So yeah, after banging my head against the wall trying to get Red Faction Guerrilla working on my HTPC (which was then disassembled out of frustration) I found out how to finally fix it.

Seems Red Faction is coded like a game from 1998 (Starcraft) and is one of only two games I have EVER had not work on my PC. Long story short in compatibility (under properties) you have to select “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings” to get it to work – otherwise you’ll have one of the following problems:

• Display blinks black repeatedly, never loads
• Sounds are COMPLETELY messed up (way loud, or distorted)
• Moving the mouse will spin you around in a circle
• Moving the mouse wheel will turn your character

Starcraft is also somewhat affected. DPI at 120 or higher will cause the minimap to no longer let you click in certain areas.

Glad they took the extra months to make sure Red Faction Guerrilla worked at 120+ DPI. This trick should work in both XP and Vista (and 7)