this might be a dumb ass move like the developers behind Burnout Paradise Island... the thing about gamepads not working on the PC version of that game... unless it's an official XBox controller. Perhaps the Prototype boys tried doing the same thing and screwed it up royally.

okay, I gave it one last test based on a solution someone posted on a piracy site, and it worked for me.

This guy's solution was that he had trouble with his M$ Sidewinder... he unplugged it, put his old Logitech mouse in, and it magically ran smoothly. Apparently the sidewinder will work if he plugs it back in after loading the game... just some buttons don't work.

So I first tried unplugging my keyboard (Laser Wolverine gaming keyboard).... double clicked the game... loaded at the proper speed... replugged the keyboard while the game was running... playable.

Retarded solution and definitely something they need to patch... so don't bother uninstalling/disabling HID items in your device panel... you shouldn't have ever considered it... would you disable hardware for non-game software!?!... no you wouldn't, you'd assume there was something nefarious in the coding and uninstall that piece of crap right away.

that's the most frustrating thing about it.. I can leave photoshop open in the background while I run Crysis. I'll get the same performance whether Photoshop were sitting idle in the memory or not.

I can let Prototype go through its sludgy load time even if I load a 2nd game into the system... doesn't go any slower than it was already going, and oddly, it barely impacts on the 2nd game that is open. Very odd.

I can't help but think it's a tiny bit of code that doesn't like how certain combos of hardware interact with DirectX

I have to agree, it's obviously a result of less than adequete beta testing.

I have insanely slow performance right from the loading screen (the copyright screen alone takes at least 5-10 minutes to load). All while still at 640x480. Tried all the suggested solutions, all drivers up to date.. nothing works to speed this up.

XP 64-bit
AMD X2 5200+
GeForce 9500 - 512MB
6GB RAM

And my system is tweaked... nothing running in the background that is unecessary. My system has zero bloat because I use it for animation, not just gaming, so I know how to eat up every spec of power my system has to offer. I've been using XP x64 for awhile now and I haven't had an unfixable 'issue' like this since I tried Rockstar's Bully (before they finally released the damn patch).. and before that? Maybe Splinter Cell's Double Agent, and that's a series renowned for its inevitable crash-inducing code.

One thing I refuse to test is capping my memory like the so called solutions for Bully, or anything like that. It's 2009... I'm not choking my system just to get a game to work. Leave that kind of handicap to the console tards... this kind of crap is unacceptable.

I say PATCH!!!! and soon