How the hell is anyone supposed to do the lockpicking mini game without an analogue stick? That has clearly been designed with a controller in mind and is virtually impossible to complete with a digital input (keyboard)! I'm sick of developers putting **** consoles first!

Agreed. I wish I could help - I had the exact same situation and I gave up after 15 minutes (I'm serious). I honestly do not know how to pick the lock with WASD. I suspect it may be because of "ghosting" in my keyboard (it's a very cheap off the shelf one). But the instant I plugged in my 360 controller, I picked the lock in mere seconds.

When I was using my keyboard, I found that some pins work if you hold Up, and press Left while keeping Up held. Then the next pin fails with this technique and only works if you very quickly release Up and hit Left. And then the next pin doesn't work with either technique. This is why I suspect ghosting in my keyboard playing a factor.

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Intel Core i5 2320 @ 3.0 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB eVGA Geforce GTX560 Superclocked
Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Intel Core i3 380UM @ 1.33 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD
Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, PSP

I finally gave in and installed my PS3 controller on my PC and am playing with that now. My god it's made things easier. It just shows how much this game was developed with the console in mind and the PC being just an after thought.

Erm...first time I tried it, on the cafe door, it was a piece of piss...only takes two keys being pressed! What the hell are you doing t make it so hard!

Can you go into the little details?

I hold Up. The pin turns green. I press Left while holding up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

If it doesn't work, I try releasing Up, then very quickly pressing Left. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

At that point I gave up and used a controller. I actually got as far as getting 4 out of 5 pins unlocked, and then I screwed up the last one, and then screwed up again until it was back to square one.

My friend who has a fancy $170 gaming keyboard with anti-ghosting reports no issues, which is why I suspect keyboard ghosting might be a factor. It feels like the game just isn't responding to the keypresses properly. I also had a "ghosting" problem once playing battlefield on my laptop when I couldn't hit my afterburners (mapped to shift) while holding down W and D at once, unless I released one of them.

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Intel Core i5 2320 @ 3.0 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB eVGA Geforce GTX560 Superclocked
Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Intel Core i3 380UM @ 1.33 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD
Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, PSP

The problem is that the window for getting it right is so small that hitting left in the green is very hard. It's designed for an analogue stick using finesse control, only applying the correct percentage of up needed, where as the keyboard can only apply 2 percentages, 0 or 100. With the keyboard you have to try and quickly hit the left key as the pin turns green before it passes to red, turning it from a finesse game to a game of reflex, which is ****.

What is your problem?

The lockpicking is easy with the keyboard. Get a life.

No, it's not. It's easy with an analogue stick. Go **** yourself.

Angry much? Perhaps you shouldn't play games with hard things in like pressing keys as it seems like it's too hard for you...

I managed to do it but it does take some practice. I have a gaming keyboard btw.

its certainly anything but "easy" with a keyboard someone is obviously trolling.

thankfully so far the only timed lock was on the cafe.

some of the 5 tumbler locks are incredibly frustrating and it usually takes me 10-15 attempts

all the other minigames are easy as hell

He is far from the only one with this problem.

It could be because of some of us using cheap keyboards prone to ghosting issues, but I can't confirm this.

As with the graphical performance issues, the saying goes "just because you had no problem doesn't mean others don't".

Were you able to pick every pin successfully in one try? If not, then it just proves the controls are problematic.

_________________
Intel Core i5 2320 @ 3.0 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB eVGA Geforce GTX560 Superclocked
Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Intel Core i3 380UM @ 1.33 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD
Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, PSP

My god, what happened to being challenged? It is supposed to take X tries to do it, not do it in one go! So many games have used the same mechanic and you have to keep trying but I'm afraid you lot need hand holding constantly and have your egos massaged to make you feel better.

Except the focus of the game is hand-to-hand combat, not lockpicking.

I find the hand-to-hand combat challenging (died a few times) and I fully appreciate it. Same thing with difficult shooters like Operation Flashpoint and GRAW, or the hard difficulty setting in Max Payne 3 or Halo. I die a lot, have to rethink my strategy, etc, and I appreciate it.

The lockpicking on the other hand just gets in the way and feels like a chore. As for other games, Splinter Cell did lockpicking perfectly right without feeling nooby.

_________________
Intel Core i5 2320 @ 3.0 Ghz, 8 GB RAM, 1 GB eVGA Geforce GTX560 Superclocked
Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.4 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
Intel Core i3 380UM @ 1.33 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, integrated Intel GMA HD
Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, PSP

so why is lockpicking the only hard minigame? everything else is impossible to fail on

you must be to simple to realise someone overlooked how the lockpicking on an analogue pad would translate onto a keyboard.....