Running With Scissors has been hard at work on Postal 4 and are likely preparing to head towards implementing a full release and a third day in-game. In the meantime, there's been a new update to tide fans over. The update addresses some of the more prominent complaints and adds a few things to sweeten the deal.
Easily seen from the title, one of the big things coming to the update is an overhaul for the scooters. The vehicles have, until recently, been rather unwieldy and prone to falling over even on curbs. The company has seen fit to update their look and make it so that that problem happens less. Along with new color variations, parts like the fender are now destructible, the vehicle will right itself when it does flip over, and The Dude will properly ragdoll when that happens, which means there won't be any issues like what happened in the third game.
Also easily seen from the title is the game's new weapon being introduced. Fans have long been asking to have the devs bring back the sawn-off shotgun introduced in a Postal 2 update in 2013, and Running With Scissors decided they would go one step further. Rather than just settle for the shotgun, Postal 4 now has a quad-barreled shotgun dubbed "The Fournicator." As its name would suggest, it fires 4 bullets at once and has the destructive potential of a mini grenade launcher on single NPCs.
The update brings with it several changes and fixes too. Enemies and cops now remain alert longer and may patrol the area after losing a target. Ambient sounds are now present in places like the arcade, and various sound effects have been improved on, and even incompatible saves will be marked now. The Vitamin X item has been changed so that instead of instantly exploding cars when the player kicks them, they'll fly into the air before the explosion.
The Ghost Town area of Edensin received improved interiors and more props as part of the update. Clipping in first-person mode for weapons has been fixed, and the NPC vomit is no longer blocky and unfinished. At the same time, Quality of Life changes are also present, with NPCs no longer spamming injured lines, gib melee weapons pushing ragdolls in the right direction, and preventing a Police Station lockdown bug that trapped players inside. Even some quests have been fixed, with the Prison Guard intro sequence overhauled and changed.
That's not all either. Cutscenes will no longer run while the game is paused, several reload animations that broke have been fixed, and reloading a save where the player was holding a limb will no longer result in The Dude holding a phone instead. The update isn't even limited to big changes. Several smaller things have been tweaked in the game as well. This is an update that shows the devs listen.
Most wouldn't think smaller changes would happen, but they certainly have. The shotgun firing animation has been tweaked this update, placeholder textures have been replaced, and pedestrians now get annoyed when sprayed with water. These are just small things, but even small things can make an experience infinitely better in games like this. There's just so much changed or added to the game here.
In talking about this update, players will also discover the Emote Wheel. This gets activated by hitting alt-fire to bring up the wheel, and then the emote chosen is activated by hitting fire when no weapons are equipped. The emotes range from having The Dude flip bystanders off, having him do the robot, or having him give thumbs up and down. It gives players yet another way to interact with the citizens of Edensin and gives a new reason not to have weapons equipped.