The game Shank recently came out for the PC (October 26th, 2010). The game was released for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (PS3) as well. If you love old school, side-scrolling games, then you’ll love this one 🙂 It’s an action, beat ’em up type game about…REVENGE! It unfortunately does not have online co-op (cooperation) mode. I’m guessing that’s because the game would have been too addicting then 🙂 It has normal co-op mode though. Check out the game demo if you haven’t played Shank yet.

Fortunately, there aren’t many bugs being encountered by those playing this, so there is only a short list of PC Game Fixes

PC game fixes for this are very simple so don’t worry about having technical skills. At the very most you will need to perform a small series of edits that will likely solve your gaming problems, of which takes next-to-no time at all for any PC.

If you are having difficulty with this PC game fixes guide, or the PC game fixes are simply not solving the problem for you, then leave a comment and we’ll help troubleshoot you through the process if we can! Good luck.

Now on to the big list of different PC game fixes:

Game is Not Valid (Invalid) Error
You may not have the correct product code or have entered it in incorrectly. You can try the following:

— Entering the product key again
— Perform an integrity check via Steam
— Reinstall the game

If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to contact Steam Support for additional help. This is an uncommon error.

“Executable Found a Problem and Must Be Closed” – SSE2 Support
The reason your game may not be running is that you do not have SSE2 support (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 support) for your processor, which this game makes use of. Unfortunately, this means you cannot run the game until a patch that takes away this requirement is released. If you know any PC game fixes for this, please let us know. This error occurs mostly in OLDER computers, such as an old AMD Athlon or similar processor. These are your current options:

— Wait for a patch that removes the requirement of SSE2
— Upgrade your processor to one that supports SSE2

“Shank main executable has stopped working” Error After Selecting Stage
This is driver related generally. Try the ATI or NVIDIA fixes mentioned. If that doesn’t work, then the following PC game fixes might:

— If you have up-to-date graphics card drivers, uninstall your graphics driver and install an older version (I do not recommend downgrading because newer versions offer performance increases, but this has solved the issue for some)
— Upgrade your graphics card drivers (the opposite of above)

Access violation at address xxx in module Activation.x86.dll – Application Error
You may have errors activating the game during installation — Installing: Activation Manager (step 1 or 1). This may be because your country is not supported by EA. Pretty dumb, huh? If you are not in the US, try having someone activate the game for you in a different location.

#DRM Repeated Activation Error
DRM is a pain in the butt. It causes many problems for people unfortunately, and this game is a good example of when such problems can occur. Try the following:

— Try playing game on ADMINISTRATOR account (do NOT use Guest account)
— Disable Firewall
— Run game with full privileges (on Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc)
— Try playing game in offline mode

This section pertains to crashes for the game.

Shank Crashes While Playing
Most people fortunately do not experience game crashes while playing. If you do though…
— Use Steam to validate / revalidate game cache
— Install the latest video card drivers (unlikely the problem in this case)
— Close all processes that may interfere with the game

Game Controllers Acting Weird When Playing
Some may experience weird issues when playing this game with game controllers on their PC instead of via keyboard. This includes keys / buttons not working, being mapped incorrectly, detecting one controller as two or two controllers as one, etc.

— Plug the game controllers AFTER the game is loaded when in the “Control Options” screen after clicking the “Next/Previous Devices”

The error exists in the auto-detection of the game controllers.

Game fails to launch / displays error when launching / executable stopped working
It may freeze after the opening intro / introduction instead or at “Preparing to launch Shank”. If your game fails to start or run, try the following:
— If not on Windows XP, run the game in “Windows XP SP3” Compatibility Mode
— Perform a game integrity check via Steam
— Reinstall the game
— Run the game directly (not through shortcut created on desktop)
— Delete the file srcds_run in C:\\Program Files\\Steam\\steamapps\common\\shank\\
— Perform an anti-virus / anti-malware scan

Game Shows Black Screen or Graphic Glitches
— Disable visual themes
— Update graphics card drivers
— Run game in windows xp sp3 compatibility mode
— verify your game cache via Steam
— Try running the game in Window mode
— Launch the game directly
— If using ATI or NVIDIA video card, try the below graphics fixes

If it’s not showing because your monitor does not support the default resolution the game is set to, you can also try:

1) Load Steam
2) Right Click on “Shank” -> Properties -> Set Launch Options
3) Add -w 1024 -h 768 -refresh 60 to the launch options
4) Load Shank, and set the resolution to 1024 x 768
5) Close Shank, and remove the launch execution settings you just added to the game

Where are the save files stored for the game Shank?
The game save files are stored on Steam Cloud.

Game Runs REALLY Fast
If your game is running too fast (as if in hyper mode!). Playing at high speed makes you feel like your going through 234807 frames per second (fps) and can cause increased difficulty that was not intended. Try to stop your game from accelerating too fast through the following pc game fixes:

— Run the game in Window Mode (opposed to full screen)
— If running Fraps, try hitting the “record” button to slow things down (ghetto)
— Try the ATI and NVIDIA card fixes listed below, as they are suppose to fix this problem
— If using 3D Vision USB, unplug it
— Try using a program called D3DOverrider to enable triple buffering to slow the game down (may or may not help you)

This problem is also not necessarily related to having a 120Hz computer monitor so don’t blame your monitor.

Graphics Glitch PC Game Fix for ATI Video Cards (MAY FIX Crashing as well as high-speed game issues)
The game Shank may be crashing or displaying pixelated or weird graphical glitches, a black screen, or ultra fast game play. If you have an ATI video card, try the following PC game fix:

1) Load ATI Catalyst
2) Go to Graphics -> 3D and check “Use Custom Settings”
3) Move the slider to “Optimal Performance”
4) Go to the AA and AF tabs, and then set the levels as required (try turning off rather than on)
5) Now Create Profile
6) You can try forcing VSYNC to be enabled as well if you’re having speed issues

Messing with your Anti-Aliasing settings seems to help the most.

Graphics Glitch PC Game Fix for NVIDIA Video Cards (MAY FIX Crashing as well as high-speed game issues)
These steps assume you’ve tried upgrading your drivers to fix the problem already. Try these steps if you have a NVIDIA video card:

1) Load the NVIDIA Control Panel -> 3D Settings
2) Select “Adjust Image Settings With Preview”
3) Set it to “Let the 3D Application Decide” (or a different option if that doesn’t fix your problem)
4) You can also try changing “Power Management” from “Adaptive” to “Max Performance” if the previous step doesn’t work
5) You can try forcing VSYNC to be enabled as well if you’re having speed issues

Achievements Not Showing / Unlocking / Registering
So you have just performed all the steps needed to unlock an achievement only to find out it’s acting as if it never happened. They’ll still be locked. This is a very common problem for users, and unfortunately not much can be done. Many experienced this during the “Grindhouse Achievement” and “100 Chainsaw Kills Achievement”.

— Restart Steam
— You can wait and hope Steam accepts you unlocked it later on (keep wishing!)
— Await a patch that may fix the problem
— Try again to unlock the achievement

This problem is especially common if you get disconnected from Steam during your attempt to get the achievement.