for sale from the Russian digital game key store Gama-Gama, either for pre-ordering Postal III Гама-edition or by buying it individually. The weapon is also available in the retail copies released outside Russia, with an official UI translation into English. Added to the ZOOM Platform version on September 26, 2023.

A free remake of the addon with both the English and Russian UI translations are available here.

Doesn't work on every version of the game, it was officially accessible to the player in the v1.10 update if the files were installed.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename files
Delete or rename logo_1_akella.bik, logo_2_RWS.bik and logo_3_TMS.bik in <path-to-game>\p3\media, and SOURCE_LOGO.bik, NVIDIA.bik in <path-to-game>\p3_english\media. If using the Russian translation, go to p3_russian instead and also delete WARNING.bik in <path-to-game>\p3_russian\media.

Official Update Files

Updates released periodically after the original retail release from Russia, previously hosted on both Akella's and Running with Scissors' websites.

Unnecessary if playing off the Steam or ZOOM Platform release, as those are already updated to the most recent patch.

Requires an activation key for the Russian version for the DRM, which makes it incompatible with every other version.

Postal III Unofficial Patch 1.13

This unofficial patch fixes many mission script issues and bugs, re-balances some weapons and missions, adds extra unused and new voice lines for Postal Dude, as well as missing sound effects for weapons and unused loading screens for several missions.

Beta Mod Pack and Improvement Mod are incompatible with this patch.

POSTAL III Improvement Mod

Effectively an unofficial patch of sorts; fixes many of the game's issues whilst also re-implementing some of the game's missing features/beta content.

Beta Mod Pack

Alternative to the Improvement Mod.

Fixes various game issues, while focusing on the restoration of beta content.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\p3\cfg\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/10220/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\p3\SAVE\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/10220/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game general video settings.

In-game advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		Interface scales poorly.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Launch the game with -window -noborder parameter.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Up to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA and 16xQ CSAA for Nvidia GPUs.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Capped to 60FPS by default in Zoom Platform version, through the zoom_p3_fix.cfg config file, in order to avoid physics issues.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

Input

In-game key map settings.

In-game mouse settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Go to the configuration file(s) location, open config.cfg and change joystick "0" to joystick "1".
Full controller support		You need Mouse and Keyboard to navigate through menus, but you can map Quick Save/Quick Load to any controller button you want.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Go to the configuration file(s) location, open config.cfg and change joystick "0" to joystick "1".
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		Certain languages (such as German) only have subtitles in the FMV cutscenes.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		Licensed music is used throughout the game, but can be disabled by muting the music through options and skipping the FMV cutscenes.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				All translations (except Russian) use English as a base, so they will have English audio and UI assets.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation, download.
French				Fan translation, download.
German
Italian				Fan translation, download.
Japanese				Fan translation, download. The official Japanese localization is currently lost, and is not in any version, despite official media showing it was translated.
Polish				Fan translation, download. To fix the characters, follow this guide.
Russian
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation, download.

The ZOOM Platform version as of v1.2 has removed all the extra Source Engine localization files from the game, leaving only the English and Russian localization files. In order to use other languages, you would need to get them from another Source Engine-related project, such as a game or the official SDK, and copy them over to <path-to-game>\p3\resource.

Issues fixed

Game doesn't launch

Postal III has issues with it’s DRM, which has been one of the main suspected reasons for its removal from Steam, alongside the current state of the publisher of the game.

Doesn’t apply for the ZOOM Platform version.

Use the updated Starforce domain for ActControl DRM activation

On the DRM activation window, select manual activation. Then, proceed the activation as usual, but using https://proactive.star-force.com/2.0/activate.php instead of the outdated link specified. If you're not getting a prompt window by launching the game (Via Steam or booting up p3.exe directly), boot up acpc.exe, or boot up p3.exe while holding down either ⇧ Shift or Ctrl. Then you press the manual activation button and continue from there. Various reports indicate properly activating the game, to result in better stability of the game, and resolve some of the down-sides of the NoDRM fix indicated below. The game still has a chance to crash when using throwables, but due to a more rare occurrence not affiliated with the DRM.

Use the Postal 3 NoDRM patch
Use Postal 3 NoDRM. Various game mechanics such as throwing items using human shields can crash the game with the NoDRM fix. Some of the crashing issues caused by the patch are now fixed with the ZOOM Platform v1.2 update.

FPS is unstable/game is laggy

Edit the autoexec.cfg

Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open autoexec.cfg (if it's not there, launch the game once). Change mat_queue_mode -2 to mat_queue_mode 2. Next, add the following lines anywhere you'd like: physx_enabled 0 (the only noticeable thing this does is that it make the Postal Dude's jacket less flappy but it'll still move about, prevent animation problems and give the user a decent performance boost). r_threaded_particles 1 (this allows for the game's particle system to be multi-threaded) r_threaded_renderables 1 (this allows for the game's rendering system to be multi-threaded) snd_mix_async 1 (this allows multi-core CPUs to run the sound engine with the renderer simultaneously) ai_expression_optimization 1 (disables NPC expressions whenever those NPCs are off-screen) mat_queue_mode determines the threading mode the material system uses. A value of -1 uses the default for your system, a value of 0 uses synchronous single thread, 1 uses queued single threaded mode, and value of 2 uses multi-threaded mode. The default value is -2, and reading the translated Russian within the default configuation files reveals that this was intentional: multi-threading breaks Postal 3's PhysX implementation when turned on (the coat detaches from the protagonist, along with other physics bugs). Doesn’t apply for the ZOOM Platform version as they are included by default inside both autoexec.cfg and zoom_p3_fix.cfg, alongside a few other commands.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	2.0, 2.0b, 3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok, PhysX, APEX	Heavily modified variant, 2.8.4.6, 1.0.0.1
Audio	Miles Sound System	6.6a
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.8w

Mods

Postal 3 First Person Mod

Allows you to play the game in first person mode. Paste the script in your autoexec.cfg.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Dual Core 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	13.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Support for Pixel Shaders 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible