| POSTAL/POSTAL PLUS/POSTAL RAW & UNCUT |
 
Ah yes, the late 1990's, where uber-violent video games were all the rage so their Nu-Metal loving, chinstrap beard "bruh's" could enjoy going on digital rampages much to the chagrin of politicians like Joe Liberman. Postal was released by Running with Scissors software in 1997, of course in poor taste - that's their whole M.O.. It's basically an isometric, at-your-own-pace schmup where you play some angry trenchcoat man with a lot of anger and a plethora of weapons for reasons practically unknown. It seems he just got mad one day, caused a rave up - police called - and hence your crazy journey starts.
The game was banned in multiple countries and national states for it's subject matter, and most notably caught fire from politicians, most notably Democrat Joe Liberman - which lead to Running With Scissors making many jokes about him on their website for awhile even after the sequel came out in 2003. The truth of the matter is, it's all just a farce. The game is really nothing more than a long, and complex time-waster. Sometime around 1999 the "Special Delivery" package was added to the game, later re-sold through online cloud-based retailers as "Raw & Uncut". This added several more levels to the game. This is one of the few Windows 95 era titles I get nostalgic for, more or less because I can find the humor in it which you have to look deep. I mean, this is like the movie "Duel" - nobody gives you or hands you the narrative, and some of it you put together on your own - because it's dead simple. P.Dude gets mad, P.dude goes on a rampage, rampage carries on until....well....we'll leave that one alone for now. Were We the Real Life Beavis and Butthead of Montgomery - My Experience Me and an old bandmate - Lithium days - used to go to E.B. games periodically at the mall to look at computer games. One day he pulls out a copy of this, Postal Plus. I think he bought three that day, this, Ghost Recon, and Red Alert IIRC. This one caught my fancy the most because, despite seeming like a "mild mannered nice guy (TM)" at the time, I actually had a LOT of pent up rage at people (still do actually), and this was exactly the kind of game I could vent that rage and torment with in the privacy and security of my own home. Also, the minimum system requirements called for a 486 DX2-66 with 16MB of RAM - well within the Creeping Network specs of the time. Anyway, this game was not as hilarious as the later installments were. It was obviously devised by an angry, immature person - just like me - so of course it was fun to play with cheat codes in god mode like a maniac. Also, there's that seldom mentioned level editor which I really think might make for some fun downloads from this site if I can learn how to draw my own backgrounds that fit the games art style. Anyway, Postal takes us on a whirlwind spree of violence as "Postal Dude" as he's called, goes on a violent rampage for reasons unknown. You start at his house in the Winter snow with what looks like the SWAT team outside ready to take him down. What did he do? No one knows! Why is he in trouble? Anyone's guess is as good as mine. All we know is we're an angry guy around 30-ish in a trenchcoat who tosses out one liners while dishing out the final-pain on his victims. P.Dude's adventures take him on a crazy adventure through his neighborhood, a one horse town, a gas station, truck stop, downtown, a nursing home, a store, and **SPOLER ALERT**, it all ends at a school......where suddenly the developers decide to exercise some restraint and end the thing with a group of immortal school kids driving him insane till he picks himself off....and apparently survives as he returns in Postal 2: Share The Pain/Apocalypse Weekend/A Week in Paradise. Anyway, Postal has become a staple on my Win9x 486+ PCs ever since, and even gets installed on modern machines from time to time. It's one of my favorite games just to pick up and play when I'm pissed at the world and want to destroy people. Maybe it's one of the tools in my "sanity toolkit (tm)". I dunno.Videos |
