I'm sure another thread about this game and the bugs it contains is probably does not seem like riveting reading but please bear with me.
I've searched the web for information about my specific problem and can't find what I need so hopefully someone here will recognise my issue and have a solution.
I actually noticed nothing really wrong when I played the original game, fresh out of it's wrapper (it was selling for $19.95 in the essentials collection at my local Video Ezy). However, reading a few notes about it online and coming across pages of gaming community discussions about bugs, premature releases and patches for this game, I decided to protect myself and patch it before playing further.
I applied the official patch (version 1.2) and then the cumulative to v5.5 unofficial patch (from GameCopyWorld, there wasn't much information about the unofficial patch versions but this seemed to be the patch that included all previous versions and not an incremental patch needing previous versions first).
I then resumed playing the game and noticed nothing much. I still had the same minor glitches such as the occasional female thinking I was male, glitchy mouse action repeatedly engaging in conversation unless I quickly aim away from characters after dialogue ends and minor issues like that. NO crashes.
If you consider finishing an area to be locating as many side quests as you can possibly trigger in that area and finishing everything that can be finished in that area as 'finishing' an area, then I have 'finished Santa Monica & Downtown LA. I'm also most of the way through Hollywood. Of course there are some quests that now require me to go back to previous areas. I tried to go back to Downtown but as soon as I spoke to the cabby, the map opened and I selected Downtown, the game crashed back to desktop with a windows message box saying something like 'error: ....engine fail, cannot change level during dialogue' or similar. I tried again, making sure that the cabby was no longer talking and pausing a while before making the selection for good measure. The crash occured again. I was able to return to Santa Monica however (despite reading a thread in this same section posted I think July this year by a played with a very similar issue only they could go to Downtown but not Santa Monica, so same issue in reverse). I also tried going to Santa Monica, talking to a few people (including picking up my lovely Spas 15 from Mercurio) and then going to Downtown from there instead, but it crashed the exact same way.
Also, as a sidenote to this, one of the things I needed to do was to check my email (the log says I need to do this) as I have finished a task for La Croix and he'll need to give me a further job I presume. When I got to my apartment in Santa Monica my computer was no longer there. I don't know if I'm meant to have been robbed or if it was deliberately taken away by the game as I have one in my apartment in Downtown LA. It's double frustrating as I can't get to Downtown!
I'm hoping to avoid the suggestion of backing up my save game files and reinstalling (unless the person suggesting that is SURE it will work or has known it to work for this exact issue).
I read on a game review page, that in the opinion of one critic who didn't think much of the game, that it was 'impossible to complete without resorting to console commands'. I think that may be an exaggeration but then I haven't played right through an unpatched version. Either way, how do I activate the console for this game (I LOVED using the console in Oblivion btw, so deliciously naughty to type and never worry about money again, not to mention magic armour and weapons). Maybe I can use a console command to warp to Downtown.
Perhaps if I complete a certain quest/s this might resolve itself? I'd rather not play on even more until I know just in case I"m going to have to start again. At least the replayability on this game is awesome.
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